Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority: TopClass LMS Case Study

TopClass LMS supports the delivery of online and in-chapter programs to over 18,000 annual learners in 140 chapters of North America’s oldest sorority. 

Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority, one of the ten oldest women's organizations in North America and the first to be called a "sorority," was founded in November 1874, at Syracuse University in New York. Gamma Phi Beta helps their members to realize their full potential by offering forward-thinking programs, opportunities and tools to become constructive, engaged leaders and contributors to the community.

“The direct integration of TopClass to iMIS has made managing training for our members, advisors, and volunteers so much easier. All our workflows and reports are automatic, saving time which we can now devote to creating new content and expanding our education programs." - Bridget Dummet, Director of Administration

eLearning Challenge

Gamma Phi Beta provides comprehensive member education through Fidelity. Fidelity is a combination of required online modules and in-chapter programs intended to educate all members on Gamma Phi Beta policies and procedures in addition to providing a forum for discussing chapter-specific challenges with common organization challenges such as goal setting, alcohol awareness, service, personal dignity, and hazing and harassment. 

Gamma Phi Beta needed to replace a legacy learning management system (LMS) which did not provide the course administration functionality they required, and would not integrate or sync information with their member engagement management system, iMIS.  

The Solution

Following a recommendation from another Greek organization, Gamma Phi Beta had the opportunity to meet WBT Systems and take part in a product demo session at the NiUG Conference. The product demo allowed Gamma Phi Beta to experience TopClass LMS as a student and administrator and to view the standard integration with iMIS.

TopClass LMS fulfilled these important requirements:

• As the official learning solution partner of ASI, TopClass LMS was proven to work with iMIS, provided a reliable integration with Single-Sign-On, and the ability to sync all required information between the two systems.
• TopClass LMS allows courses to be marked as complete from the user side, which is important due to the blend of online and in-chapter delivery of courses.
• TopClass LMS provided the ability to scale the platform to support a growing membership, and to expand the number and variety of courses in their education offering.
• TopClass LMS provided the ability to customize the branding of the LMS to match the website, to provide a consistent look and feel to represent the Fidelity brand. 
   

TopClass Results

Flexibility and Ease of Use

The flexibility of TopClass LMS makes it “less frustrating and more reliable” to manage users and content, compared to the previous LMS. Other benefits to Gamma Phi Beta are that they can now easily create and maintain their content themselves, and that they can manually set the course completion status for learners when necessary. They are now exploring updating and creating new types of content.

Time-saving Direct Integration with iMIS

TopClass LMS automates many previously manual tasks and processes – such as assigning and enrolling members into courses, which happens automatically based on the user role as defined in iMIS. This results in fewer errors and is a “huge time saver”.

Comprehensive Reports in One Place

TopClass LMS sends all information back to iMIS via the integration bridge, enabling comprehensive reports to be produced from one system. “Bringing the reports to one place that we are familiar with is a big benefit.”

Looking to the Future

The implementation of TopClass LMS at Gamma Phi Beta has opened a number of opportunities for further growth and expansion. Gamma Phi Beta has plans to expand the LMS to additional users, providing volunteer training to local chapter advisors, for example. The support from WBT Systems team enables Gamma Phi Beta to understand the possibilities of the TopClass integration with iMIS, in enabling them to create new types of users, and automating learning processes to help them get the most from their education programs.

Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority was founded in 1874 at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. The Sorority’s mission is to inspire the highest type of womanhood. Headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, the Sorority has chartered 185 collegiate chapters across the United States and Canada, and has more than 200,000 collegiate and alumnae members worldwide.