Yesterday was a whirlwind day. We had a very successful Articulate Live ’09 users’ conference and we announced the winners of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009.

You can really see the power and flexibility of rapid elearning in the submissions we received. There were some organizations that just a few years ago would not have had the budget or programming expertise for elearning. Yet today, not only do they have the tools, they’re confident enough to submit their work for consideration. That’s being empowered!

What stood out from the more than 100 submissions was the variety and the approach people took in designing their courses. Some of the entries dealt with very serious subjects and some were more lighthearted and humorous. We also had submissions from all over the world. Thank you to all who submitted.

After reviewing the courses, I can tell you that the bar has been raised and that this was a much more competitive contest than last time. With the release of Articulate Studio Pro ’09, we have more powerful tools than before. But more impressive is how people are getting the most out of those tools. In fact, there were so many quality entries this year that picking just three winners wasn’t easy… so we picked the top 5. We have a gold, silver, and three-way tie for the bronze.

Check out the winners below.

Gold Winner: e-Mersion

Congratulations to e-Mersion, the Gold Winner of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009!

Dave Richards, president of e-Mersion, submitted this award-winning CPR course, which gets the heart pumping. The judges really liked the way e-Mersion made full use of the tools in Studio ’09 Pro to create a very compelling and interactive elearning course.

Check out how e-Mersion seamlessly integrates the Articulate products and makes full use of the features by adding Flash video and background music, and by providing learners the choice of learning about CPR or just jumping right in and trying to save a man’s life:

Silver Winner: New Mavens

Congratulations to New Mavens, the Silver Winner of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009!

Chris Wirick of New Mavens submitted this course on a software product called Evernote. His goal was to step away from the typical “elearning look” and focus on a simple, yet strong design. And it worked.

Because that’s what the judges noted. They liked the clean and striking design, a compelling story, great-sounding narration, and a really creative approach to interactivity (be sure to check out the section on the iPhone Evernote app), along with a Quizmaker ’09 quiz designed to look like the iPhone interface:

Bronze Winner: SSC

Congratulations to SSC, the Bronze Winner of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009!

Tim Buteyn, Director of Training with SSC, submitted our bronze winning course, which takes a topic that could have been a boring page turner and turns it into a compelling story. What also stood out was the way he used a custom player from Articulate partner Kineo to create a different look, along with the use of video and interactivity to reinforce the learning:

View the SSC HIPAA Course

Bronze Winner: Joann Swanson

Congratulations to Joann Swanson, the Bronze Winner of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009!

Joann Swanson created this relaxing presentation on Creative Visualization. The judges were impressed with her graphic design and style, the way she integrated the Articulate Studio ’09 products, and her effective use of multimedia, from the background music that helps set the tone for the subject matter to her use of Flash movies for subtle effects:

View Joann Swanson’s Creative Visualization presentation

Bronze Winner: Ad Giants

Congratulations to Ad Giants, the Bronze Winner of the Articulate Guru Awards 2009!

Heather Beaudoin, Education Manager with Ad Giants, submitted this marketing presentation, which outlines the company’s product offerings. The judges were impressed with the overall style and design of the presentation. They commented on how everything was tightly integrated and made good use of the software’s features:

Overall, the judges were really impressed with each winner and how they used Articulate Studio ’09 Pro to create effective, interactive, and engaging products.

We also received some really impressive submissions from companies and individuals like 42 Design Square, Cognizant Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Monarch Media, eVision Design, Globus, Volvo Penta, Waste Recycling Group, Teach America, Dan Rollins, and Chris Kelly. We’ll show them off in future posts.

So stay tuned to this blog (subscribe here) as we dig deeper into the Guru Awards 2009. We’ll have some in-depth reviews of the winning courses and look at what tips and tricks they offer so that we can build better elearning courses.

Congratulations to all the winners! And thank you to everyone who submitted this year.

A big thank you, too, to Helene Geiger and the team at Prometheus — the Guru Awards 2007 Gold Winner — for their input as guest judges in this year’s contest.