Using SharePoint as a Workspace for your Training Team

It's been a while since my last blog and I thought I would write about something that I am very passionate about. Sharing and making life that little bit easier when working in cross-site or global teams.

There is a lot of talk about LMS's and the focus on the end user but what about the teams who build and develop the content and write the material?

Where do they store it? How do they work on it? Gone are the days of network drives and huge e-mail attachments.

SharePoint is a fantastic collaborative workspace designed to enable teams to work on documents wherever they may be.

With version control, check-out facility, content approval and online meeting workspaces to mention a few, you never have to worry about sending large attachments, clogging up your inbox or waiting for sign-off.

You can book meeting workspaces on your SharePoint site through your Outlook calendar, include any documents and an agenda. It means that the team can get together and manipulate the document as a team and approve it, no e-mail or waiting required!

Working closer with cross-site or global teams has never been easier and ensures that the training you are doing is consistent and the message is not lost.

End result? Great training generated, it can be placed on your LMS and there is focus on the end user.

Have your say on SharePoint. Do you use it? What are your thoughts?

You should post a comment.

Learning Un-professionals?

I think @cammybean touched on this a while back looking at ID's (Instructional Designers) and who out there had any formal qualifications.

Thinking about myself, I have no formal qualifications in instructional design or e-Learning in the slightest. For the past 5 months I have learnt from Twittering mainly. I bought a book and I have also spent time researching white papers, breaking LMS's and finding out how much I can do with authoring systems by trial and error.

The majority of it all - seems to me - is down to experience. (Note the aptly named title of my blog) I wouldn't say for a moment though that having some form of qualification wouldn't help! Of course it would. It gives you a structure, a foundation and I am a stickler for processes and structure.

If I look at my last job, I was a Communications Rep communicating to the wider internal operations on a Private Sector contract managing the internal intranet knowledge base. I had no experience whatsoever but throwing myself in the deep-end helped me build experience and I ended up being one of the main SME's on the contract. No qualifications needed.

Now I am on a different path and learning how to swim again without the aid of floats!

Whether you are a learning professional or a learning un-professional, the majority of the knowledge you will build will come from experience.

If you have any thoughts on what I have mentioned, arguments to the contrary or are just plain interested, leave a comment on my blog.