Employee Training Management for Office 365 User Guide for modern SharePoint sites

Applies to: Employee Training Management for Office 365/SharePoint online
Other versions: View the version for SharePoint on premise (SP2010, SP2013, SP2016, SP2019)


For configuration instructions please refer to the Employee Training Management for Office 365 Configuration.

For installation instructions please refer to the Employee Training Management for Office 365 Installation.

The following user guide explains how to use the Employee Training Management in a modern SharePoint site. If you still use the classic SharePoint experience please refer to the Employee Training Management User Guide for classic SharePoint sites.

In this article:

This user guide describes how to use the Employee Training Management app for Office 365. Please note that the user guide and all the screenshots below show the default set-up of an Employee Training Management SharePoint website. Since a SharePoint website and some of the app features can be highly customized, the look and feel of your website is maybe different and you maybe have some extra features that are not mentioned in this user guide.

If you open a SharePoint site where Employee Training Management for Office 365 is installed, you will see the following areas in the left navigation:

  • For Learners
  • For Managers
  • For Instructors
  • For Organizers
  • For Administrators

The areas you can use depend on your permissions. A website administrator can change the permissions for each area/page in the site pages library. Read the Permissions section on the For Administrators page for more details.

The for administrators page

If you want to change the site structure or the views or web parts you want to show to users on each page and below, feel free to change them, change their content and provide the views and information your users need. This user guide explains the features based on the initial pages and configuration.

For Learners

As a learner you can view your pending and expired courses and open the course pages. If the course is self-paced, you can open the course page to view the course content and complete the course. If the course is instructor-led, you can open the course page to view and enroll in the events available for the course. In addition, you can view your enrollments in upcoming training events and cancel them in case you cannot attend. Furthermore, you can view and search available training events, self-paced training, and curriculums and self-enroll if you are interested or obliged. You can view all your enrollments and achievements, view the courses you already completed, achievements that are about to expire, etc.

The for learners page

View and complete assigned courses

You can view the courses assigned to you on the For Learners page.

View pending courses

You will also receive an email notification when a course is assigned.

View assiged course

Click on the Course Page link on the For Learners page or on the here link in the email notification to open the course page.

Self-paced training

If the course is configured as Self-paced training, you can view the course material on the course page. Read the instructions, watch the videos, review the documents, etc. and once you are done, click on Complete Course.

Course page self-paced

Instructor-led training

If the course is configured as Instructor-led training, you can view the available events on the course page, select an event and click on Enroll Now. If you are already enrolled in an event, the course page will display the event details instead of all available events.

Course page instructor-led

Completed courses no longer show up on the For Learners page. If you want to view you completed courses, click on View all achievements.

View achievement on for Learners page

If a course is still visible in the section My Training (Pending or Expired), even though you already attended the training event, it is possible that the attendance has not yet been confirmed by the instructor or organizer.

View enrollments in upcoming events

Open the page For Learners to view your enrollments in upcoming events.

View my upcoming events

Cancel your enrollment

If you want to cancel an enrollment, open the For Learners page, click on the enrollment you want to cancel and click on Cancel Enrollment.

Cancel Enrollment

Alternatively, you can decline the event in your Outlook calendar.

Decline from Outlook

After you decline, you will receive another email notification including a link that you can use to cancel your enrollment.

Cancel from email

This will open your enrollment in the SharePoint website with the option to cancel it.

Cancellation in form

Enroll in upcoming events

You will receive an email notification whenever someone assigns a course or event to you. In addition, you can view all the available events on the page For Learners and enroll yourself, if you are interested or obliged. Use the search box to search by event title.

View upcoming events

Click on the event you want to enroll in to view more details and then click on Enroll Now.

Enroll now

If the enrollment is successful, you will see a message at the top right, and you will receive an invitation via email.

Email invitation

If the enrollment is not possible, you will see a message at the top.

Enrollment error

If the event is already fully booked and a waiting list is enabled, you will be able to sign up for the waiting list (see below).

Sign up for the waiting list

If the event has reached its maximum number of enrollments and the organizer enabled the waiting list, you will be able to sign up for the waiting list.

Sign up for the waiting list

If you click on Sign up for the Waiting list, you will be added to the waiting list for this event, and you will receive a tentative invitation via email.

Invitation to waiting list

If a seat becomes available, you will receive an email invitation for the event.

