Digital transformation in the education sector: Online Classes at around 100 Sites across Germany Case Study: Use of vitero at IBB

The Institut fuer Berufl iche Bildung (IBB AG) has existed for more than 30 years. With its innovative ideas it has become one of the biggest and most successful private education providers with about 100 sites. In addition to numerous private clients it also cooperates with, among others, the Bundesagentur fuer Arbeit, Jobcenters, the federal state governments as partners of the European Social Fund and other companies and authorities. One of the innovative ideas of the IBB was VIONA®, the Virtual Online Academy. Since 2007 the IBB has been offering further education and retraining in the virtual classroom with the virtual team room vitero. Back then it was the fi rst education provider to apply this form of learning.

One of the training rooms of the IBB. It was the first German education provider to introduce a virtual academy (VIONA®) for crosstown events.

Virtual Classrooms

Already ten years ago, it was the goal of the IBB to offer an extensive training portfolio at each of its locations. “The diffi culty was, however, that we did not have enough participants at each location for viable groups”, says Katrin Witte, member of the IBB board and responsible for the virtual academy. In order to enable these events nonetheless, the IBB decided in favour of a – at this time – new technology and at the same time for a growth market: virtual classrooms. This way, participants could be trained together at all locations across the country and the IBB’s training portfolio could achieve a considerable horizontal growth. The education service provider took one further decision to guarantee the highest quality also for its virtual trainings: It decided to cooperate with vitero.

Interaction & communication

“When selecting the virtual classroom, it was crucial for us that this system allows for simultaneous communication and interaction between participants”, explains Katrin Witte. The virtual team room convinced with its patented interface, a wide range of methodical and didactic functions and the easy handling.

One of the many trainings of the IBB which are carried out via vitero: staff marketing.

Digital Transformation

The goal of the IBB was achieved. From Microsoft courses through further education to commercial qualifi cations: with the help of vitero, the IBB services were almost entirely virtualized and the company was successfully digitally transformed. Today, throughout Germany, participants can benefi t virtually in groups of 3 to 25 from the VIONA® training portfolio with 12 departments. “Our participants are very satisfi ed with vitero – they rate us with the grade 1.8”, says Katrin Witte.

Thousands of Participants

“We use vitero for different types of lessons as part of the classic further education for jobseekers, corporate and private clients. But we also use it for our internal meetings and trainings”, reports Witte. The range of situations in which vitero is used by the IBB is as extensive as the training portfolio. Events with hundreds of participants from all over Germany take place as well. “With vitero we are able to offer virtual events to thousands of participants at the same time.”

Like in the Classroom

“We have many participants who are less technically experienced”, emphasizes Katrin Witte. In this way the easy handling and the realistic sense of space in vitero become even more important. “For our participants the design of the virtual classroom is especially helpful because it connects to their learning biography. It feels like being in a real classroom: Participants can talk to each other and to their teacher, share and work on their results on the virtual blackboard and withdraw to an adjoining room for teamwork.”

Joint growth

Meanwhile the IBB has been working with vitero for almost 10 years. During this time, the sites of the company have not only more than doubled, the IBB has also entered the virtual market and today is a pioneer of the digital transformation within the education sector. “We learned a lot from each other – it was a continuous development process”, says Witte. The IBB could also benefi t from new developments such as a fully integrated language laboratory, the vitero language lab. “In the meantime we even have requests for music lessons, for which our virtual platform is to be used”, adds Katrin Witte. “After 10 years I can still state: vitero is the best tool for us.”

Further Case Studies

Well-known customers and partners from a wide variety of sectors and industries speak for the diversity of vitero inspire. The numerous possibilities of vitero are also evident from the variety of our application settings.