Introduction

Why Do We Need Trainual Content Standards?

When it comes to our Trainual account, we have high standards.

Establishing standards for our training content is essential for ensuring the consistency, quality, and effectiveness of our training materials. These standards guide the development of our training programs so that they're not only informative and engaging, but also reflective of our company’s values and expertise.

Given that parts of our training are shared with external parties, including clients, partners, and stakeholders, maintaining high standards is crucial. It guarantees that our external communications are professional, accurate, and align with what our company stands for. Plus, high-quality training content enhances the employee learning experience, fosters professional growth, and strengthens our reputation. It serves as a testament to our commitment to excellence and our dedication to upholding the integrity and credibility of our brand. By adhering to these standards, we ensure that all training materials, whether for internal or external use, meet our rigorous criteria for quality and effectiveness.

Here, you'll learn the secrets and standards for how we maintain the most amazing Trainual account on the planet! That way, you'll be able to create new content that fits right in.

Subject Standards

All about the Consistency

In order to create consistency and clarity for everyone, Company, Policy, and Process Subject titles should align with the standards shown in the following steps:

Company Subject Titles

Creating titles for new Company subjects isn't super complicated. They should be reflective of the content they share — however, we do want to make sure we don't have duplicates of Company subjects that already exist. AKA, we don't need a "Welcome to the company" subject and a "Welcome to our company" subject.

Some example titles:

• Welcome to our company.
• Our Industry.
• Department Overviews.

Policy Subject Titles

Titles for new Policy subjects should use the following format:

[Insert Policy group title] + Policy

That way, there are no absolutely no questions about what's a policy and what's not.

Some example policy titles:

• PTO Policy.
• Travel Policy.
• Emergency Preparedness Policy.

Process Subject Titles

Titles for new Process subjects should use the following format:

[Insert Process focus + Process]

We get that "How To..." and "... Procedure" can also be indicative of processes — however, we just find it creates consistency if we label a process as a process. Why complicate things?

Some example titles:

• Closing the Office Process.
• Open House Process.
• Social Media Process.

Subject Owners

Every subject must be assigned a Subject Owner.

This employee will be the primary "go-to" person for all things related to the subject. They will be the gatekeeper and provide final approval for any changes made to the subject.

Who should be a Subject Owner?

The person selected as the subject owner will be the main point of contact for the subject, so be sure this person:

• Is a knowledgeable subject matter expert (SME).
• Is approved to make edits to the subject, as well as to publish and share it.

Content Standards

Why Content Standards?

Because consistency contributes to information retention.

One big value of Trainual is that anyone on a team can be given the ability to create content. This provides a variety of perspectives and insights into the best ways to accomplish processes. And that's awesome!

The other side, though, is that with multiple people creating content, you're bound to have different organizational and writing styles, emphases, and approaches, which can lead to inconsistencies.

Our guidelines for creating content help us stay consistent, but still give department leads and content creators a ton of leeway to create the appropriate content for their people.

Use Brand Styles

It's got "the Look."

We have established our official brand styles for our Trainual account and we encourage you to use them so that we have a consistent look and feel across all of our company, policy, and process content.

That being said, we haven't established a rigid style guide that dictates when and how you use these heading styles. We leave that up to you to do what makes the most sense for your team and content.

Why use Brand/Heading Styles?

• They create consistency which is good for aesthetics, but more importantly for learning.
• They allow you to differentiate and emphasize text, which helps people to stay engaged and focused.
• It's quicker to use. They let you do one-click formatting vs. needing to use multiple text formatting tools (ie. bold, increase font size, color, etc.).
• If we ever make changes to our brand styles, all headings using those styles will automatically update accordingly!

Insert Multimedia Intentionally

Don't get us wrong! We love GIFs and memes and images and videos and attachments, etc. And we will preach to the end of time about how they can enhance learning and help learners to engage with the content.

BUT...

As cool as it is that we can easily embed multimedia, if it isn't intentionally placed, or there's too much of it, or if it's more distracting than helpful, then it shouldn't be there. 

Here's when and how to add multimedia intentionally:

• When lengthy or wordy content can be replaced by something more visual.
• To break up the monotony of text.
• To emphasize a point you're about to make (or just made).
• To add levity or humor in the midst of "heavy" or "boring" material.
• To visually illustrate something with a diagram, a picture, an animation, etc.

Add Practice Activities

DOing is Learning

When someone learns something, it's super valuable for them to be able to practice or apply it right away. That's what activities are for.

So, as you build your team's training content, ask yourself:

"How can I have learners apply/practice/show that they know this?"

Then, add activities that allow them to actually do it. As always, be intentional. No one likes busy work! Activities that help a learner to reinforce what they've learned will always be valuable!

Use Tests, Quizzes, Knowledge checks, etc.

One of the big draws of Trainual is the ability to test people on the content they've completed. We should use this awesome feature in any subject where critical information has been taught and we want to make sure the knowledge is actually there.

Pro Tips:

• More frequent, shorter tests are best. Shoot for 5-10 questions max.
• Use multimedia in test questions to reinforce learning and encourage critical thought.

Write better test questions:

The questions you ask in tests actually have an impact on the long-term retention of the information you're testing on. The goal is to ask questions that force the test-taker to think critically about the answers. 

Test Results:

For any test you create, you need to identify who will receive the results, if needed. This may be the Subject Owner, Admin, or someone else. Remember to set this before publishing the subject! If unneeded, the field can be left blank.

How Much Content?

You've probably heard a few of our general recommendations:

• Subjects should have no more than about 10-15 Topics.
• Topics should have no more than about 10-15 Steps.
• A Step should have no more content than would normally fit on an 8.5 x 11 (letter size) sheet of paper.

The reality is it will depend on what needs to be covered in order for a person to know or do the thing they are learning. That could vary a lot depending on what it is. So, be mindful of who you'll be teaching and what they may already know, or not!

Pro Tip:

If you build out a subject and you feel like MAYBE it's too much information, it probably is. There is NO problem with going with smaller, more focused subjects IF it helps the learner to more easily follow and retain the content. That's the point, right?

Emojis

Emojis allow subjects to be personalized based on content, department, or for other reasons. They can be placed at the beginning of subject, topic, and step titles.

Ultimately, how emojis are used is left to the Department Leads to determine for their own department.

If you do use emojis, be intentional and have fun... you know, if you want to.

Be Learner-centric

Traditional SOPs and policies are NOT typically designed with learning in mind. They are built primarily to disseminate information. That's fine for a straight-up SOP document or a paper handbook.

But with Trainual, we can do something that old school manuals can't do: TEACH!

To do that effectively though, we need to think a bit deeper about how we deliver the information so that it's focused on how human beings learn best. So, here's one of the most important things you can do when you create new content in Trainual:

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who's learning the content for the first time. Then, create content that you'd want to do yourself.

Forcing yourself to look through the learner lens is one of the hardest things a subject matter expert can do.

When you do, the content you create will be learner-centric and that leads to better engagement and longer retention.

Group Standards

Group Types

In our account, we use "Group" types for specific reasons:

All Groups created should fall within the scope listed above. If you have any questions while creating a new Group, chat with the HR team.

Group Descriptions & Responsibilities

One of the ways that we ensure clarity across the company is ensuring that every group has a clear description and the correct set of responsibilities that align with it. This helps us make sure we know what documentation we need to have for every responsibility at Trainual.

If you need help coming up with a description or responsibilities, check with HR first as they likely will have already established them and can provide further direction on them. If not, then you can use the Auto-compose and Add responsibilities buttons to help.

Here are examples for our Web Event Facilitator role group: