Leicestershire County Council uses e-learning to support creative entrepreneurs

What We Did.

Company Overview

WebinArt is a Professional Development Programme founded in partnership between Colab Creation and Leicestershire County Council, Creative Leicestershire.

The provision offers an online learning resource and mentoring scheme that helps creative start-ups navigate their way to success.

The pilot launched in 2017, providing a series of live video interviews and webinars to a cohort of creative graduates. The first full programme is now in progress with a new round of 60 early-career creatives and artists living in Leicestershire.

The Brief

Creative Leicestershire wanted to provide a digital educational resource. Offering support for creative early stage professionals looking to develop their practice into a creative business.

It had to be easily accessible online, curated and guided by experienced workshop leaders and established artists. It needed to offer flexible and accessible online learning to reduce travel and room hire cost. Also, the learning materials had to be available afterwards as an online resource.

Our Solution

Our aim as technical partner for the WebinArt programme was to do more than simply provide a flexible online teaching experience. We wanted to build a dialogue between the teachers and learners, by creating an online community providing support to its members.

By structuring the project around live video broadcasts, we were able to supply Creative Leicestershire with an interactive learning platform. Which offered members all the interpersonal connectivity of a live event but with the convenience of online learning.

For 2019/20, we’re supporting the WebinArt programme with a series of videos broadcast live over social media and webinar platforms with interactive user functionality. 

Members benefit from 12 online webinar workshops led by creative industry experts. As well as 6 masterclass interviews with internationally renowned artists, producing a combination of very practical advice and really inspirational guidance. 

This year, we’ve enhanced the programme further by developing a Learning Management System using Teachable. This makes each video publicly available after the live events, including all the materials created during the 2019 pilot.

The Client

"Dan’s always looking for how something can be made better, which made me think more creatively about how the WebinArt programme might work. If you want to make something that’s high quality and have a good time making it, then Colab are perfect."
Catherine Rogers
Creative Leicestershire Manager