The University of Sydney Business School engaged Digital Garden to rebuild the learning platform supporting Sydney Executive Plus, its premium executive education initiative.
The platform needed to provide a sophisticated learning experience for professional and corporate users while supporting complex B2B account structures, cohort management, enterprise integrations and ongoing growth.
Digital Garden replaced the existing WordPress-based platform with a scalable Drupal solution designed as both a learning environment and a business-critical digital platform.
About the project
The University of Sydney Business School required a new Executive Learning Content Delivery platform for Sydney Executive Plus that could provide a premium learning experience while supporting the operational complexity of delivering executive education to individuals and corporate clients at scale.
Digital Garden began by reviewing and mapping the existing WordPress platform, including its functionality, user journeys, content structures and integrations. This allowed essential functionality to be retained while identifying opportunities to simplify the experience and establish a more scalable technical architecture.
The new platform was rebuilt in Drupal using structured content models and modular components designed to accommodate growing user volumes, evolving course structures and future functionality.
A significant requirement was support for B2B learning. The platform accommodates corporate organisations with multiple learners, cohort-based learning, role-based permissions and bulk user and cohort management.
Okta SSO was integrated to provide secure and streamlined authentication. The platform also integrates with Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft 365 and Qualtrics to support reporting, administration and operational workflows.
Custom Drupal functionality was developed for requirements including learner progress tracking, one-time login links, flexible learning content structures and enhanced user profile management.
The user experience was designed specifically for time-poor executive learners, prioritising clarity and ease of access to courses, learning materials and schedules.
The result is a secure and scalable Drupal platform that operates as both a digital learning environment and an integrated business system. It enables the University to manage corporate clients and learners at scale while providing a flexible foundation for the continued growth of Sydney Executive Plus.
Why Drupal was chosen
The existing Sydney Executive Plus platform was built on WordPress. As the program evolved, the University required a more structured and scalable platform capable of supporting increasingly complex learning, user management and integration requirements.
Drupal was selected for its flexible content architecture, granular permissions and ability to support complex user roles and workflows.
These capabilities were particularly important for a B2B learning environment involving corporate organisations, cohorts and individual learners with different access requirements.
Drupal also provided a strong foundation for integrating with the University's enterprise technology ecosystem, including Okta, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft 365 and Qualtrics.
Its extensible architecture enabled Digital Garden to reproduce essential functionality from the existing platform while creating custom learning features and establishing a more maintainable foundation for future development.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
