2111 Consulting Ltd.

Case Study Bespoke Moodle eLearning Centre

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2111 Consulting provides bespoke software development, project management, and business consultancy services for a range of private and public organisations. We were chosen to design, develop, and deliver an eLearning portal for a medium sized charity in order to streamline and enhance their training capability and services. Their training department was very productive, but not experienced in eLearning and they would have required significant additional resource to keep up with demand. Moodle eLearning was chosen because it is an open source, low cost, and extremely flexible platform. However, existing Moodle service providers tended to lag the most recent Moodle developments, and their charges for a vanilla Moodle environment cost more than the client could budget. 2111 Consultancy scoped their requirements, designed custom themes and course formats that better fit the client culture and training content, and delivered and documented the new eLearning platform and helped the client create and administer their first eLearning courses. The client now intends to supply their knowledge and expertise as a series of training services for smaller organisations in the same field, and to use the eLearning environment as a tool to enable cultural change to a more dynamic and innovative organisation.

CUSTOMER BRIEF
CLIENT OVERVIEW
The client provides drug and mental health related services to a large geographic area within the United Kingdom. With just under 1,000 staff, the organisation is: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com

Fighting a constant battle to protect and grow their current business. Struggling to maintain a high level of customer service and low turnover of staff. Forced to take on board the staff of another organisation already providing their services whenever they win new business. Finding that due to the nature of services provided their staff, and the members of the public they provide services to, are both constantly at risk.

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS
When the client came to 2111 Consultancy they already had a small training team who worked valiantly to deliver face to face training courses, but wanted to: Deliver eLearning online Repurpose existing content for eLearning without the expense of new tools and weeks of conversion Induce new staff when they arrived, not once every 3 months Reduce costs and make existing staff more productive Sell their knowledge and training to other organisations

The client admitted there were numerous additional benefits that an eLearning portal could provide to their culture, but the organisation was undergoing restructuring and therefore a staged approach was scoped and agreed.

SCOPE AGREED
The clients budget was limited, so to obtain the maximum benefit the core to the eLearning was determined to required be a robust, high quality open source system which was easily modified to meet the clients need. Moodle was the chosen platform, both because it provided an extensible and modular open source eLearning system and because the most recent version provided additional flexibility in course formats and customised themes that previous versions had lacked. To keep costs low for the client, 2111 Consultancy agreed to provide all development and customisation, and to create tools that allowed the client easy conversion of their existing PowerPoint, Word, and Video training materials to Moodle format. The existing training team was introduced to Moodle via workshops and enabled to create courses and manage the eLearning environment through a 150 page document that provided screenshots and examples of their own Moodle eLearning system. The final scope agreed was: Install the lastest version of Moodle Create a custom Theme incorporating the clients branding and style Enhance the theme with a student and context aware menu system Eliminate the scroll of death via a new course format that takes the student from activity to activity ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com

Build tools to export from Microsoft format documents directly into Moodle Hand hold the training team to create the first eLearning course using Moodles own activities (no reliance on expensive 3rd party tools) Customise Moodle reporting for both trainers and students, so what I have to do next is as obvious as where I am now. Ensure existing IT staff can administer the Moodle environment, including backups, restoration, and disaster recovery. Provide extensive documentation so that training staff and senior managers can understand and take advantage of their new eLearning platform. Facilitate a workshop to prepare senior managers to accept the cultural change and benefits of an eLearning and organisational collaboration environment as a further essential step.

THE ELEARNING PROJECT

PROJECT STAGES
Once scoped, the project was quickly contracted and the agreed project was delivered on time and exceedingly cost competitive manner as below:

Stage
Confirm and scope requirement Agree Project Plan Establish environment Stage 1 Development Stage 1 Training and Documentation

Deliverables
Project Scope Document and Initial Project Plan Project scope and initial plan socialised with clients stakeholders, and details firmed up into an agreed project with a light weight governance and change control policy to suit the client Development, staging, UAT, and live servers were established in order to provide an agile but robust development path from clients requirements to live training environment Key Moodle additions were developed including custom theme and new course format. Macro based Microsoft Office tools created to export client content ready for Moodle course production Training department were provided with our Moodle training including a Moodle framework course, and the clients trainers were then taught step by step how to migrate content and create quizzes and to structure a Moodle course. Once the framework was agreed, documentation was provided to support the team. The Training Department provided the initial Stage 1 user acceptance testing, followed by the senior client sponsor being given an overview. Custom Moodle reporting was developed, and both the theme and course formats were further enhanced based upon Stage 1 UAT feedback. Student completion blocks and course administrator

Stage 1 UAT Stage 2 Development

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com

Stage 2 UAT

Stage 2 Documentation Stage 2 Handover

Project Review

blocks created to enhance and improve eLearning experience and productivity. Key managers and volunteer staff performed user acceptance testing, ensuring that the training courses were easy to use, the tests checked for appropriate levels of knowledge, and the training team could administer the courses. Moodle course creation documentation updated, and course administration and Moodle server administration documentation were created for the training team. Customized documentation provided to the IT team, who then performed a complete LAMP + Moodle + Additions + eLearning Courses installation on a new server. Backup and recovery processes were documented, and IT took over day to day management of the server whilst the training team took over day to day administration of Moodle. The client sponsor and key directors approved project acceptance and are now undertaking a strategic review of their culture and the opportunities provided to management and staff alike by the collaborative Moodle platform for empowering organisational change.

PROJECT BENEFITS
Although the client has yet to fully absorb all of the capabilities of their new eLearning platform, they have already experienced the following benefits: 1. The training team are significantly more productive, providing more training to the client without having to increase staff as originally planned 2. New staff are inducted immediately into the organisation, rather than waiting up to 3 months for the next induction course. 3. Staff are less at risk, and can provide better services to their own client base, all of whom have issues with drugs, alcohol, and/or mental health. 4. Staff can undertake training as their time and priorities permit, and there is an increased belief by staff that the client cares about them, and they are part of a progressive organisation. 5. Subject matter experts can work with the training team to ensure that all relevant staff observe best practise, and the client can monitor and encourage the continuing professional development of their staff 6. The training team can now expand their training services to other similar organisations

CONTACT US
To find out more about how we can help your organisation, please contact 2111 Consultancy using the phone number below or via email or our website.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com

SCREEN EXAMPLES

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2111 Consulting Ltd. +44 208 123 0161 www.2111co.com