How to build an Academy

How to build easy-to-follow Academies from scratch

Laura Tierney avatar
Written by Laura Tierney
Updated over a week ago

Academy uses the setup you already know from messages but allows you to arrange them in guided learning paths to create on-the-job trainings for your remote employees that merges with their flow of work and gives you actionable insights.

Video Tutorials

Watch our Actimo Academy Tutorial on how to get started

Watch our Actimo Academy Tutorial on how to migrate an existing training to Actimo Academy:


Creating an Academy - Step by step

Academies can be created under Editor-> Academies. There you can click on "Create Academy" on the top right corner and give your academy a name (you can also change it later).

Step 1: Description and cover photo

In the details box you can:

  • Choose a cover photo to make your academy stand out

  • Edit description to let your employees know what to expect

Step 2: General settings

Next, you can set up the general settings for your Academy in the settings box. Click edit to choose the language, menu, insights bar, and theme as you know it from messages.

  • Passing score: Set the percentage for the amount of correct answered needed to pass the academy. The default is 80%. A passing score helps ensure that your employees have gained the skills and knowledge needed to perform their best.

  • Training availability: Unlock all trainings or unlock them section by section or even training by training. In our Product Academy, we unlock by section to make sure that employees understand the basics first and then build on top of that knowledge moving forward. Think about what makes sense for each specific academy when you start building.

  • Due date: Use a due date to nudge your employees to complete the trainings.

  • Retake settings: If you have quizzes in your Academy then you can edit the retake settings for each training (message). You can edit the retakes inside the message where you created the quiz. The default is set to unlimited retakes with a 5-minute delay. If you have already edited this and wish to edit again, you can click the three little buttons on the message in your academy to do this:

Retakes must be allowed to ensure that employees are able to fully complete an academy. We recommend going with the default with unlimited retakes and a retake delay of 5 min. The goal is to ensure learning and make sure employees progress.

How will it look like for the employees if they answer a quiz incorrectly?

If you have retake settings with a delay, it will show this:

Step 3: Design your training flow

Now we are ready to start designing the training flow.

Start with giving your section a name. To help your employees understand what this Academy is about and what output is expected you can start with an introduction. To add content to your academy simply click add training.

If you already have messages set up with trainings you can easily migrate them into your academy by searching for them:

Academy will automatically add navigation from one message to the next so there is no need to create buttons navigating to other messages.

If you do not already have content set up, simply hit add training and then click create new. This will take you to the message composer where you can design your content. We like to mix it up with videos, quizzes, confirm module etc. to keep learning fun and interesting! You can also consider adding a survey in the beginning and at the beginning to track how confident your employees are feeling the specific field of the training before and after the training.

We recommend using sections to create an easy-to-follow structure. You can add one or more messages to a section and you can add as many sections as needed. Notice how you can always see what it will look like for your employees in the preview to the left.

Publishing an Academy

To publish your Academy click Publish academy in the usage box at the top of the composer. This will bring you to a published page as you know it from publishing messages where you can choose employees and channels.

Academy analytics

You can access the analytics page from the academy overview or by clicking the analytics button within the academy composer:

The analytics page makes it easy for you to track how many contacts started and completed the academy in the funnel breakdown. You can also compare units or look at individual progress for each contact.

If you would like to see the analytics for a single training massage you can go to that message and click analytics.

That's it. Every time your employees finish training they will be met with sparkles and progress information to celebrate successes instantly and let your employees stay encouraged. Let's start learning!


Q&A

Question:

How do I customize the word “Progress” on the insights bar to my own wording, since we call it something else?

Answer:

Under admin settings -> Profile, you can change the word “Progress” to any word you would like your employees to see instead such as “Trainings”, “Know-how”, “Modules”, “Programs”.

Question:

Why don't I see the word “Academy” on the App?

Answer:

Companies typically have their own wording for their training concepts, so we have given you a neutral experience where you can name your training concepts as they like. Some companies call it “CompanyLab”, “LearningCenter” or “Training Modules”.

Question:

If I set retakes to “No retakes”, then I may block an employee from progressing his or her learning path?

Answer:

Correct. You need to allow retakes to ensure an employee is able to fully complete an academy. We advise you to set retakes to “Unlimited” with a retake delay of 5 min. The goal is to ensure learning and make sure people progress. The system default for new trainings is “Unlimited” with 5 minutes delay.

Question:

If an employee is blocked because he or she used all retake attempts, can trainers or managers give more retakes?

Answer:

As an editor, you will be able to change the overall retake options for all employees and thereby give all employees more attempts. As a manager you cannot release more retake attempts for an individual.

Question:

Where do I find the result of a survey included in an Academy

Answer:

Go to the “Design” tab, hit the analytics button of the individual training, click on the “Content” tab, and “Go to message Analytics”. Here you will find the normal message analytics including surveys and other module responses.

Question:

How can I use Social as part of an Academy

Answer:

Use a specific group (ex. “New Employees 2020”) for a training group. Publish the academy to that group and activate Social for that group as well. In that way, you can add a specific social feed to the trainings in that Academy as well as see the group “New Employees 2020” in the general social Menu.

Social interaction, likes, or comments will not have any impact on the progression score.

Question:

Does Actimo support Scorm?

Answer:

No. Scorm is a format in strong decline and it will not be able to fit in gently to a simple training path. It is cheaper for the client, just to re-upload the content (text and videos) and get the right experience to match the ever-changing need for constant updates and changes.

Question:

Is Actimo a learning management system LMS?

Answer:

Not in the traditional sense. We support many of the main features in a stand-alone LMS system such as content creation, distribution, analytics. We have had plenty of customers who changed away from an LMS to Actimo.


Tags: Videos, how to, academies, Q&A, guide, settings

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