NDLA is one of the finalists for the 2011 European Public Service Awards (EPSA)

In November, the 2011 European Public Service Award is handed out at a ceremony in Maastricht. NDLA (National Digital Learning Arena) is one of fifteen nominees competing for the award. The title of the NDLA application is ”NDLA: Innovation in Acquisition, Development and Distribution of Digital Learning Resources”.

NDLA, which is co-owned by 18 county councils in Norway, is set up to develop open digital learning resources of high quality for all, and NDLA aims at involving teachers and students in upper secondary education in active and participatory learning processes. The current operating budget for NDLA is appr 62 MNOK.

Today, NDLA work with 37 different subjects in upper secondary education. The subjects cover academic specializations as well as vocational education and training. In total, there are about 340 subjects in upper secondary education. The long term ambition is to offer digital learning resources within all subjects. User statistics show a substantial increase in traffic on the NDLA website, and the awareness among key constituents such as teachers and principals is on the rise.

NDLA is a national operation that is set up as a virtual organization without a physical headquarter. The administrative and professional support systems are available via local host organisations (e.g. the county councils) or cloud-based applications. The administrative resources are pooled from existing resources in order to keep the need for investments in administrative software and services at a minimum level. NDLA has about 100 employees from all parts of Norway, of which 35 are full time and appr 65 are part-time. Most of them are teachers.

A substantial part of the funding from NDLA is used in the digital learning resources industry. NDLA has developed an extensive collaboration with content providers and private developers. Approximately 60 % of the total funding of NDLA is being used for acquisition of technology services and digital learning resources from the ICT and content industries.