Digital Learning service stream update - April 2022
25/04/2022
We are finding that our strategy of concentrating on wellbeing is gaining traction. Corporate wellbeing, individual wellbeing and cyber wellbeing; as our courses mature and in the case of pre-existing courses are progressively improved through modernisation and additional content, we feel this will increasingly resonate across all market sectors.
Digital Learning is a broad term that can have many interpretations and meanings. In the case of Meritec, we use it as the umbrella term across our range of online e-awareness courses designed to convey important information and messages that can be easily accessed, easily understood, entertaining and relevant.
The Meritec courses are all aimed at improving wellbeing: individual wellbeing, organisational wellbeing and digital wellbeing. Understanding what is needed about each of these –being no more and no less than needed, just sufficient – can enable huge benefits whether at home or at work and the feedback we have from course users is truly impressive – and inspiring. So, we know it works and we intend to keep doing it and adding more all the time.
Product Development
We are currently working on developing our latest course Focus on Cybersecurity which covers the spectrum across online and social media. We are excited about bringing this new product to the market . This is the first of our courses to be created using Adobe Captivate, which provides a fresh new look and a great user experience. As we move further into 2022, we plan to move our other courses over to Captivate.
Meritec is partnering with Stupa Ltd, an independent Information Security and Cyber Risk Management practice built on the bold foundation “Vision Beyond Protection” to deliver a unique online awareness course that raises the awareness of all employees and stakeholders about the increasing threats posed by cyber criminals and what can be done to avoid falling victim to them. Whilst the use of technology products and services is crucial for due cyber protection the fact remains that the weakest link in the chain is human; the criminals know this so exploit it and our course provides individuals with the necessary knowledge to best protect themselves against falling victim to scams and other forms of attack.
In organisational wellbeing, we have supplemented our successful fraud awareness product with a new product on risk management. Focus on Risk Management has recently been developed in conjunction with subject matter experts at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and will shortly be rolled out to all managers across the authority.
We are also in the process of building a new course called Focus on Equality and Diversity. We are working with Gedling Council on this initiative to raise awareness on this important topic and help them develop a more inclusive organisation. The course will be ready for them very soon and will then be developed further for use by all organisations. Gedling Council have committed to a 6-year contract for this course and are already users of our Fraud and Mental Wellbeing products.
Bespoke work for customers
We are experiencing a growing interest from organisations asking us to develop bespoke courses for their own use and will have more to tell on this our next update.
LMS Lite
We are further developing the platform upon which our courses reside so that customers can use it to host our courses for their use and/or courses from other suppliers together with their own internal courses should they wish to do so. Such a platform is known in the industry as an LMS (“Learning Management System”). Many existing LMS systems are either old, expensive or both and commonly users pay a heavy price but only use a small proportion of the functionality they pay for. The Meritec LMS Lite provides pretty much everything needed but at a fraction of the cost, and Meritec own the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) so we call the shots in terms of strategy and direction; influenced heavily by users.
New Client Launches
- The customised version of Focus on Mental Wellbeing is proving popular in the football arena. Tackle your wellbeing has new customers including Millwall FC Community Trust and Bradford City FC Community Trust. The Foundation of Light (Sunderland Football Club) will be the next implementation to follow rolling out to their ambassadors later this month. Child Action Northwest have also committed to this course and are rolling out to all the players in their upcoming football tournament.
- Wave will be our first customer in the utilities sector, they have licensed Focus on Mental Wellbeing for all employees and will be launching in May. Wave provide gas, electricity and water services in the Northeast and South East of England.
- There are now 7 members of the Staffordshire Counter Fraud Partnership that have committed to Focus on Fraud Awareness. This includes Stoke (for the authority and all of its schools), 4 other Staffs authorities and 2 housing associations. The latter organisations, being Aspire and Staffs Housing, have access to a Housing-specific Edition of the product. Recently Ashford Borough Council in Kent has also committed to the roll out of Focus on Fraud Awareness to all their staff.
