EULAR School of Rheumatology goes digital

EULAR, the European League Against Rheumatism, approached LearnChamp with the goal to create a motivating and intuitive digital learning experience for the EULAR School. Consistency throughout the entire process was also asked: From registration and instant access to learning content through to administration.

Read further to learn more about this award-winning solution: 

EULAR represents the People with Arthritis/Rheumatism in Europe (PARE), health professionals (HPR) and scientific societies of rheumatology in Europe. In order to constantly keep physicians, health professionals, and patients well informed about latest medication trends and research findings, in 2017 EULAR founded the EULAR School of Rheumatology. The EULAR School offers a wide range of online and live courses, online and printed publications and dedicated
meetings for physicians, health professionals, and people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.
EULAR’s vision is to establish the EULAR School of Rheumatology as the worldwide leader in education
in Rheumatology.

The project scope included development of a Learning Management System (LMS) and associated digital learning content. The LMS and content are designed to provide an integrated, seamless learning experience for the user.

EULAR needed a significant number of digital learning content and was highly aware that
even more content would be required in the future; Multi-device usage and responsive design were
key.
EULAR already had a number of well-established digital training materials and needed to make a
decision: Which materials should be migrated directly into the LMS using the inherent system
functionalities – and which ones were to be rebuilt with a responsive authoring tool with more options
for design and interactivity? LearnChamp provided consultation on these questions, and also helped to
develop a tailored, future-proof solution to meet future needs in handling content production and
administration.

The EULAR School faced a further challenge: A very tight schedule. The new LMS platform was to be
introduced at the EULAR Congress in June 2018, giving the project team 18 weeks to finish the
platform, complete content migration, as well as the first batch of newly-built digital learning content.

The Solution

EULAR wanted to meet the global need for an established, cloud-based Learning Management System,
which could be adapted to specific needs of both the organisation itself, its network and its members
at national level. EULAR therefore opted for Totara Learn. Multi-device usage and responsive design
were key requirements and made Adapt a perfect match for all digital learning content.


The tight schedule was a challenge for both the LearnChamp and EULAR teams –cooperation and
absolute dedication to complete the project as well as expertise on both sides however resulted in a
highly successful project result. Moreover, LearnChamp adjusted its project processes and ran the
development of themes and prototyping in parallel to enabling EULAR staff to work with the new
system.

Totara Learn

Regarding the Totara Learn part of the project, one of the main challenges was the payment system.
On the surface, the implementation of EULAR School might appear simple. Yet, in the backend,
complicated and complex processes are at play. This is because, depending on the user’s initial
registration type (learner or annual EULAR member), the user’s country of residence and his/her job
profile, the price of courses varies and adjusts.
Why is there variation in pricing? EULAR believes that taking their courses should not be a luxury and
therefore adjusts the prices of its courses to the respective living standards of the country from where
the participant is resident. For example, users whose country of residence has a lower GDP will be
offered courses at a lower price. Moreover, certain live courses have a grant option. Users can apply for
additional funding in order to cover the cost of attending conferences. In order to have a grant
approved, users need to meet certain requirements and are asked to upload additional documents as
proof. Later on, those requests are sent to administrators and scorers in Totara where the decision is
made. Through variable pricing and grant options, EULAR makes training affordable to everyone.

To meet EULAR’s requirements, LearnChamp not only implemented Totara Learn and fully customized the look & feel of the user interface but also decided to develop a single feature in the system that
simultaneously makes all of the features mentioned above possible. One plug-in handles sign up,
regulates course prices and ensures the bursary/grant function works. The reason LearnChamp
decided on one feature is because it ensures better and easier operation. Moreover, the payment
process is executed by PayPal as it is the world’s largest, safest and easiest way to move and manage
payments. In addition, PayPal aligns well with Totara Learn’s philosophy: To make it as easy as possible
for users to navigate the system.
Another sub-project was the migration of 101 self-assessments and final assessments from EULAR’s
old system into Totara Learn. This posed challenges to both teams as the old system has a different
logic from Totara Learn. LearnChamp worked closely with the EULAR team in order to find the best
solution on how to adapt the assessment questions from the old system into the new one and at the
same time keep the original grading logic that the target group was accustomed to.


Digital Learning Content

The content part of this project contained a number of sub-projects which were running in parallel.
The major one was the implementation of Adapt. In the course of this implementation, LeanChamp created a theme that was consistent not only with the design of EULAR’s Totara Learn but also with a pre-existing EULAR App. The theme is the design basis for all EULAR contents. Ensuring consistency through-out all courses.

In workshops and online sessions, LearnChamp enabled EULAR team members to use the Adapt Authoring tool, while always being available if questions came up. 
Finally, for the introduction of the new LMS platform, the content migration itself was a significant
issue. In a collaborative process that was set up by EULAR and LearnChamp, LearnChamp supported
EULAR in migrating their existing learning content to an updated e-learning format as Adapt onepager
courses. 
The EULAR team showed great interest in the entire project and were eager to learn about the new
tools Adapt and Totara Learn. This formed a great basis for effective and constant communication
between EULAR and LearnChamp, a lively exchange of ideas and extremely successful support was
visible throughout the project.

The EULAR School of Rheumatology was successfully launched at the EULAR Congress in June 2018.
LearnChamp will now continuously provide support services to the EULAR School. Moreover, together
with EULAR, LearnChamp will create more content and develop a huge knowledge library of modern,
intuitive, and responsive learning resources to always keep physicians, health professionals, and
patients up-to-date.

We are happy to annouce that our EULAR project won the Totara Award for Best Healthcare Project 2018!

Interested in hearing what the people behind the project have to say? Watch this video.