Case study · 2023 · E-Learning · Education
Learning Platform for a Vocational Training Academy
A vocational academy had outgrown its off-the-shelf LMS: instructors fought the authoring tools, learners on patchy connections gave up on video, and completion data arrived as end-of-term spreadsheets. We built them a platform shaped around how trade programs actually run — structured course authoring, cohort-based delivery, assessments with practical checklists, and analytics that flag struggling learners while there's still time to help.
Screens are illustrative recreations — client interfaces stay confidential.
The challenge
Completion hovered in the mid-50s, and nobody could say precisely where learners fell off — the old system reported enrollment and final status, with a black box in between.
Many learners studied on phones over inconsistent connections; long video lectures that buffered endlessly were the single most-cited reason for dropping a module.
What we built
Authoring instructors actually use
A structured content system — modules, lessons, assessments, practical checklists — with an editing experience tested with instructors through two rounds of drafts, replacing the upload-a-PDF culture.
Video that survives bad connections
Lectures transcode to adaptive renditions with position-saving resume and audio-only fallback; average lesson length was rebuilt around short segments with checks between them.
Cohort analytics with early-warning flags
Progress dashboards per cohort surface stalled learners on rules the academy tuned — days inactive, failed-assessment streaks — feeding a weekly outreach list for instructors rather than a term-end autopsy.
Assessments beyond multiple choice
Practical skill sign-offs, photo-evidence submissions, and instructor rubrics live alongside quizzes, so certification reflects the trade skill, not just the theory quiz.
The results
- +22 pts
- Course completion
- −70%
- Course publish time
- 4,300
- Active learners
55% → 77% over five cohorts
authoring and setup effort per course
across trade and certification programs
- Course completion rose from 55% to 77% across the first five cohorts on the new platform.
- Content publish time fell by roughly 70% — new-course setup went from weeks of formatting to days of writing.
- Instructor outreach driven by early-warning flags reached learners a median of 12 days earlier than the previous term-end reviews.
Client identities stay confidential; figures are rounded from end-of-engagement delivery reporting.
Stack & expertise
- React
- TypeScript
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL
- HLS video pipeline
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