Managing Accreditations Online For A UK-based Professional Body

A leading business consultancy in the UK, THE Group, is a well-renowned provider of services in the areas of training and development, systems, HR, quality and strategy for the past 20 years. It also offers a full range of the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) qualifications, from Team Leader Level 2 to Executive Level 7, and from Awards through to full Diplomas.

THE Group was looking to extend its ILM qualification delivery methods from classroom sessions to a more blended approach, including eLearning. It needed a system which could help in coordinating both online and classroom training, and managing the complex administration activities that take place in the background. THE Group was initially intending to use this system to manage its own training centre, but realized that it would also be a commercially valuable asset for other training centres offering qualifications given the system’s ability to reduce the administration load and increase delivery flexibility.

This required a robust LMS system specifically designed to deliver ILM qualification courses which could help replace the complex manual assessment processes involved in managing qualifications. The most crucial element required was the ability to manage the interrelated workflows of different user groups within a training centre, including learners, qualification administrators, assessors, verifiers and external auditors. The system also needed to support multiple commercial tiers, allowing training centres to be self-sufficient in their use of the system and manage the learning of their own clients, whilst ensuring that any of the eLearning developed by THE Group used was appropriately charged for.

The Systems Solution

Upside Learning offered its proprietary, multi award-winning Learning Management System, UpsideLMS, to THE Group to address its unique training needs.

UpsideLMS’ multi-tenant architecture (supporting 3 tiers) was extended by adding one more tier. This provided multi-level user access to the parent company, THE Group. Here, the company could create multiple training centers which were configurable to allow access to their different groups of users. The portal also allowed for branded customization, allowing training centres to brand it inline with their corporate image.

In terms of administration, the system used a complex workflow to pass assessments from learner to assessor to verifier to administrator, all the while managing deadlines and timelines with notifications and reminders. This ensured that the formerly resource intensive task of progressing and chasing assessments became automated.

UpsideLMS components that were activated for THE Group were:

1. Site Manager with complete management access on content and configuration for branding
2. eLearning and Classroom Management
3. SCORM and AICC compliance
4. An account portal for each centre and customers (The Group can create Centres and they can inter create customer portals)
5. Assessment, Testing and Survey Module
6. Curriculum structure (Scheme of Work) for unified delivery of learning material
7. Helpdesk and Client machine diagnostics module
8. MIS reports with some custom built reports
9. Commercial control mechanism to manage e-learning access on a pay as you go basis

The eLearning Solution

Upside Learning helped THE Group convert its existing classroom training materials into interactive and engaging eLearning courses that satisfied the stringent standards of ILM. This included end-to-end solutions right from instructional designing, multimedia production to SCORM compliancy etc. 26 different courses (equating to nearly 22 hours of ILM certified content) were designed and developed. For the first time ever, these courses enabled ILM training centres to deliver qualifications from a more blended perspective, utilizing eLearning that had been specifically developed to awarding body standards, reducing the need for multiple workshops when delivering qualifications. And as the learning and accreditation was carried out entirely online, it enabled the candidates to achieve management qualifications effectively, balancing both their study and their job.

UpsideLMS’ ability to manage blended learning suited THE Group’s base requirement. Upside Learning’s experience of working closely with training organizations and its understanding of their business and training workflows helped customize the multi-level user access and integrated workflow features more efficiently.

Further, Upside Learning’s range of learning solutions added value to THE Group, as it assisted in converting the training organization’s existing ILM course materials into engaging and interactive SCORM compliant eLearning courses.

1. Centralization of training - With a central system to manage the different activities of users like learners, assessors, verifiers and auditors, the overall training function became very coherent and easier to manage, carrying less administrative cost.
2. Greater flexibility - The utilization of eLearning provided training centres with a wider range of delivery options, and consequential price competitiveness.
3. Better focus on core business activities - The range of services provided by Upside Learning allowed THE Group to focus on taking the product to market and working on building the new product stream, rather than having to manage the design of the system and eLearning.

1. Multi-level user access provided to the parent company
2. Management of the complete workflow of the awarding bodies, centers, assessors and verifiers within the system
3. 22 hours of ILM certified content designed and developed

License Subscription + Hosting + Customization + Courseware Development

1. THE Group purchased an annual renewable license to use UpsideLMS for its customers, starting with a multi-year contract without any restrictions on the number of users. This covered all the elements of system deployment like hosting, implementation and installation, providing a hassle free solution for THE Group.
2. The system is hosted by Upside Learning in a UK-based data center. The server is dedicated to Upside Learning and in turn dedicated for THE Group LMS hosting.
3. Upside Learning provides Level 2 support (on email and phone) to designated THE Group administrators.
4. For Support:
   • Support Manager
   • 1 Dedicated Support Executive
   • 1 Support Team Developer (on need basis)

UpsideLMS runs on Apache Tomcat 6.0 and MS SQL Server 2005/2008 on Windows Server 2003 server. The server is physically located in the UK and is dedicated to Upside Learning.

“In today’s fast changing business world where almost all industries are characterized by high velocity environments, it is important that organizations don’t just invest in learning programs, but provide anytime, anywhere access to the learning via the internet. Our partnership with Upside Learning enables us to do just that - deliver ILM qualification courses online to organizations, thereby giving them full control over the place, time and pace of the training, as well as having more cost flexibility.”

Sadie HarriesDirector, THE Group

Download PDF VersionBack To Case Studies