Learning & Development

Turn your expertise into learning that lasts.

Effective learning is something your people genuinely engage with and apply in their work, not just complete. Openloop designs learning that changes how people work. We pair analytical rigour with learning-design craft to create blended, digital and gamified programs, built to recognised learning standards and made for the people who will actually use them. As a small professional services firm with deep experience across the public, defence, not-for-profit and private sectors, we co-design capability your organisation owns, so the learning keeps delivering even after we are done.

Start a conversation

Most learning is forgotten before it is ever used.

Organisations invest heavily in training, yet much of it fades within weeks and little of it changes how people really work. Too often learning is bought off the shelf, disconnected from the real capability gaps, and never measured, so no one can say what changed. We start with the outcomes that matter and design learning people finish, remember and put to work. Perhaps critical knowledge sits in the heads of a few experienced people and is at risk of walking out the door, a capability or compliance program is not landing the way you hoped, or you are standing up something new and want the learning to be right from the start.

Purpose built for the outcomes you need.

We start with the data to understand the capability you need and the people who will use it, then co-design learning that fits your environment and standards. No one knows your work and your people better than you do. Our job is to bring the learning-design craft, evidence-based methods and outside perspective that turn that knowledge into capability your organisation owns and can keep running. Our leadership development, coaching and facilitation, and change services can also support learning and development programs, so new skills are understood, applied and embedded.

Capability built in four connected stages.

We build capability end to end aligned to the Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate (ADDIE) model, from understanding the need through to proving the impact, tailoring each engagement to your people and environment:

Diagnose needs

Starting with the data, not assumptions, to find the real capability gaps and the outcomes that matter.

Learning and performance needs analysis
Capability models and Job Task Profiles
Target capability and skills mapping

Design learning

Building programs that suit your people and environment, and that people actually finish.

Learning experience design and gamification
Blended and eLearning design
Learning built to recognised standards such as ADDIE and SADL

Build capability

Embedding self-sustaining development so the capability stays with your teams.

Facilitation and workshop delivery
Train-the-trainer programs
Capability frameworks and alignment with IAF core competencies

Prove impact

Showing what changed and where to invest next.

Evaluation design and measurement
Completion analytics and clear reporting
Post-program review and recommendations

Our work in practice

A large Australian government department

Turning deep technical expertise into future-ready learning

The challenge

The division held deep engineering, technical and materiel logistics expertise, much of it tacit and carried in the heads of experienced people. That knowledge was hard to codify and easy to lose as people moved on. Mentoring had passed this knowledge forward, but it relied on individual goodwill and informal conversations rather than a repeatable capability. The division needed to turn that complex expertise into structured, standards-aligned learning that could live on its learning platform and meet the department's learning standards. The existing material was traditional and static, and it needed to become engaging, purpose-built learning designed around the people who would use it.

What we delivered

We translated complex, largely tacit expertise into engaging learning, delivered through varied methods, built to the department's learning standards and designed to fit the division's systems. Over ten months we co-designed complementary courses, for mentors and mentees, across eight progressive stages. The experience blended learning methods, from a fully gamified design and scenario-based practice to staged, sequenced modules, and was tested rigorously, locally and then on the division's own learning management system, before going live.

The outcome

The division now has complete, engaging e-learning courses live on its platform and a reusable, standards-aligned learning capability it fully owns and can keep building on. Complex technical knowledge that once sat with a handful of experienced people is now captured in learning that fits the division's systems and can be delivered consistently at scale. Client feedback was outstanding, a reflection of what a genuine, co-designed partnership and a build made to their standards and their systems can achieve.

A national not-for-profit organisation

A wellbeing and development series for the veteran community

The challenge

Veterans and their families navigate a significant transition beyond service, and the wellbeing, confidence and connection that supports it can be hard to build alone. Our client, a national not-for-profit dedicated to supporting Australia's veteran community, wanted to give its members accessible, world-class personal and professional development: learning that would improve mental wellbeing, foster community connection and build confidence for life after service, delivered in a way that fit its own learning pathways and wellbeing grant objectives.

What we delivered

We designed a veteran wellbeing learning series of four expert-led online workshops and four complementary, self-paced e-learning modules, covering overcoming imposter syndrome, building resilience, leadership development, and sustaining motivation. The content drew on evidence-based research, neuroscience and globally recognised frameworks, balancing expert insight with practical tools and peer discussion so participants left with both reflection and action. Crucially, the series was led by a facilitator who is himself a veteran and a former national education lead within the veteran support sector, bringing genuine lived experience alongside deep learning-design and facilitation expertise. Every element was aligned to the client's brand and learning platform, so the series integrated seamlessly into pathways their people already knew.

The outcome

The series was built to reach up to 100 veterans and family members with development that is often out of reach, and to move the measures that matter most to the community: improved confidence and motivation, stronger resilience, and greater career readiness beyond service. Delivered by someone who has walked the same path, it was designed not only to teach but to make each participant feel seen, supported and equipped to thrive, while reinforcing the vital services the organisation offers its community.

See the work, not just the description.

Three pieces from our own studio. The course is a full build you can click through; the two videos are the kind of short assets we produce to sit inside a larger program.

E-learning course

The Good Work Series

A ten week program built in Articulate Rise, pairing a short self-paced module each week with a team conversation. It works through five conditions that shape good work: clear purpose, real autonomy, manageable demands, healthy boundaries and less always-on fatigue. Ten weeks, ten conversations, ten small changes.

Open the course

Animation

Scenario animation

Character animation used to open a module with a situation rather than a definition. Learners meet the problem before they meet the theory, which is what makes the theory stick.

Scribble animation

Whiteboard explainer

Hand-drawn style animation for the moments where an idea needs unpacking rather than dramatising. The drawing keeps pace with the narration, so attention stays on the point being made.

Proven methods, recognised standards, real evidence.

We ground every program in evidence-based methods and recognised learning standards, so what we build keeps delivering for your teams. Our design draws on established learning experience design and gamification methods, and where it matters, we build to recognised standards such as the Systems Approach to Defence Learning (SADL) and the ADDIE model. Structured needs analysis at the start and honest evaluation at the end show us where the real gaps are and measure what changed. Our Rapid Response assessments strengthen this further, bringing evidence-based diagnostics that sharpen how we identify capability needs and measure the impact of learning.

Rapid Response assessments

Let's design learning that changes how your people work.

Whether you are transferring critical knowledge, lifting capability or standing up something new, reach out to discuss how we can design learning that lasts.

Start a conversation hello@openloop.com.au