Desire2Learn Client Success Story KARDINIA INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Empowering individual learners with a consolidated platform Kardinia International College is a progressive Australian independent K-12 school based in Geelong, Victoria. Founded in 1996, Kardinia has grown from a population of 30 students to over 1,850 and now ranks in the top 5% for Senior academic results in the state. The school’s founder, Mr. Yoshimaro Katsumata, built the institution on a former school site to emphasize the new beginning energized by Kardinia’s motto: “Wisdom leads to Respect and Friendship.” The Profile: Modern Practices and Structures Catering to the Individual Student Kardinia’s International Baccalaureate program is mandatory for primary students and optional for Victorian Certificate Education students. Seniors use a vertical curriculum of over three hundred subjects to design an individual timetable. All students have an email account and access to the school intranet. The Challenge: Integrating Content and Administration into a Single, Scalable Platform Kardinia had previously used various content management products to meet academic and organizational requirements. Beginning in Year 5, for example, students were issued their own tablet to minimize the purchase of physical texts and access content more efficiently online. Staff, likewise, spent a great deal of time developing online content but required a tool that facilitated more than just document exchange. Primarily using Microsoft® SharePoint® and only one developer to fulfill update requests, Kardinia felt it had reached a technological limit and began searching for a product that could consolidate their requirements into a single platform with sufficient flexibility and scalability for future growth. A potential solution also had to further enable parent involvement and help Year 9 students on exchange in Chiang Mai, Thailand to keep up with classroom subjects on the home campus. The Solution: A Desire2Learn Pilot Project While investigating how to broaden the capabilities of its existing learning platform, Kardinia discovered that the Desire2Learn product suite had a dedicated team of two hundred developers creating the kind of customized functionality required by their enterprise. A Desire2Learn technology pilot project – intentionally structured with a representative sampling of teachers of varying technical ability, diversified content expertise, and different ages – was introduced into the Kardinia environment. “The Desire2Learn platform provided the flexibility and Key Benefits: scalability we need to grow.We were also drawn to the • supportive Desire2Learn community, both within Australia • and internationally, that would ease the transition to the • Significant increase in learner engagement Students able to shape their own experience and inform instructional delivery Consolidation of learning systems eliminated redundancy and improved accessibility new product line. We have found that there is a high degree of information sharing and best practices implementation in the greater Desire2Learn community.” Diana Murase | Manager, Information and Communications Technology, Kardinia International College The Result: Learner Success and Engagement Drive Adoption and Further Implementation The pilot program’s feedback was immediate – and very positive. Students in the pilot courses saw immediate benefits and actually encouraged other teachers to adopt the program for other subjects as soon as possible. There was a dramatic increase in the number of students taking the initiative to learn subject material beyond course requirements. This sudden demonstration of heightened learner engagement demonstrated the best kind of unexpected success: students were not only assimilating knowledge, but actively contributing to the instruction process and informing delivery methods. The new platform has encouraged Kardinia students to take an interdisciplinary approach to their studies. Desire2Learn Learning Environment has been successfully adopted as the senior years’ tool of choice for staff, student, and parent interaction. Pre-class preparation has also been enhanced: students can watch a video or read a paper prior to class and subsequently focus on deeper exploration of subject material during maximized face-to-face time with teachers. Absent students can visit online portals to see what they have missed. Continuing on Kardinia’s initial success, a Desire2Learn Campus Life pilot project is scheduled for 2013 to replace an existing online portal used by parents. The Campus Life mobile application will enable parents to access campus news in real time using subscription and RSS feeds. They can also access up-to-date information without having to log in. If necessary, parents may log in to the full Learning Environment for a more detailed analysis of student progress. Many parents identified an ongoing progressive review of their children’s achievements, as opposed to relying on scheduled end of semester reports, as a priority. From an institutional perspective, a consolidated Desire2Learn solution allowed Kardinia to eliminate redundant processes and data duplication across multiple platforms. Built-in efficiencies also contributed to a decreased administrative load which, in turn, improved pedagogical processes. These benefits ultimately helped devote more resources to continuous content renewal and learner support in the classroom, driving the story’s real success: the implementation of Desire2Learn technology drove increased student engagement and encouraged learners to adopt greater responsibility in the shaping of their individual journey. “The pilot project was an incredible success. It created a buzz on campus. I was seeing benefits that had not been possible before - instant feedback, improved access to desired learning materials, less time required for administrative tasks, and more time for teaching and content development. The engagement and initiative we saw from students wanting to adopt a wider implementation of the platform was the best result we could Kardinia is also in the process of implementing Desire2Learn ePortfolio across its Junior school to help over four hundred students organize their lives and build a lifelong professional development diary that ensures permanent visibility of their work and accomplishments from K-12. Junior students will be able to access information they explored during the day to share and extend learning with their families. have hoped for.” Diana Murase | Manager, Information and Communications Technology, Kardinia International College Desire2Learn helps improve our world by pioneering innovative methods and environments to engage and inspire learners throughout their lives. Making education more accessible helps learners reach their full potential by reflecting the unique needs of organizations, instructors, and students. A global leader in cloud-based (SaaS) learning solutions, Desire2Learn provides an open and extensible platform to more than 700 clients and 10 million learners in higher education, K–12, healthcare, government and the corporate sector, including Fortune 100 companies. Desire2Learn has personnel in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and Singapore. 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