Onlea's early lessons learned from working remotely

This week, the Onlea production team joined the ranks of remote workers around the world. On Monday, we met one final time to ensure everyone had the equipment they needed, leaving our downtown office a ghostly space with only the bare minimum in staff presence.

We've been following the COVID-19 news closely for the past few months, and the decision to switch to working from home was not a difficult one to make. One of our key values is community: by taking responsibility for our work, we add value to each other, our clients, and our communities.

Right now, this means doing everything we can to ensure the health and safety of our team and Edmonton as a whole. Remote work allows us to minimize travel and direct contact with other people, and contribute to limit the spread of the virus.

Not to say it's been easy! This move required careful consideration, and we're experiencing many of the same challenges and frustrations of our peers in education, business, and non-profit.

However, our values help to keep our activities grounded and keep up moving forward. In addition to community, we believe in diversity: solving problems by working together from different points of view, and in lifelong learning: we’re hungry for knowledge, both as a team and individuals. Our quest for skills and understanding is ongoing and self-motivated.

With that in mind, we're drawing on all the tools and knowledge at our disposal to ensure that everyone on the team is able to collaborate, learn, and continue bringing online courses to life.

To all our clients: we are here for you! Although our team is now spread across the city, we are still taking care of your learners' needs. Projects are moving forward, and we are working diligently to ensure that your online courses are engaging and high quality.

We also understand some of you may be struggling to navigate the maze of decisions that come with setting up online courses quickly or for the first time.

We want to help! Throughout March and April, we will be offering free Learner Journey Map workshops to associations and academic institutions in Canada.

Learner Journey Map workshops are a great way to identify gaps, barriers, and loose ends that a learner might encounter when exploring your organization's online policies. Find out how you can clear the way for them from their first awareness of your programs through to the completion of a course or credential.

We've done this kind of mapping a lot, and it's always amazing to see how many learners' needs this type of workshop uncovers – everything from identifying accessibility concerns to finding better ways to provide feedback.

More information available on how to apply to these workshops will be made available in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on our blog and social media pages, for updates, or sign up for our newsletter.

Above all, remember that we're here for you! Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have.

For our fellow remote workers: We are in this together!

Reach out if there is anything our team can help with or if you just want to go for a virtual coffee.

Found tips, tricks, and techniques that help you stay positive and focused during this stressful time? Let's keep our tech community strong and share best practices around remote work :)

This is a great learning opportunity for us as individuals and for the global community as a whole.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and keep on learning!


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Adriana Lopez Forero (she, her, elle, ella)

Adriana Lopez Forero (she, her, elle, ella)

Onlea's Co-Founder & CEO

Mel Guille

Mel Guille