Age Concern

Background

Age Concern Pty Ltd Australia was registered in 1986 and is one of Australia’s oldest private continuing professional development organisations. Its members include registered and enrolled nurses and other health workers caring for the elderly.

Age Concern Pty Ltd empowers nurses, allied health professionals and other health care workers through evidence-based education and training.

Challenge

Limited online learning options
Initially all Age Concern’s programs were conducted face-to-face with limited options for online learning. This meant extensive interstate travel was required for instructors, facilitators and attendees.

Coordination & logistics
Our initial university recognised program included six (6) individual lecturers and was a logistical nightmare when delivering the program, even in our home town of Melbourne, let alone when presenting in regional areas or interstate.

Organising this and other programs involved the coordination of lecturers as well as venues. The avoidance of public and school holidays was an added challenge. The result was increased costs to the organisation in terms of time, budget considerations and staffing resources.

Geographical coverage
With a large area to cover and travel requirements, many students were unable to attend classes and therefore did not have access to the course content. Additionally, regional learners were frustrated by the long distances travel to access the live presentations.

Solution from eWorks
eWorks developed a tailored LMS for Age Concern. Adding the Blackboard Collaborate plugin, a professional virtual classroom. It was wonderful for the lectures and students alike. Students could access sessions from anywhere, and at any time, resulting in a higher attendance rate to the professional development programs. Lecturers were able to pr-record sessions.

Age Concern uses the eWorks LMS system to store session recordings and to provide additional readings for their students and clients, this enables learners to continue their professional development.

Benefits of Implementing LMS for Age Concern

Reaching regional and remote learners
With the LMS system in place, Age Concern can reach a larger audience geographically across Australia covering regional and remote learners.

Increasing learning knowledge
Using the eWorks LMS allows Age Concern to test their members’ knowledge on specific topics. Our tools have also assisted in the development of quizzes to identify topics of interest for future training.

Convenience
Virtual classrooms make learning more accessible, enabling learners to attend live events or watch recordings. With the benefit of the recordings, learners have a level of flexibility to study at their own pace.

Cost-effective
Using an LMS has significantly reduced Age Concern’s costs and those of their corporate clients and learners. This is due to the reduction in travel and accommodation requirements.