IBC Academy and Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, part of Informa PLC, deliver public and client specific education and training solutions to the maritime, logistics, energy and security sectors. They have been running public distance learning courses for over 17 years, originally mailing printed modules around the world before changing to PDF documents hosted on a password protected website. However they found that there were inherent limitations, and knew that to continue to expand and develop their courses they needed something much more cost effective and flexible that would grow as they did.
The Challenge
As a commercial providers, IBC Academy and Lloyd’s Maritime Academy required Moodle to be outward-facing, but also be easy to use for students, teachers and administrators. This meant that a great deal of testing was undertaken. Role permissions were tested to ensure that the correct content was available to the correct role levels – students were only able to see courses that they were enrolled onto, rather than them being able to self-enrol onto any course. Reflecting on the challenges at the time, Louise Hawkins, Training Delivery Manager at IBC Academy and Lloyd’s Maritime Academy said
“We’re glad that we didn’t rush implementing the system. We spent time testing and trying different ways of doing things – often one decision affects another outcome, so it was good to have time to get to know Moodle and learn how it works”.
The Solution
Over the last 3 years, MoodlePartner, HowToMoodle, have provided IBC Academy and Lloyd’s Maritime Academy with their hosting requirements for their Moodle site with a branded theme. The company has also taken advantage of HowToMoodle’s administrator support service, enabling them to get in touch whenever they have a query or need assistance with their site. Over the years a mixture of changing learner requirements, along with growing team confidence, meant that the company advanced their Moodle site to take advantage of additional functionality that is available within the platform. This has included embedding videos, webinars, assignment submission and adding required plugins. Adopting a managed approach to using new functionality enabled them to test each Moodle option, and effectively manage change whilst maintaining a smooth student experience.
