COVID-19: Iskin have smoothed the transition to e-learning for hundreds of organisations
E-learning for Education and Training Organisations
Here we look why having the right e-learning platform (such as a Learning Management System or LMS) is crucial to ensure education and training organisations of all types meet the needs of their learners and how Hubken can help.
The education and training sector is a highly complex one. Beyond public sector schools, colleges and universities there are also thousands of smaller private and charity sector organisations such as trade associations, membership institutions and many more.
Much of this learning is delivered completely online using e-learning platforms or in the form of blended learning.
"From the start Hubken has been very informative and professional, with a fast response rate. Nothing has been too much, despite a lot of questions being asked"
Kathryn Fladgate at the NCTJ
With so many different training needs to address and a universal lack of time amongst charity staff, as well as the need to ensure organisations are meeting compliance regulations, those in charge of L&D certainly have their hands full.
E-learning can seamlessly improve or even replace the existing training methods for most charities and quickly become a key part of their training processes.
"Good support..., helpful finance staff re upgrades, renewals and invoicing, useful training on new features, regular newsletters/ emails for keeping up to date..."
Challenges for education and training organisations:
Higher expectations
Students and service users rightly expect the highest standards of training delivery from a specialist education or training provider. In the context of e-learning that means an LMS platform that is easy to access and navigate, with a professional and branded interface and the facility to deliver flexible, engaging content which also facilitates interactivity.
The issue of complexity
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Managing the training needs of many hundreds, perhaps thousands of learners can be a big admin challenge. In many cases this may involve a wide range of subjects and forms of learning being delivered to different audiences at appropriate times – potentially a recipe for headaches, which is why automation is so important.
Lack of in-house IT
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Most UK providers in the sector are relatively small organisations who may not have in-house technical teams to look after the IT and technical support side of delivering training online. This ranges from site hosting to fixing bugs, applying platform upgrades and so on. With users expecting reliable access to learning this can be a concern.
Tight budgets
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The education and training sector is a highly competitive one and for many that means having to run a tight ship financially. Often, many resources are focused on new content development and staffing costs meaning there is little left over to focus on the systems and processes needed to administer training itself, despite this being important.
Need for video conferencing
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The explosion in web conferencing in the light of the Covid pandemic has only increased expectations that a slick, integrated web conferencing facility is integral to any e-learning platform. Many organisations need to demonstrate that they are on the ball, especially if face-to-face learning is not part of their offering but online tutoring is.
How e-learning solves education and training challenges:
Hubken offer two powerful LMS solutions based on Totara Learn and Moodle technology. The right option for you depends on your training needs but both platforms solve challenges in many ways including:
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Learning Management Systems (LMSs)
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You can make use of an LMS to not only administrate and distribute formal training online, but also to report on results and, if necessary, prove that compliance regulations are being met. A charity LMS could bridge many of the skill gaps facing charities and their staff. Two leading LMSs are Totara Learn and Moodle.
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Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs)
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When it comes to informal and social learning, LXPs are king. They offer the concept of ‘learning on the job’ and collaborating to help others learn in social settings. LXPs like Totara Engage allow employees to create their own content ‘playlists’ and share useful knowledge and training with others.
LMS or LXP?
The LMS is the natural choice for most organisations in this sector because it is used to distribute more formal training and measure learning outcomes whereas the LXP is about informal, social learning. But many LXPs can be integrated with other platforms that are used on a day to day basis.
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What different types of e-learning platform are there?
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E-learning can seamlessly replace existing methods and quickly become a key part of their training. Charities can deliver online training using either a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Learning Experience Platform (LXP).
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Here’s a mini-primer to each:
Read an education and training success story
Providing training to thousands of journalists requires a lot of admin, and it needed streamlining. Partnering with Hubken, the NCTJ created the Journalism Skills Academy – a Moodle LMS site that brings together all their training offerings, from distance learning materials to entertaining quizzes, all under the single umbrella of an e-learning platform.
We also work with other education and training organisations including: Montessori Centre International, University of Cambridge, Royal College of Surgeons and Solent University Southampton.
Why Iskin Group?
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Iskin Group is one of the UK’s leading e-learning service providers.
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Since 2004 we’ve helped countless organisations to achieve their training objectives, including many charities across the UK. Get in touch today to see how we could help transform training for you.