Real Life Options – Securing control over their LMS future
Empowering people with learning disabilities and autism
Real Life Options was first established in 1992 to support and empower people with learning disabilities and autism to have more choice and greater control over their lives. Over the last three decades, they have grown to become a national provider of social support and care.
THE CHALLENGE
Securing control over their LMS content, reporting, data and creative direction
Real Life Options had previously provided online training via an eternally controlled supplier that at first did fulfil their basic needs. However, it became apparent that there were a number of system and communication issues which were proving frustrating. The user dashboards proved inflexible and tended to focus on outstanding course completions rather than fostering engagement or any sense of community. The reports available were not as comprehensive as they would have liked, received only weekly and often included errors which raised concerns of their accuracy. Errors thought to be sometimes down to the systems not talking to each other and possibly due to missed communications. The course content itself was not in a standard format, thus restricting its use within other alternative LMS solutions. Lastly any back-office changes to the site or course content needed to be actioned by the suppliers’ own team therefore creating an overall sense of RLO lacking control over key factors such as reporting, data and content.
In search of an alternative LMS their HR team attended the 2023 Learning Tech exhibition in London. During this Cortexa stood out as a company that were happy to discuss their needs in more detail with the promise of fashioning an LMS that worked specifically to their individual needs. Soon after Cortexa visited the Real Life Options team and provided a tailored demonstration of the Totara LMS as an overall proof of concept. Further project discussions and a detailed quotation followed before Cortexa were then selected to begin implementation. A six month notice period was serviced on RLO’s existing supplier during which a joint team worked closely together to ensure a smooth transition.
THE SOLUTION
Real Life Options listened to learner feedback about the courses available and the user experience encountered when using the previous platform. They also listened to feedback about compliance and associated training records. In response to this feedback, they worked with Cortexa to develop ‘Real Learning’ – a Totara platform that can be managed in-house. Real Learning has already become part of the Real Life Options group – “we have everyone accessing the same platform and being supported by the same team.
At the core of this solution was the need to host and accurately track numerous compliance courses. Structurally the Totara LMS provided this with ease, but the RLO team also recognised that its simplicity of use and their in-house control would allow them to extend its application to serve as a communication Hub. The Totara platform provides community workspaces with resource sharing to support RLO’s communication strategies. Manager groups, and the risk and compliance team are utilising this in creative ways along with one of the remote teams who share access to the minutes of their team meetings.
Given the restrictions of the previous system the RLO team were also keen to create a more friendly and informative landing page. This was achieved through working closely with their Marketing and Communications team who helped to design a more welcoming approach that focused more on establishing a rapport with learners. They also leveraged Totara’s flexible and configurable settings to provide alternative dashboards so that associate users had their own branding reflected.
Finally, the Real Life Options team reauthored their existing courses, enhancing their content and publishing them as SCORM files. This allowed them to exercise the skills that had previously been stifled, and to generate courses that can remain product agnostic moving forwards.
Following a successful launch RLO have received some incredibly positive feedback about the appearance, ease of navigation and content available on the platform. Ultimately they wanted to have a place that people chose to go, where they could discover things and be curious, rather than simply somewhere they had to access, this goal has now been achieved.
THE RESULT
Statistics – July to November 2024
- Number of registered users 1,900
- 95% of all employees have logged into “Real Learning” since its July launch
- 1,040 users logged in November 2024
- 13,300 courses have been completed within the first five months
“Having carefully considered the user feedback from our original LMS we have worked closely with Cortexa to build the all new “Real Learning” platform. We received incredible support from Cortexa throughout the development and building process. Real Learning has since been enthusiastically adopted within the Real Life Option group, receiving positive acclaim particularly concerning its appearance, ease of navigation and content. Ultimately we wanted to create a place that people wanted to go, where they can discover things and be curious, rather than simply somewhere they had to access, a result we have undoubtedly achieved.”
BMF
Viessmann
Scottish Prison Service