Headshift Australasia was approached by the Institute of Executive Coaching - an Australian based private provider of education in the field of leadership development and executive coaching, with view of extending trainees’ engagement at pre- and post-work stages of IEC’s coach training programs.

As a result, Headshift worked with IEC to create a series of customised community platforms based on Elgg, an open-source social networking product, that provides each course with a secure online learning environment.

Headshift also assisted in the redesign of the existing paper-based content of IEC, developing online activities that were released sequentially over allocated online periods and based on an architecture of participation with other learners.

Results proved to be more than satisfactory, with Headshift and IEC winning LearnX Asia Pacific 2010 eLearning and Training Awards in the category of Best Use of Social Learning Tools.

Benefits of the communities included:

• quality online interactions between trainees resulting from increased visibility
• sense of rapport created during the pre-training period – enabling the group to work together more effectively during the face-to-face sessions, as well as to continue collaborating on post-training tasks
• increased task completion rates, attributed to greater transparency, accountability and personal support through created relationships

Selecting and developing the most appropriate platform was not the only factor that influenced the success of the online strategy. Headshift worked with the IEC subject matter experts and learning designers to re-configure and design online activities that supported the intended outcomes. Additionally, Headshift provided training and support to the facilitators and moderators to enable their upskilling and adjustment to the new learning structure.