Client success
Since August 2018, I've worked with over 35 clients around the world, providing them with my consulting and development services. My client's are usually either an e-learning agency who is looking to start using Adapt to deliver their client's projects or in-house L+D teams who require an Adapt specialist to get them on their way.
Every client brings a unique challenge that needs to be solved. I am ready to listen to your problem, diagnose the solution and then execute on the delivery. I work flexibly and can adjust myself to work around your team. Here are some success stories from clients that I've worked with.
Resolve Poverty is a recognised leader on poverty in the UK. They support local efforts to prevent and reduce poverty by working with stakeholders from across public, private and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors and people with lived experience of socio-economic disadvantage, to effect change.
Prior to our project, Resolve Poverty had no experience with e-learning. All of their training was delivered via face-to-face or online seminars. They were aware of the limitations of this approach, as it required constant active involvement from their subject matter experts and was difficult to scale up when working with a larger audience of learners and with learners who couldn't attend the set times of their existing training sessions. They had been developing a strategy for e-learning, and this was kick-started when a borough council in the South East of England contacted them looking to have anti-poverty training developed in an e-learning format, and they recommended to use Adapt.
They began looking for a partner that could help develop the content for their initial client and then help repurpose it so they could have an off-the-shelf offering for future clients. They had also been given a tight deadline from the client of just one month, to both design and develop the content, so they wanted to work with someone who was responsive, capable and reliable.
Resolve Poverty discovered me and asked if I could assist with the project. After an initial meeting, I proposed three options for how I could partner with them, to address their immediate and longer-term goal. Within a few days of making initial contact, we had reached an agreement and had set deadlines for the project.
They were set up with their own Adapt Unlimited service, meaning that both their internal team and their client could review and maintain the course. I built a storyboard using their subject content and after an initial review began building it in Adapt.
I worked with the team to provide recommendations for graphics we could use and the resolution required for them. I developed a theme that matched Resolve Poverty's branding and incorporated their fonts and colours.
Both Resolve Poverty and their end client were delighted with the outcome. Resolve Poverty were thrilled that they had a new method of delivery that was more flexible than their current training offer, and therefore they could reach a wider number of trainees. It also eliminated the need for active participation of their staff and had a new product offering which could benefit customers that were looking for an alternative to seminar-based training.
"We are so happy with the work Simon produced for us, and the client was particularly impressed with the final product. This was a project with a very quick turnaround, and Simon delivered it on time with no issues. He was incredibly responsive to our needs, and communicated clearly throughout the project. I would recommend Simon to anyone" - Thomas Waring, Business Development Executive, Resolve Poverty
The Office for National Statisitcs (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and its recognised national statistical institute. In 2021 the ONS began a search to replace their non-responsive e-learning authoring tool. They discovered Adapt and decided to use it as their primary internal authoring tool, with Adapt Unlimited as their Adapt hosting provider.
After using the tool for around six months, the Learning Academy department were keen to improve their content and upskill their employees further. Their objectives were to:
- Improve the look of their courses and make them more consistant with the ONS style guide
- Train employees on how to fully use the features of the Adapt Authoring Tool
- Improve their internal course development processes through expert led training and standarised resources and documentation
They had already worked with me through their Adapt Unlimited training and support package, so they felt comfortable to ask if I would be able to help with these additional objectives. I devised a plan for a six month project where I would:
- Create an ONS branded Adapt theme, designed by a Web Designer which I would hire for the project
- Provide unlimited email and screenshare support to any ONS employee who wanted to ask me a question
- Produce and share a series of resources such as a storyboarding template and theme guidelines
The ONS accepted this proposal and between January and June 2022 I delivered upon the project. The outcome was a delighted Learning Academy team who were better at using Adapt and could use the ONS branded theme to keep their content looking professional and consistent.
"Working with Simon was a great experience. He was able to understand the challenges that our employees may have had migrating to a new authoring tool and was keen to offer his assistance to our team. Over his project he created an amazing looking Adapt theme which our authors have been able to apply to both their existing and new courses. He responded very quickly to the questions of all the employees who contacted, no matter how big or trivial they were." - Philippa Brimicombe, Learning Commissioning and Hub Manager, Office for National Statistics
The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) works with employers and training providers to give the engineering construction industry workforce the skills it needs to meet the challenges of the future.
In 2022, as part of a desire to expand its digital learning offering, the organisation acquired a Learning Experience Platform and access to the Adapt Authoring Tool with a suite of off-the-shelf e-learning modules. They were generally happy with the content of these modules but noticed two issues:
- Some of the content wasn't applicable to their learners, many of who worked on-site in various industries and had specific issues and needs. Part of these issues could be addressed by modifying the off-the-shelf modules focused on office workers to on-site workers, but others required brand-new modules covering their industry-specific topics.
