Bartiméus wants to ensure that all people who are partially sighted or blind in the Netherlands can live the life that suits them. In doing so, the organization is there for everyone who is personally or professionally committed to helping people with a visual impairment. One of the ways Bartiméus helps is by providing the right education. To support professionals and clients even better and to keep abreast of developments in the field of laws and regulations. These learning paths are designed with the Learning Management Software from Procademy. An interview with Sheeba Sommer, Advisor Learning and Development at Bartiméus, about how that works.
Starting point
"With Bartiméus, we are an expertise organization in the field of visual functioning. That means we develop our own training for our own employees, industry colleagues, healthcare professionals and for clients." Sheeba opens the conversation. "In the previous solution we used to develop that training, we could not adequately shape the modern possibilities of online learning. On top of that, we weren't able to adequately extract steering information from the learning environment."
So a call for tenders followed, in which Bartiméus definitely did not rush. "We first asked suppliers about 5 hard requirements. For example, we wanted to be able to register and monitor our (legal) obligations, link to the HRM software of AFAS Profit and log in easily using Single Sign-On. Also important to us was the separation of an internal and external portal and, given our target group, we naturally have extensive accessibility requirements. In addition to those knockout criteria, we also made a request for 150 requirements." The Learning Management Software from Procademy proved to be the right match, based on existing functionality supplemented by the customization required.
Implementation
"In a process with frequent contact, we worked towards the implementation of the learning environment of Procademy. That went smoothly and the landing was good. We noticed almost immediately that fewer questions about technology came in to our support department. In the previous system, an employee had to click up to ten times in two different environments to start an e-learning. That's where we really lost people. Time in healthcare is scarce, so it's nice that with Procademy we've now managed to make that much more 'what you see is what you get'." Sheeba outlines the initial period. "Another positive thing to mention is that Procademy thinks with us about how our challenges can best be captured in the tool. So they really develop with us. With that, our learning environment is actually always evolving."
Further development
Having new capabilities in a new tool also means seeing new opportunities for improvement. "These, of course, also lead to new development wishes," laughs Sheeba. "For example, we are working on a Visual Management Dashboard, which will make management information even more transparent. Who still needs to master which competency? Where is there a possible knowledge gap? Information about which we can already report well, for example at the time of an audit. That saves a lot of time: at the push of a button we have the burden of proof in our hands."
Bartiméus' expertise is also deployed in the partnership 'Knowledge about Seeing', together with the Robert Coppes Foundation, the MaculaVereniging, the Eye Association and Royal Visio: "By sharing our knowledge with each other, we ensure that the lives of blind and visually impaired people are made easier. Our dot on the horizon is a shared learning environment, which in turn communicates with everyone's own learning environment. That way we can share knowledge with each other even more easily." outlines Sheeba. "We have also recently developed a learning environment for our clients." Procademy developed taking into account the principles of WCAG 2.1 guideline, to optimize the accessibility of the e-learnings.
Cooperation toward the future
Asked about the cooperation, Sheeba says: "The lines of communication are short, we have many consultations and the handling of support questions is fast and clear. On a strategic level it really feels like a partnership: Procademy thinks along with us and dares to ask critical questions about our development wishes. That only makes the outcome better."
A solid basis towards the future, therefore, and that is also necessary: "Technical developments are moving very fast. ChatGPT has given us a virtual colleague. What role will that play in our learning processes? And how can we make learning experiences as individually tailored as possible in the future? I see great developments in the field of personal learning: walking your own path through the material at your own pace and level. All things that we will be giving a place to in our Learning Management System in the future."
Header image: Bartimeus.com
