Welcome to #STLP23 and all the remaining STLP events for this school year. For this edition of STLP Headlines and Deadlines, we’ll start with an eye on State for our recently advanced Level 2 Project teams and focus primarily on the upcoming Digital Product Online Judging (DPOJ) contests.

With Level 1 Projects and Regionals wrapped up, those advancing teams are hard at work bringing their projects to life. Soon enough it will be time to begin developing their Level 2 Project presentations for STLP State (check out the Level 2 Project List here). However, before we shift all attention on State (registration will open in a couple weeks), it’s crunch time for all the DPOJ entries!

Here’s what you need to know for DPOJ:

  • Registration closes next Wednesday, January 18th – you have until 11:59pm that evening to submit URLs to all your digital product entries
  • Info and links to register are at https://stlp.education.ky.gov/dpoj

Here are the most recent frequently asked questions about DPOJ:

  • Will there be a deadline extension? — Thankfully, all things seem to be on track this year to keep the January 18th deadline. Do not expect an extension.
  • Do products need to be “complete” when I register? – All digital product entries can be a work in progress until the January 18th deadline. Judging will begin quickly after the deadline, so products must be finalized at that point.
  • Do we need to provide a judge? – YES. The “price of admission” for the DPOJ competition is to provide a volunteer judge to help review entries…and judges must complete their assignment on time for your school’s products to remain eligible. Enter your judge info here.
  • How many judges do we need to submit? – Minimum is 1 judge per school if you submit between 1 and 8 products. If school submits 9 or more, school is required to submit a second judge. Add more if you can…we need lots of help!
  • Can I (STLP Coach) be a judge? – Yep! In fact, since judging happens on your own time, from your computer, STLP Coaches are excellent judges.
    My judge hasn’t been contacted yet…should I be worried? – Judges will be contacted with instructions after registration closes.
  • How long does it take to get results from judging? – With thousands of entries and hundreds of judges, the honest answer is: it depends on (1) how closely you checked the URLs for accuracy before submitting your registration and (2) if judges show up and complete their tasks in a timely and complete manner. Most delays occur when submitted links don’t work or when judges don’t show up.

If you have already registered for DPOJ, you have the benefit of reviewing your entries at this link (or via the DPOJ registration into page here). Take some time to double check that your URLs are accurate, and you can edit your registration all the way up to the deadline (special thanks to my teammate on the KDE Digital Learning Team, Erin Waggoner, for creating these resources for DPOJ this year!).

If your school is skipping DPOJ this year, please know that very soon we’ll be releasing the #STLP23 State Championship Info Page. I hope you’re already planning on bringing students to experience STLP State – whether they’re competing or not. Everyone is invited to join us in Lexington on April 19th to celebrate Kentucky’s students and their innovative utilization of transformative technologies to learn.