- The course didn't match the look and feel of their own branding, they wanted something that was more consistent and professional looking.
With access to Adapt, the Learning and Development team started playing around with the tool and created their own course. However, they quickly became aware of their limitations and realised that they were not capable of creating the content that they hoped for on their own. They decided to enlist a partner who could assist with the creation of a high-quality learning experience and provide training and support to empower them to create content of a similar level in the future.
They discovered Adapt Freelancer and we had an initial call to discuss their problems. I created a proposal with three options for how I could assist, with the primary focus being on an exemplar course which would establish a look and feel to their Adapt courses that they could replicate themselves, with the assistance of clear documentation.
For the project, I hired an Instructional Designer to ensure the content was clearly structured and achieved the learning objectives they were hoping for. I built the theme using their branding style guides and provided ongoing updates with chances for any feedback.
By the end of the project. The ECITB were delighted with the course their exemplar course and was looking forward to their upcoming meeting with their clients, to show off their brand new content.
"I have had the pleasure of working with Simon for the last few months on a number of e-learning projects, and I can confidently say that he and his network are incredibly talented, consistently delivering high-quality work. Simon has a keen eye for design and a deep understanding of instructional design principles, alongside his unbeatable 'Guru' understanding of Adapt itself, which allows him to create e-learning experiences that are engaging, effective, and visually brilliant.
He is always willing to go above and beyond to ensure that the final product meets the needs of the learners and the objectives of the project. Throughout our time working together, Simon has consistently impressed me with his professionalism, attention to detail, and ability to work collaboratively with the rest of the team. He is a true pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend him to anyone in need of top-notch e-learning Adapt design services." - Steve Rick, Senior Service Designer, ECITB
Instill Education (Instill) are a South African company whose aim is to empower educators across Africa. Their main product is an Android app which delivers online courses to these educators to help support and uplift their ability to teach. To ensure they could create they could quickly and efficiently create the content required to populate this app, they decided to use an e-learning authoring tool.
After researching available options, they discovered Adapt. Its responsive design meant that the content would always look great on their mobile-only platform. The e-learning authoring tool was simple to learn and could be done on the cloud without installing software on a local computer, making the job of their large content development team much easier.
Instill installed the Adapt Authoring Tool to a server and started testing the software, but they quickly noticed an issue. Out of the box, Adapt utilises vertically scrolling navigation rather than horizontal slide-by-slide navigation. They had worked with a UX designer to create a prototype for both the app and the e-learning courses. The design had been approved, and with a tight deadline approaching, they didn't want to have to change their desired design. They knew that as an open-source product, Adapt would likely be flexible enough to configure their desired design, but their own internal developers were unsure where to start with this new platform in such a short time before their launch deadline.
They decided they would enlist the help of an external partner, who could help them not only with the modification of their courses, but also provide guidance and assistance on how to use the software effectively; particularly regarding best practices for a larger, distributed team of authors.
They discovered Adapt Freelancer and arranged an introductory call. They explained their desired outcome from Adapt and the tight deadline that they were hoping to meet. Within a few days, I was able to provide a fixed price quote containing several options for how I could help. After choosing their option, I was able to start within a few days. I installed the Article Block Slider extension which changed the layout from vertical to horizontal before making further modifications to the extension and the theme, so the design of the prototype was matched. I created documentation which explained the changes I made and the solutions to some common problems for content authors. I joined the team's Slack channel for a week so I could answer questions that any member of the team had about Adapt.
"Simon was a pleasure to work with. His expertise provided invaluable insight that allows our e-learning project to be launched according to our intended designs, making use of the Adapt native features to best suit our needs. Simon collaborated exceptionally well with our team as well as development partners, providing support and training where needed. We were also grateful to Simon for being flexible to meet our tight timelines in order to ensure project success." - Kim Westcott, Product Manager, Instill Education
Bloc Digital are content and experience specialists. Delivering creatively-wired and tech-driven solutions for training, marketing, industry and more. When supplying their industrial clients with e-learning solutions their preferred method utilises Adapt – in order to deliver responsive and fit for purpose training tools.
As part of their on-going ethos to improve their client's digital development journeys, and as an addition to their in-house team of experts, they contacted me to help with the challenge of upgrading existing content from Framework version 2 to version 5. Their team had already built an entire suite of courses - which utilised variety of plug-ins and a custom theme. For their client we worked in collaboration to deliver an up-to-date and more accessible version of Adapt.
