Pros and cons for renaming of a Microsoft Learning Pathway site

[MeretheStave]

Hi friends, 

What are the pros and cons to rebrand/aka rename a Microsoft Learning Pathway site? 

Is it something you would do, or is it best to create a separate SharePoint Online Communication site, naming it the name you want to use it for, and then link to the Microsoft Learning Pathway site from this new site? I want to recommend the latter, and would just like to hear from you folks if it is a good idea or if it doesn't really matter? 

Thanks! :) 

[#2]

I usually deploy the base learning pathways template and customize it to meet my clients specific need/goals.

[#3]

Thanks for your feedback @David_Swenson, that's what I do too. ;) 

And it is a great tool to gather the different Microsoft guides as well as the customer's own guides. However, a company might need more than just one portal; one - the Microsoft Learning Pathway, for all guides related to collaboration, and then perhaps another SharePoint Online Communication site for guidelines, internal guides for other things, etc. which again can be linked to the Microsoft Learning Pathway? Or, Microsoft Learning Pathway could be used for everything learning related?

And, if so, is it a good idea to change the name of the site, to for example "Company Learning Portal" instead of Microsoft Learning Pathway? Could there be any consequence for the site url/links if the name is changed, are here anyone who have done so? 

[#4]

You should not try to rename the URL for the core site after installation.  There is really no need to have multiple sites.  Instead build pages around a specific topic that you can pin different places or route people to.  The flexibility of the site allows you to meet all those needs.  Definitely do not make different portals for training on different topics. That will be a management difficulty later.  Also its good to remember you can pin a specific playlist inside a new SharePoint page.  Then you can have the customer's content, text and the relevant playlist for that topic all in one place.  #BestPractice  @Merethe Stave 

[#5]

@Karuana Gatimu Hi Karuana and thank you for your feedback. I agree very much about the not-changing-url. My question was more related to the name on the page itself; Microsoft Learning Pathway. My customer wants to brand it more aka "Contoso Collaboration Hub" or something similar (the header of the page is already company branded) instead of the Microsoft Learning Pathway. And this is where I can't seem to agree with myself if it should stay "Microsoft 365 Learning pathways" (and make another "Contoso Training hub" and link to the "Microsoft 365 learning pathways" for anything related to collaboration training, best practice, guidelines, etc., or if we can change it to "Contoso Training Hub" and keep everything related to learning (such as project management, security training, etc.) on this site... and what are the pros and cons for either choice? 

[#6]

@Merethe Stave  That's how I approached it with my organization - so, we created a SharePoint site, and added the LP web part as the home page, for each department -Tax, IT, etc. since each are teaching and creating very specific subject matter.  We have one individual managing the main Learning Pathways site and access to the underlying folders.

[#7]

@Merethe Stave Consider naming the Learning Pathways, "Name of Company" Collaboration Training Hub. Since the purpose of the site is training, it is important to have that in the name. That way people searching for training will also find the site. 

[#8]

Thank you @TamaraBred that is what I hoped would be a good idea, even if the url stays as originally.

[#9]

@Merethe Stave I always rename the site itself and usually the URL as well.  Most usually I'm doing two installs - one for Champions Leads & IT Pro's to play with and one for production and the end-users.  On the latter we are normally rebranding it to meet the needs of the customer. They don't need our logo on there :)  Go for it.  If you can, work with the customer on what both the site name and URL should be before you provision.  I often times just call the URL /teams/TrainingHub or /sites/Learning  Something short and easy to remember.  Good luck! 

[#10]

Awesome @Karuana Gatimu and thank you for your good advice! Noting it down (of course in OneNote ;-D)for the next time I am creating a new one for a customer. Some times they have already created one, and sometimes I can make it for them. Good to hear that the URL can be different and a great idea to have a "play-site" for the Champions and IT Pro's to test out things! 

[#11]

Going through this at the moment - I feel keeping our site named Microsoft Learning Pathways becomes confusing to the user as Learning Pathways is essentially a service provided by Microsoft and served up in our tenant. So we have decided to rename it and add a little company branding - this then allows us to talk about the our learning site that delivers the Microsoft Learning Pathways service (basically we can make a distinction between our home grown content and Microsoft's).

[#12]

Hi @Garry Rawlins and yes, I hear you. However, if you are creating the MLP site yourself gives you the chance to name it in the way you like, ref. Caruana's reply. Whenever I get the chance to create it with a customer, I make sure they stop long enough to think through how they want to name their e.g. learning portal, as well as first of all defining the purpose of the portal. Defining the purpose might make it easier to name it, and keeping it concrete; if the site is for learning, call it that. ;) My initial question was mainly what to consider when I just got an already existing site. You get the best from two worlds when working with an MLP site (SPO comm site + learning playlists from Microsoft). What I usually set up is areas/pages related to what people are going to do, e.g. have meetings and then organize the page with company guidelines, guides on "this is how we run meetings in our company" and then adding relevant MLP playlist, such as OneNote, Teams Meetings, Planner and ToDo, for that context.

[#13]

Great question, one where I leapt right in and didn't think about the pros and cons before doing. I have built our company intranet around MLP. It looks ok. I'm now wandering if it was the right idea seeing this post, but it works...only time will tell.

[#14]

Yeah, I know the feeling @skeeps87. I am sure your intranet is good and lots of new features and improvements is added all the time from Microsoft, and as you are using and modifying it, it will improve. Have you checked out Microsoft Viva? Lots of good stuff that you can add to your intranet and more. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-viva