College of the North Atlantic (The College)

College of the North Atlantic is an institution with a mandate to develop and operate all facets of non-university post-secondary, vocational and continuing education programs in the province.

The INNOVA team from the Stephenville office is teaching the second year of the Multimedia diploma program at the College of the North Atlantic, Stephenville, Newfoundland. In addition, to date, INNOVA has developed three products in partnership with the College.

1. Rocks and Minerals Program

This program is designed as an introductory course in rocks and
minerals for Grade 7-9 and ABE/GDE students to create an
interest in Geology. Topics cover include: Geologic Time, Atoms
to Minerals (in nature, classification, identification) and Types of
Rocks. This is an interactive program with graphics, still
photographs of rocks and minerals and videos of geologists
working in the field.

2. Apprenticeship Program

The purpose of the program is to provide information about
models of apprenticeship, apprenticeable trades (44), types of
certification and the benefits associated with apprenticeship
training. The primary audience is Grade 10-12 students, who are
encouraged to consider the apprenticeable trades as a career
option. However, government agencies such as HRDC, Worker’s
Compensation, and Apprentice/Industrial Training will also find the
information most useful.

3. Early Childhood Education Program

This project involves the conversion of existing curriculum
materials for the Early Childhood Education program into a new
media format for delivery using distance technology. It consists of
an interactive CD-ROM containing key curriculum concepts, and a
text based web site which students can link to from the CD-ROM to
access resource materials.

F.I.R.E Alliance

INNOVA is currently building a strategic alliance under the Newfoundland  Business Partnerships Development program. The other partners include Red Ochre Productions, and Sussex Place Inc. . The company and the other alliance members are exploring, among other things, the development of an Internet TV station. The educational products of INNOVA are likely to form a cornerstone of this Internet station. Sussex Place Inc. has introduced video streaming and the Internet TV station concept to the Alliance and members are currently exploring ways to actualize this concept.

General Publishing

INNOVA has been fortunate in securing general retail distribution in Canada for A Whale of a Tale: Dive Into Math(r) through Irwin’s sister company General Publishing. It is the first educational title from the Irwin catalogue of multimedia products that General Publishing has taken to the retail sector.

The Genesis Centre

INNOVA is a client of the Genesis Centre, an initiative of the Seabright
Corporation, Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Genesis Centre is a support network to help Newfoundland and Labrador knowledge-based businesses/entrepreneurs create high-growth enterprises. As a Genesis client, INNOVA has access to:

Physical, technical and scientific resources of Memorial University of
Newfoundland.  Business services.  Physical space and communication facilities.   A world class mentor who has marketing, finance and management expertise with advanced technologies.

INNOVA has been extremely fortunate to be mentored by Mr. John Kelly, President and CEO of Jetform Ltd. This relationship has proven to be very beneficial to INNOVA in terms of direction, market research and expansion.

ICE

ICE creates, produces and publishes print, video, television, multimedia,
CD-ROM and live events for corporate clients such as Moore Corp., Bank of Montreal and Bell Canada's Sympatico launch. The company's service includes logos, packaging, and web sites. ICE has also produced such television shows as the Genie and Gemini awards.

ICE has broken the barrier between traditional printed books and CD-ROMs through the creation of the Junior Nature Guides. They started with solid information and beautiful illustrations form the original book series. ICE added spoken passages, original music and natural sounds. Videos were created and games and puzzles were designed to reinforce the learning with fun. The CD-ROM and book versions were integrated seamlessly creating a unique mix of digital and paper that allows the content to go where a computer might not. A JNG web site was added and the first three titles, "Insects", "Reptiles and Amphibians" and "Birds" were released in the fall of 1996.

ICE is based in Toronto with offices in Ottawa and New York. The company's current expansion effort includes London, England. The company has 110 employees with $23.6 million revenue as of fiscal year ending 31 May 1997.

Irwin Publishing Ltd.

INNOVA’s initial poetry product, Poetry in a Nutshell(r), as well as its A Whale of a Tale: Dive Into Math(r) are being distributed internationally by Irwin Publishing Ltd. (Irwin) of Concord, Ontario. The relationship with Irwin is strong and ongoing; INNOVA greatly benefits from Irwin’s experience with educational products in domestic and international markets. Together with Irwin, INNOVA participated in the recent Education Market Access Fund. INNOVA and Irwin shared a booth at the MILIA (the largest European Multimedia business to business trade show and conference) in Cannes, France this past February.

Lawfind

INNOVA and Lawfind of Ontario, Canada partnered on a project for the Department of Justice, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to:
Develop a new system for processing Provincial legislation.
Train staff in use of the new system.  Convert existing legislative data to conform to the new system.  Provide short-term support until staff are familiar with the new system.

For this project INNOVA will develop and implement a system of drafting, revising, editing and printing Provincial legislation processed by the Legislative Council Office.

Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland

The Virtual Training Network

The Marine Transportation Virtual Training Network is a Newfoundland based business network established to develop competitive distance education short course materials for the international marine transportation industry.

