About the British Society for Rheumatology and its challenge
The expert digital learning team at the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) offer a leading-edge, blended education programme to its clinical members. Before partnering with Think Learning, they had a custom-built, WordPress based platform.
However, it was inflexible, costly, hard to update and relied on a 3rd party to manage the system.
BSR was on the lookout for a modern, innovative solution which gave a sense of ownership and control, and that could adapt to their growing digital learning needs for their members.
The initial, swift LMS implementation saw active usage nearly doubling amongst members and students of the society, and content has been highly rated at 4.8 out of 5. Building on early success, the site is being extended to include streamlined e-commerce features and an integration with BSR’s CRM system to fully manage user accounts.
BSR’s legacy learning platform was also restrictive in the forms of content it could host. This in turn limited the growth of the organisation’s digital learning strategy, as it meant prioritising the platform’s capabilities over their learners’ needs. Partnering with Think Learning for Totara Learn changed that. By choosing to partner with us, BSR were able to:
- Create engaging learning in a timely manner.
- Improve user experience by implementing learner pathways.
- Implement reactive learning when needed, without the support of third party contractors.
- Deliver interactive virtual courses, which was essential during the COVID pandemic.
- Review and analyse user engagement by looking at various data reports.
Daisy Southam, Head of Education said, “We really wanted to up-skill ourselves in-house from a platform and product management perspective and have the ownership of the site ourselves.
“We decided to stop thinking about the LMS platform as a separate product, as we could now bring it in-house within our Education team and look after it along with everything else, complementing and building it around the program for our members.”
The Solution
At Think Learning, we are true champions of the constant evolution of learning and development technology. Things change, and it’s paramount that your learning content keeps up.
So providing BSR with the tools needed to ensure they can add to, adapt or amend their content on the fly is truly rewarding. BSR can now create and curate courses, and build pathways independently, without having to wait for the assistance of a third party. And their learners benefit from a range of learning resources, including webinars, podcasts, e-learning and virtual instructor-led-training (ILT).
What’s more, BSR can now personalise the content that each learner receives by utilising Totara Learn’s Audiences feature. By splitting the users into members and non-members, BSR can ensure the right content gets to the right learner at the right time – improving the learning experience for all.
Totara Learn is an easy-to-use, yet powerful learning platform. It has the ability to truly transform the learning functions of organisations.
As well as saving administrator time and improving learner experience, the platform encourages L&D professionals to change the way they think about learning.
The Totara Learn launch programme coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the BSR team to get creative under pressure – and they responded quickly. They needed one learning hub for all their content, including both online and face-to-face training, to provide learners with a seamless experience, no matter what.
Daisy added, “We had an incredibly short implementation time and the team at Think did so much to help us get that done. Internally, me and my team got praised that this was the first IT project that was delivered in time and within budget at the BSR. I think I couldn’t have done that without the help of the Think team. They brought expertise to the project that we just don’t have in-house.
Overall, everyone from Think that I have ever needed support from have been absolutely lovely and are always there to give me the best possible solution, so, it has been fantastic; whether it’s working on the BigBlueButton developments, learning new ways of how to do things, or data integration to our other systems – the support has been great.”
The Results
Since implementing the platform, BSR’s active user numbers have nearly doubled, and content has been highly rated. So it’s safe to say that Totara Learn has helped to transform the BSR learning services.
But this is only the beginning, Totara Learn is a truly sophisticated platform, and BSR intends to utilise it to its full potential.
They are currently building a roadmap for the next few years to see where they can take the platform – notably focusing on improved design and theming to engage BSR members, improved dashboards and more social and collaborative learning features for their members.
Our longest standing customer is the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, who has partnered with us since 2011.
The Trust have successfully been using the Think Learning compliance-focused Totara Learn system as their staff learning platform throughout this time. We sat down with Tara Kennedy, Learning Management System Manager at the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), to get a customer’s perspective on working with Think Learning – and what the future holds for Education and Organisational Learning and Development at the Trust.
The Challenge
Tara started working at the Trust 12 years ago, when the organisation solely provided mental health and allied specialties services and had around 3,500 employees.
Since then, the Trust has doubled its employee count to over 7,000 staff, who deliver over 300 different services, such as offender care across the UK prison network, learning disability support, sexual health and addiction misuse.
And CNWL’s geographical location has also expanded in this time, now covering Milton Keynes, Surrey and Buckinghamshire, whilst catering for the prison services in Hampshire and Kent.
Despite this growth of CNWL, the Education team hasn’t increased in size. Instead, the same team are now serving double the learners, on a wider range of topics than ever before. But by partnering with Think Learning and implementing a modern LMS like Totara, CNWL has flexibility to onboard, manage administration and provide access to learning content.
