Skills for Study
Online learning platform delivering study skills training to universities worldwide.
Interactive online learning platform helping university students develop core study skills — with diagnostic tests, H5P interactive content, self-assessments, and seamless integration into institutional learning management systems.
The Challenge
Bloomsbury needed a platform to deliver study skills content to universities worldwide. Students had to access it through their institution's existing LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle) without creating separate accounts. Each institution needed its own branding, user management, and content customisation. The platform needed to support interactive learning — not just static pages, but diagnostic tests, self-assessments, checklists, and practice activities that track progress.
- Support hundreds of institutions with custom branding and analytics
- Embed directly into university LMS platforms via LTI 1.3
- Deliver interactive learning content (H5P, diagnostic tests, self-assessments)
- Track student progress through modular learning paths
- Manage pre-enrollment trials with time-limited access
- Authenticate via Bloomsbury's centralised Authentication Hub (SAML/Shibboleth)
The Solution
Built a multi-tenant learning platform on Drupal with 21 content types and 40+ paragraph types, giving editorial teams complete flexibility over how learning content is structured and delivered.
- Modular learning paths: Hierarchical content structure (Modules → Topics → Resources → Practice Activities) with progress tracking at every level
- Interactive content: H5P integration for quizzes, simulations, and dialog cards alongside custom-built components — self-assessments, checklists, rating activities, and text-to-journal reflections
- Diagnostic testing: Custom assessment engine that evaluates student knowledge and recommends learning paths
- LTI 1.3 integration: Students launch directly from Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, or Brightspace — no separate login, automatic role mapping, institution detection
- Multi-institution support: Each institution gets custom homepage, branding, Google Analytics tracking, and user management dashboards
- Pre-enrollment system: Time-limited trial accounts with automated lifecycle management (invitation → activation → expiry → deletion)
- Solr-powered search: Full-text search with autocomplete across all learning resources
The Results
A production platform serving universities globally since 2018, continuously evolved from Drupal 8 through to Drupal 10. The shared module architecture built for this platform became the foundation for Bloomsbury's other digital products. The LTI integration means students access content without friction, and the multi-tenant architecture lets Bloomsbury onboard new institutions without developer involvement.