Cape Town-based Software Training Technology (STT) won an innovation prize and came second overall at the US Simulation Shootout competition, beating nine other large companies.
Part of the Spring Training 2005 e-learning exhibition at Tampa in the US state of Florida, the Simulation Shootout competition pits e-learning vendors against each other in a race to create the highest quality software lessons.
All 10 vendors were given the same task - create a lesson on how to add a "contact" to Microsoft's Outlook - in front of a live audience in under 20 minutes.
STT Trainer was also awarded the silver medal based on the high scores achieved across all four criteria used to determine the top three vendors. The four criteria were ease of use, interactivity of the simulation lesson, quality of the feedback and guidance in the simulation lesson, and most innovative product.
STT's product, STT Trainer 4.1, which was released in January, was judged by the audience to be the most innovative approach to content publishing.
It was awarded the prize for its ability to take a set of captured system screens and use them to generate simulations, documentation and context-sensitive help complete with instructions and standard text.
"We were extremely happy with the result considering we were a new entrant and that we were against some extremely tough competition," says Lenard Hall, STT's business development manager.
US company Macromedia was overall winner and third place went to KnowledgePlanet.
Hall says the software simulation industry is poised for growth as matriculating learners and young graduates feel more comfortable with e-learning than many older graduates.
"There is a whole new generation out there who are ready to use e-learning tools," he says.
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