The wait is over. I have the names of the 3 winners of the Edu Blogger Scholarship contest (the grand prize and the 2 lucky prizes).
But, first I’d like to thank all the participants who took the time to submit an entry (and boo all the other higher ed bloggers who decided to pass on this opportunity ;-)
It’s been a very interesting experience to run this contest. I’ve learned a great deal about the higher ed blogosphere, the question of popularity (is it such a bad word?), life and beyond.
Want to know who won? Just keep reading (you’ll probably scan the explanation of how we evaluated the posts, but I thought it was a good idea to include it as well – just to be as transparent as possible.)
One last thing I’d like to point out is that the sponsor of this contest – onlinecollege.org – gave me the total freedom to design, promote and manage it – which is kind of cool.
So, now here’s what has been done since the 20 finalists were announced.
After reviewing the posts of the 20 finalists, each of the 3 judges (Matt Herzberger from BlogHighEd.org, Stewart Foss from eduStyle and Karine Joly from Collegewebeditor.com) gave a score to every post in the following categories:
- Have you learned anything interesting by reading this post? (5 points)
- How original is the topic of this blog post? (5 points)
- Does this post engage its readers (as opposed to just pushing a specific message)? (5 points)
- Can the post title work as a stand alone (in search engine, aggreagators, etc.)? (1 point)
- Would you share this post on Twitter or your own blog? (1 point)
The 3 independent sets of scores were then added for every post.
The highest scorer (43/51) was then declared the winner of the 2009 Edu Blogger Scholarship worth $1,500: The Old College Try for Top Distance Learning Marketing Challenges
The 2 Lucky Edu Blogger Scholarships – worth $500 – each were drawn among all the 28 contest participants using random.org, each one by a different judge. The third judge matched the 2 lucky numbers with the list of all the participants (alphabetized by last name of the blogger).
The winners of the 2 Lucky Edu Blogger Scholarships are
Shelley Keith from eironae.com (#16 drawn by Stewart) and
Heidi Cool from the Web Development Blog (#7 drawn by Matt)
I’ll contact each winner today to arrange the transfer of their respective scholarship.
Thanks and congratulations to all the participants. Keep up the good blogging! And, why not nominate your blog for the Best Higher Ed Blog award?