I worked alongside Bloc’s team over a series of months to assist with the delivery of this client’s project. Updating themes to work in the latest Framework, migrating plug-ins – and where this wasn’t possible – recreating them from scratch. By end delivery, the client was able to use all of their existing content along with the addition of brand new features, all accessible through Framework version 5.
"Working with Simon was great! His expertise and knowledge of Adapt meant he was able to locate the latest version of plug-ins in a quick and timely manner. His understanding and experience of this tool meant he was able to source the newest versions of required plug-ins even when they had totally different names! He worked independently and with incredible initiative, frequently providing us with updates and sharing his progress via use of the Adapt Authoring Tool with our in-house team." - Ben Sharp, Head of Operations, Bloc Digital
Me Learning are a UK based digital learning company who help organisations to learn through their library of digital learning content as well by the creation of tailored content. They had been using a popular off-the-shelf e-learning authoring tool to create digital learning content but were finding it was lacking over two deal-breaking points:
- Clients were requesting that courses were WCAG 2.1 AA compliant. With their current authoring tool it wasn’t possible to guarantee to learners that they covered these standards.
- Clients were requesting responsive digital learning content that their learners could access from any device.
After researching available authoring tools they decided upon Adapt as their chosen authoring tool due to its strengths in these two points. The open source nature of Adapt meaning brought extra benefit as it meant they could offer extra customisation for high-end clients, it also meant they wouldn't have to pay licence fees to use the software.
They approached me to help create a base theme that they could use for their catalogue products as well as extend for their client’s projects. My winning proposal included not only the creation of the theme but also clear and precise documentation instructing Me Learning digital learning developers how to recreate all the elements of the theme, ensuring that the transition to Adapt was as smooth as possible.
It’s been pleasure working with Simon throughout this project. He’s an expert in his field. It’s been a breath of fresh air knowing we can trust his suggestions because they backed up with credible experience. Simon even went the extra mile and raised fundamental issues in Adapt Framework with the core team, hopefully making Adapt better for all users, not just our clients. Overall, it was a seamless experience and we’re really happy with the outcome. Charlie Atkin, Head of Creative, Me Learning
Shelter, the UK housing and homelessness charity believe everyone has the right to a safe home. More than one million people a year come to them for advice and support in defence of their rights. Shelter are aware that by training professionals across Local Authorities, as well as other advice and support agencies they can amplify their own impact and change the country. They use Adapt to create highly effective knowledge products, upscaling their offer of support and qualifications to professionals.
I have been collaborating with them to create bespoke themes for each of their departments that adhere precisely to their brand guidelines. As well as enhancing existing open source plugins to make their knowledge products work exactly as their own designer intended.
Shelter is now in a position where they are using Adapt to consider how they can roll out online learning of the highest standard to their own staff and volunteers.
Simon supported initially with two of our Scotland based projects; the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership and then Shelter Scotland with a follow-up project on financial support. Simon has been instrumental in getting Shelter to the position we are now in. Which is one where we are looking at implementing this way of building knowledge products with Adapt across our internal and external L&D departments. Nathan Sheach, Online Advice Services Manager, Shelter
Nume Plus are an e-learning agency based in Italy that creates both bespoke e-learning and a suite of off the shelf e-learning courses for their clients. They started using Adapt through the Plus tier of my Adapt hosting service, Adapt Unlimited. During their time as a customer, I offered support, training and I also helped them by creating custom functionality, in the form of plugins, that their clients requested.
After a year using Adapt Unlimited they wished to migrate to self hosting of the Adapt Authoring Tool. I helped them do this by providing training on how to set up and maintain the Authoring Tool and assisted with moving all their data to their server.
Simon has helped our organization to adopt Adapt for several projects regarding medical simulation and medical education. He has been realiable and trustworty for challenging deadlines. He didn't miss to answer promptly to all the emails during all the phases of our collaborations. Giacomo Gensini, CEO, Nume Plus
Onlea are a Canadian Studio producing accessible and engaging interactive courses, educational experiences, and digital knowledge solutions. After discovering Adapt they were looking for a training provider who could help assist the team to understand the features of Adapt and how they could create the highest quality e-learning content using the authoring tool. They approached me to ask if this would be something that I could provide.
After meeting with their team to understand their needs and requirements, I created a five-session, tailored plan that began by introducing their team to Adapt and its core concepts, before moving on to more advanced concepts such as using CSS in the Authoring Tool and creating themes and plugins in the Framework. By the end of the final session, their team had the competencies to craft high-quality content using Adapt.
