American Council on Exercise

Role

Solution architecture
Development
Support
Data migration
Training

Industry

Education

Technology

Totara Learn
Amazon Web Services

parter since August 2017

Ultimate Learning Experience

about

American Council on Exercise (ACE) is the largest nonprofit health and fitness certification, education and training organization in the world with more than 58,000 certified professionals.
 
ACE also plays an important public-service role, conducting and providing science-based research and resources on safe and effective physical activity and sustainable behavior change.

key outcomes

Optimized workflows and automation
Customized learning pathways
Maximal technology enablement

the challenge

ACE Certified Professionals needed to ensure access to learning that allowed for their evolving needs and growing business. Their in-house LMS was limiting and no longer sufficient.
 
ACE selected Totara Learn from a range of professional education LMS products. Totara Learn provided an extensive feature set with a high ROI due to the open-source nature of the solution.
 
ACE also appreciated the advantages and flexibility of the Totara Learn partner network to free their internal IT resources. The conversion to Totara Learn and the implementation of ACE's new LMS needed the right partner.

the solution

ACE selected Synegen as their Totara Learn partner.
 
Synegen has over 8 years of experience with Totara Learn and is a Platinum Totara Partner. Utilizing this expertise, Synegen started ACE's implementation by documenting the user experience to determine how Totara Learn could best support the ACE education model. Key features of the implementation included:
  • Blended design: ACE's internal instructional design team had specific requirements for blended designs within the LMS. Synegen brought an instructional design perspective, helping to ensure the system met those needs. This has enabled ACE's in-house designers to develop more creative, flexible designs in significantly less time.

  • Virtual classrooms: ACE's implementation of Totara Learn needed to leverage virtual online classrooms. To accomplish this, Synegen used the enrollment and scheduling features of the classroom management component, combined with integrated GoTo Meeting webinars. ACE was able to utilize this functionality to make their recertification process a more seamless experience for ACE Certified Professionals.

  • Recertification model: To maintain certification, ACE Certified Professionals are required to earn 20 hours of continuing education credits each year. ACE has made full use of virtual classrooms and the Totara Quiz functionality to provide content and assessment to meet this need. Online learning is a key market differentiator for ACE and is helping to keep ACE Certified Professionals returning to ACE for recertification rather than using a different source.

  • eCommerce functionality: With their Totara Learn implementation, ACE introduced e-commerce functionality that was integrated with their new LMS. ACE was able to improve client relationships as well as provide direct certification fulfillment through the site.
 
Because of Totara Learn, ACE is able to support exam preparation coursework, expanding its offerings and enabling users to ensure they are ready to take a certification exam. Totara Learn has provided many advantages to ACE, and with Synegen's help, ACE was using Totara Learn in less than four months and expected 3,000 users in the following 12 months.

the result

  • ​Speed: up and running in under 4 months

  • ROI: significant cost savings over proprietary LMS alternatives 

  • Design flexibility: The flexible course design options in Totara mean that the ACE ID design team can design with more flexibility and efficiency than before

  • Market differentiation: Ease of virtual CECs is driving recertification revenues

  • Seamless experience: My ACE Account puts all online education in one place for ACE Pros

  • Business efficiency: Fulfillment made easier through eCommerce
"The relationship we have with Synegen our partner, and Totara, works really well in terms of meeting the needs of our roadmap. We needed to future proof and we have picked a great platform, both for our needs right now and one that can grow to meet our needs for the foreseeable future."

- David Fischer, Director of Online Business Technology