Enterprise Learning Platform for Global Creative L&D of Technicolor Production Services

Producing great visual effects (VFX) is a key primary activity for Technicolor Production Services which makes hiring great talent (all levels of VFX professionals) a top priority for Technicolor studios.

Production-ready talent on demand is critical to cost-effectively deliver client projects. There aren’t enough experienced artists in the world to meet demand so Technicolor built an Academy delivered at several studios around the world five years ago and has trained over 2000 entry-level artists to date.

To scale the Academy and increase accessibility they switched to a virtual delivery model which also proved to be invaluable during the industry shift to working (and learning) from home accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Needing a way to deploy the virtual courses and manage great student learning experiences, The Focus Global L&D team created an educational hub with 8-10 week VFX blended learning courses. Since launch, they have expanded use to include Masterclasses to upskill experienced artists as well.

The Academy courses consist of virtual classroom-based instruction and feedback sessions (Dailies), scheduled one to one sessions (Rounds), video tutorials, best practice documents, weekly assignments, and occasional online quizzes. 

The L&D team was looking for a Learning Management System to automate the learning process and administrative work that could be branded and customized to use just the features needed to deliver courses the way they wanted.

Today, there are hundreds of LMS solutions in the market, developed by various LMS development companies. What is the right one? 

We chose a Customizable LMS for the following reasons:

1. It has all the necessary features of an LMS for online training including the ability to host different types of learning materials (pdf, video, etc.), learning progress tracking, and assessment tools. 
2. It is easily customizable: it can be adapted to utilize the brand's colors, it can be integrated with other tools that are already used in the organization including live virtual classrooms.
3. Belitsoft has a successful track record in implementing LMS’s for online training.

The customer had a clear vision of the project and a requirements document. However, they realistically allowed for possible changes as well. As a result, we agreed on a mixed pricing model: fixed price with a predefined change request/support budget.

The Agile development approach was the best fit for a system of such size and complexity. It allowed us to quickly release and test parts of the project while keeping the development process flexible.

We successfully implemented the selected LMS to meet Technicolor’s global shift to deploy virtual academies for creative artist training.

Courses are divided into learning modules and properly organized inside the system.

The L&D department team can enroll learners in the course without IT support and trainers can track their learning progress.

The learners get an overview of their learning path, and how to follow it. They are able to schedule virtual classroom training sessions with instructors inside the interface of the LMS as well. 

The instructors have a centralized place to track individual learners' progress including checking their homework.

Student survey feedback on the learning experience in terms of learning technology used has been consistently positive with the average for all either Agreeing or Strongly agreeing the platform and tools were easy to use and performance supported their learning.