Learning Management System & Authoring Tool | 2023
Natursport Akademie GmbH
Founded in 2021, the Nature Sports Academy (NAka) represents the interests of professional nature sports instructors in the fields of mountain sports, mountain biking, snow sports and water sports. One of NAka's aims is to give more weight to the topic of sustainability in all training and further education courses offered by the four member associations.
The initial situation
Communicating the topic of sustainability in digital ways
The Natursport Akademie (NAka) was founded in 2021 from a merger of several sports associations with the vision of creating uniformly high quality standards in the training and further education of all natural sports teacher disciplines and placing a special focus on sustainable action and thinking. A research project was initiated in collaboration with the Munich University of Applied Sciences with the aim of finding an appropriate form of communication for this topic. The result: a modern, interactive and digital form of training that is accessible at any time and from any location was favored by the respondents as a suitable means.
With the decision to offer digital training in the future, NAka began looking for an Authoring Tool to create the training and the associated exam itself. At the same time, a platform was sought in order to be able to distribute the training. When looking for a suitable provider, there were clear selection criteria: a German company, a server location in Germany and reliable personal support, as the NAka team had no previous experience in e-learning. The choice finally fell on youknow.
The solution
A successful duo: knowtion and the NAka Campus!
The Natursport Akademie found the ideal partner in youknow, which was able to fulfill all the criteria set. The first step in the project was to set up the "NAka Campus" based on the youknow Learning Management System (LMS). This system would later be used to offer sustainability training and the associated examination. The LMS was seamlessly integrated into the NAka website and connected to the existing WooCommerce plugin. This made it possible to set up a single sign-on procedure. Participants already registered in the store can conveniently log in to the NAka Campus with their existing access data.
At the same time, the smart was implemented. Although the NAka team had no experience in creating learning content, they were able to quickly start implementing the training thanks to knowtion's intuitive Guided Content Mode. The Guided Mode guides the user step by step through the training creation process and helps, e.g. with the formulation of learning objectives or the creation of a didactically meaningful training structure. As the training is extensive due to the content, it should therefore above all be brief and have a high degree of interaction. To achieve this, the NAka team was able to use a variety of interactive elements such as flipcards and hotspots. The training, which consists of nine modules, covers all facets of the topic of sustainability in nature sports. In addition to an overview of various ecosystems, it also looks at appropriate behavior in nature, avoiding plastic waste and the life cycle of outdoor products.
Thanks to the integrated interface between knowtion and the youknow LMS, the sustainability training could finally be published and made accessible directly in the NAka Campus with just a few clicks. With this comprehensive and efficient solution, NAka's challenges were successfully mastered.
Christine Hammer
Project manager
Natursport Akademie
„Packaging the topic of sustainability in a tangible, contemporary, interactive and entertaining way in a training course was initially an almost impossible task for the Natursport Akademie. In collaboration with youknow, my colleague David Hennekes and I gradually opened our eyes and paved the way. The result was a visually stunning, interactive training course with currently 9 modules. The outstanding service provided by all youknow employees is particularly worth mentioning. This is what appreciative collaboration feels like - together you can create the unimagined. “
Davin Hennekes
Project staff
Natursport Akademie
„Our partnership was something special from day one. As "teaching sustainable outdoor sports" was not intended to be a company training course, the requirements profile was individual from the outset. Given the commercial background, the necessary interfaces and the fluid organization, an intensive collaboration developed. Basically, the NAka Campus is a knowledge platform that focuses on change management and education. The "Teaching sustainable nature sports" course in particular is driven by this orientation and we have found a future-proof partner in youknow thanks to its expertise in terms of structure, implementation and mediation.“
Conclusion and outlook
Positive balance: sustainability is coming
The introduction and use of knowtion has enabled the team at the Nature Sports Academy to create a visually appealing and interactive course that has already been successfully completed by over 500 people via the NAka Campus in the first three months. The result shows the great interest and importance of sustainability education in nature sports. The certificate "Teaching Sustainable Nature Sports" is a prerequisite for Level 1 participation in the affiliated associations of the NAka. In addition, "Teaching Sustainable Nature Sports" can be used as further training for license renewal in the associations.
The future looks promising. In collaboration with Dr. Birgit Böhm (research assistant at the Technical University of Munich), a new project is currently being launched: "Connect2move". In a nutshell, NAka is working to protect people from misjudgement and overloading when hiking. Further information on this topic will be available from summer 2024 on the Website of Natursport Akademie.
Ken Weid
Key Account Manager
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