Beatriz Arnillas, senior educational advisor, itslearning (formerly the director of education technology at Houston Independent School District), and Lenny Schad, chief technology information officer, Houston Independent School District were awarded the 2018 William H. (Bill) Graves Leadership Award. "This year, we recognize two individuals who have made an extraordinary difference in the work of IMS and the educational technology community at large," said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Beatriz and Lenny envisioned and guided the development and implementation of an integrated digital ecosystem at Houston ISD that enables personalized learning for all students and has been used as a model by K-12 districts across the country."

The Bill Graves Leadership Award is the highest honor awarded by IMS. Named after one of its founders, this award embodies the spirit and commitment of Dr. Bill Graves, a true pioneer in working across the boundaries of academia and industry and encouraging institutional leaders to apply technology to academic strategy.
In addition to the Bill Graves Leadership Award, IMS announced the winners of this year's Learning Impact Awards program—the only global competition that recognizes outstanding, innovative applications of technology at an educational institution to support and improve learning based on evidence of impact.

Projects were evaluated by an expert panel using eight criteria for determining clear evidence of innovation and learning impact. Attendees of the Learning Impact Leadership Institute, as well as the public, were invited to vote on the finalists with their combined vote counting as one judge vote. Out of the 26 finalists, eight medalists were selected for their outstanding achievement:

2018 Platinum Medals

• Blackboard Ally — Blackboard
• Georgia Virtual Total Learning Architecture — PCG Education and Georgia Department of Education

2018 Gold Medals

• Supporting the Selection of Quality Digital Resources: HISD App Toolbox — Houston Independent School District Education Technology

2018 Silver Medals

• Maplesoft Online Learning Courseware at University of Waterloo — Maplesoft and the University of Waterloo
• TAO Assessment Platform in New York City DOE — Open Assessment Technologies and New York City DOE

2018 Bronze Medals

• IM Road Safety Savvy — Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, Singapore Road Safety Council, Singapore Police Force and FXMedia Singapore Pte Ltd
• Using LMS Interoperability to Power and Drive Student-Centered Learning — itslearning and Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township

2018 Honorable Mentions

• Aprendizaje Eficaz — Santillana Global
• BenchPrep improves exam preparation — BenchPrep
• Cloud Campus: End-to-End Common Platform from Content Production to Course Sharing — CyberUniversity
• Digital Skills Course for TAFE Digital — Smart Sparrow and TAFE Digital by TAFE NSW (Technical and Further Education New South Wales)
• Establishing models for blended learning environments for Japanese nurses who are trained in Specified Medical Acts — Jichi Medical University and Jichi training center for nurse designated procedures (J-ENDURE）
• Flexible, standards-based data integrations — Kimono
• Frontier at Colonial School District — eSpark Learning and Colonial School District
• Fuji Xerox's "SkyDesk Mixed Learning" Work stylerevolution "ICT x Education" — Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
• IMDA Digital Maker Programme — Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, Microsoft Operations Pte Ltd, MicroMaker Asia Pte Ltd, Tinkertanker Pte Ltd and ZenitantPte Ltd
• MALO: A web-based application for collaborative learning outside of class in a flipped learning course — Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd. and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
• OER at American Public University System — American Public University System
• Practice of Blending Learning for the Next Generation of Agricultural Human Resource Development Using Wearable Cameras and Drones — The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics and Green Collar Academy
• SchoolCity Personalized Review Assignments — SchoolCity, in partnership with SAFARI Montage and Granite School District (Utah) and Forsyth County Schools (Georgia)
• Single Sign-On at Pasco County Schools — Classlink and Pasco County Schools
• Smart Sparrow and Oregon State University's Online Interactive Chemistry Labs — Smart Sparrow and Oregon State University
• Virtual School Administrator by FLVS — Florida Virtual School
• VitalSource Analytics — VitalSource
• #haxtheweb - Transforming Knowledge Production — Pennsylvania State University

An analysis of the 2018 winning projects will be presented in the annual Learning Impact Report to be released in the fall. Nominations for the 2019 competition will open in January.