We spoke to Samantha Bell from Education for Dental about her experience of remote learning during lockdown. Here’s her story:

‘My 5-year goal for our education centre was to become paperless and have eportfolio system in place. However, 3 years in and Covid struck! This had a detrimental effect on our company, as it did to everyone. We had over 100 students with paper portfolios that we couldn’t access and were unable to collect. We started moving our training classes virtual, but our students wanted to know, ‘how far am I and am I on course?’, ‘what do I have left to do?’, but I couldn't answer their questions because I didn’t have access to their portfolios.

‘We were unable to visit our students in their working environment and our centre closed. I had staff members worried for their employment positions and students and employers worried about their qualifications. I had to decide on how to manage the situation. I had worked with OneFile in a previous education centre and always knew this would be the package for me when the time was right... my 5-year plan! But now it was make or break time! If I didn’t get an eportfolio system in place there was no option to allow staff to work safely at home, I couldn’t take on new students as I had no platform for communication and I was potentially going to lose existing students.

‘Out of curiosity I contacted Richard at OneFile to look at options. After a short conversation I could see that my business, that I had spent 3 years building up, was not going to survive this pandemic unless I invested in this now. I implemented eportfolio straight away and was supported by Nicola who guided us on transition and developing all our forms and documents onto the eportfolio.

‘Not only has the use of OneFile enabled me to have direct access to students and progress, but my staff can work safely from home and I have now become a distance learning centre which has allowed me to target a wider audience.

‘From a business point of view, I had felt I was not quite ready for investing in an eportfolio, but the Covid pandemic forced me to evaluate my priorities and I am delighted to say it turned out to be the best decision I made as it literally saved my business.’

Samantha Bell, Education for Dental

 

To find out more about using OneFile to support your remote delivery, book a demo with a member of the team.