Developing literacy skills nationwide.
Children’s Literacy Initiative uses virtual training to empower coaches to guide teachers across the U.S.
100%
Completion rates for mandatory training
Objectives
Provide a central hub for all employee learning
Reach more new employees with training
Maintain compliance with required training programs
Expand training opportunities to school partners
Results
Serves 700+ learning activities to employees in different job functions from a single platform
Virtual learning reaches 60% more new coaches with 90% completion rates
Achieves 100% compliance for mandatory training within two weeks of course availability
Trains 300+ people annually to benefit partner schools
Bringing equity to literacy
The quality of someone’s life is closely tied to their ability to read. From taking care of their health and participating in community activities to finding work and engaging with others, literacy transforms people’s lives and society for the better.
The Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) knows firsthand about the challenges and opportunities in teaching people to read. “We’re committed to partnering with educators to help students reach their full potential,” says Jordanne Owen, Director of Marketing, Branding, and E-Learning Technologies at CLI. “There’s so much at stake. Improving literacy is foundational to addressing many issues including social justice, education equity, and success for all children.”
Changing lives
The CLI team is passionate about changing the world, one teacher and student at a time. The organization employs a coaching force that serves 3,200 teachers and educational leaders working with pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) through eighth-grade students at partners schools throughout the U.S. via one-on-one and small group training and seminars. Coaches have to be literacy experts, so they regularly participate in training and monthly development sessions.
CLI used to hold all training for coaches in person, but as the organization expanded across states, training time and costs increased. This was problematic for a lean organization committed to devoting even more resources to learning and development and less on travel expenses.
Owen began exploring online learning options, eventually discovering Adobe Learning Manager, the learning management system (LMS) from Adobe. Along with Adobe Captivate, which allows team members to quickly create custom training materials, CLI provides coaches and employees with a central location to nurture their knowledge and skills.
“Educators look to us for guidance to improve student outcomes,” explains Owen. “It was important for us to provide outstanding training to our teams while keeping costs in check. Learning Manager stood out for its features, flexibility, and ease of use. Our coaches can now stay current on the latest teaching strategies, so we can reach more educators with the skills to enable student success.”
“We reach 60% more of our new coaches with the availability of virtual training. Every month, we train roughly 30 coaches who complete 90% of the material in virtual classrooms.”
Jordanne Owen
Director of Marketing, Branding, and E-Learning Technologies at CLI
Delivering online learning to improve coaching
CLI uses the LMS for internal trainings on general onboarding, role-specific learning, compliance, and other activities. Whether someone needs to explore literacy learning plans, review new payroll procedures, or comply with mandatory sexual harassment training, they can find lessons in one place and complete them in their own time on mobile or other devices.
“Since we adopted Learning Manager, coaches aren’t as worried about missing mandatory courses or opportunities for professional development,” says Owen. “We offer more role-specific training and reach 60% more of our new coaches through virtual courses. Every month, we train roughly 30 coaches who successfully complete 90% of the material in virtual classrooms.”
Integrations with third-party systems — from Zoom to BlueJeans — make the LMS even easier to use. The LMS also connects with CLI’s propriety content management system (CMS) so that people access the most current content.
The highly integrated approach to learning helps ensure that CLI teams are well-prepared as they work with educators. Training incorporates a mix of materials: new lessons created with Captivate, courses from accredited partners, and material pulled from Adobe Marketplace. Owen and her team quickly established a streamlined approach to creating custom lessons. Once content knowledge experts complete scripts, a media editor uses Captivate to create videos, PowerPoints with audio elements, and informative workbooks before uploading to the LMS.
Owen organizes lessons into structured catalogs so coaches and other team members can quickly find relevant training, which increases course completion rates. Tracking in the system lets regional managers and team leader check whether employees finish their courses, leading to a 100% completion rate on all mandatory training within two weeks of its availability.
“We have more than 700 lessons available to our coaches and team members,” says Owen. “One of the things I really like about working with the new LMS is that it covers the spectrum of online learning. We have video, live virtual classrooms, and asynchronous lessons. We provide articles that can connect to a social space where coaches can talk about it together. I’d like to add more quizzes in the future to make sure that people really understand the lessons.”
“With the scalability of Learning Manager, we train more than 300 people a year between our internal learnings and our projects with partners. We hope to triple that number within three years.”
Jordanne Owen
Director of Marketing, Branding, and E-Learning Technologies at CLI
Sharing best-in-class learning content
While CLI primarily uses the LMS for internal training, the organization is starting to bring school partners and educators into its virtual classrooms. Currently, CLI is collaborating with school partners in Florida and Massachusetts on projects emphasizing skills development in Pre-K teachers. Teachers get the option to attend training in-person or work independently online.
“With the scalability of Learning Manager, we train more than 300 people a year between our internal learnings and our projects with partners. We hope to triple that number within three years,” says Owen.
CLI is also looking to expand its reach to teachers outside of partner schools. By making its robust library of knowledge available through the LMS, the organization wants to establish a strong online community that empowers more teachers to earn literacy education accreditations and certifications.
“We want to be at the forefront of online learning for coaches, partners, and educators across the U.S.,” says Owen. “This supports making education accessible and equitable for every student. Learning Manager transformed how we train people to excel at their jobs, so they can benefit current and future generations.”
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