Introduction

Oxfam supports communities to build better lives for themselves. Their three core values of empowerment, inclusiveness and accountability drive everything they do, and that includes L&D. We interviewed three people playing an important role, to gain their perspectives on how a democratized approach to learning, and the use of Elucidat, is supporting the confederations’ mission.

Watch the video to find out how hundreds of authors are enabling Oxfam to be reactive to rising needs.

Why does digital learning matter to Oxfam?

“I think it’s fair to say that knowledge sharing is absolutely critical for Oxfam to design really impactful programs, and digital learning basically enables anyone at Oxfam to capture and contribute their expertise, and that supports the broader movement.

Prior to Elucidat most of our learning was classroom based or even manuals hosted on local intranets, and what little elearning that we did have was generally developed by external contractors, which is fine, but it was obviously expensive and very difficult to modify.

How is Elucidat helping you meet your goals?

So we recently developed a module on safe programming practises, which is the idea that we can always be causing harm as an organization. And we need to have practice in place to mitigate it. It’s really important that all of our staff know about this. So having it available with lots of different languages makes that possible.

We currently have it available in Arabic, Spanish, French, and Burmese. We’re also in the process of adding a translation for Ukrainian and Russian, which is really exciting.

We’re always learning as an organization so as we develop new resources, we can just update the course really easily. So everyone is able to access the most up to date information.” – Melissa Harris, Safe Programming Policy Advisor, Oxfam

What kinds of digital learning are you creating and who’s involved?

“Our digital learning is really broad. From mandatory courses for new starters to courses for specific regions.

We also have courses that are developed for specific regions and countries. For example, Indonesia are using Elucidat to house some videos that they will share with partners in country. And we have some very sector specific courses. For example, we are about to launch our Sani Tweaks course which focuses on improving sanitation programmes in emergencies and boosting latrine usage rates.”

In summary

Oxfam’s shift to digital learning has proved a cost-effective way to increase the speed and reach of knowledge sharing across the organization. Using Elucidat, they have developed a new model for L&D which embraces their core values:

• Empowerment: Enabling anyone to create elearning to support Oxfam’s mission.
• Inclusiveness: Creating digital learning that’s truly inclusive of employees in different regions: translated into different languages and adapted for partners.
• Accountability: Creating ownership and making it easy for anyone to quickly and easily keep their content up to date.