Education

Transforming training through a digital-first approach

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Reduce sitting time for guide dog learning by 30%

background

Guide Dogs was created to provide life-changing services to the 360,000 people registered as blind or partially sighted, and to the two million people in the UK living with sight loss.

challenge

Historically, Guide Dogs’ professional staff (Guide Dog Trainers and Guide Dog Mobility Specialists) have been trained in traditional, one-on-one and interpersonal methods. As demand for its services increased, the charity realized that this method of training was no longer fit for purpose and looked to adopt a more modern approach.

To meet this demand, Guide Dogs aims to double its technical workforce as part of its five-year strategic growth plan – a challenging goal while recovering from the impact of the pandemic.

Solution

Guide Dog Academy

In 2022, the Guide Dogs Academy was created to revolutionize the way Guide Dogs recruits, trains, retains and supports the next generation of technical staff. By leveraging a ratio of three learners to one Technical Learning Specialist (TLS) in a local, personalized learning environment, Guide Dogs can now reach more people where they live. However, with multiple teams trained across the UK, the charity also needed to create a standardized approach to training that was consistent, engaging and supportive of a culture of continuous professional development.

Blended learning approach

Introducing was a crucial element of this new approach for Guide Dogs Learning platform To adopt a blended, digital-first learning approach with the launch of the online learning platform Guide Dog Learning (GDL).

The vision was to leverage core capabilities across the Learning Aggregator platform to sustainably increase the volume of employees being trained, reduce overall training time, and increase the speed of efficiency within the role specifically. Before launching the Learning Pool Platform, Guide Dogs set the following goals:

  • Increase the volume of employees being trained.
  • Reduced overall training time by 10% compared to the previous training path, achieved through personalized training, blended learning and improvements in learning content and delivery.
  • Increase the speed of efficiency within the role.
  • Implementing a new proficiency tracking system that allows learners to track evidence and progress in real time by logging out as they move through levels.
  • Track learners’ progress and develop their competencies and use that data for improvement and development.
  • Enabling 75% of learners to access content via mobile devices.
  • Encourage learners to be active and engaged with a goal that 80% of all learners visit the platform weekly.

Comprehensive approach

The Learning Pool Platform for Guide Dogs provides everything you need to design and deliver personalized and engaging learning experiences through a social and intelligent user interface.

Learning Aggregator automation has enhanced the learner experience by delivering emails to ensure learners have earned certain badges throughout their learning journey. Guide Dog also uses the automation tool to:

  • Hand out campaign content cards, confirm completion, award badge and praise with learners and their manager.
  • Recognize when learners complete a certain amount of content that is not intended to recognize their efforts.
  • Recognize when a learner is progressing to the next level in their competencies.
  • Confirm the issuance of the certificate and digital badge when the learner graduates from Guide Dogs Academy – and also receive via email information on how to share their badge on LinkedIn and add it to their email signature.

The data available to Guide Dogs through the Learning Pool Learning Record Store (LRS) has been groundbreaking. By reviewing and understanding the unique differences in learners’ pace and the way they consume content, it enabled Guide Dogs to adapt from a set weekly path to a segmented approach with guiding time frames.

By taking advantage of both Learning pool analytics and Google Analytics Together, Guide Dogs gains deep insight into learner behaviors beyond the verbatim completion data previously considered. This is crucial to enabling them to make strategic developments, which move the dial towards real cultural change and initiatives with meaningful outcomes.

Answer

We’ve worked closely with the amazing team at Learning Pool to understand and implement all the latest improvements and updates. We also took the time to fully explore and understand all the features available at our fingertips and share our thoughts on potential improvements and modifications regarding the development process for Learning Pool. We continue to use the Learning Pool Platform to creatively deliver an optimal learning environment for both instructor and learner and strategically align our approach to achieving our goals.

– Craig Mills, Digital Learning Specialist

Results

Outstanding effect

Guide Dogs’ approach to measuring success has been data-driven while remaining holistic in its approach, believing that user feedback is vital for continuous improvement. Overall, the overriding aim was not only to continually increase the volume of learners, but also to produce technical staff who were able to excel in their roles and who understood the value of continuing professional development and an embedded learning culture and would support this as the norm in the school. Guide dogs.

Now, one year after launching Guide Dogs Learning, Guide Dogs has achieved a lot and achieved some exceptional successes – both as an overall initiative and in engaging and developing individual learners:

  • Since its launch, GDL has achieved the highest score of 96.16% of learners accessing the platform across both desktop and mobile devices.
  • A 2023 survey that asked learners about their overall experience with the GDL received an average of 9 out of 10.
  • GDL is seeing an increase in activity. In March 2023, 89% of learners visited at least once a week, and 77% of learners visited several times a week.
  • Guide Dogs calculated an overall 30% reduction in training time compared to their previous training path.
  • Guide Dogs has set an attrition rate of 3% this year versus its target of 10%.

Engagement scores for Guide Dogs Academy learners received an eNPS score of +77. The previous learning styles received a score of -31.

Continuously engage leaders

Despite joining an organization that has traditionally eschewed technology, our learners have embraced a digital-first blended learning approach and now use the GDL as an everyday tool to support their learning journey, adding theory to their practice, sharing knowledge via feedback and learning from different groups across the UK.

– Craig Mills, Digital Learning Specialist

Guide Dogs learners and trainers have embraced the Learning Pool Platform through online and face-to-face training sessions at different access levels. Guide Dogs has also created a range of educational materials – podcasts, videos and e-learning resources – which have helped upskill users on how to get the most out of the platform.

Learning Pool platform from Learning Pool

Our LXP delivers the best learning outcomes for modern workplaces by using AI to enhance all aspects of the learning experience, resulting in improved performance.

Originally published in Learningpool.com.

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