Plan International

Supporting the personal and professional development of Plan International charity workers, even when they’re busy working on children’s development in remote locations.

Delivering consistent learning to 18,000 Plan International employees scattered around the world.

Plan International is a global charity focusing on children’s development. Its innovative programmes cover areas such as education, water and sanitation, disaster risk management and child protection.

The nature of that work means its 18,000 learners operate in more than 70 countries around the world, often in remote locations.

Plan International wanted to ensure that its operating standards and the learning and development opportunities available to its team did not vary by location and language.

Following a tender process, we were tasked with consolidating two existing Moodle LMS sites – hosted by two different partners and running two different versions – into a charity e-learning platform that guaranteed consistent learning experiences throughout the organisation.

Increasing convenience and conversation.

After working closely with Plan International to understand their requirements, we proposed migrating their existing learning platforms from Moodle to Totara Learn. This was primarily because Totara delivered as standard several reporting, hierarchy management and learning program tools that matched Plan International’s requirements.

By switching to Totara and incorporating multi-tenancy features to deliver personalised learning to distinct audiences within the organisation, we were able to avoid the need to deploy multiple installations of a heavily edited, bespoke version of Moodle.

We upgraded one of the existing Moodle sites to Totara Learn, then carried out a manual migration of the second Moodle site.

With the learning platforms up-to-date and operating within our robust hosting environment, we got to work on improving the learning experience for Plan International’s team. This included upgrading the design so that the LMS is responsive on all devices and in keeping with Plan International’s branding.

We created a single portal to host all of Plan International’s learning content, discussions and library of resources. Learners sign up through a bespoke registration process, which allows for self-service registration and access to courses. Since all learners use a single portal, the new platform helps to break down potential boundaries within the organisation and encourages regular dialogue between colleagues who might not previously have had direct contact.

We connected all staff learning records from the two Moodle sites to a cloud-based HR platform, putting all of Plan International’s training records in one place for the first time.

As well as providing ongoing support, management and minor updates, we also provided bespoke Moodle training and consultancy to all Plan International administrators to help them to get the most from their learning platform.

Sparking worldwide peer-to-peer learning.

• Plan International employees now have far more interactions with colleagues working in different regions. The single LMS gives a platform for peer-to-peer learning, informal sharing of best practices, and open conversation across the organisation.
• A consistent approach to training worldwide means Plan International’s operating standards are taught and implemented in exactly the same way in all of the countries in which it operates, while Totara’s reporting, hierarchies and multi-tenancy features ensure that learning can be monitored throughout the organisation.
• And the responsive design means employees can now complete learning on any device instead of trying to shoehorn a desktop learning experience into their mobile work on the ground.

“We are delighted with the work that has been carried out by Synergy Learning. We found them very friendly and extremely knowledgeable […] and we did not hesitate to approach them when we needed help. I would be more than happy to recommend them as a preferred eLearning partner.”

Isobel Taylor | Plan Academy | Networking Officer

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