Home / Case Studies / British Council Cloud LMS

Cloud LMS and eLearning Content Creation Helped British Council Increase Usage by 300%

Setting the Scene

The British Council is the UK’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. They engage with over 500 million people each year, providing practical information and insight on UK education for international students. This is achieved through working with an international network of partners comprised of international student recruitment agencies and school counsellors. The British Council training suite is offered to partners in multiple levels of learning; Assistant, Associate and Certificate. On successful completion of all three levels, agents and counsellors become recognized as British Council trained and are added to the British Council publicly searchable database of certified agents and counsellors.

The Challenge

Whilst the British Council training was recognized by the education industry around the world, it was delivered face to face over a pre-determined time period, with a final written exam requiring learners to visit a British Council office. The British Council’s strategy was to move to a digital learning solution to extend the reach of the training, to ensure consistent quality and to circumvent the limitations of timed delivery around the globe. A digital learning platform was the most natural fit to achieve these objectives.

The Solution

British Council chose eCom to create a refreshed online training suite, develop training content and assessments. The eCom team worked closely with British Council, structuring content in the best way for their target global audience. eCom’s in-house graphic designers brought the instructional design vision to life using British Council’s brand asset bank, ensuring content is interactive and engaging for learners. Knowledge checks were included throughout and multiple choice randomised assessment questions were incorporated at the end of each learning section, negating the need for a final written exam.

It was essential to ensure content was fully accessible and enable learners, in any location with internet access, to log into the cloud learning management system (LMS), via desktop, tablet or mobile device and work through the training when it best suits them. eCom was delighted that British Council chose eNetLearn, eCom’s flexible, cloud-based LMS to make the bespoke eLearning available to all British Council partners. An ecommerce system, including a discount e-voucher system, was developed to help manage on-line payments, ensuring compliance with British Council’s global fraud prevention policies. A secure UK server ensuring determination of use was also established to ensure global inclusiveness, particularly relevant for the People’s Republic of China.

An e-Learning toolkit was created to support the promotion of the training by the British Council’s global in-country teams, including frequently asked questions, a video describing the reasons for moving to online training delivery and the benefits, posters, a user guide and social media content.

British Council eLearning for Agents and Counsellors

The Benefits

Using our eLearning, the British Council have extended the reach of their training in a cost-effective way. The new resource will help them to potentially engage with all of their partners globally, helping them feel confident to recommend the UK as a study destination. The third sector eLearning is a useful resource, to impart relevant information on first use, as well as to provide refresher training whenever needed. Choosing eNetLearn as their LMS ensures that both the content and system is fully accessible. This gives British Council the confidence that the learning meets the needs of every learner, regardless of the device they choose and is available at the most suitable time for them - wherever they are in the world. British Council now has active users from 130 countries and usage has increased 300% on the previous year thanks to the implementation of our cloud learning management system.