Filter articles
Ko Awatea LEARN transforms eLearning experiences for district health boards
Learn how Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora collaborated with Catalyst to develop Ko Awatea Learn with Tōtara to save up to $270,000 a year.
Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand, (previously Counties Manukau District Health Board) provides health and disability services to over 500,000 people living in New Zealand’s local authorities of Auckland, Waikato, and Hauraki District. CMDHB is one of twenty district health boards established under the provisions of the New Zealand Public Health & Disability Act 2000 (NZPHD Act 2000).
Te Whatu Ora created Ko Awatea with a guiding vision to serve as a hub of education, improvement, and innovation to support health systems and public services locally and internationally.
Opportunity
New Zealand’s healthcare sector is rapidly growing, with an estimated workforce of around 60,000 across 21 District Health Boards (DHBs) and a strong need for an efficient eLearning ecosystem. However, there is a vast disparity between DHBs, with inconsistencies in dedicated departments and funding to create and maintain eLearning projects.
Ko Awatea wanted to develop an eLearning platform called Ko Awatea LEARN to:
- connect the sector
- break silos
- remove cost barriers
- meet the needs of learners and educators
- meet the needs of a population wider than just CMDHB.
Solution
To create a unified, national eLearning network and eliminate duplication, Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora needed an experienced eLearning partner to deliver a large-scale platform. Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora partnered with Catalyst to design and implement Ko Awatea LEARN, powered by Tōtara Learn, to meet the needs of the health sector.
Key features included:
Secure and future-proof system: Catalyst worked closely with Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora to ensure Ko Awatea LEARN aligned with IT system assurance requirements, including safeguarding sensitive data.
A central knowledge hub: Together, all the knowledge and experience of all the DHBs involved was gathered into LEARN, making a powerful central resource for New Zealand’s healthcare sector.
Streamlined course creation: Course sharing is built into the LMS, with any course created within Ko Awatea LEARN becoming available for others to use, modify or redevelop. Therefore, any new DHB joiners have automatic access to a portfolio of courses and do not have to start from scratch.
The functionality to deliver great online learning
Sustainable and scalable support: Catalyst’s Tōtara Learn solution provides the DHBs with a support and development model that facilitates content development and skill-building, with sustainable and scalable support available as the platform grows.
User-friendly and accessible design: Tōtara Partner Kineo developed the theming element of the implementation process, ensuring the platform remained on brand and instantly recognisable to users across various DHBs.
A collaborative process: Partnering with other DHBs enabled everyone to learn from each other and speed up the development process. This collaborative way of working has enabled DHBs to develop their skillsets collectively and faster than they could have managed working in isolation.
Ko Awatea LEARN launched for Te Whatu Ora and all other DHBs in New Zealand.
“Totara has not only provided us the functionality to deliver great online learning, but the scalability to grow into one of the largest education platforms in Australasia.”
Jason Ranston, Digital Services manager Ko Awatea, CMDH
Results
Since the launch of Ko Awatea LEARN, Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora have experienced great results, including:
- One LMS saves $135,000-$270,000 a year
- 3,000 users and 500 courses across 11 DHBs
- Saved over 300 hours of work and $15,000
- 200,000 learning sessions a year
- 10 to 20 times cheaper than the previous method of training
Cost and time saving solution for DHBs around New Zealand
- One of the largest learning platforms in New Zealand: Currently, the Ko Awatea LEARN platform has more than 23,000 users and 500 courses across 11 DHBs.
- Cost-saving measures for DHBs around New Zealand: For 91 cents per user per year, a DHB can access the entire learning portfolio. For a smaller DHB of around 2,000 users, that is $1,800 to enable everyone to access the system – 10 to 20 times cheaper than the previous training method. Only having one LMS across nine DHBs saves $135,000-$270,000 a year.
- Time-saving course creation: As the eLearning courses created are often very similar to one another, it has drastically cut the time spent on development and delivery. It's estimated that this has saved over 300 hours of work and $15,000.
- Improved digital literacy: The platform has improved the digital literacy and competency of health educator staff across New Zealand, making national course co-development a reality and enabling New Zealand’s healthcare workers to share knowledge for a highly effective central resource.
- Strong training delivery: It is estimated that the Ko Awatea LEARN system has provided around $1,237,220 worth of training to users so far, with almost 200,000 learning sessions a year averaging 20 minutes a session.
Tōtara Learn support
At Catalyst, we're proud to have supported Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora in delivering their new learning system, Ko Awatea LEARN. A benefit of open source software, like Tōtara, is the ability to collaborate and pull resources together to meet the needs of many. Ko Awatea and Te Whatu Ora's approach to this by developing Ko Awatea LEARN is a powerful example of the power of how open source can lead innovation.
If you'd like to learn more about Tōtara and future-proofing your eLearning ecosystem, contact our team to discuss your goals.
