Case Study: Evolve Communities boost allyship through digital platforms

Evolve Communities has cited a rise in client satisfaction as it works to boost workplace allyship through digital platforms while exploring new technologies to expand its reach.  

Its online cultural awareness course aims to educate employees to become allies to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people plus build cultural understanding and assist with Reconciliation Action Plans. 

Carla Rogers, director, founder and program designer at Evolve Communities told Digital Nation, “Our reason for being, our vision in our business is to create a kinder and more inclusive Australia through teaching non-Indigenous people the skills to be effective allies to First Nations people.”

“That kind of reach is not going to happen without the use of technology and all of our learning systems online.”

According to Rogers, the health pandemic helped accelerate a lot of programs back to an online format plus sit across numerous management systems.

“We returned to creating an online version of our programs before Covid-19.

“In that sense, it was an Adobe SCORM package that was the technology solution to enable [clients] to have our complete learning system on their internal learning management system.”

Evolve, which won a recent Telstra Best Of Business Award for its work, can integrate into roughly 800 learning platforms, according to Rogers.

“In terms of designing the SCORM package and an online learning training, there's a whole lot of other thinking that needs to go into that in terms of how people learn, having a range of modalities that still engages people's senses, the auditory, the visual, the kinaesthetic.

“There's a lot of thinking that needs to go into designing a really good e-learn program,

“It's very interesting because there are over 800 learning management systems that organisations use, so there are a lot of technical specifications that have to go into designing the SCORM package, so that the language will communicate with the highest number of learning management systems.”

Rogers listed work with Adobe SCORM, Storyline, Learning Management Systems Specialists “to get that technical side right”

The bite-size learning program has been rolled out to many clients, including Woolworths Group, which has rolled out the 45-minute SCORM package across Australia to over 250, 000 staff.

“We have quite a number of large global clients, but rolling out our program across Australia, including IT specialists as well organisations that are committed to reconciliation.

“What we've had to do is to find the technical, we've had to be adaptable as well. For example, some clients, [the program] can sit within their learning management system who wanted to roll it out to staff in supermarkets.”

This means making smaller learning modules adaptable to mobiles and tablets for large staff cohorts while other clients may be single individuals.

Outcomes from the program include positive feedback with strong uptake from users with some satisfaction scores reaching an average nine out of 10. 

“There's a few reasons for that kind of take up. One is that, this kind of platform, particularly if you tailor it to the needs of the organisation, putting it in bite-sized pieces, having it on people's phones, making it as accessible as possible and being adaptable.”

Rogers added staying ahead of how people learn and where the audience is plays an important part of Evolve’s success.

Evolve is now undergoing a redesign process, potentially expanding its score and packages and exploring new technologies.

“We looked at what's best practice at the moment across learning and potential use of AI, so we have some exciting ideas about how we're going to incorporate those elements into the new packages, SCORM packages or as add-ons to the SCORM packages," Rogers said. 

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