echelon
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Case study: Continuing Professional Development via the web

Using modern publishing technologies to advance professional standards

The planning profession is faced with a range of challenges to keep pace with changing regulations and the demand for continuously improving levels of service. The main method for planners to keep up-to-date and to satisfy their CPD requirements was attendance at workshop events. Time and budget issues made this difficult.

In 2003 an Institute determined to offer its members a web-based opportunity to advance their professional development.

Echelon was commissioned to develop an on-line resource to host specialist planning learning materials and performance support tools. We developed some 250 technical planning modules from scratch, establishing PlanningMatters, the Institute’s on-line CPD library. A similar library of business, management and personal development titles, derived from Echelon’s www.learningmatters.com resource, was included to meet the general development needs of planners.

Echelon’s approach

Investigation of the concept and priorities was carried out with the Institute and a number of local authority planning departments. In addition to exploring the appetite for the service, and the breadth of content required, we assessed the learning styles that would guide development of the content. A pilot was undertaken to produce a small number of technical planning and to test these with a sample of planners.

A multichannel communication strategy was implemented, through the Institute, to promote the value of the PlanningMatters service. E-mail were sent, articles featured in every edition of the Institute member magazine, presentations were made at regional events – all to position the on-line resource as a means of enhancing the capability, efficiency and responsiveness of the profession in meeting the needs of clients and colleagues.

www.PlanningMatters.co.uk offers members of the Institute access to a range of bite size ‘knowledge builders’ and ‘action lists’ designed to improve their performance and continue their professional development. Each document is commissioned from a subject matter expert and is accompanied by an online self-assessment questionnaire developed by Echelon’s learning designers.

Each module downloaded by the user is automatically recorded in their on-line learning log which can also be used to plan and evidence CPD. The resource is supplemented by a selection of business and management soft skills content taken from Echelon’s www.learningmatters.com website.

Echelon partnered with the commercial arm of the Institute to manage both the publishing and sales and marketing aspects of the project.

This project brings together many of Echelon’s capabilities. Our ability to source and manage authors, publish content which can be distributed over the web, design and host the website, and promote usage electronically.

News and views were communicated twice monthly to an e-mail database which grew from zero to over 12,000 by 2009. This was supplemented in 2007 by a legal commentary, written in the form of a blog and available on the home page of the site, which provided insight into how the courts were interpreting planning law and its potential impact on planners. Echelon provided marketing support to the Institute including production of a product brochure, presenting at events and demonstrating the service to potential users across the UK.

An important element in retaining the confidence of users, and motivating them to return to the site, was both growing the library and ensuring that the technical planning content was kept up-to-date. We set up agreements with authors to maintain their modules and had an on-going production line of new and up-dated modules.

Marketing of the service was continuous via a range of communication media. The regular legal blogs, added to twice each month, provided a powerful draw to the site.