You’ve invited your learners to join, and you may have organized some teams. Each learner now has access to a huge range of learning materials, including video courses, hands-on labs, practice exams, cloud playgrounds, and other tools. Now it’s time to guide your learners to success.
Check out the webinar Leveraging A Cloud Guru to Level-Up Your Learners (opens in new tab) for more details on getting started.
While you can let your learners progress at their own pace, the tools in the ACG platform will help you guide your learners toward your desired learning outcomes:
- Use skills assessments to identify knowledge levels among your learners.
- With data from the skills assessments, assign learning paths to bring learners to your desired skills levels for the topic.
- Need even more focused learning within a timeframe? Assign study groups to targeted groups of learners to guide them in a particular course.
Tip: Not sure where to start or if this structure makes sense for you? Go back to your answers from when you made a plan for success to decide what tools and features are important to you and your goals.
In this article
Skills assessments
A Cloud Guru’s skills assessments help you identify your learners' strengths and weaknesses in AWS and Azure skills. Each learner is tested for their current proficiency and knowledge. The results provide you an overall picture of your team's skills so you can decide how to best move forward.
Begin by inviting learners to take a skills assessment and learn about how to receive progress updates and access results.
When learners accept the invitation, they're directed to estimate their skill level and complete the assessment. Like an exam, the assessment is timed and must be completed within a set duration. Curious what your learners will see? Check out what it’s like to take a skills assessment.
Use the results of your assessments to decide on appropriate learning paths to assign.
Learning paths
You can assign your learners to a range of pre-built learning paths. Learning paths are collections of courses and content that guide your learners from novice to expert in a chosen specialty.
To add learners to a learning path:
- On your business dashboard, click the Learning Paths tab (opens in new tab).
- Find the path you want to assign, then click Manage next to the Actions column.
- Click Add Students.
- Search and filter your user list to add learners to the learning path.
To email or download the level and progress of each learner in a learning path, click the Actions dropdown menu on the Learning Paths tab.
Custom learning paths
Note: Custom learning paths are only available on Business Plus plans.
Your organization is unique, so the skills your learners acquire should be tailored to the skillsets most relevant to the roles in your organization.
Custom learning paths allow you to hand-pick courses and content for your learners. Learn how to create custom learning paths.
Study groups
Note: Study groups are only available on Business Plus plans.
Study groups let you group learners together in the context of a single course. This way, you can closely monitor a group's course progress. You can also share progress with other learners in the group.
Aim to have between 5 and 15 learners per study group to foster camaraderie and some competition.
Segment study groups in any way that makes sense for your people and departments. You can even have learners in more than one study group.
Segment your study groups based on things like:
- Role type
- Organizational team
- Department
- Location
- Onboarding date
Study groups are ideal when guiding a team toward a certification exam.
Accelerator programs
Select study groups have access to accelerator programs. Learners enrolled in a study group with an accelerator program receive a weekly recommendation guide to help them prepare for a foundational certification exam. This is especially useful when used alongside scheduled check-ins and guidance times.
Additional features for learners
In addition to video lessons within courses, learners have access to a variety of features to explore and get hands-on experience with specific technologies. These aren't features you can manage directly, but they're still valuable to the learner experience.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Hands-on labs | Specific tasks performed using real server or cloud environments. Many labs are included in courses, but can also be completed as a standalone exercise. |
| Cloud playground | Real server and cloud platform environments to practice and explore with. |
| Quizzes and exams | Timed quizzes and practice exams to test learners' knowledge and prepare for certification exams. |
| Mobile app | Convenient mobile access to courses, including offline viewing. |
| Community forums (opens in new tab) | A community forum where learners can post questions and share experiences with other participants. |
| Webinars (opens in new tab) | Special episodes presented by industry experts demonstrating and sharing advice. |
| Blogs (opens in new tab) | News and insights around all things cloud. |
| eBooks | Analysis, research, and commentary in the world of cloud. |
What's next
Chapter 5: Report progress. Keep track of how your learners are doing to see how you’re progressing toward your learning outcomes.
If you need help, please contact Pluralsight Support.