Tendring District Council developed an online learning resource called TREVOR (Tendring's REVolutionary Online Resource). They promoted TREVOR through posters around the council buildings without revealing what it was, generating curiosity. On the launch day, staff could indicate which courses they wanted on TREVOR. The most popular requests gave the council leverage to request those courses from department heads. Branding TREVOR helped promote online categories. The low-cost launch was successful due to help from an IT team and promotions that generated interest without revealing details.

1. Tendring District Council
Present
The Birth of TREVOR

2. The Conception
Once we had decided to develop our DLE we
naturally turned to Learning Pool for help and advice.
Our Learning Consultant, Chris Allan, came up with a
number of ideas including TREVOR which was a very
tortured acronym for Tendring’s REVolutionary
Online Resource.
These ideas were expanded upon by our team of IT
Representatives and the final list was put to the
vote....

3. What’s in a name?
• TED (Tendring’s Employee Development)
• TELL (Tendring’s E-learning Library)
• TEA (Tendring’s E-learning Academy)
• TLC (Tendring’s E-learning Classroom)
• TREVOR (Tendring’s REVolutionary Online Resource)
• The Hub
• The Learning Ladder
• The Knowledge Bank
• Vision
TREVOR was voted in and an image style was assigned.

4. Shhhhh?
Have you seen TREVOR?
Posters were placed
around the council
buildings asking if
people had seen
TREVOR.
The posters were
changed every few
days.

5. Shhhhhh!
17 IT Representatives actively promoted TREVOR
for 12 days without actually saying who or what it
was!

6. We Kept Them Guessing!
• Staff were intrigued and
confused, but most of all they
were CURIOUS!
• A buzz started to build... and
build... and build. Everyone
wanted to find out who or
what TREVOR was.
• The IT Reps were offered bribes
and we even received a ransom
note! TREVOR had really
captured everyone's
imagination

7. Trevor arrives at TDC
on 9th June

8. Launch Day Arrives

9. The Wish List Stand
After a short demonstration of e-learning, staff were asked to visit the
Wish List Stand. Here they could indicate which courses they would
like to see on TREVOR by ticking course shopping lists. They placed
these into a shopping trolley and volunteers then pinned them onto
our board.
The effect was spectacular. It gave a clear message to Heads of Service
about the level of interest and our staff felt they were having a say in
which courses should be developed next.

10. The Results
• The shopping list
requests were tallied
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
CommunicatingwithDeafCustomers
CommunicationSkills
EffectiveWriting
GivingandReceivingFeedback
HowtoEngageOthers
PlanninganEffectivePRCampaign
PresentationSkills
WritingaCV
WritingfortheWeb
HRDisciplinaryProcedures
ManagingOthersEffectively
QuestioningTechniques
SelfDevelopment
UnderstandingyouSicknessAbsence
Policy
This gave us a huge bargaining
tool to approach the various
Heads of Service with.

11. The Advantages of Branding
We used the TREVOR name and logos to head up our categories

12. Ongoing Themes
Due to the
numerous images
available to us,
we are able to
place TREVOR
into various
themed stories on
our intranet .

13. Lessons Learnt
• The launch needn’t be expensive – ours was done for less than £500!
• Get a team to help you – we could not have achieved this without our
fantastic team of IT representatives.
• Make your giveaways useful – the badges weren’t popular but the pens
and jelly babies were. Harlow gave away drinks mats at their launch. We
wish we’d have thought of that.
• Keep the demos short. We used Learning Pool’s Introduction to E-Learning
course. It was fun and staff were able to easily participate.
• Ask Learning Pool for help. ‘Team Lovely’ worked their socks off for us,
ensuring the DLE was ready. On the launch day they sent along staff to
assist with the demonstrations and were on hand to answer any
questions.
• Enjoy it! You know it’s a fantastic product – tell everybody!
Julie-ann Foweraker 10/10