The Marine Institute's private sector partners include Ad Vantage Productions, IDON EAST Corporation, INNOVA Multimedia Ltd., NewTel Information Solutions, and Silverthaw Visual Arts.

First products under development include Tanker Orientation and Ship Board Familiarization for the tanker and cruise line industries. INNOVA is partnering with Silverthaw on the development of a series of products for the tanker industry.

Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Project ( CRB
Foundation - Project Inukshuk)

Project Inukshuk is a long term program that will enable all Canadians to
participate in the collection and communication of historical and cultural
information about their communities and to share their work on the Internet. The CRB Foundation is currently developing pilots in Newfoundland, Quebec and Ontario. Through the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Project, INNOVA is coordinating two of the three pilot projects in Newfoundland and Labrador. These pilot projects consist of High Schools in Little Heart's Ease and Stephenville developing heritage websites about their respective communities.
The coordination on these projects is being completed at a distance using WWW video conferencing and other new technologies.

Newfoundland Science Centre (NSC)

The Newfoundland Science Centre (NSC), located in the Murray Premises in St. John's, has been delivering outrearch programs related to Science and Technology since its inception as the Discovery Network in 1993. The NSC has delivered a wide range of programs from early childhood workshops through to teacher programs including:

Scitrek, the Travelling Science Centre
Teacher Trek
StarLab
Science Adventures
The Cardboard Boat Race
Ingenious Inventions Challenge

The NSC has visited hundreds of communities and schools in Newfoundland and Labrador and has been seen by over 150,000 people. In May, 1997, the NSC opened the first interactive hands-on Science Centre in the province and continues to work closely with students, teachers and the community.

INNOVA in conjunction with NSC and I.C.E. has developed What is IT?

This program involves the creation of an interactive CD-ROM aimed at teaching students about Information Technology. The purpose of this CD-ROM is to guide students through an IT problem solving process, demonstrate the breadth of IT careers to students, and to excite students about IT.

NewTel Information Solutions Ltd. (NIS)

NIS, a private company owned by NewTel Enterprises Limited, Andersen Consulting, and Bell Sygma, is Atlantic Canada’s largest full-service systems integrator.

During the early stages of developing INNOVA’s multimedia capabilities, NIS provided technical and production services. NIS lent its multimedia development expertise for the development of INNOVA's initial three products - Poetry in a Nutshell (r), The Character of Poetry, and A Whale of a Tale (r): Dive Into Math - Grade One.

Though INNOVA’s technical capabilites have since grown independent of NIS, our partnership continues. INNOVA plans to work with NIS and others on the development of a "Virtual Training Network" for the Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Ransom Publishing

Ransom, based in Oxfordshire in the UK, produces and distributes interactive multimedia titles around the world. This past July (1998) INNOVA entered into an agreement with Ransom Publishing Ltd. of the United Kingdom to distribute its "A Whale of a Tale(r)" educational software series. Ransom will distribute the UK version of INNOVA’s curriculum-specific products to both the educational and retail marketplace in all English speaking countries, excluding Canada, the
United States, Australia and New Zealand. INNOVA and Ransom are currently finalizing details for the Australia and New Zealand market.

INNOVA, in conjunction with Ransom, is currently localising the "A Whale of a Tale(r)" series to include minor changes such as UK narrators.

Red Ochre Productions Limited (Red Ochre), established 1984 is a
private film and video production company based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Ken Pittman, Executive Producer, has been writing, producing and directing films for approximately ten years. Red Ochre produces documentaries, drama, feature films as well as industrial and institutional film and video. Currently, production is under way of the CD ROM movie, Anchor Zone, based on the Red Ochre feature film, Anchor Zone, released in 1994. Red Ochre holds global CD ROM Rights for Anchor Zone and intends to market this digital entertainment product throughout the world. The digital master materials will be
adaptable to new and future video disk and Internet formats.

STEM~Net

The mission of STEM~Net is to be a high-quality computer network for
education in Newfoundland and Labrador, and to support the teaching,
curriculum and professional development activities of educators. Its mandate is restricted to active K-12 educators and segments of the public post-secondary system.

Telemedicine/TETRA

Telemedicine/TETRA (Telemedicine and Educational Technology Resources Agency) is primarily a research and development facility established to facilitate the use of information technology and telecommunications in the delivery of health and education services to non-urban, remote and isolated areas. The extensive resources of the centre are used by a province-wide consortium including education (secondary and post secondary), social, government and private agencies.

Telemedicine/TETRA has developed into one of the largest and most
sophisticated audiographic teleconference networks in Canada. Our facility offers many telecommunications services to clients on a daily basis.

INNOVA worked with TETRA on the Health Education by Distance project. The project is directed towards health workers in a wide range of health disciplines wishing to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in Community Health at the Certificate, Diploma and Masters levels. INNOVA will be responsible for the design, development and editing of World Wide Web sites for each course in the Community Health Program. The WWW course sites will be designed in consultation with the projects instructional designer and course instructors. INNOVA will recommend and implement appropriate computer conferencing software to meet the online discussion and communication needs of instructors and students.