Simon is a technically savvy and knowledgeable instructor. His approach to training is flexible and as such he was able to answer our team's questions in a timely manner. Adriana Lopez Forero, President and CEO, Onlea
Mindboost Learning are specialists in online training courses. They had been using Adapt for a few years before they contacted me for assistance. They had been using a hosted version of the Adapt Authoring Tool and were keen to start self-hosting so they could reduce costs. They also wanted to start using Framework version 5 whilst still having the ability to maintain their existing courses built in Framework version 4. I installed the multiple Adapt Authoring Tool versions required by Mindboost on their own server. We also provided clear documentation for how to maintain, update and create new servers to ensure long-term success.
Working with Simon was great. His technical document clearly explained how to perform the tasks we would need to maintain this service including how to start new servers when we needed them. A month after the setup I got stuck on an issue and he was quick to assist. Caleb Foster, Digital Learning Director - Mindboost Learning
The Hurley Group are an NHS partnership with multiple General Practitioner (GP) practices providing patient-centred care all across London.
In January 2017, they launched eHub, a system designed to enable GPs to perform online consultations, at scale, remotely, for multiple practices, leading to a much more convenient experience for both patients and GPs. Over the last three years, and particularly with the current healthcare pandemic, the use of eHub has expanded beyond the Hurley Group. This has raised a new problem of how to inform practices of the benefits of eHub and how to train their staff at scale.
The Hurley Group were convinced that an e-learning system that they could control and deliver to other practices was the way to go. After researching authoring tools they were convinced by Adapt due to its modern design and the benefits of a simple to use authoring experience that was low cost compared to other options.
I created the two hour module which included a bespoke theme that matched the brand guidelines and which used videos recorded by the Subject Matter Experts to ensure that the learning experience felt personal.
The Hurley Group wanted to replicate the experience of performing an actual remote consultation, where the GP would have to think on their feet, and where there may not necessarily be a correct answer. Using this desired outcome I designed and created the Block Branching extension. You can learn more about this extension, and download it for free here.
It was great working with Simon due to his knowledge of Adapt as he was able to offer the right functionality for each learning component to keep it engaging. The result has been content that will save us hundreds of hours of time and widen our innovative idea to GP practices across the UK. Ross Dyer-Smith, Creator of eHub & GP partner.
A Kind Life were intrested in expanding an exisiting Adapt e-Learning module produced by another e-Learning agency into eight brand new modules. The project involved duplicating the existing course then adding and replacing text and assets to repurpose the content for new markets. Costs were kept low by the use of an existing theme which removed the need for a designer or a new custom theme. They also needed a partner who would be happy to maintain an ongoing relationship so that as requests for new amends came they could be delivered promptly.
Simon has proven to be a great partner for us to work with to expand our Adapt based offerings. He has been very transparent about how he works and is always prompt in replying to emails. Working with him has been a real pleasure. Tim Keogh, Co-founder, A Kind Life
Flow Hospitality Training (Flow) delivers a comprehensive learning and development solution tailored to the hospitality industry. Their offerings include a portfolio of e-learning modules and a feature-rich LMS. They were looking to enhance their current module portfolio and start offering responsive and accessible content to their customers. After initial research into the responsive e-learning authoring market, they decided to investigate Adapt. Its open source foundation meant that Flow could modify the tool to work within their existing and highly efficient deployment environment in a way that other off-the-shelf authoring tools couldn't.
Flow first partnered with me to provide expert advice on what was possible in Adapt and the possible workflows that the tool enables. After their discovery phase, Flow worked with me again to create a demo to present to internal stakeholders to realise their vision for what a Flow e-learning module would look like in Adapt.
Flow were pleased to see they could achieve a good quality output from the Adapt tool, in particular with the retention of many of the more engaging elements of their existing e-learning, like games and large animated graphics, whilst still supporting multiple devices and screen sizes as their clients had been requesting. They especially appreciated the expert knowledge Simon brought to the project, making what could have been an arduous discovery/proof-of-concept phase run smoothly and efficiently.
Liberate Learning are a award winning e-Learning agency based across Australia. We have had an ongoing relationship running across multiple client projects to provide bespoke learning experience in a responsive e-Learning tool. I've worked with their graphic artists to create themes to match their design. I've provided suggestions on the best plugins they can use to match their clients demands and when they don't exist, create them myself.
Know How! AG are a German company that deliver a range of learning solutions. They commisoned me to create a gamification plugin as part of a larger offering for their end client. The project was completed in under three weeks, with development taking place on Know How!'s private repistory so they had retained their full control of the project.
OutThink are a London-based cybersecurity startup. For one of their clients we created a short e-Learning module built in Adapt. We went through multiple iterations of the theme to ensure it matched the client's strict brand guidelines. I also commissioned a Graphic Artist to create custom images and animations that were used throughout the module.
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