Prior to adopting Totara Learn, CNWL was using a Learning Management System that catered well as a course management tool for the L&D administrators but was not fit for purpose as a self-service learning management system – a priority at that time, it was also not possible to customise the system in any way when organisational needs arose.
The Solution
Think Learning customised the learning platform to ease functionality and support available to staff, which is critical to the smooth running of any healthcare service. Particularly important as CNWL’s prioritise retaining and developing existing staff to reduce turnover, vacancy rates and the cost of backfilling clinical staff.
Partnering with Think Learning empowers CNWL to achieve their vision of “wellbeing for life”. The Trust strives to improve an individual’s quality of life through high quality healthcare and personal support; which can only be achieved with truly effective learning that ultimately improves staff behaviours.
Engaging user interface
Totara Learn provides the Trust with an engaging user experience. Creating an environment that learners truly enjoy.
Improved learner experience
Reducing the number of learner queries was a top priority for the team when sourcing a new LMS. Thankfully, Totara’s intuitive learner experience has achieved just that.
Self-service learning
Promoting a learning culture in the Trust was paramount. But due to the busy schedules of learners, it was important that learners could be self-sufficient.
The Results
The implementation of Totara Learn by Think Learning has enabled the Trust to meet a 95% compliance rate around Information Government training every year since go-live.
In addition, CNWL have moved their competency assessments to Totara’s quiz functionality, making a huge impact on compliance training and results. In fact, they’ve achieved a 94% pass rate in Statutory and Mandatory Compliance training since implementation of LDZ.
Having used Totara Learn since 2011, it’s unsurprising that the platform has undergone a number of refreshes. In 2019, LDZ had a significant upgrade to its visual appearance, driven to meet the expectations of learners, who are digital natives and frequently use a range of social networks.
Think Learning played an integral role in the refresh, implementing a new theme, layout and colours to the platform. In addition, the Trust adopted a new, workforce role-based approach to learning management. Allowing them to take a stronger talent development focus, moving away from an open directory of courses. Instead, learners are shown relevant, applicable courses for their clinical, statutory and personal development.
Since implementing Totara Learn, the Trust have been able to provide refresher training for face-to-face courses through TEL – E-Learning and electronic competency-based assessments. What’s more, when additional mandatory training topics are introduced, the Trust are now delivering through TEL where possible.
An electronic external study leave form was also implemented for staff to apply for external training directly on the system, along with actioning the approval process by the manager and panel. The status of the application is visible, and the result communicated via email directly from the system. This replaced the previous lengthy and time-consuming paper-based application process and recording on an excel spreadsheet and a large volume of emails being circulated.
Although Totara has a flexible and comprehensive reporting tool for manging compliance the Trust is developing a BI reporting tool to align trust systems for centralised reporting capability. LDZ is part of this project being undertaken by the BI team, with an automated link currently in development.
About the Trust
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHR) run two hospitals, both with emergency departments serving clinics across North East London.
They have 6,500 clinical and non-clinical staff and volunteers caring for a diverse community of 750,000 people, making it one of the largest in the country. Services include neuroscience, cancer and acute stroke specialist care wards.
The Challenge
Since a visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2013, the Trust’s compliance with the Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) has been under scrutiny, along with the processes in place across the organisation.
The Trust had multiple methods for their 6,500 staff to view, manage and book training which caused confusion and placed a huge strain on HR and Learning and Development (L&D) resources at the hospitals. The L&D team were inundated with phone and email enquiries to book staff on mandatory training. There was no central policy or framework for learning and development to provide guidance to staff on requirements.
Separate Learning Management Systems (LMS) and compliance reporting systems resulted in excessive time being spent creating reports to make decisions on compliance, staff training and development.
The absence of a management hierarchy in legacy systems led to a lack of accountability and engagement for the completion of mandatory and personal development training. Training costs were escalating as a result of a high DNA rate.
The Solution
The Trust recognised the need for a user friendly LMS, that was flexible enough to be customised to healthcare specific needs. They initiated a rigorous selection process, which resulted in a partnership with Think Learning to implement and support Totara Learn.
The requirements were:
- boost efficiency and compliance
- accessible and easy-to-use
- reviews and reporting
BHR recognised Think Learning’ market-leading healthcare LMS experience, and the ability of Totara Learn to manage all of their needs including compliance training, elearning content, classroom training, nurse and midwifery revalidation, personal performance reviews centralised and line manager reporting.
Think Learning and multiple stakeholders in BHR collaborated to deliver essential improvements to the organisation’s learning technology infrastructure, as well as incorporating their end-to-end training and reporting process into Totara Learn.
A clear organisational hierarchy was developed to enable managers to support, manage and report on their teams’ learning. This management hierarchy was bulk uploaded to the LMS, known in the organisation as BEST (BHRUT Education & Staff Training).
The management hierarchy (BEST) was vital to the configuration of the Personal Performance Review created using the e-appraisals functionality in Totara Learn.
