The MEDEA Awards is a European annual competition supported by the Lifelong Programme of the European Commission. The annual competition to reward excellence and creativity in media in education is held in Brussels and encourages innovation and good practice in the use of media in education. This year The MEDEA awards attracted 115 entries from 28 countries with 74 judges at the helm from 22 European countries.

This year saw Deirdre Flood win a special Award which recognises excellence in the use of media to support volunteering. This award was given to Deirdre for her video 'Changing Lives by Drogheda Special Olympics Club (Ireland) as she was one of nine shortlisted candidates. The criteria used to judge the quality of submissions to the MEDEA awards include pedagogical quality, use of media, aesthetic quality, usability and technical quality. In addition to all of these criteria, Deirdre's video also includes the values of excellence and equal opportunities. These are all values Deirdre highlights as being experienced by her throughout the Masters in Education and Training Management (elearning). The video was part of her final dissertation submission.

Like most people who embark on the course, Deirdre admits that she had never made a video or even owned a camcorder prior to commencing the Masters programme. Throughout the making of a video, as part of the Multimedia and Educational Innovation module, she learned the basics of visual literacy and realised that it was like “learning a new language”.  Paul Maher, another student on the Masters programme received very highly commended award for his video "Simply Music". Both Deirdre and Paul were among eight students who chose to produce a educational video as part of their dissertation in the Masters and Education and Training  Management programme under the supervision of Yvonne Crotty.

Overall, a great achievement for Ireland and DCU,
Yvonne Crotty