At NIOMIND, we are engaged in an ambitious project in the field of distance learning. For Consulting SpA, a banking consulting and training company, certified according to UN:EN ISO 9001:2015 Sect. IAF and present in the market for over 30 years, we have created a custom digital training platform that meets the requirements set by the bodies responsible for funding training plans.

The platform allows the delivery of educational activities in both synchronous and asynchronous modes; all phases are supervised: initial/final assessments, training delivery, knowledge tests, and satisfaction surveys.

A fundamental goal was to simplify the creation of training pathways, while offering advanced tools for generating custom reports, ensuring comprehensive training for learners and simultaneously facilitating the work of trainers in designing and monitoring educational pathways.

OPEN SOURCE AND CUSTOMIZABLE

Moodle is an open-source platform, which means it offers high flexibility and customization. Being open-source, Moodle significantly reduces the licensing costs associated with other proprietary LMSs, making it an economically advantageous solution, especially for large organizations.

LARGE AND SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY

Being one of the most used LMSs in the world, Moodle boasts a vast and active global community. This ensures a constant flow of updates, support, and sharing of best practices, thus ensuring that the platform remains cutting-edge and keeps up with the latest industry trends and needs.

RELIABILITY, SCALABILITY, AND SECURITY

Moodle is known for its robustness and reliability, essential for managing large volumes of users and content, typical of a banking organization. Its scalability allows the platform to be easily expanded as training needs grow. In a highly regulated sector like banking, data security is crucial. Moodle offers robust security and privacy features, ensuring that sensitive data is managed and stored in compliance with current regulations.

INTEROPERABILITY AND INTEGRATION

Thanks to its open standards, Moodle integrates effectively with a wide range of systems and applications already in use in banking institutions, such as CRM, human resources management systems, and other technology platforms, thereby simplifying processes and improving efficiency.

ADAPTABILITY TO MOBILE LEARNING

With the evolution of mobile learning, Moodle presents itself as a platform highly compatible with mobile devices. Although we have not yet embarked on the creation of a mobile app, we have thus already put ourselves in a position to be able to do so, when the client and the banks within its network are ready for this step.

✅ Innovate without barriers: our company is constantly committed to choosing the best solutions, prioritizing quality and maximum benefit for the client, regardless of our previous experience. The adoption of Moodle, despite being new to us, and the use of Amazon AWS, demonstrate our pursuit of excellence, not convenience or mere practicality.

In our project, we chose to adopt the cloud architecture recommended for Moodle, based on the best practices outlined in AWS documentation. This choice was fundamental to ensuring the scalability and reliability necessary in a banking environment. The cloud architecture not only allowed us to effectively manage the increase in demand and number of users, but also ensured a stable and high-performance platform. Moreover, the implementation of this architecture has strengthened security, a crucial aspect in a highly regulated sector. Opting for this solution allowed us to offer a cutting-edge service while maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance, key elements for the success of the project.

For our project, we decided to integrate BigBlueButton (an open-source platform for video conferencing, specifically designed to enhance online learning synchronous training, relying on the BigBlueMeeting service. This choice was driven by the need to provide an interactive and high-quality learning experience. BigBlueMeeting, an online platform for BigBlueButton, offers fully managed and secure hosting solutions, including servers, software, and support. We opted for this service because it offers a specific configuration that includes the use of four dedicated servers: a TURN server for connectivity, a server for MP4 conversion, a dedicated streaming server, and a monitoring server. This reinforced infrastructure allowed us to ensure the maximum data security and robust data loss prevention. All recordings are stored in a cloud bucket, ensuring almost perfect durability, and are served via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for efficient and secure access.

In designing our platform, we made a strategic choice: to develop all the required functionalities through plugins, without altering the core code of Moodle. This approach had several key motivations:

After completing this ambitious project, which not only led to the creation of a highly customized e-learning platform but also marked the beginning of a solid partnership, we are ready to share our experience with anyone aspiring to develop a cutting-edge and highly personalized online training platform.
Throughout this journey, we faced numerous challenges: from developing complex cloud architectures on AWS, to creating multiple plugins to meet specific needs in the banking training sector, to devising innovative solutions for synchronous training with BigBlueButton.
Each obstacle was an opportunity to demonstrate our capacity to innovate, adapt, and exceed expectations. The result is a state-of-the-art, secure, and highly customizable application, ready to evolve with the future trends of digital education.