Announcing Microsoft Viva Learning private preview
Published Feb 04 2021 06:00 AM 68.4K Views
Microsoft
By Seth Patton, General Manager, Microsoft 365 Next Gen Productivity & Employee Experience

 

The way we work is changing at a rapid pace, but some needs remain constant. At Microsoft, we believe the need to learn and grow is one of these constants, and we’re making significant investments to help people achieve more through learning. Today we introduced Microsoft Viva an employee experience platform that empowers people and teams to be their best from wherever they work. Microsoft Viva has four modules focused on knowledge, insights, communications – and learning, which is the focus of this article.


In June of 2020, Microsoft announced an ambitious goal to help 25 million people around the world gain the digital skills they need to be successful. We’ve helped millions of people so far, and we will have more to share on the impact we are seeing in the coming weeks.


Our vision extends beyond supporting job seekers, to supporting people’s success after they are hired. We envision a world in which learning is a natural part of company culture and each person’s daily habit, empowering people and driving business success.


As a company, Microsoft is transforming our own approach to learning and development by fostering a culture that prioritizes growth mindset principles and learn-it-all curiosity. We now have the opportunity to apply insights we’ve gained as we continue on our own journey so we can help other people and organizations.


Adult Learning Theory tells us learning needs arise quickly and are best addressed quickly. We also know learning tends to be fragmented and disconnected from the day-to-day employee experience. As a result, people find it challenging to discover and prioritize learning – for example, employees report only 1 percent of their work week is spend on training and development. In addition, people value learning – 94 percent of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development. Combining the research and data with our own insights have led us to build a new, transformative learning experience seamlessly integrated into the flow of work.

 

What is Microsoft Viva Learning?

Today, we are pleased to introduce a private preview of the Viva Learning app for Microsoft Teams. Viva Learning empowers everyone, from corporate teams to frontline workers, to develop skills in the flow of their work so that people across an organization can learn and grow. Viva Learning is part of the newly announced Microsoft Viva family, which brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights in an employee experience platform that helps people thrive at work.


The Viva Learning app for Microsoft Teams is a central hub for learning where people can discover, share, assign, and learn from best-in-class content libraries across the organization—including LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, third-party content providers, and an organization’s own custom content—to help teams and individuals to make learning a natural part of their day.

 

Microsoft is partnering across the learning ecosystem to integrate content from leading third-party providers. In addition to LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn, we are pleased to share that Viva Learning has integrated with content providers Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight, and edX. Learning management system providers Cornerstone OnDemand, Saba, and SAP SuccessFactors have also announced their intention to join us in integrating with Viva Learning. Organizations that have access to the resource libraries from these content and learning management system providers can seamlessly access that content within the Viva Learning app for Microsoft Teams. Later this year, we intend to make APIs publicly available so our broad ecosystem of customers and partners can also integrate with Viva Learning.


Make learning a natural part of the workday

Viva Learning adds to Microsoft Teams capabilities, enabling individuals to organize and share training in chats, channels, and tabs, where teams collaborate every day. People can easily search for and share training in a chat as they would share other types of content. 

 

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Teams and groups of people can also organize their own learning tab with customized, relevant learning content.

 

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Learning is better when it’s personalized, and insights from the Microsoft Graph make it easier for people to acquire the knowledge they need. In addition to displaying relevant learning through Search, Viva Learning displays recommended content in a personalized view. Viva Topics, which organizes content into topics to connect employees to information and expertise, will also offer learning suggestions within the topic center, along with other knowledge resources.

 

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Make learning content available in one place

Microsoft Viva Learning centralizes content across a variety of providers and modalities and surfaces it in one place for people. From formal training videos to informal learnings such as Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft PowerPoint decks stored in Microsoft SharePoint, Viva Learning helps people gain knowledge easily by engaging with the right content when and where they need it.

 

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We are working closely with Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight, and edX to integrate their world-class content into Viva Learning, and learning management system providers Cornerstone OnDemand, Saba, and SAP SuccessFactors have announced their intent to integrate as well.

 

 

“Skills are more important than ever, and there is increased urgency in providing people with the best opportunities to be their best at work and achieve breakthrough results. By integrating learning into the flow of work, Cornerstone and Microsoft are helping remove barriers and enabling organizations to access the power of truly connected employee experiences.”

Heidi Spirgi, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Cornerstone

 

“With the integration of SAP SuccessFactors Learning and Microsoft Viva Learning, employees can easily find and consume relevant learning content and collaborate with other learners in the flow of work. This helps further SAP’s vision of a modern learning platform that supports individuals throughout their career journeys and empowers organizations to be more resilient to changing market dynamics.”
Jill Popelka, President, SAP SuccessFactors

 

“Microsoft is breaking new ground by eliminating the separation between work and learning for millions of people across the globe. Skillsoft is proud to be a part of this learning revolution, adding our collection of robust learning experiences to Microsoft Viva Learning so that we can close the gap between knowing and doing together."
Apratim Purakayastha, Chief Technology Officer, Skillsoft

 

“Every worker has to become a lifelong learner as digital transformation accelerates and skills become obsolete at a faster pace. We are excited to make Coursera accessible to many learners through Microsoft Viva Learning as companies focus on helping employees gain critical skills in the flow of their everyday work.”
Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer, Coursera

 

“We are excited to be partnering with Microsoft Viva Learning, where Pluralsight users can access our training content directly within the Employee Experience Platform. This integration will provide convenient access to our joint customers to the tools they need to master the necessary technology skills that will move their businesses forward.”
Brandon Peay, EVP, Skills at Pluralsight

 

“At edX, we believe addressing the skills gap represents a challenge that touches on a broader social responsibility that companies have to their employees and the communities in which they operate. Our collaboration with Microsoft Viva Learning puts the life changing tool of education into the hands of millions more potential learners to transform their careers and lives.”
Adam Medros, co-CEO and President, edX

 

Viva Learning and LinkedIn Learning users will also benefit from deep integration with LinkedIn Learning. In addition to integrating the full LinkedIn Learning catalog, Viva Learning will enable users to engage with LinkedIn Learning content directly in Microsoft Teams through an embedded content player.

 

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Drive results that matter

The connections between employee learning, engagement, and business performance are clear. Employees who have opportunities to learn and grow are 3.6 times more likely to report being happy compared with those who do not have such opportunities. Highly engaged organizations report 5 times higher market capitalization per employee, 21 percent greater profitability, and 51 percent less employee turnover . In short, learning is a great way to inspire workplace happiness and organizational success.


By giving managers the tools to assign learning and track reported completion, Viva Learning enables business leaders to address the skills gap while driving an agile workplace that prioritizes learning and growth.

 

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Viva Learning also shows all the learning assignments a manager has made, when they are due, and individuals’ reported completion status.

 

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Employees can see the learning assigned to them, whether from a manager with Viva Learning or through our planned integrations with leading learning management systems, along with due dates and other important information.

 

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Organizations can support culture change and individual growth by helping their people carve out time to learn before their calendar fills up. The Microsoft Viva Insights app for Teams as well as the briefing email from Cortana will include actionable cards that make it easy to book dedicated time for learning.

 

 

Learn more about Viva Learning

Learning is essential for people to reach their potential and for organizations to advance their goals. Viva Learning consolidates learning content, makes it easy to find and share that content, provides tools for managers to assign learning and track reported completion, and simplifies the learning experience—all within the flow of everyday work.


We’re excited about the possibilities, and we look forward to learning on this journey together.


Starting in February 2021, we are previewing the Viva Learning app for Teams with a small number of customers and partners, and expect to make it generally available later this year. We encourage you to sign up here to learn more about Viva Learning, including further details about new experiences as they become available.

 

Tune in to The Intrazone Podcast

Listen to this special #MSFTViva #TheIntrazone podcast with Jared Spataro: "Viva Las Microsoft." Hear from Jared about the design of Microsoft Viva and its four main components: Connections, Insights, Learnings and Topics.

 

52 Comments
Copper Contributor

This is fantastic! We've been looking for a way to improve our onboarding without disparate systems and logins. Uniting this in a proper place in Teams is just what we are looking for. We truly are moving into the modern age. :)

Bronze Contributor

Great to see the Viva Learning app coming to Teams. :hearteyes:

Looking forward to the preview. So, I've just signed up to learn more.

Copper Contributor

I love this. How do we get started?

Microsoft

@dhoward500 go to aka.ms/vivalearning and click "sign up for updates." There are separate sign up forms for customers and partners. 

Copper Contributor

Great work :smile: How do content providers start integrating Labs or learning modules into Viva Learning?  Do we have to follow the Microsoft Learning Partner route?

Copper Contributor

Great features! :lol:

Suppose this is for solely integration on e-learning resources or also target to support physical learning resources management? (e.g. physical training classes.. etc)

Copper Contributor
How do you sing up for the private preview?
Copper Contributor

I apologize, a typo:  how do I sign up for the private preview?  If I must sing to get into the preview, no trouble...

 
 
Copper Contributor

Is this integrating with SharePoint's Learning Pathways or will it be a different product offering?

Copper Contributor

Thank you, this is amazing news!

 

I have some questions, please. 

 

  • May I ask if Microsoft Viva Learning would offer administrators a way to report on the learning of employees in an organization?
  • Would it offer a database that shows the learning progress of each employee?
  • Would there be a way to only show the courses offered in one organization without showing any other courses from other providers? 
  • Would there be a way to integrate all the courses offered by another organization while being able to report and assess employees' progress? 

Thanks a million in advance.

Brass Contributor

This is awesome.  How do we sign up to participate in the preview?

Copper Contributor

Seth, congratulations on the launch of Microsoft Viva and welcome, Microsoft officially, to the Skills ecosystem. We look forwards to pattering and collaborating so that Skill Development is the catalyst for growth for every role, in every company on the planet.

 

Alan, CEO Pipe9

Skill.me The #1 Skills App for Microsoft Teams

Top Skill Trends in 2021

 

 

Microsoft

Hi @JamesRV and @Greg Lush - Viva Learning private preview is available for a small group of customers and partners in one of our early deployment rings in Teams. To get the latest news and updates on Viva Learning and to get in line for public preview, please go to aka.ms/vivalearning and click "sign up for updates."

Microsoft

Hi @kennethwsl glad to hear you are excited about the features! So are we :smile: At this time, we are building Viva Learning for e-learning only. 

Microsoft

Hi @LBartelli we are currently exploring how best to integrate Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways into Viva Learning. While we are working on that, Viva Learning does come with out-of-the-box access to the full library of Microsoft 365 Trainings. 

Microsoft

Thank you @jamespepper! You do not need to be a Microsoft Learning Partner to integrate with Viva Learning. We plan to share publicly available APIs later this year so the whole learning ecosystem can seamless integrate with Viva Learning. To stay up to date and get notified on that latest Viva partner news, please go to aka.ms/vivalearning, click "sign up for updates," and fill out the partner form. 

Microsoft

Hi @ZeinaGab thank you we think it's amazing too! We are exploring the topics you're asking about, and will have more information in the comings weeks and months. On your third bullet, admins will have the ability to activate/de-activate different learning sources from showing up in Viva Learning. To get the latest on Viva Learning make sure to go to aka.ms/vivalearning and click "sign up for updates."

Copper Contributor

Wonderful!!!

Copper Contributor

hola esto es fantástico, me gustaría saber si estará disponible para tenant educacional, y si sera posible armar experiencias de cursos como el embed de LinkedIn, pero de manera independiente o usando tu propio LMS como Learn dash en WordPress o de otra web externa

saludos

 
 
Brass Contributor

I can't wait to test it!

Copper Contributor

Hi Team,

Excited to try this out.

 

Can you please add "Sri Lanka" to the list of countries in the sign up form?

https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/viva-learning/#register

 

Thanks

Enrico

Copper Contributor

Viva - Very Interesting for me as a consultant/IT/HR professional

Working as an accountant, IT-consultant and having a profession as a teacher I am super excited to learn more about Viva. The learning opportunity seem to be a very good complement for dealing with skill gap analysis in Microsoft HCM in order to suggest best way of getting new skills to the emplloyees. 

Hope to be able to get hands on this, even if it will be in preview mode only


 

Brass Contributor

@John_Mighell is this going to be with existing Office 365 licenses or is it an add-on purchase?
Sounds exciting.

Microsoft

@Sam Gray we have not announced licensing details for Viva Learning yet - stay tuned for details in the coming months!

Copper Contributor

Will i be able to add my own content? Being in Training i can see the benefits but would need in-house material in there. Eternal parties tend to reveal aspects that the client may wish to turn off or is not relevant, such as features we dont have due to licence or location or business decision. Also, all our material not just the header is branded. If it does, then fantastic.

Microsoft

HI @SOC yes absolutely! Your own custom learning content stored on SharePoint will connect into Viva Learning and flow through as an available source to users. 

Copper Contributor

Is Viva Learning expected to be released to Education tenants at the same time as commercial tenants, or will Education tenants come later?

 

I remember on the initial release of Teams Education tenants received access to Teams around six months after the initial commercial release, likely due to some Education tenant specific features.

Brass Contributor

Dear all, how can we get access to Viva Learning private preview?

Microsoft

@gpetino Viva Learning private preview is available for a small group of customers and partners in one of our early deployment rings in Teams. To get the latest news and updates on Viva Learning and to get in line for public preview, please go to aka.ms/vivalearning and click "sign up for updates."

Brass Contributor

hi @John_Mighell thanks for your reply. Already signed up for updates, I was wondering if I could get a preview to showcase to our customers, because there's a lot of interest around Viva Learning.

Copper Contributor


Will it be compatible with other LMS's such as Moodle, Blackboard and Canvas? And will we be able to use our own content? I can see Viva Learning being really useful in the education sector too, students are already using Microsoft teams, and having to get their content from an LMS, but if they could be integrated that would be great?

Microsoft

Hi @gpetino we have three great demo videos, aligned by personas, that will be your best bet to give customers a view of the product and features. 

Viva Learning - for employees

Viva Learning - for managers

Viva Learning overview

Microsoft

Hi @khwoodhead yes absolutely - your own custom learning content stored on SharePoint will connect into Viva Learning and flow through as an available source to users! And we are working on LMS integrations - we will have more details and partner integrations to share later this year.

Brass Contributor

Thanks for that @John_Mighell . It could be amazing organise the content as LMS. Really excited to try this new tool. Regards

Brass Contributor

hi @John_Mighell , that sounds good! thank you very much, I'll go through that in the next days.

Gab

Microsoft

Could you share a timeline for private preview availability in GCC/GCC High/DoD?

Brass Contributor

Will learning pathways be integrated from the start or will we be waiting for this? If so is there a rough timeline for this work. 

Brass Contributor

@John_Mighell - "And we are working on LMS integrations - we will have more details and partner integrations to share later this year."

Does this mean it will be open for any LMS to integrate, or only those that MS approves?

Brass Contributor

@John_Mighell 

Will learning pathways be integrated from the start or will we be waiting for this? If so is there a rough timeline for this work. We are just starting to invest real time and effort into Learning Pathways and it would be good to know if we will be able to integrate in order to confirm we are aiming in the right direction. many thanks.

Cy

Microsoft

@Cy Marven we do not have timelines we can share on Learning Pathways integration, but it is part of the core Sharepoint integration work currently underway. You will be able to integrate, so it shouldn't hold up any of your current work.

Microsoft

@Chad Smith we are building Viva Learning as a fully extensible platform. Any partner (content provider or LMS) that builds connections to our APIs will be able to integrate. 

Copper Contributor

will Viva Learning leverage existing tech like Moodle, Tovuti, there are so many..  We use tech based on Moodle.  We want to just be able to port what we have using that Moodle format into This Microsoft Viva learning platform... 

 

It's been hard for most people to get their hands on Viva Learning preview. I just presented a session on it at the Microsoft 365 conference in Orlando a couple of weeks ago and as part of preparing for the session, I learned a lot in the process.

 

I'll be presenting a webinar on June 29th to show Viva Learning (preview) as it currently exists and to answer a lot of questions that have been coming my way. Come join me (and bring your questions as well...)

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5432762135453771789?source=social-AR

Copper Contributor

Hi there

Can you please help me with Viva insights certification? How and where to access learning and do the exam? 
Thanks,

 

Brass Contributor

hi @FahimMcG , I have the same question as yours. Just found all badges on Credly https://www.credly.com/organizations/microsoft-workplace-analytics/badges but I can't find how to get them :D
Is there anyone who knows how to access Viva Insights training and get certified?
thanks a lot.

Gabriele

Copper Contributor

@gpetino thanks fir your message. I have been to the Credly too. But not helpful to direct me to where I want to be. 

Viva Learning is still a developing story. I have been speaking on this topic at conferences and webinars while trying to compile answers for all I know so far at my blog here:

https://info.visualsp.com/blog/microsoft-viva-learning

 

Following are some of the questions I attempt to answer in this blog:

  1. How does Viva Learning differ from Microsoft Learning Pathways?
  2. Will learning content that is created internally also show up in Viva Learning?
  3. Is there a cost to deploying Viva Learning?
  4. Do we need other LMS's if we have Viva Learning?
  5. Is it possible to assign and track learning through Viva Learning? 
  6. What are the current integrations in terms of content and LMS's that are supported?

If you have questions that are not answered in this blog, let me know and I'll try my best to incorporate them in the blog as well.

 

Feedback and comments welcomed.

Copper Contributor

Thanks @Asif Rehmani for your comment. I will have a look at details. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏼
Any idea how to gain the Viva Insights associate or professional badge? 
I saw in LinkedIn that few people have posted their new verified achievements! 

Copper Contributor

John_Mighell  

 

I would love to get the answers 

I would love to get the answers to the questions posted earlier by  Asif Rehmani 

 

I would like to know if the cost of the chosen/aggregated content will be per user, per course at enrolment or any other way? Or will the cost be an all-in one cost based per user and per aggregated chosen content?

 

Thanks in advance....

 

Microsoft

Hi @AlexC2405 the blog that Asif linked above is a great resource so help answer questions you might have (thank you @Asif Rehmani !!)

For your question about cost - the individual sources of content need to be licensed separately with that 3rd party provider. For example if you want your users to have access to Skillsoft content, you will need to purchase a Skillsoft license for that user. 

 

The per user/per month price for Viva Learning itself does not change regardless of how many content sources you have configured. The price will be the same if you have 1 content source, or if you have 10+ content sources. 

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