Empowering Educators: Scalable eLearning for Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Education

Kids First Australia

Kids First Australia is a leading not-for-profit child and family services provider with over 120 years of experience delivering education, family support, and therapeutic services across Victoria. Its mission is to help children and families thrive—particularly those experiencing acute disadvantage—through evidence-based, trauma-informed programs.

A cornerstone of its work is the Early Years Education Program (EYEP), a pioneering model grounded in trauma-informed care and relational pedagogy. EYEP supports children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development through enriched caregiving and high staff-to-child ratios in early childhood education settings.

The Challenge

As Kids First prepared to expand the EYEP across multiple early learning centres in Victoria, they faced a complex challenge:

• How to deliver consistent, high-quality training to early childhood educators at scale

• How to maintain fidelity to EYEP’s deeply relational and trauma-informed framework

• How to create an accessible, inclusive, and engaging learning experience for diverse educator audiences

• How to efficiently capture learner data to support evaluation and continuous improvement

To meet these needs, Kids First sought a digital partner with deep education expertise and the capacity to design and deliver a scalable online course that reflects the unique nature of EYEP.

Our Solution

Curio was engaged to design and deliver a full-service eLearning solution aligned with EYEP’s core values and learning objectives.

1. Strategic Discovery & Blueprinting

• Reviewed all EYEP materials and mapped out a digital course structure

• Co-designed the learning journey in close collaboration with the Kids First team

• Defined clear learning outcomes aligned to EYEP’s trauma-informed and relational pedagogy

2. Learning Experience Design

• Created interactive, modular learning content incorporating:

  • Accordion content to present complex ideas in digestible segments

  • Visual progress trackers to guide learners through the course

  • Clickable infographics to support exploratory learning

  • Canvas Quizzes to track progress and capture pre/post-course reflections

3. Branding & User Experience

• Developed a fully branded course on Curio’s Canvas LMS, aligned to Kids First’s visual identity

• Applied UX principles to ensure a clean, intuitive, and professional user interface

4. Accessibility & Inclusion

• Designed all content to meet accessibility best practices:

  • High-contrast visuals and structured headings

  • Alt-text for images and screen-reader compatible layouts

  • Multiple content formats (text, visual, video) to suit different learning preferences

5. Data & Evaluation

• Converted feedback tools into automated, exportable Canvas Quizzes

• Enabled real-time learner analytics to support evaluation and reporting

The Impact

• 🚀 Pilot launched for up to 500 users via Curio’s Canvas LMS

• 🎯 Improved learning outcomes through interactive, user-friendly design

• 🔍 Reduced administrative load with automated surveys and analytics

• 🌏 Ready for scale across early learning centres throughout Victoria

• ♿ Inclusive access for diverse educator cohorts

“We’re proud to have partnered with Kids First on a project that not only supports professional learning, but advances equity and quality in early childhood education.”
— Stacey Murray, Project Lead, Curio

Why It Matters

This project reflects what’s possible when learning design, technology, and social purpose come together. EYEP is about changing life outcomes for children who face disadvantage. By helping educators access trauma-informed training at scale, we’ve helped amplify that impact where it matters most.

Project Summary

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