Lifetime Group
Using Totara for better reporting and personal development plans
Continuing professional development with Totara
Lifetime is a financial advisory service based in central Christchurch. Its former learning management system (LMS) was not up to the task of effectively managing personal development plans (PDPs) and continuing professional development for team members. So, we helped upgrade to a shiny new Totara LMS, complete with courses, user profiles, and new reporting and administrative tools.
Collaborative working
Lifetime already had plenty of content delivered through an LMS, but it wasn’t up to scratch. So, after a deep scoping requirements exercise and after we demonstrated the beauty and flexibility of Totara LMS, Lifetime were keen to move. This was a great opportunity for involving Lifetime’s team in the process and training them ‘on the job’. We worked together, using our expertise in setting up the infrastructure for the courses in Totara, and using Lifetime’s own team to transfer the content across to the new system. A true collaborative phase!
We want our clients to be as self-sufficient as possible for the day-to-day LMS administration, so we used every opportunity to get the LMS administrators into and using the system. This way, we embed them in the process as much as possible for buy-in and training purposes. The added bonus here is that it kept the cost down for the client. We believe in teaching, rather than doing everything ourselves!
Planning for personal development
One of the most important requirements for Lifetime’s new LMS was that it included a way to manage users’ personal development plans (PDPs). We met this need by creating dashboards and a workflow to support the PDP process. The system records users’ continuing professional development hours. And allows managers and users oversight over PDP progress.
We also created resources to support users and administrator who now work with the LMS and PDPs. It’s a one-stop PDP shop, replacing paper systems with paper-free digital workflows.
Custom dashboards for relevant users
A technical highlight of this project is how we developed custom dashboards for different user types. Not everyone needs to see PDPs, and not everybody has manager or administrator status for oversight. The manager dashboard includes a workflow for approving professional development hours uploaded by users.
New ways of dealing with PDPs
Working with Lifetime on this project gave us a deeper understanding of how Totara handles PDPs and continuing professional development in the workforce. It’s an important aspect of many of our professional clients’ online learning requirements. While each client is unique and has different ways of tracking PDPs, we are now armed with a broader spectrum of tools and new ways of using those tools to offer something that works for each different challenge. Hurrah for an LMS that we can customise without trauma!
New ways of dealing with PDPs
Working with Lifetime on this project gave us a deeper understanding of how Totara handles PDPs and continuing professional development in the workforce. It’s an important aspect of many of our professional clients’ online learning requirements. While each client is unique and has different ways of tracking PDPs, we are now armed with a broader spectrum of tools and new ways of using those tools to offer something that works for each different challenge. Hurrah for an LMS that we can customise without trauma!
We’re committed to ‘doing what is right’ for our people, doing whatever is needed, and doing it with heart.
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