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On 11th July 2021, Discover eLearning officially turns 5. Every year in a small business like ours is an important one, so we’re delighted to reach this momentous milestone.

When our MD Chris Hodgson first launched Discover eLearning, it was his mission to make creative, colourful, engaging digital learning content that learners love. This remains one of our core objectives – but as the company has grown, so has our ambition.

“I made it a goal for Discover eLearning to be seen as the premier UK-based authority on the use of WordPress to create tailored, engaging, yet affordable digital learning solutions,” Chris says. “Flash forward five years, and our WordPress for Education services have become the most popular area of our business.”

We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved over the last 5 years. To celebrate, we’re sharing some of our most memorable moments from 2016 to today – and revealing a little more about our future plans.

2016: The Launch Of Discover eLearning

After Chris launched Discover eLearning in 2016, it wasn’t long before he took on his first consulting contract. Chris supported RWE npower to create bespoke digital training solutions for their customer support staff. We helped introduce a unique digital onboarding initiative for the Smart metering team.

“It was wonderful to be a part of a dedicated learning and development team,” Chris reflects. “Each member of the team brought their own creativity and dedication to the job. This made it a fantastic project to be a part of – and a great way to start the Discover eLearning journey.”

2017: Creating The Discover eLearning Web Store

In 2017, we introduced our web store, so we could offer lots of free, useful resources for education providers to add swiftly to their WordPress LMS. And it’s safe to say it’s been a great success since its launch.

Developing productivity plugins and eLearning resources for our web store helps us actively engage with schools, colleges, and training providers. We can learn what our customers need, then build the right solutions (and even give them away for free – we’re nice like that). Tons of learning professionals continue to download free eLearning templates from our web store every day.

See what’s on offer in our web store.

2018: Celebrating The 70th Birthday Of The NHS With Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how crucial the NHS is – but it’s always been a cornerstone of the country’s wellbeing. So when the opportunity arose for us to help our local trust celebrate 70 years of the NHS in 2018, we couldn’t wait to get involved.

The 70 Years 70 Stories project is profoundly important to us. We created a platform for the trust to share 70 NHS staff stories, flexing our consultation, development, and support skills. From clinical scientists to midwives, this project enabled people and patients to hear the amazing stories behind our NHS workers.

See the 70 Years 70 Stories Project here.

2018: Recognition & Recommendation From LearnDash

Our WordPress for Education offering is built around the LearnDash platform. Using LearnDash, we transform WordPress sites into bespoke, unique LMS systems. So when we began to receive referrals directly from LearnDash in 2018, it was a pretty big deal.

LearnDash saw the results we’d already achieved with a range of UK-based clients using their platform. This led them to refer enquiries to us directly. This propelled our business – and our reputation – skywards, forming a relationship with LearnDash that’s still going strong.

Check out some great LearnDash-recommended add-ons here.

2019: Thinking Differently With Oakwood Training

We’ve been lucky enough to work with a number of incredible clients over the years, creating work we’re immensely proud of. But we’re especially proud of our work with health and safety training specialists Oakwood Training.

We began working with Oakwood when they were at the beginning of their online learning journey. The system we’ve built together is a true showcase of how WordPress can transform the online learning experience.

Regarding their ongoing success in the online learning space, Terry Streather Managing Director of Oakwood Training had this to say: “3 years on we’re really excited to still be working with Discover eLearning. They have really listened to what we’ve needed and developed incredible courses for us. Feedback from our clients is consistently excellent about our eLearning programs. It’s a real pleasure working with Chris and we look forward to collaborating on many more projects together in the future.”

2019: Creating Online Access To HE Courses With Middlesbrough College

We love building long-term relationships with our clients, helping them adapt to the ever-changing education market. So we were excited to help Middlesbrough College create their first fully-online distance learning course.

The course was a hit with learners, staff, and judges alike (more on that later!). It’s also given us a chance to forge an ongoing relationship with the college. This year, we’re embarking on a new project called Construct – an online learning environment that’s purpose-built for Construction students.

2019: Producing Alice In Typhoidland With The University Of Oxford

Alice in Typhoidland is one of the most exciting projects we’ve worked on. Hosted by the University of Oxford and the History of Science Museum, the Alice in Typhoidland exhibition was designed to be inclusive and accessible – and it was an incredibly creative project to work on.

We built the exhibition website, and created two games for the exhibition: the Mad Hatter Pipe Challenge and the Dean Liddell River Challenge. It was fantastic to work alongside such influential learning institutions.

Take a punt on the Dean Liddell River Challenge or help the Hatter fix his plumbing here.

2019: Runners Up At The Learning Technologies Awards

The Learning Technologies Awards are arguably the most prestigious in the business. So when we were recognised as runners-up in two categories for our work with Middlesbrough College, we were thrilled. (And we were pretty excited to go to a fancy awards do, too.)

The competition was seriously fierce. At the time, Chris said, “If you take a look at some of the names nominated for the awards, you can see the sheer quality required to win. When you’re up against the likes of Channel 4, the BBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland, you know your project has to be good!”

Read more about our Middlesbrough College project here.

2020: Winning Gold At The Learning Technologies Awards!

At Discover eLearning, we always go for gold. So while we were pleased with our runners-up medals at the Learning Technologies Awards in 2019, we knew we had to aim for the biggest prize going. And last year, our efforts paid off: we won gold at the Learning Technologies Awards 2020 for our work on Alice in Typhoidland.

The judges lauded the work, which won the Best Learning Game category. “The design and the graphics were beautiful and the gameplay straightforward. It was a strong and refreshing entry and one that was extremely topical in today’s Covid-challenged world.”

Chris reflected on the award and the timeliness of the exhibition. “I hope everyone who saw the exhibition and played the games enjoyed them, and learned a little more about the history of Oxford, typhoid, and how scientists work so hard to keep us safe from infectious diseases. Hopefully we’ll see an end soon to the one the world is currently battling.”

2021: Producing Resources To Help Children Understand The COVID-19 Crisis

We understand that it can be difficult for parents and teachers to explain the impact of the Covid pandemic to children. So we’ve expanded on our Alice in Typhoidland work to include Covid Corner – a space dedicated to helping children learn about the new disease, and its impact on the world.

In conjunction with the University of Oxford, we’re also developing digital games and online learning activities to help highlight the effects of the virus. We’re creating resources for children of all ages to help them understand more about Covid.

What’s Next For Discover eLearning?

Over the next 5 years, we want to make more contributions to the WordPress for education community. We believe this will help make bespoke learning experiences more accessible for even more learning providers, especially now that companies operating in our region can benefit from the North East Business Support Fund. This will give more students a fantastic online learning experience.

That’s why we’re investing in our own innovations to bring you a fully fledged Learning & Development focused plugin for WordPress. We’re not revealing too much just yet, but you can be sure this plugin is going to be game-changing for supporting learners long-term and measuring the impact of all your learning programmes, regardless of what platform you currently use. Keep track of the latest developments by following us on Twitter and Facebook (or connect with Chris on LinkedIn).

Finally, we’d like to say a huge thank you to all our clients and supporters over the years. We’ve loved every minute of working with you, and can’t wait to bring you more online learning solutions in the future.

Rebecca Munton

Rebecca is a creative content writer for Discover eLearning. With a background in marketing for eLearning, she writes useful content to help staff and students get the most from digital technology and Discover eLearning's award winning WordPress-based solutions.

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