Theory meets practical: Modernising the way we teach HR

We’ve been keeping a bit of a secret.

In 2025, HeyPenny became an honorary teacher inside a third-year Human Resources course. Instead of supporting learning from the sidelines, the platform was embedded directly into the classroom, helping students experience what HR decision-making actually looks like in practice rather than theory alone. In this webinar, Dr. Dan Langerud from Victoria University shares how he integrated the HeyPenny platform into his third-year Applied Human Resources course to bring real-world complexity into the classroom.

Across a twelve-week trimester, students became HR advisors to a fictional organisation, using live data to diagnose issues, make decisions, and observe how those decisions influenced employee sentiment, psychosocial risk, culture, and performance in real-time. Dan will walk through why he moved away from traditional teaching methods, how the simulation was designed, and what surprised him most as the course unfolded. He will reflect on how students developed stronger systems thinking, greater confidence, and a deeper ability to connect theory with practice. The session will also explore what this approach unlocks for HR education more broadly, particularly when it comes to teaching judgment, accountability, and the real consequences of people decisions.

This webinar is ideal for HR practitioners, educators, organisational psychologists, and leaders who are curious about new ways of learning and developing capability. We promise it’s not a product demo, just a candid look at what happens when real-time data and modern technology is integrated into HR learning.