Cultivate Leadership Institute

Custom Web/iOS Learning Management System

CLI’s former learning management system wasn’t the right fit for their company’s vision and immediate goals. They needed to build a custom solution to effectively reach their Gen Z students. Their partnership with RoleModel resulted in a custom software asset that:

  • Delivers an intuitive user experience that drives engagement for their Gen Z target audience 
  • Helps save time and resources for their administration with auto grading capabilities
  • Features simple and predictable pricing easily managed in the app
  • Facilitates straightforward content uploading, management, and white labeling 
  • Enables a unified group of students to interact with each other through multiple courses

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They understood what I was asking them to do and could envision it because they’d done learning management system work before and had worked in education. I didn’t have to be too verbose in painting pictures for them because they knew where I was going. They took the data I gave them and were able to create what I was seeing. If there were some things I wasn’t clear on, they would let me know how it would typically work and paint their own picture.

Dr. Eric Freeman
President
Cultivate Leadership Institute

The Story:

Is your software limiting your ability to operate according to your vision? It might be time to explore a custom software solution. 

CLI has a mission to equip individuals to become mature and healthy leaders through instruction, training, and guidance, and specifically have a heart to engage effectively with the Gen Z generation. They were previously using an off-the-shelf learning management system but ultimately found that they couldn’t customize the experience for their users, and the software didn’t support branding or white labeling. CLI needed a software solution that was tailored to their organization to create more engagement, provide an intuitive user experience, strengthen communication within learning groups called 'Equip Groups', increase efficiency for their administrator, and enable their delivery of content to scale. RoleModel collaboratively learned CLI’s vision and organizational goals to help guide them through trade-off evaluation, and to ultimately deliver a software infrastructure and sustainable software asset that will provide long-term value and stability.

Interview with CLI President Dr. Eric Freeman

Overview

Cultivate Leadership Institute is a leadership certificate program that is designed to help students grow in their leadership capacity, influence and spiritual maturity through classroom settings, group discussions, online assignments, community and more. Their research showed that Gen Z generation learns differently, which led them to seek a software platform that would enable CLI to instill better learning habits for their students with an easy to use platform.

They understood what I was asking them to do and could envision it because they’d done learning management system work before and had worked in education. I didn’t have to be too verbose in painting pictures for them because they knew where I was going. They took the data I gave them and were able to create what I was seeing. If there were some things I wasn’t clear on, they would let me know how it would typically work and paint their own picture.

Dr. Eric Freeman
President
Cultivate Leadership Institute

Problem

CLI’s previous Learning Management System was ‘old school’. It was desktop focused, and had a completely unbranded mobile experience. They needed more freedom for managing content and submission capabilities in addition to improved cost management inside the system. Essentially, their LMS was overly complex and outdated, and they wanted an application that was intuitive, and targeted toward the Gen Z learner with a polished UX/UI. 

CLI was hoping to have both a native mobile and web application, but that was cost prohibitive. They needed guidance to understand what could be accomplished with their budget and timeline, while keeping the student experience as the primary focus.

Solution

RoleModel started by learning CLI’s ideal presentation of a flipped classroom model where content is provided ahead of class, and the classroom is used as dedicated discussion time.  Focusing on the main functionality of CLI’s engagement with their students allowed the team to get a deep understanding of the main points of value. Once a lesson plan was mapped out in software, RoleModel iteratively added polished design components while continually increasing the breadth of the solution.

RoleModel worked with CLI to analyze their vision and direction with the software. By learning from the failures and successes of their previous LMS, RoleModel focused on content delivery first which clarified the software’s ultimate architecture and kept communication paramount in the working relationship. 

Notifications Screenshots.pngCLI learned that an iOS app would serve the majority of their users, and RoleModel was able to deliver a hybrid web app to ensure participation from all students while minimizing cost. This leveraged native iOS navigation and push notifications while leveraging web technology for much of the content.

In addition to scaling their own use of the software, CLI had the vision to license their content and software in white labeled solutions for their partners. To reduce the administrative burden for their partners  RoleModel created straightforward administration and payment functionality so that CLI’s partners can efficiently manage aspects of their white labeled learning portal. For example, an auto grading feature that helps save administrative time and provides more visibility to give students effective feedback.

In the effort to promote better engagement among their students, RoleModel worked with CLI to create small groups of students called ‘Equip Groups’ that interact with each other throughout the entirety of the program, spanning multiple courses. Rather than having a large number of students randomly give feedback on assignments, these Equip Groups interact with the same subgroup of students to promote positive peer pressure that keeps the students on track.

Results

Currently, Cultivate Leadership Institute’s iOS app is actively being used and they’re in a good position to reach their students effectively. Their new custom application promotes dedicated engagement on an intuitive platform with a pleasing user experience. RoleModel was able to guide CLI throughout the partnership and create a custom application that addresses their goals in education and will grow as their business expands.

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