From Hearing Loss to Hearing Care: How MED-EL Academy Educates a Global Community of 10,000+ Hearing Implant Recipients, Professionals, and Employees

MED-EL Medical Electronics is a world-leading innovator in hearing implant systems whose solutions have restored hearing to countless individuals globally. The MED-EL Academy is the learning ecosystem behind that mission – serving audiologists, surgeons, rehabilitation professionals, hearing implant recipients, caregivers, and internal employees across more than 100 countries, in multiple languages, on every type of hearing solution offered by MED-EL.

The Challenge

MED-EL’s mission is to give every person with hearing loss the best possible chance of understanding speech and enjoying the richness of sound. Delivering on that mission requires more than excellent devices – it also depends on high-quality education for all stakeholders along the hearing journey.

By the time the MED-EL Academy project with LearnChamp began, MED-EL’s training landscape had grown organically across multiple disconnected systems, each serving a different audience in isolation. Three strategic problems made a unified solution urgent.

Audience complexity: MED-EL’s learners span four fundamentally different groups – internal employees, hearing healthcare professionals (audiologists, surgeons, clinic staff, rehabilitation experts), hearing implant recipients, and caregivers. Each group has distinct registration pathways, content needs, language preferences, and privacy requirements. A platform designed for corporate L&D would not serve hearing implant recipients. A platform designed for caregivers could not meet the compliance and reporting needs of regulated training for hearing professionals.

Global accessibility: MED-EL operates across Central Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia, Australia and beyond – including markets with low-bandwidth connections and legacy devices, and a requirement for regional content curation. The platform needed to be reliably fast, fully responsive, and linguistically accessible for every user, regardless of geography or device.

Integration and identity: MED-EL’s digital ecosystem is anchored by the myMED-EL portal. The MED-EL Academy solution had to integrate seamlessly with this central identity hub, enabling single-sign-on access without duplicate registrations or fragmented learning histories.

As the platform matured and the user base grew, further challenges emerged: learners struggled to navigate their own progress, locate certificates, and understand their progress at a glance. Administrative overhead from manual certificate management and fragmented reporting had become a bottleneck – a significant problem when hearing professionals or employees require auditable evidence of training progress for regulatory purposes.

The Solution

LearnChamp and MED-EL have built the MED-EL Academy on a shared product roadmap, delivering capabilities in successive phases as the user base, content library, and operational requirements evolved. What began as a platform consolidation has become a continuously expanding ecosystem with each release addressing new audience needs, improving learner experience, and reducing administrative overhead.

Integrated Identity and Global Infrastructure

The MED-EL Academy runs on a flexible, globally scalable server infrastructure. Authentication integrates with the myMED-EL portal and internal user database via Totara’s OAuth2 and web API, so users access content through existing accounts, no separate registration required. This centralised identity model supports both external customers and internal employees from a single governance point.

Audience Segmentation and Personalised Experience

Totara’s multi-audience capabilities enable the platform to serve radically different user groups within a single instance. Content visibility, dashboard layouts, navigation structures, and registration pathways are differentiated by audience: hearing professionals see surgical, clinical, and product training; recipients and caregivers access rehabilitation content supporting their hearing journey; employees follow onboarding, compliance, and product knowledge programs. Each group experiences a tailored platform while MED-EL retains centralised governance and reporting across all.

Multilingual Delivery and Content Personalisation

The platform operates in six languages, with more in progress. Totara’s multi-language capabilities were configured so learners receive content in their preferred language, including regional webinar offerings and localised materials. Learners in Latin America, for example, can filter directly for Spanish-language content, a feature that has measurably improved regional engagement.

Secure Video at Global Scale

Totara’s native video player enables secure, adaptive streaming worldwide. Theme-based customisation of cookie controls ensures GDPR conformity for any embedded third-party video content.

Redesigned Record of Learning

As the content library expanded to hundreds of courses, learner orientation became a growing challenge. LearnChamp redesigned the Record of Learning, replacing the default Totara view with a structured three-state interface: Completed, In Progress, and Not Started. A separate Programs tab consolidates program-level learning independently of course-level status. Archived courses are automatically excluded, and the Not Started tab can be hidden via theme configuration. Learners retain filter options to quickly navigate course types. What was a difficult-to-navigate list is now an intuitive learning record.

Automated Certificate Management

MED-EL courses issue multiple certificates unlocked section by section as learners progress. LearnChamp developed a custom Certificate Block and Report plugin to address growing administrative demand, particularly where auditable evidence is required. Certificates are generated automatically when eligibility conditions are met, without manual intervention. All eligible certificates appear in a dedicated report page with a downloadable per-user overview; obsolete and archived certificates are hidden. Totara’s permission management makes the report available to learners directly, while a centralised view gives administrative staff easy access for auditing or supporting professionals with CPD credentials. A manual process is now an automated, auditable workflow.

Continuous Operation Through Low Core-Code Design

Throughout all development phases, LearnChamp maintained a deliberate low core-code approach, extending Totara through plugins and configuration rather than core modifications. This allows MED-EL to stay current with Totara’s release cycle, adopting new features and security updates without disruptive re-implementation work.”

