Karachi, Pakistan – December 6, 2005 – ‘Story of Pakistan™’, an interactive encyclopedia website won the ‘Best of R&D’ award, at the P@SHA ICT Awards 2005. The award was presented by Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), in recognition of the most outstanding ICT R&D project that has been developed in Pakistan.

‘Story of Pakistan™’ was voted the best in the R&D category by an independent panel of judges from the private and public sector, industries and the academia. The judging criteria set out for the P@SHA ICT Awards program is the general judging criteria that has been set by the Asia Pacific ICT Awards committee. Winners were announced at the Awards Presentation Gala Dinner held in Karachi.

This website was launched in 2000 and since then has become one of the largest sources for information on the history of Pakistan. Six years of effort in technical design, visual design, and extensive, in-depth research from our dedicated scholars has gone into the production of this high quality profile of Pakistan. Over 3,000 pages are generated dynamically, since 99% of the website is database-driven.

The website receives over 300,000 page views every month. Leading Websites and Institutions refer to the SOP website; Sify.com, Wikipedia.com, Reference.com, HistoryTeacher.net etc.

The CD-ROM version of this website has already broken all records till to-date. Over 42,000 CDs have been sold, thus making it the largest selling software developed in Pakistan.

Karachi, Pakistan – December 6, 2005 – ESRA Literacy Software wins the Merit Award in the ‘Education & Training’ category at the P@SHA ICT Awards 2005. This Award was presented in acknowledgement of developing one of the most innovative ICT solutions for the delivery of education and training for Urdu, in Pakistan.

The ESRA Urdu Literacy Software has been designed for men and women from rural and semi-urban populations between the age of 14 to 40 years.

The ESRA Urdu Literacy Software is divided into 3 main components:

- Vocabulary, Two and Four Letter words
- Vowels, Secondary Vowels, Arabs (Semi-Vowels), Three Letter Words, Alif   Sounds, Diphthong and Nasalized Vowels
- Test & Evaluation

All content has been developed by a group of domain experts appointed by ESRA under the supervision of our development team. A three-day workshop was initiated with domain experts prior to the design and development. This workshop was concluded by Prof. Dr. M. Zafar Iqbal (Vice-Chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open University and an expert in ICT in Pakistan).

From the opening screen, a teacher appears to help direct the users’ experience within the program. The user may enter the program as a student or a teacher. A feature of the student login is to allow a user to take a test and then save the results in a database. An effective feature of the teacher login is to track the results of student activities. Once a user has selected the appropriate login, they are presented with a menu screen that outlines each of the sections. It is at this point that a user may select one of the several learning areas.

After selecting a topic, a user is directed through a tutorial that explains the form and meaning of a topic. The software also allows a user to demonstrate their understanding of the topic through an interactive exercise attached with every topic/lesson. The information has been presented both visually and aurally using clear voice and written visual communication and an uncluttered layout. At any point, a user may return to a prior screen or the main menu.

‘Test & Evaluation’ is a key component of the software. It allows a teacher to evaluate a student’s understanding of the topic/lesson before moving to the next lesson. Every lesson has an interactive exercise where users are asked questions in a fun way. Users are always given positive feedback in a soft voice, irrespective of wrong answers. The software allows multiple tries even in the ‘Test and Evaluation’ mode.

The ESRA Urdu Literacy Software combines pictures, voiceovers, background music, video, animation and interactive exercises to enable users to speak, read and write basic Urdu in just six learning months. The software design is based on typical rural setting depicting local culture and traditions. Exercises have been designed using the scenarios and elements from the daily life and the surroundings of the end-user.

The ESRA Urdu Literacy Software integrates research-driven Urdu literacy content in to a user-friendly interface, graphic-rich design, and interactivity to effectively maintain student interest and reinforce learning at the same time.

Karachi, Pakistan – October 2, 2004, Cartoon Qaida, a fun-filled interactive multimedia tutorial for the Urdu alphabet, won P@SHA ICT Award for the ‘Best in Education and Training’. The award was presented by Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), in recognition of developing one of the most outstanding ICT solutions for the delivery of education and training, in Pakistan.

Cartoon Qaida is a fun-filled interactive animated multimedia tutorial of the Urdu alphabet. Specially designed for three to five year olds, the Qaida has enough color and excitement to keep even the grown-ups glued to the screen, and enjoy the experience with their young ones.

Three engaging games are included to help the children learn while having fun. Also included is an all-new original sing-along song which is already a hit with kids.