The Health Hive: where young minds shape health research
How Aulasneo built a free, open-access Open edX platform in The Health Hive’s own identity, so young people can learn to take part in the health research that affects their lives, and researchers can learn from them.
- Client
- The Health Hive, a University of Sydney project
- Learners
- Young people aged 14–24, anywhere in the world
- Platform
- Open edX, branded as The Health Hive
- Aulasneo delivered
- Learning platform, custom surveys & analytics dashboards
The project
The Health Hive is a University of Sydney project that equips young people to play meaningful roles in research about their health and wellbeing: sharing ideas, giving feedback, collaborating on studies, or leading their own projects.
Its foundational course, Foundations in Public Health Research & Advocacy for Young People, was co-created by young people, public health researchers and partners. Young people weren’t an audience to present to; they made decisions about the learning experience from the very first workshop.
The challenge
The team needed a home for the course that was as thoughtful as the course itself. It had to:
- Feel like The Health Hive, not a generic LMS. The project, not the technology, is the brand young learners meet.
- Be free and open to any young person, on a laptop or a phone.
- Support self-paced learning that fits around school, study and work.
- Serve the research, helping the team understand who is learning and how they engage, without exposing any individual learner.
What Aulasneo built
A campus in the project’s own identity
An Open edX learning platform tailored to The Health Hive’s visual identity: its logo, colours and hive-inspired feel, from the course home to every lesson.
Free, open and self-paced
Open access for young people anywhere, designed for young learners and comfortable on desktop or mobile, so learning continues wherever they are.
Custom in-course surveys
Short, optional surveys built into the learning flow, so the research team can hear from learners at the right moment in the course.
Analytics dashboards
Aggregated, de-identified views of learner profiles, participation and engagement that show researchers the patterns, never an individual’s answers.
Six modules, one coherent learning path, from why youth voices matter to taking part safely:
- Why youth engagement matters
- What research is
- Understanding ethics
- Ways to get involved
- Applying what you learn
- Mentally safe participation
The result
The Health Hive’s course is live and open to young people around the world, in a platform that carries the project’s identity rather than a vendor’s. Learners get a welcoming, self-paced path into public health research, ethics, advocacy and meaningful participation.
For the research team, learning and research now feed each other. Survey responses and aggregated analytics help them understand the learner community, how people take part and how they engage with the course, and they inform the project’s next research steps.
Building a learning programme with your community?
From branded Open edX campuses to custom surveys and learning analytics, Aulasneo helps universities and research teams turn learning into insight.