Every year our judging panel receives applications from excellent, innovative projects which are working hard to promote language learning. However, one institution stands out for consistently delivering projects which take language learning one step beyond. That’s why this year we are presenting the first ever European Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Language Learning’ to the Open University.

The Open University has brought six projects to our attention in the last three years alone - including last year’s OpenLearn project, which was highly commended by our judges. The projects all demonstrate new ways of sharing resources and are evidence of the Open University’s absolute dedication to broadening participation in language learning.

The OU is to be commended for its use of new technologies to make language learning both easy and engaging for distance learners. New projects include the Open University Languages in iTunes project, which shares free audiovisual French and Spanish resources with the wider community through iTunes U.

Another project which caught judges’ eyes this year was Andante, Italian for beginners -  an Italian course for distance learners centred on a course website and a range of online activities. As a distance learning provider, the Open University strives to find ways to encourage independent learning and to foster collaboration, both between tutor and student and among students themselves. The Andante project does this with flair.This project also receives the Italian Embassy Prize this year.

Language(s): French, German, Spanish, Italian, Welsh, Chinese

The Open University is a distance learning university, and the UK’s biggest provider of part-time language tuition (over 8000 students in 2007) offering courses from beginners to graduate level in French, German and Spanish. Italian was introduced in 2007 with Andante, Welsh in 2008, and Chinese will start in 2009.