Forum Discussion
Do end users need formal training on Office 365 apps?
HI Graham McHugh - This is a great question. I'd encourage you to redefine what "training" means in our current environment. What we find is that many people are unlikely to attend an actual class but the demand for short videos that are task or scenario based is high. Think "playlists" like on Spotify or on your music library. People need to know something exactly when they need to know it so we're going that direction overall.
That being said there is always some demand for virtual or instructor based training that helps people "get" the basics of what the new experience is. 45 minutes seems to be a sweet spot for these trainings. The virtual version is good because we find people stop and start the trainings to try things in the product. Also it's a best practice to establish internal Champions and these folks usually are highly engaged in more in depth training.
Remember all training needs to be in the context of what's in it for the users themselves. What I think is super cool may not help someone else in a particular role. This is why we're so fond of the playlist model and integrated this into our Custom Learning for Office 365 training site template which will be broadly available in Q1/CY19. This SharePoint Online site template with a custom Webpart will allow you to customize the playlists, included products and look/feel of the experience and it's easily pinned in Teams. We'll announce its availability here and in the Driving Adoption community as well.
At the end of the day this is our chance to increase the digital literacy of our workforce and (as I always say) get people to STOP emailing that spreadsheet around! Hope this helps.
What a great thread and some fantastic advice in response.
Eric Eaton raised some great points about on-demand, in context help. Choosing a good 3rd-party platform allows for other custom contextual help, like his suggestion on governance. Another product to look into is Content Panda.
I like Karuana_Gatimu_MSFT's advice on creating playlists and engaging Champions to scale your training strategy. Whether they presenting a brief scenario during a team meeting or giving some 1:1 training, they are trusted experts in the business and of the business.
I'd add the tactic of recording your success stories and presenting them as teachable moments. Interview your subject. Ask them about their job and a general comment about the product you're focusing on. Then have them describe their scenario.
Capture their screen, be it with software or a well placed over the shoulder shot.
Have them step through what they do with the software in the scenario.
Finish with a comment from your subject about the impact of using the software with the scenario.
Real stories showing examples in the context of real work will offer bite-sized training and inspire.
leslie tiku's suggestion to develop a knowledge sharing / learning culture is critical. You must provide a place for community-based learning to encourage a dynamic where people share and help each other. Community will help create a culture that supports the continuously changing environment of M365. Think about a strategy combining a Microsoft Team, SharePoint, Stream and Yammer, to provide a learning community. Create or curate your content in SharePoint, embed Yammer groups to provide the conversation alongside content, deliver quick interviews and bite-sized training live over Teams and embed the Stream recording into your SharePoint community site.
Combo's like this not only provide a community platform but also demonstrate the possibilities of the products for other work scenarios.
darrellaasI really like your point on communicating success stories and including screen recording with individuals walking through usage of a function and benefits of it. Working on some pilots recently and been thinking of ways of communicating the success from them and I think THIS IS IT! Thank you for sharing :)