Marshall e-learning consultancy – our review of 2013
19th December 2013
2013 saw us invest more than ever in our technology and consultancy team. Managing Director David Marshall explains: “We’ve been firmly established as the leading e-learning consultancy for all equality and diversity issues for some years – likewise more UK universities work with us than any other e-learning consultancy,’? which demonstrates the value of specialising in a sector (higher education) and a particular field (equality and diversity).”
This year saw us move from a niche e-learning provider to a consultancy that large organisations are outsourcing all their e-learning requirements to. Here are some highlights from the past year:
Marshall launch Equality & Diversity Practice
From early 2014 our diversity consultancy service will launch with Unconscious Bias workshops held at our Fleet Street offices. In addition we will offer clients the option of one or two-day onsite training courses hosted by one of our diversity consultants.
Unconscious Bias has been available as one of our diversity e-learning courses this year, both as a UK version and US version and many clients have expressed an interest in face-to-face training on this new and complex diversity concept.
Marshall LMS
We’??ve continually developed and refined our Learning Management System this year. Marshall ACM allows us to get all learners up and running on a fully branded and customised portal within two hours. And as we provide all the technical know-how to complete this work, our clients don’??t need to divert in-house resources onto time-consuming tasks.
Our LMS supports up to 5000 concurrent learners, with absolutely no impact on content accessibility.
Mobile learning
Throughout 2013 we’??ve been developing innovative technology to deliver a range of topics on smartphone and tablet platforms, including iPhones, iPads, and Android-enabled devices.
For example, our innovative managers toolkit app provides new managers with the mentoring, support and guidance they need and helps them to achieve results by building key skills, developing their team and adapting to their responsibilities to meet organisational objectives
In 2014 we can also foresee this technology playing a bigger role in our??blended learning’?? offerings (combining e-learning and classroom training), through our new diversity consultancy.
Gamification
‘??Gamification’?? has been one of the major trends in e-learning this year. Our new Diversity and Bribery Act e-learning courses both incorporate strong gamification elements which enables users to play and learn.
Companies like SEGA are adopting this approach in their induction, and we’??ve had some excellent feedback from clients who have asked us to include gamification in their new e-learning courses.
International work
This autumn we visited Australia and we’re so pleased that La Trobe University in Melbourne have commissioned our Anti-Bullying in the Workplace modules and a bespoke Online Induction Course.
Online induction
We developed an Online Induction Course with Harper Adams University providing new staff with a warm welcome, a detailed orientation tool, and a gateway to further e-learning.
Organisations appreciate our approach to online induction which delivers a very local flavour by blending location footage and interviews with key staff, and takes new staff into an overview of their training portal.
Our most recent online induction course has been developed for Formica. It’??s a hugely ambitious multi-lingual project, compatible with mobile devices and we’re very proud of it. (Look out for a more news about this project in 2014).
Social partnership
For a number of years we’??ve honed an approach that’??s unique in the e-learning industry. We’??ve developed commercial opportunities for public sector and not-for-profit organisations, and seen how this social enterprise approach chimes with the current challenging climate.
Bringing together our commercial acumen and e-learning expertise with the specialist knowledge base of our not-for-profit clients has been a winning combination in 2013.
This year we helped Anglia Ruskin University to develop products for the NHS and have a new partnership with the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion on Unconscious Bias e-learning.
Employability
Working with career and talent management consultancy, 10-Eighty, we’??ve developed Everlasting Employability and Employability for Students e-learning courses.
Employability has been a hot topic in 2013, particularly career guidance in schools and colleges. And we met this challenge by developing employability e-learning for Guildford College and followed it up with our new Apprenticeships for Students and Apprenticeships for Employers e-learning courses.
Sustainability and environment training
Our new sustainability e-learning course helps managers to work with their teams to raise awareness of environmental issues and policies across the workforce and improve performance in key areas.
Sustainability and environmental e-learning has become our biggest growth area with a wide range of universities now using our sustainability e-learning module. We’??re continuing to expand this topic with a new in-depth module just launched for University of Dundee.
Looking forward to 2014
‘??Whatever happens Marshall will always remain specialists in equality and diversity both consultancy and e-learning…’?? continues David Marshall.??It’??s the topic I started with, and always enjoy returning to – whether implementing equality e-learning for students at Manchester University, developing Unconscious Bias e-learning for Oxford University or a online guide for managers for The Bank of England.
Clients are now asking us to grow, and we’??re firmly in the vanguard of technical innovation in a number of fields including learning management systems, authorware, mobile learning and gamification.’??
