Custom LMS for Al Jazeera
The Customer
Al Jazeera Media Institute is the educational project of the Al Jazeera Media Network conglomerate.
Having millions of viewers around the world, Al Jazeera attracted thousands of learners to its platform.
Due to the 2020 pandemic, the number of users increased even more: in May 2020, the number of registered users peaked at 120,000.
Along with that, the evolution of the platform came to the point where the need in advanced custom LMS arised.
Together with Raccoon Gang, Al Jazeera decided to launch the project of transitioning the “legacy” eLearning platform to the new Open edX based learning management system.
Tasks
Challenges
Solutions
The LMS interface has been customized to match the design of the original platform, including the new custom features. The platform is fully adaptive and looks great on any device.
We’ve applied a multistep migration process to make it almost invisible to hundreds of thousands of users. We ranked learner groups by activity and migrated their data accordingly. User data is activated after their first login to the new LMS using single sign-on.
Synchronizing a training user’s history takes a few minutes, so we applied an individual transition. This decision allowed us to save each learner’s progress during the migration but not stop the platform.
We provided hosting for the new LMS while integrating it successfully with the existing services in Al Jazeera’s Azure cloud computing service. The platform achieved high scalability (hundreds of thousands of users, according to test requests).
Multitenant deployment with Azure PAAS services consisted of two stages: first, we created a prototype infrastructure, followed by the deployment process (with updated application code).
We worked productively with the customer’s cloud team to implement our new solution.
We’ve adapted the platform’s multi-linguality to the requirements of the Al Jazeera team. We’ve added an automatic display of courses depending on users’ chosen localization. From the English-language localization, the learners see only English-language courses. If they decide on Arabic, courses in both languages are displayed.
We’ve adapted the platform’s multi-linguality to the requirements of the Al Jazeera team. We’ve added an automatic display of courses depending on users’ chosen localization. From the English-language localization, the learners see only English-language courses. If they decide on Arabic, courses in both languages are displayed.
Open edX already had an Arabic localization that was 97% complete. We not only finalized the translation, but also made detailed edits to the text of the entire system in this language, according to customer’s requests.
We also replicated and improved the functionality of the language filter field on the Course Catalog.
We also created an additional field “Full Name (in Arabic)” in the Account settings page and Registration form. It allows automatic generation of a full Arabic name in a custom certificate. The field is optional.
The Al Jazeera Institute is associated with outstanding specialists in the field of media training. This eLearning platform is proud to bring together a group of distinguished Al Jazeera “stars” to support learners for future success.
Therefore, it is essential to display the trainer’s photo and name under each course and a link to his full profile. Users can easily find courses from their favorite media expert.
We reproduced this element in the new LMS and upgraded its flow (on the Main page, Course catalog and on each Course landing page)
The Al Jazeera Institute is associated with outstanding specialists in the field of media training. This eLearning platform is proud to bring together a group of distinguished Al Jazeera “stars” to support learners for future success.
Therefore, it is essential to display the trainer’s photo and name under each course and a link to his full profile. Users can easily find courses from their favorite media expert.
We’ve implemented the “Instructor” course filter and technical solutions to display all courses from a selected instructor on its Instructor Bio page.
“Introductory lessons” from experts are also a powerful incentive to register for a course. The element is placed on the course landing page, along with other building blocks. Each block is optional: if one is empty on the admin panel, it is automatically hidden.
“Introductory lessons” from experts are also a powerful incentive to register for a course. The element is placed on the course landing page, along with other building blocks. Each block is optional: if one is empty on the admin panel, it is automatically hidden.
Users are able to add courses to “Saved” section which is displayed on the learner’s Dashboard
We’ve integrated the eCommerce feature with Al Jazeera’s custom CyberSource gateway.
The custom LMS gives the ability to create different certificate layouts for each course.
One can upload certificate templates and placeholder items: a partner logo and QR code. We also added the ability to set up bilingual or monolingual versions and an optional paid certificate indicator (with the signature of the institute director).
We’ve developed The custom LMS gives the ability to create different certificate layouts for each course.
One can upload certificate templates and placeholder items: a partner logo and QR code. We also added the ability to set up bilingual or monolingual versions and an optional paid certificate indicator (with the signature of the institute director).
Course managers are able to choose a certificate template for a given course, upload partner logo if necessary, and upload a QR code. Bilingual certificates and backend functionality for them to be available are also implemented.
Customer can create any HTML certificate layout and upload it in the Admin panel. The new template will be available immediately in LMS Studio.
We’ve implemented the GDPR compliance functionality according to Al Jazeera’s standards.
The platform is designed to make education and training entertaining and engaging. We’ve set up our RG Gamification tool for the LMS:
Gamification dashboard and leaderboard has been aligned with the general platfrom’s style
Our RG Analytics module added actionable and real-time reports to the LMS. It’s a powerful tool for improving online courses based on learners’ activities analysis and course completion success levels, including ability to connect with a particular learner group (by progress level, by lesson they are stuck in, by assessments they have issues with, etc.)
The corporate package is also one of the off-the-shelf tools developed by Raccoon Gang. It allows the creation of branches of the platform on additional specialized white-labeled subdomains.
Al Jazeera can use subdomains to collaborate with other corporations, giving them access to their chosen package of courses, which enables b2b sales of the learning materials.
Results
With us, you get a team of eLearning experts, experienced custom LMS developers, and gain a lot of benefits of using powerful open source LMS technology
With us, you get a team of eLearning experts, experienced custom LMS developers, and gain a lot of benefits of using powerful open source LMS technology
