INDUSTRY WATCH

distancing requirements and restrictions , Vision Australia successfully trained its workforce and network of volunteers on telehealth and remote working best-practice with the Brightspace learning management system ( LMS ).

As the organization ’ s mission is to support blind and low vision Australians to live the life they choose , the online courses had to be highly accessible to engage learners who are blind or have low vision .

Vision Australia is a leading national provider of blindness and low vision services in Australia . The not-for-profit employs 800 people and manages a network of 2,500 volunteers who support more than 25,500 blind and low vision Australians .

With around 15 % of its workforce blind or low vision themselves , accessibility is non-negotiable for all training and development Vision Australia provides . Dan Casey , Capability Development Manager at Vision Australia , said it first implemented D2L ’ s Brightspace platform in February 2020 to provide diverse and inclusive communication and education materials to its stakeholders .

“ What set Brightspace apart for us was that D2L really understood accessibility ,” he said . “ Accessibility was built into the platform from the ground up , it wasn ’ t just an afterthought that was bolted on retroactively .”

Laura Hendrey , Learning and Development Coordinator at Vision Australia , said after having used Brightspace for seven months , the LMS helped Vision Australia overcome some of the logistics challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic .

“ All our client work was previously faceto-face , so we had to rapidly develop training around providing telehealth services – we ran a number of training sessions on Zoom which we recorded and uploaded to Brightspace , so people could view it whenever they needed to ,” she said .

“ We then set up a basic competency structure for the telehealth training , along with some assignments which were aligned to the competencies . Also , we had to get people working from home quickly , so we used Brightspace to set up a working from home agreement , then released it as a survey for people to complete and submit online .”

With Vision Australia ’ s workforce spread across the nation , Hendrey said the platform ’ s Manager Dashboard also greatly simplified the process of monitoring who had completed mandatory third-party courses – such as an infection control course issued by the Commonwealth Department of Health for essential workers . www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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