The Result

The MED-EL Academy has evolved from a fragmented, multi-system patchwork into a single globally operated learning platform trusted by hearing implant recipients, professionals, and employees alike.

Platform scale: The MED-EL Academy currently serves more than 10,000 active users across 100+ countries, with content available in six languages and more in development.

• The new integrated account creation process by one-click access from the myMED-EL Portal doubled the number of new external accounts within 12 months, when comparing with the same timeframe a year before implementation.

Improved learner navigation: Following the Record of Learning redesign, learners can locate their progress and pending requirements in seconds rather than scrolling through undifferentiated lists. User feedback specifically highlights the improved structure of the learning history and the ease of reviewing their completion status.

Certificate management at scale: The custom certificate plugin has automated what was previously a manual, per-user process. Certificates are now generated automatically at scale, reducing administrative effort and providing learners with immediate, self-service access to their credentials. Key users confirm the overall usefulness of this new feature.

• “I find this new feature very convenient and time-saving, as users no longer need to go into each course to search for their certificates, but they can easily find them all in one place. That’s amazing!”

CPD and compliance for regulated markets: Hearing professionals can now document CPD-relevant learning directly through the MED-EL Academy, supporting audit and accreditation requirements in regulated markets – a capability that directly supports MED-EL’s goal to foster continuous professional development of hearing professionals.

• 120 CPD certificates were generated within four months after implementing the new customized CPD certificate for a comprehensive surgical training program; many more certificate downloads are expected within the year.

Regional engagement uplift: The addition of language-filtered content has measurably improved learner engagement in Latin America, demonstrating the real-world impact of localisation done right.

• The total user base of learners from the LATAM region is continuously growing and for the top 10 courses – measured by number of enrolled learners – we can see ~90% growth in enrollment and completions by users from the LATAM region, comparing the years 2024 and 2025.

Continuous, uninterrupted operation: The platform’s low core-code footprint has enabled uninterrupted upgrades across multiple Totara versions – MED-EL’s global user base always operates on a current, secure, fully supported platform.

The MED-EL Academy is not a finished project – it is a living ecosystem. LearnChamp and MED-EL continue to evolve it together, driven by a shared conviction that excellent hearing solutions education deserves an excellent learning platform.

Quotes collected from MED-EL employees during the 2025 anonymized feedback survey confirm that the MED-EL Academy is an intuitive and user-friendly tool that provides access to a multitude of training opportunities:

“Performed necessary training in a comfortable way and at the time it was appropriate for me.”

“The Academy is a very useful and also an accessible tool for learning.”

 “The design is intuitive and the courses are made interestingly.”

A colleague from our MED-EL Latino America office shared her feedback, highlighting how the MED-EL Academy supports both, professional growth and working with the team.

“MED-EL Academy brinda una excelente oportunidad de aprendizaje continuo, con contenidos claros, relevantes y alineados con los desafíos reales de nuestra práctica diaria. Ha sido un gran apoyo tanto para mi crecimiento profesional como para el trabajo con nuestro equipo.” Maria Laura Carral, Clinical Support South LA Manager

MED-EL colleagues from Latin America emphasize the MED-EL Academy’s role in supporting continuous learning, professional development, and effective collaboration across teams. They highlight its value as a key resource for both new and experienced professionals, enabling them to stay up to date with products and industry developments. From an HR perspective in Germany, the Academy adds further value through structured, transparent onboarding processes that enhance efficiency and learner engagement.

“MED-EL Academy brinda una excelente oportunidad de aprendizaje continuo, con contenidos claros, relevantes y alineados con los desafíos reales de nuestra práctica diaria. Ha sido un gran apoyo tanto para mi crecimiento profesional como para el trabajo con nuestro equipo.” Maria Laura Carral, Clinical Support South LA Manager

“About the MED-EL Academy, I consider it to be a highly valuable resource for new audiologists who are starting in the field of MED-EL hearing solutions. It becomes a key tool in the training process for professionals working with our sales partners, especially in new and emerging markets for MED-EL. For us as internal users, it also provides webinar sessions and continuous updates on topics related to competitors, products, and new developments, which allows us to stay up to date with the brand.” Juliet Lozano, Clinical Support North and Middle LA

„Aus HR-Sicht hat die Akademie unser Onboarding deutlich effizienter und transparenter gemacht. Während der Prozess früher manuell, aufwendig und wenig nachvollziehbar war, profitieren wir heute von automatisierten Lernpfaden mit direktem Zugriff für alle neuen Mitarbeitenden. Das integrierte Tracking ermöglicht uns jederzeit volle Transparenz über Lernfortschritte und gezielte Steuerung. Das individuelle Zertifikat schafft zusätzliche Motivation und macht Erfolge sichtbar. Insgesamt wird HR entlastet, während neue Mitarbeitende einen strukturierten und konsistenten Einstieg erleben.“ Tanja Hohloch, Human Resource Specialist