Department of Internal Affairs collaborates with Catalyst to advance their LMS

Catalyst worked with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) as one of the first to adopt Totara Learn in 2011. As long term partners, they have seen DIA’s workforce and skill set grow, and so too has Totara Learn’s capabilities, so Catalyst was thrilled to upgrade their Totara Learn site – iLearn.

The Challenge

DIA’s vast range of functions and large workforce make it critical to have a comprehensive and efficient compliance and training scheme; however, achieving, maintaining and measuring this can be challenging and time consuming.Learners were also finding it difficult to navigate their way through learning materials and locate the appropriate courses, which would heavily demotivate staff and delay completion.Alongside this, the platform looked and felt outdated, making it easy to become disengaged.

The Solutio

Totara Partner Catalyst upgraded DIA’s iLearn site from Totara 2.6 to 12, transforming the experience of learners, while streamlining and improving managers’ experiences.In the process of this upgrade, Catalyst’s Totara experts provided DIA’s Learning and Development team with training for their new platform, which Ben Shields – DIA’s LMS Manager – found “massively beneficial in increasing our knowledge and preparing us for the go-live process.”This upgrade allows for a responsive site, which means learners and managers can access iLearn from their mobiles and tablets. This, in conjunction with easier navigation of the course catalog content, have all increased accessibility and engagement. 

The Results

Now managers are presented with a clean, modern dashboard that has all the important information at their fingertips. Compliance details of their team are displayed clearly so that managers can see what courses need to be completed by which date. Dashboards also display upcoming staff training in the next 30 days, which helps managers to plan around annual leave and staff movement, maximizing the functionality of their team.Overall, managers have a more precise, easy way to monitor and support their teams and maximize their performance.The upgrade has modernized the look and feel of iLearn, making it a more enjoyable experience for users. For example, the course catalog is now displayed through tiles, improving searchability and overall user experience.

“Our users really appreciate how easy it is to find the learning material they are after, and the managers are extremely happy with their new dashboard.” – Ben Shields, DIA’s Learning Management System Manager