o you remember the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? It already feels like so long ago and no one blinks when you say “work from home” anymore. Yet back in March 2020, new restrictions were arriving every few days and we all thought it would be over in a month. Thinking back, the speed at which organizations were forced to reshape their entire workforces was stunning.

The shift presented unique challenges to Human Resource and Learning Development departments in particular. Suddenly, face-to-face training and onboarding was out of the question, not to mention the need to develop and train workforces on how to manage working from home.

During this time of unexpected change, one organization used HowToo to rapidly pivot their learning program, saving an incredible amount of time and money in the process. Read the story below.

A small team with a big challenge

Campbelltown City Council is a local government branch in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, serving a population of around 171,000 residents. As an elected government body, it serves the residents through a wide range of programs and facilities, employing over 900 people in a wide range of roles.

As a government body, Campbelltown City Council adheres to strict regulations that require employees to undergo Workplace Health and Safety training every three years. For the small People & Performance team, this has previously required delivering 1.5 hours of face-to-face training to an average of 300 individuals per topic, equating to over 450 employee hours, or 60 full days per year. With the sudden onset of the COVID-19 crisis and unexpected loss of face-to-face capacity, the team needed to move their learning content online as quickly as possible, on a small budget, without losing the quality of their face-to-face course.

The team chose a module titled Sun, Heat and Sharps, as their first major piece of content to transition with HowToo. This module contained critical learning content for outdoor workers. The key objectives were for employees to be able to identify dangerous situations related to exposure to the sun, heat and sharp objects, and to follow correct practices for minimising possible harm during encounters.

A solution that made the transition to digital learning easy

The development of the learning object was delegated to Kirsty Gaal, the single Learning and Development Business Partner on the council’s People & Performance team, who had little experience with developing e-learning content. Over the course of just a few weeks, Kirsty was able to master HowToo and create a highly-quality, engaging learning object, successfully preventing disruption to the program and easily satisfying the urgent timeframe. 

“What appealed was that HowToo is a rapid development authoring tool which is aimed at people with little or no eLearning design experience… that’s me! It’s simple yet allows you the opportunity to get creative. The learning blocks are all there for you to choose from without having to design them. It’s easy to amend and embellish as needed. It’s so simple and yet the finished product looks professional and polished.”

HowToo’s branding tools allowed Kirsty to quickly and effectively apply the council’s branding across the entire learning module. HowToo’s settings tool allows users to upload a logo and set brand colours that are immediately and consistently applied across all blocks, reducing time spent on branding. 

The in-built expert digital learning design not only supported a quick turnaround, but also contributed to the upskilling of the team, as Kirsty shared.

“As the tool builds in its sophistication and capability, so my skills as an eLearning designer grow alongside it. It’s easy to publish eLearning programmes and share with a collaborative audience to obtain feedback before you go live... It’s so simple and yet the finished product looks professional and polished.”

Prioritising teams with a collaborative approach

Throughout the project, Kirsty was able to use the online link publishing option to quickly and easily share draft previews with her colleagues and managers. HowToo’s collaboration and commenting tools streamlined the feedback process by allowing team members to make changes or directly comment on elements within blocks, reducing the need for tedious back-and-forth emailing and eliminating version control issues.

HowToo’s WCAG 2.1 Level AA and 508 standards of accessibility were met with great satisfaction by the council as an Equal Opportunity Employer. HowToo’s in-built accessibility features allowed Kirsty to maximise the accessibility of the learning objects for individuals with a wide range of abilities and disabilities, with minimal time and effort.

At the end of the project, the People & Performance team successfully exported the learning object as a SCORM 2.1 package and were able to upload it to the council’s Intranet and LMS without any issue. Since implementation, the Sun, Heat and Sharps module has proven exceptionally successful with the target audience. 100% of new and existing employees have been able to complete the eLearning programme within their required time frames, to the great satisfaction of the council. No problems with the learning object have been reported, attesting to the reliability of the learning object.

Placing learners at the forefront

HowToo’s learning experiences can be completed any time, on any device, offering unparalleled flexibility for busy employees whether they’re in the field, the office or at home. New employees can begin onboarding immediately instead of waiting for scheduled face-to-face sessions, allowing them to start faster and more effectively and saving valuable hours for the People and Performance team.

Now, the team can reinvest this time into improving and expanding their training. With HowToo, Campbelltown City Council can create everything from simple, bite-sized courses to complex branching experiences, allowing learners to effectively and enjoyably onboard and upskill. HowToo’s foundation in learning science ensures that learning experiences are engaging and memorable for employees.

HowToo is ideal for small teams

Overall, the council was able to keep costs to a minimum, both through HowToo’s low price point and the ability to maximise their internal resourcing. They were able to use their existing L&D team members instead of paying expensive outsourcing fees, and used a combination of their own graphic resources and images from the free media library supplied in every HowToo license.

For small teams like Campbelltown City Council, flexible and agile solutions on a budget are essential. HowToo allows teams to work quickly and collaboratively within any budget. HowToo’s learning experiences can be updated easily and rapidly in response to sudden changes, then integrated into your existing systems for a seamless and branded learner experience.

This case study is a perfect example of the way that HowToo allows business and organizations to rapidly produce high quality e-learning content. With HowToo, the council achieved an incredibly agile response to an unforeseen circumstance.