Pyramid Learning Empowers Global Social Change With Rise 360

The Challenge

Pyramid Learning needed to maintain high participant engagement while moving to online learning

Following a devastating natural disaster, a leading nonprofit working across all of the states of Mexico enlisted the help of Pyramid Learning. Together, they built a program to educate emergency response teams in the regions in Mexico most vulnerable to natural disasters on managing disaster risks and effective emergency responses.

The program was initially implemented via in-person workshops with facilitation teams that trained several hundred people in just a few days. But COVID-19 pushed the teams to move from face-to-face training into an engaging online format. They needed a way to preserve the courses’ engaging nature even in an updated e-learning format.

The Answer

By converting the program to e-learning with Rise 360, Pyramid found a lasting, scalable, and cost-effective solution

To open up new opportunities for self-led learning, Pyramid drew on its deep experience with Rise 360. In under two months, they worked with the nonprofit to successfully convert the curriculum to e-learning. 

Together, they identified the core topics of the curriculum and created 20 modules to address them. The new format helped them reach a much wider geographic audience while reducing training costs. What’s more, they discovered this format offered greater flexibility and geographic reach among participants and instructors alike.

Preserving the engaging nature of the courses was crucial for course participants to achieve true learning and understanding. Pyramid addressed this need by rounding out the content with embedded videos, links to crucial documents, and light assessments within the Rise 360 courses—but they didn’t stop there.

Pyramid complemented the self-led Rise 360 courses with live webinars and facilitated discussions to spur peer-to-peer engagement and discussions. These live sessions increased the self-guided content’s impact by allowing learners to share their experiences and reflections with both fellow participants and expert facilitators. This blended learning model helped the nonprofit enjoy the best of both worlds. Online courses increased scale, reduced costs, and prompted self-reflection—all without sacrificing live interaction where it was most effective.

“Participating in the discussions is so important for an engaging learning experience,” says Pyramid Learning’s Co-Founder Michael Culligan. “But we couldn’t provide that opportunity without the Rise 360 content, which provides didactic learning and prompts learners’ thinking.”

Unlocking Human Potential

Thanks to rave reviews, the program was expanded internationally

Following the two-month conversion process, each of the target regions successfully resumed all risk reduction activities in the updated e-learning format, and the program received overwhelmingly positive participant feedback. 

What’s more, the nonprofit reported that learners demonstrated increased knowledge about the course materials. Results were comparable to those of the in-person workshops, but on a much greater scale and at a fraction of the costs.

Thanks to these results, the nonprofit soon expanded the program nationwide, and even onboarded organizations from other countries. By opening up opportunities for greater flexibility while maintaining the dynamic nature of their workshops, they were able to more efficiently empower an even larger audience with the skills needed to reduce disaster risks.

With Rise 360, Pyramid Learning empowers humanitarian organizations across the globe with scalable e-learning that solves some of the world’s most complex challenges.