Epic at its innovative best - by Dr Naomi Norman

Every so often journalists writing for the business pages try hard to find an optimistic angle to the current economic gloom. In doing so, they inevitably resort to reminding us that downturns lead to innovation. Certainly, there was economic gloom in 2001 (the dot.com bubble burst, the Nasdaq index was down close to 30% and there were the 11 September terrorist attacks) but out of it emerged the Apple iPod. Now there’s an innovation success story!

But the mathematician in me instantly begins to feel nervous by such stories. Does such a correlation between downturns and innovation really exist? And if it does, then isn’t it simply a happy coincidence, rather than statistically valid? After all, with many big businesses reportedly slashing their research and development budgets, the relationship between recession and creativity seems rather dubious and somewhat unbelievable.

Then, it occurred to me, why should there be any kind of association between the amount of money spent and innovation anyway? After all, Epic, as a medium-sized business isn’t big enough to have a huge research and development budget, yet the people who work here are among the most creative and full of ideas I have ever come across.

In recent months we have launched a ground-breaking integrated web 2.0 and e-learning portal for a large multi-national corporation, and some novel basic skills training on Nintendo DS. Furthermore, we are currently in the throes of planning arguably the most imaginative and prestigious event ever hosted by the UK’s e-learning industry – a debate at the Oxford Union.

However, it is true to say that as clients’ budgets are tightening there is further demand for clever learning solutions. At Epic we are seeing the evidence as more and more of our customers are following the lead of our recent multi-national client in seeking ingenious ways to make cheaper collaborative tools integral to their more expensive e-learning content. And they are seeking platforms that allow for learning on the way to work, in between work and after work too, thus maximising every opportunity to develop their staff.

At the same time, as our clients demand smarter solutions I seem to spend more and more of my evenings and weekends reading books, papers and following links, passed on by colleagues inspired by new thinking and research into how we can enhance learning through technologies. On my desk at the moment is the book ‘Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide’ leant to me by one of Epic’s senior web developers, Ishmael Burdeau – this arrived on my desk minutes after I returned the article about the neurological effects of learning games leant to me by Paco Jaen, one of Epic’s graphic designers, and minutes before I was sent the link to pioneering research into 3D worlds by one Epic's senior instructional designers, Imogen Casebourne.

Clearly there is much innovation going on at Epic during this economic downturn. Perhaps it is brought about by clients demanding more innovative approaches, or perhaps it is simply due to our talented team. Whichever it is, perhaps we are on to something... could we have e-learning’s answer to the Apple iPod?