ACT develops learning experiences that are right on the money for corporate treasurers working towards professional qualifications

The Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) is the chartered body supporting the development of professional standards and best practice among treasurers and people with treasury responsibilities around the world.

The Challenge

Although ACT Learning had been using Totara Learn to manage learning for almost a decade, it was stuck on an outdated version of the platform that had become unwieldy and impossible to upgrade.The ACT approached us looking for a fresh start in all aspects of its learning management system including:

• A fresh installation of the latest version of Totara Lear
• A move away from unsupported third-party plugins and bespoke plugins in favour of better use of Totara’s core features
• An overhaul of learning experiences on the platform
• A focused migration of only the courses, content and user completion records that remained relevant

The Solution

With the ACT and ourselves both confident that Totara remained the best platform for their requirements if it was deployed correctly, we set about making that happen.

The starting point for this process was our smart LMS theme Spark, which offers immediate and significant improvements to UX design and functionality. With Spark as our foundation, we created a customised dashboard that makes it easy for ACT learners to engage with learning. Activity bookmarks mean learners can return to key learning or pick up where they left off.

A news feed keeps learners informed of the latest treasury news, while marketing spots help the ACT to promote conferences, events and new learning content.

When learners working towards qualifications engage with materials, the PDF-laden learning content of the old site is gone. Instead, ACT Learning content is broken down into more digestible chunks and broken up by webinars, podcasts and other multimedia learning content. Learners are treated to vastly improved UX and more visual learning experience.

In addition to Totara Learn, the ACT now uses the integrated learning experience platform Totara Engage. Totara Engage’s forum functionality allows for discussions between learners and tutors.

At any time between 1,300 and 1,400 learners are likely to be studying for ACT qualifications. We’ve created a hosting infrastructure that ensures a reliable and secure platform for all.

The LMS is integrated with the ACT’s customer relationship management system, which cuts manual admin processes and reduces duplication of tasks. New learners are automatically enrolled on the LMS when they are added to the CRM and are instantly removed when they complete their course.

Results

The ACT now has an online learning platform that is far more engaging and interactive — and therefore much easier for its learners to use, encouraging consistent unique logins and increased learners returning to the site (Figure 1) — than the previous site. It is also much easier and less time-consuming for administrators to manage the site.The improved course structure and more intuitive content delivery make it easier for the ACT to see how its learners are progressing. They can now make targeted interventions to support students who are taking longer than expected to complete courses.

In addition to the immediate improvements the new LMS has already delivered, the ACT is preparing to make use of more features so that it will get even more benefits from the platform. The use of Totara Engage’s workspaces feature to increase knowledge-sharing and tutor-student interactions among the planned improvements.Figure 1: Unique and returning logins for ACT’s improved learning platform from February 2022 to February 2023

“I asked for references when choosing a new Totara partner and got great reviews about Synergy Learning. The references proved to be correct because I always felt I was in a safe pair of hands. Totara partner Synergy Learning was fantastic. They came up with some great design ideas but also got involved in the heavy lifting needed to get a new LMS live. It was a successful project, and the result is an engaging and well-designed platform.“

– Natalie Eggins, Director of Learning