Forum Discussion
Using Microsoft Learning Pathways to drive adoption
Hello everyone - My company is currently about to rollout Office 365 online along with all of the associated apps, most importantly, Teams.
My question for this group, has anyone used the MLP application to drive adoption and training for a company? If so, would you mind sharing best practices
We have rolled out the MLP site, but the learning options on the site seem limited.
Any advice or best practice you've experienced would be appreciated.
Hi Scarlett725
We've had small but positive feedback since acquiring the preview build last summer - I've only released it to around 50 people thus far for a pilot. I will be looking at some form of Dynamic Membership or all org group to roll out (which is what I'm interested in reading peoples experience on!) but feel it needs a comms wrapper around it due to the membership generating an email to the user - the cynic in me suggest our users will either ignore or send it to junk if we don't. Really interested in the concept and forthcoming updates once I've got the latest version live..
I've not compared side to side with the content you get in the Teams app itself - that really helps adoption for me. Teams has 'Training' on board as well as a wordsearch. For me, Pathways boxes off the people who 'require' training before they make any effort but it is one extra thing in a suite of support.
I do think there is an art in getting people to help themselves via the in app help function too. Despite Outlook even saying 'Tell me what you want to do' I find noone even notices it's there.. Increasing awareness of these things will hopefully help turn the tide too.
When we rolled out the MLP, I decide to make it the hub for all things Office 365. If you notice, I deleted the recommended playlists and added a communications hub tile. The landing page is now one page with no scroll and four tiles. Since we're focusing on Teams training, I made the Teams tile the top right tile as people generally tend to look right when they look at something for the first time. I want them to engage with the Teams tile before any other tile. Because the MLP site is generated on a SharePoint platform, I had the ability to create the landing page to do what I wanted it to do.
The only issue I'm having right now is that the products listed in the Office 365 training do not encompass all the applications that are listed in Office online. Such as Power BI, Stream, Dynamics, Power Automate, etc.
The other big issue I'm having is that when I create a new playlist in a product category I have the option of using assets that are curated from Microsoft or I can create an asset page (which then creates a SharePoint page in the background) - when you create that page and link it to your playlist, it subsequently does not display correctly. I have tried creating these separately outside the playlist and then linking and it still didn't work.
Overall, I think the MLP site is a fantastic tool for training users on Office 365 and Teams. I do feel that being able to customize the products playlists would be an ideal addition.
Landing page of our MLP Site
Scarlett725 We haven't done yet but we're planning to so I'd be interested in feedback on this too.
UPDATE: I've just watched this video
It may not be exactly the kind of thing you're after but it gives a good run down on everything from provisioning the site to how to do admin around what is available to your users (i.e. making visible what is most useful, and hiding stuff that isn't relevant). This one's only 24:10. If you specifically want that admin content, it's from about 14:00 in.
Have you seen this video presented by Karuana_Gatimu_MSFT et al? It's a hands-on demo of the whole process so there might be something useful. I haven't seen it myself as yet.
That Ignite video that Karuana produced was a fantastic and detailed explainer about the MLP site. After I watched it, I felt like I was able to jump in and get started with the MLP site. I especially enjoyed seeing that they now have the JSON file that you're able to add to your Teams site allowing your users to interact with your training. - Honestly, MS should link her video to the MLP MS site. The information that MS currently has explaining what the MLP site is and what it can do cannot top her video.
Thanks for linking the video, because more people should watch it.
Scarlett725 That's great to hear. I'm glad it's proved useful. I don't know as I haven't attended any yet, but some of the webinars here may prove useful as well.
