HILLBROOK ANGLICAN COLLEGE (CASE STUDY)
Custom Online Course Platform Development
Introduction:
Dedicated staff of the Hillbrook Anglican School have developed a program for their students in years 7 to 10 to learn and improve their critical thinking based on philosophy, called Philosophical Inquiry. They developed specific, detailed curricula including material for their teachers, and also run courses for teachers of schools from all over the country who would like to teach this subject. They were now looking for a way to make their curriculum and materials easily accessible online for teachers at other schools who took part in their training. Materials would include self-developed cards, questions, and more, but also links to newspaper articles, videos, and a whole collection of books that teachers should use to prepare that we needed to link to as well.
VMP eLearning and the team of Hillbrook started the collaborative process by meeting several times to establish how the material should be best presented and structured, and what platform should be used for simple, intuitive usage for the client and fulfilling the requirements of Hillbrook. We had to develop a solution that was not only secure and behind a paywall, but also allowed for easy management of different schools and users, and different levels of access. In addition, we had to develop the branding for the Philosophy Matters program.
VMP eLearning’s Director of Education and Learning Strategies, Dr. Ruth Schwarzenböck, lead the charge throughout the entire project which was backed by our team of Instructional Designers and Graphic Artists to ensure the best product possible was delivered to our client.
Online learning works in many different contexts!
Methods:
Establishing a clear pathway forward for the project was the first step in delivering the course. Since not everyone in the lead team of Hillbrook had experience with the functionalities and structures of online platforms, it was important to provide a tangible structure that they could appreciate and approve before we started with the development.
VMP eLearning worked with our team of designers to develop logos, colour schemes and LearnDash layouts that would integrate with WordPress. Further, we established a way to change the regular structure of topics, course, lessons and quiz to meet Hillbrook’s requirements of presenting lessons organised by Year, Terms, Units, Themes, Self-reflections and Feedback for the Hillbrook team. Each lesson should be able to be accessed via different search paths, depending on what each teacher was after (I.e. searching for lessons that fit in Year 8, Term 2, or a lesson that falls within a specific unit or theme).
Dr. Schwarzenböck’s expertise was especially useful in breaking down the complexity of an abstract topic for most of the team into tangible steps, to provide confidence within the team throughout the project, and to ensure that the end result was as user-friendly as possible for both future users who might not have experience with online platforms, and for the Hillbrook team who will administrate the platform in-house.
The project was wrapped up with a training session for the Hillbrook team about how to work with and administrate the platform in the future.
VMP eLearning’s six steps of learning development
End Result:
Hillbrook was exceptionally happy with their end product, which they began implementing at the end of 2020. The experience of using an LMS in a different way that focuses more on material presentation and accessibility but also needs the reporting options, self-reflection and feedback opportunities appealed to our flexible thinking and diversified our offerings to future clients. We are extremely happy to have aided Hillbrook in the delivery of their Philosophy Matters program and hope that it provokes great discussions in the school environment and allows students to understand basics in Philosophy and enhance critical thinking.
Ready to Create Your Own E-Learning Training Course?
If you’re looking into a digital solution for you as an education provider or training manager, well then get in touch with the VMP eLearning team to discuss a tailored solution for your learners’ needs today!
Immerse yourself in our diverse collection of e-learning work – Check out our Projects page!
Stay connected and inspired by following us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube