Bring Learning to the front with Microsoft Viva Learning

The quote above, possibly a version of a quote about Education by Albert Einstein, might not be exactly as he said it. A quick google-search gave me this reference to the origin of the quote. This might be a bit more closer to quoting him correctly, for those interested in that:

“It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”

Education, knowledge, competency and learning

Four words that touches upon the same thing; enabling and empowering people with more insights and skills today than they had yesterday.

However we look at education, knowledge, competency and learning, I think one of the core intentions is to enable and empower people to make better choices, to work easier, to do things better, to develop and innovate, to find new solutions and to think for themselves. 

️We are all learning every day and that is what keep us evolving. I want to learn, and always seek to learn, explore and understand more. Learning is a lifelong activity. Of course, it is entirely up to each and every one of us what we want to learn and how and when we do it. At the same time, I think many experience that there is so much to learn, especially in these times and days. It might be challenging if they found themselves working from home, and perhaps not being prepared for that, during the last couple of years with the pandemics. And with the current digital transformation many companies are going through, how can we ensure we are staying up to date and know how to navigate in this digital jungle?

Learning and training is not something new

Most companies have learning and competency journeys in place, and regularly send their employees on training and courses. However, in these days and times it might not be that easy sending people on training and courses. And, using a full week on training can be a bit too much to process and it could take away too much time and focus of work productivity. At the same time, we are different and the way we learn is different. Even though going to classes to learn something is a good way to run training, it might not always be the best options and not for all kinds of learning. Doing the “shortcut” with e-learning is also good, still, it many times just give an introduction, or scratches the surface of what is needed to learn. Sometimes it is useful to train a group of people the same content, especially it is beneficial to gather a group that work together to train them and at the same time discuss how this affect their every day work. Still, many times, effective learning can just as well happen in the context of what I am working on right now. Perhaps I need just a quick video to explain a specific thing, or maybe I need to deep dive into a topic on my own. Multichannel learning is helping organizations to train their managers and employees to gain skills for tomorrow. Many companies already have LMS solutions, perhaps even several.

The challenge for many is to find the training they need in the moment, and find where it is, which system and how to search for it. It might take time to find the specific session, and where you stopped last time you were studying.

Microsoft Viva Learning brings the learning objects to you

Microsoft Viva Learning can merge your current learning solutions with Microsoft Teams and bring the learning items straight into the context where people are working. As a manager I can set obligatory learning for my team and track their progress. As a manager and as a co-worker I can recommend learning for my colleagues. As it is available in the Teams interface, it is available for a larger part of the organization, and across any device; whether it is via a pc, laptop, pad or smart phone. Training can be available at your fingertips, when and where you need it. 

Microsoft Viva Learning

Viva Learning is one of the modules in the Microsoft Viva suite and it brings learning straight into your Teams rooms.

Viva Learning Tips & Tricks blog

In this blog post I would like to share a few little tips and tricks about Microsoft Viva Learning/Overview of Microsoft Viva Learning | Microsoft Docs. And will update this blog post whenever I learn something new.

I have previously written about Microsoft Viva Learning in this blog: 24 days of collaboration celebrations – No. 1 – MeretheStave (merethesharepointstave.com) and my awesome and visionary colleague Lesley Crook shared her thoughts on Learning on one of her advent blogs: Viva vision #5 Make Learning part of personal development – MVP, Lesley Crook is a Viva Visionary

And, as we see, learning and investing in our best assets; our people, is nothing new, as one of the shining stars and my big inspiration Tracy van der Schyff wrote: #Microsoft365 Day 354: To learn new things, we first have to un-learn the old bad habits. – Tracy van der Schyff and as I many times say to my customers; to hit target, we need to know where we are when shooting.

Where are you now…?

Have you run a mapping of current digital competency in your organization? If not, it might be a good idea to do it. And the E.U. Framework for digital competency can be a good place to see where it is expected that every digital worker should be today: The Digital Competence Framework 2.0 | EU Science Hub (europa.eu) Use the 5 areas mentioned in the framework and ask your employees questions to map where they are on a scale from 2-10 on this 5 areas. —> Another blog will give more resources and good practice related to Adoption and Training (work in progress ).

Back to Viva Learning… 

What type of content does the Microsoft Viva Learning support?

Currently Viva Learning supports the following document types:

• Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF

• Audio (.m4a)

• Video (.mov, .mp4, .avi)

Read more about it here: Add SharePoint as a learning content source for Microsoft Viva Learning | Microsoft Docs

What about SharePoint pages?

I love to work on SharePoint pages and these can be excellent for training purposes. However, currently, SharePoint pages are not supported as learning “items” for Viva Learning.

Tip of the day! If you have created a SharePoint page that you want to use for Viva Learning, you can right click the SharePoint page and save it as a PDF. This PDF document you can then upload to the learning content folder for that specific training and link to the folder in the Learning App Repository. – PS! I have not yet tried out this tip, it is just an idea. Let me know if you have tried it and it worked! 

PS! Printing the SharePoint page to a PDF can be a ok temporary solution, however, it might be a challenge if the SharePoint page is updated, then you need to “print” to PDF again, and if you have links on the SharePoint page these will not work on the PDF.

More tips will follow ….

Ask me a question!

Thank you to those who have gave me their suggestions. If YOU would like to nominate a topic, please feel free to do so completingthis form, or scan the QR-code added on this page.

You can also contact me directly either via SoMe and/or via my employers contact form on our web page: Workshops – Cloudway.

PS! This blog is my personal opinions and sharing. I am working in a fantastic team in CloudWay and we are running great workshops covering these topics. We can help you, and your partners, to remove blockers on your way to the cloud! We love to share what we know – to help everyone having secure productivity in the cloud!Viva Learning is one of the four pillars of Microsoft Viva – Empowering people and teams to be their bestYou can find Microsoft Viva Learning in the left side menu in Microsoft Teams (if not, click the 3 little dots and I’ll guess you’ll find it there – and you can pin it to the left side menu in Microsoft Teams). It can also be available from your smartphone.Have you got a question for me?Scan the QR-code to ask me a question!