The Learning Counsel awarded the first-of-its-kind publishing-industry oriented “Glowing Screen Award” to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) for significant achievement in digital curriculum development at their annual national Gathering event held on the Walt Disney World Coronado Springs Resort in Buena Vista, FL the evening of November 14th.  The Award signifies a software development accomplishment in the K-12 market that stood out from other digital learning objects marketed by publishers in 2017. 

LeiLani Cauthen, CEO and Publisher at the Learning Counsel, a California-based news media organization focused on research and context around the K12 transition to digital curriculum with over 170,000 K-12 executive subscribers, said she was very impressed with the technical depth of the HMH’s Player App. 

“This Award is for the technical craft of machine language interface between types of multiple systems, whole repositories of digital learning objects and the display of that disparate data to end users, a sort of magic in actual technical design not seen in other educational system apps, which are mostly faceplates to a single system. HMH created a first-of-its-kind app that is an umbrella across all their content the HMH Player App,” said LeiLani during the Awards ceremony.

The Vice President, Product Management, Learning Platforms and Applications, Paul Murphy stated that the app was created fully from the ground up with freedom given to its designers and engineers to create something great and truly useful for today’s instructors. “The team recognized the needs of today’s teachers and students went beyond an eBook or a traditional LMS,” stated Paul. “They needed a mobile learning system that provided offline content, customization, and the key features and data central to the learning process. Ease of use was key to the team’s approach. In this respect, nothing was overlooked in the research and design of the player. Eye tracking tests with students were done to improve the user interface based on where students were looking and how they were using the app. Similarly, for teachers, creating an assignment is as easy as three taps and the student reports generated by the HMH Player offer a visual design that makes the data immediately actionable for the teacher.”

John Winkler, Vice President Marketing Services, Global Sales and Marketing, of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Boston, Massachusetts, who received the etched crystal award on behalf of the company, said he was “proud of the accomplishments of the HMH team, who worked very hard without compromising,” to bring the HMH Player App to schools. 

The Awards ceremony, held at the Walt Disney World Coronado Springs Resort with a room full of executives representing twenty-three other states and the District of Columbia, with numerous other schools and districts both public and private in audience for the special moment.