Each year, Elearning! Magazine, a well-respected print and digital publication in the eLearning industry, publishes the Learning! 100. This list highlights the groundbreaking work of organizations that are shaping the field of eLearning. In late August, the magazine published the 2017 edition of the Learning! 100.

The winners range from corporate leaders like T-Mobile and Salesforce to Last Mile Health, an organization that trained over 1,300 Liberian health workers to stop the spread of the Ebola epidemic.

What Makes a Learning! 100 Winner

The honorees of the Learning! 100 list are chosen based on a number of factors. Each nominated company or organization is evaluated for three criteria:  Collaborative Strategies’ Collaboration Index, Darden School’s Learning Culture Index, and overall organizational performance. 

This methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative considerations, and allows the nominees to be ranked without bias for organization size.

2017 Top Ten Winners

Elearning! Magazine publishes a profile on each of the top five winners in both the private and public sectors. These featured winners are honored for a specific area of excellence.

The top five winners in the private sector are:

1. T-Mobile (Area of Excellence: Culture)
2. Amazon Web Services (Area of Excellence: Performance)
3. Salesforce (Area of Excellence: Performance)
4. Cisco (Area of Excellence: Innovation)
5. Ingersoll Rand (Area of Excellence: Culture)

The top five winners in the public sector are:

1. Defense Acquisition University (Area of Excellence: Performance)
2. American Heart Association (Area of Excellence: Culture)
3. Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (Area of Excellence: Collaboration)
4. Last Mile Health (Area of Excellence: Collaboration)
5. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy (Area of Excellence: Culture)

The full list of all 100 winners is available on the Elearning! website.

Winner Profile: Last Mile Health

Many of the 2017 winners have appeared on the Learning! 100 list before. In fact, the only newcomer to the top five list is Last Mile Health. This organization was founded in 2007 under the name Tiyatien Health, or “justice in health.” With just $6,000 in seed money, Tiyatien Health launched the first rural, public HIV program in Liberia.

The very first patients of Tiyatien Health were treated in a converted closet in the war-damaged city of Zwedru. However, the organization’s founders quickly realized that their help was most needed in Liberia’s “last mile.” This term describes the people who are out of reach of the standard healthcare system because of poverty or distance. It’s not uncommon for these individuals to walk two days to get access to modern health care. In 2013, Tiyatien Health became Last Mile Health.

The organization now supports 38 clinics in southeastern Liberia, where they recruit, train, equip, manage, and hire locals to provide health services for their neighbors. As of 2017, Last Mile Health has trained over 1,300 health care workers.

The organization provided support for these workers to “keep safe, keep serving” in the midst of the Ebola epidemic. Last Mile clinics helped to educate workers and community members about how to prevent the spread of disease and how to report and manage suspected cases. Thanks to the efforts of Last Mile Health and other organizations like it, the Ebola epidemic was brought to a halt in 2016.

Applications for the 2018 Learning! 100

The application period for the 2018 Learning! 100 list will open on January 1, 2018 and run through March 31. The companies and organizations who are named to the top 100 will be notified by April 15.

Final rankings, including the coveted top five slots in the public and private sectors, will be announced during the Annual Learning! 100 Award Ceremony, which is a part of the Enterprise Learning! Conference 2018. The date for the 2018 conference is to be determined.

About Elearning! Magazine

Elearning! Magazine is published under a Creative Commons license. The magazine encourages the free distribution of its content. Contributions from readers are welcome in the form of case studies, how-to features, product news, and announcements, which will be considered for publication in Elearning! Magazine, websites, and email newsletters. More information about Elearning! is available on the magazine’s Publication Profile page.