Introduction
CLB centers employ social workers who regularly attend courses and workshops to enhance their professional skills. These courses can be both obligatory and optional as well as recurring or one-time only. They can even be free or not depending on the course. Before we were employed for this project, their system of registering courses was done manually, and as their team grew, it was hard to track attendance resulting in a lot of administrative work.
The next part was the Caleidoscope Magazine which is their professional magazine published yearly. The issue was that the online version was outdated so they wanted a more modern content management system.
Idea
The idea was to create a platform specially tailored for the professional development of CLB employees consisting of both an LMS and CMS. One goal was to simplify the process of course management with a Learning Management System (LMS) with functionalities such as course creation, attendee approval, user management, and invoicing. The other goal was to modernize the digital edition of the printed magazine and provide a tool for creating and editing online with a Content Management System (CMS).
Challenge
The main challenge for the LMS was finding a way to simplify the process of course management and enable both users and admins to track their progress in-app. Also, the solution had to be accessible by CLB employees and adhere to high-security protocols. Another challenge was to integrate the platform with an external provider for payment and accounting purposes.
On the other hand, with the CMS we needed to come up with a system generic enough that it could handle different types of articles and easily support various kinds of media but still detailed enough so it could be a perfect replica of the print version.
Final product
The final solution was the Caleidoscop platform, a learning and content management system now used by more than 2000 users. Using the LMS, CLB employees can easily apply or cancel their attendance, and CLB admins can monitor who enrolled in a course, create courses, cancel or postpone them, etc. We also facilitated course payment by automatically sending all the necessary info to an external provider and minimized administrative tasks by integrating the platform with an accounting provider.
On the other hand, the CMS enables its users to create an online version mirroring the printed version of the Caleidoscope magazine. It facilitates tasks such as adding, editing, and organizing articles.
Course lifecycle
CLB admins can create a course from scratch and define many parameters such as title, speakers, location, time, the maximum number of participants, etc. We also implemented a system for tracking the course lifecycle so both admins and users can track its progress with tags such as postponed, announced, open for registration, etc.
Users flow
Employees can access the users' dashboard and have an overview of the courses they marked as favorite, and of the courses they are and can be enrolled in. They can also upload their own document and add comments about courses. Moreover, managers can also track and approve courses their team has applied for. They can also add external users e.g. special guests. A system for monitoring users' status such as applied, approved/denied, registered, etc. was also employed so users, admins, and managers can check their status in-app.
Articles management
Users can craft articles, categorize them as part of specific issues, and interlink them. This kind of flexibility opens up possibilities for various subscription types.
Tech solution
For the development of the web app, we opted for Java and the Spring Boot Framework. The solution was fully integrated into the CLB ecosystem — including a SAML SSO integration with the company’s Identity provider services. With an SSO (single Sign-On) we managed to comply with the strict confidentiality protocols since employees can only use their ID to log in. For front-end development, we used Angular and hosted on AWS.
Benefits for the client
The main benefit for the client was the complete digitalization and automation of their learning and content management processes. This includes the reduced possibility of errors in communication, efficient platform maintenance, and user-friendly and intuitive UI. This solution also opened new opportunities like subscription plans and the personalization of learning processes.