The Results
More than 4,600 clinical and non-clinical staff accessed the system in the eight weeks after go live, responding positive to the new system. Notably, staff commented on the ease of use of core learning and development processes, including viewing, managing and completing mandatory training.
What’s more, the Trust have increased their compliance rate (across all Core and Essential Training Skills) from 84% in March 2016 to 92% in November 2016. This increase has been attributed to the ease of access to training and the transparency of requirements.
The Trust have estimated a significant annual cost saving since the implementation of the Totara Learn. This saving is made up from:
- Time saving: Easy access for staff, means no time is spent managing forgotten user names etc.
- Transparent requirements: Staff know what courses they need to complete and by when. They are no longer spending time completing the wrong course or following incorrect processes.
- Increased use of eLearning: Now that it is simpler to access and complete, it is more widely utilised. Also proving beneficial for course management with more efficient course attendance administration.
About Allied Healthcare
Allied Healthcare are the UK’s leading provider of domiciliary care, supplying over 17 million hours of life-enhancing care every year in homes throughout the community. Their experience includes caring for children with behavioural needs, support for people with disabilities, reablement care for those recovering from illness or injury, and expert clinical care by community nurses.
The Challenge
The Cavendish Review, conducted in July 2013, highlighted that preparation of healthcare assistants and social care support workers for their roles providing care was inconsistent.
The report recommended development of a Certificate of Fundamental Care – the “Care Certificate”, which highlighted to Allied Healthcare their need to find an engaging and efficient way to deliver the Care Certificate to their staff.
With the main focuses being on compliance and being able to provide accurate compliance reports to the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The Solution
Allied Healthcare decided e-learning would be the most effective way to provide engaging training for staff to achieve compliance.
They worked as subject matter experts, in an e-learning design project to produce seven core modules that encompassed the new Care Certificate requirements.
The modules were appealing, concise and personal to their organisation, and included: Equality and Diversity for Health and Social Care, Work in a Person Centred Way, Privacy and Dignity, and Managing Stress for Health and Social Care.
Allied Healthcare also needed a way for staff to easily access the e-learning content and then report on completion. They elected to implement Totara Learn as a Virtual Learning Platform. The key reasons for selecting Totara Learning Management System (LMS) were:
- Accessibility: Easy to navigate and can be accessed from any device and location.
- Customisation: Many theming, navigation and configuration options.
- Flexibility: The scope of the project can be expanded to develop the full available functionality, at a later date without unnecessary software costs.
As the use of e-learning and the Totara LMS represented both a cultural and process change for the organisation, the Learning and Development team decided a hands-on roll out was required. They initiated a comprehensive internal communications campaign to engage with staff across the UK.
Representatives from the Learning and Development team visited every site to meet with teams and provide personal, hands-on information and support. They used this opportunity to upload users directly onto the system and mapped them to the organisations hierarchy. Once added to the system, users are automatically sent an email with their username and password and staff are automatically targeted with the training requirements appropriate to their role.
Although Totara Learn can easily be updated with new starters and leavers through integration with an organisations HR System or Active Directory, Allied Healthcare decided they wanted to do this process manually to ensure the information they have on the system is ‘clean data’. This has been a valuable data cleansing exercise as they can now look to use this information to update their central systems.
Totara Learn was customised with a simple look and feel which has given staff confidence to use it.
They were also provided with videos and documentation if they required additional support to get started. Staff are encouraged to personalise the tool with their own avatar so that they feel ownership of the system.
The Results
Allied Healthcare adopted a simple approach to implementation with very clear goal, as a result the implementation took less than three months and has been very successful.
In the last year, over 2600 staff have logged into Totara Learn and completed at least 5 core e-learning courses.
Staff have easy access to learning activities and can see exactly what training they are required to complete and by when. Similarly, managers are able to track staff learning and ensure compliance across their team.
Learning and Development can efficiently and accurately report compliance figures to the Care Quality Commission on the Care Certificate.
Allied Healthcare positioned Totara Learn as a staff development tool not just a way to achieve compliance. They provided staff with easy access to an e-learning catalogue of over 100 bite-sized courses. This catalogue consists of many areas of learning, from healthcare, customer service, management and technology courses.
This has been viewed very positively by staff who are proactively completing additional training courses in their own time. This has been seen as a positive cultural change within the organisation.
Chris Hartley, LMS & E-Learning Manager said, “We’ve always wanted to adopt the 70:20:10 approach for the development of our people, but in the past were held back by a perceived lack of technology and knowledge across our people and departments.
Totara Learn has broken that mould and has enabled us to provide “just in time” compliance training to our people out in the field, reducing the need for them to come into the office for the more traditional classroom training.
We finally have a true “blended approach” to our core training needs and the rest of our business is beginning to follow suit. 1 year in and we have not even scraped the surface of the potential Totara Learn can provide us.”