Enroll in a self-paced training

You will receive an email notification whenever someone assigns a course to you. In addition, you can view all the available self-paced training on the page For Learners and enroll yourself if you are interested or obliged.

Open the page For Learners to view the available self-paced training. Use the search box to search by course title.

View self-paced training

Click on the course you want to enroll in to view more details and then click on Enroll Now.

Enroll in self-paced training

You will receive an email notification with a link to the course page. In addition, you can view the link to the course page on the For Learners page. Open the course page to review the course content and complete the course.

Enroll in a curriculum

You will receive an email notification whenever someone assigns a course to you. In addition, you can view all the available curriculums on the page For Learners if you are interested or obliged.

If you want to enroll in an entire curriculum, open the page For Learners to view the available curriculums. Use the search box to search by curriculum title.

View curriculum

Click on the curriculum you want to enroll in to view more details and then click on Enroll Now.

Enroll in curriculum

You will receive an email notification with a link to the course page for each course that is part of the curriculum. In addition, you can view the link to the course page for all courses on the For Learners page. Open the course page to review the course content and complete the course (self-paced) or enroll in one of the events available (instructor-led).

For Managers

As a manager you can view the enrollments and achievements in your team. In addition, you can view all available events, courses and curriculums and assign them to your team members. If not all your team members are visible here, please contact the administrator and make sure you are configured as their manager.

For Managers

View Achievements in my Team

On the For Managers page, you can view all the learners where you are configured the manager and their achievements. In addition, you can click on View achievements in my team to open it in a full screen view.

View achievements in my team

In the view you can sort, filter and group by learner, curriculum, course, event, etc. You can also use Export to Excel if you want to export all achievements to Excel.

Achievements in my team view

Enroll team members in an upcoming event

Open the page For Managers to view the available events. Use the search box to search by event title.

View upcoming events

Open the event and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users as managers

If the enrollment is successful, you will see a message at the top right. The specified users will receive an invitation via email.

If the enrollment is not possible, you will see a message in the enrollment form. If you are not allowed to enroll users, please contact the administrator, and make sure you are configured as their manager.

Enroll team members in a course

As a manager you can also enroll users in a course, either in a self-paced or instructor-led course. If you enroll your team members in a self-paced course, they will receive an email notification with a link to the course page where they can review the course content and complete the course. If you enroll your team members in an instructor-led course, they will receive an email notification with a link to the course page where they can enroll in one of the events that are scheduled for this course.

Open the page For Managers to view the available courses. Use the search box to search by course title.

View self-paced training

Open the course and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users in course as manager

All enrolled users will receive an email notification.

If the enrollment is not possible, you will see a message in the enrollment form. If you are not allowed to enroll users, please contact the administrator, and make sure you are configured as their manager.

Enroll team members in a curriculum

Open the page For Managers to view the available curriculums. Use the search box to search by curriculum title.

View curriculums

Open the curriculum and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users in curriculum

All enrolled users will receive one email notification per course that is part of the curriculum.

If the enrollment is not possible, you will see a message in the enrollment form. If you are not allowed to enroll users, please contact the administrator, and make sure you are configured as their manager.

For Instructors

In the instructor area you can view the scheduled training events where you are the instructor. You can also see attendees in your upcoming and recent events and pending achievements that you can update.

For instructors

View attendees in upcoming events

You can click on one of the upcoming events and then on Manage Enrollments to view the participants for this event.

Manage enrollments as instructor

Alternatively, you can also click on View participants in upcoming events or View participants in recent events to view the enrollments across multiple events.

View participants as instructor

Confirm the attendance

If you want to confirm the attendance, select the participants, and click on Update Achievements.

Update achievements as instructor

Set Achieved to Yes, enter the achievement date, an expiration, if necessary and click on OK. This will update the achievement for all the selected participants.

Update achievement form

For Organizers

In the Organizer area, you can schedule training events, create self-paced or instructor-led training, and bundle multiple courses into a curriculum. You can view and manage enrollments and achievements by event, course, curriculum, learner or track all enrollments and achievements across all courses and learners.

For organizers

Schedule a training event

If you want to create a new event, click on + New Event.

New event as organizer

This opens the form that you can use to create a new event.

New event form

You can create an event without selecting a course or you can select from the list of courses that are already added to this website. If you want to add a new course, click on Create Course or Exam.

After creating a new course or selecting an existing one, click on Apply.

New event form - Apply topic

This will auto-fill the form with the values specified in the course.

New event form filled

In the form you can now enter the location, start- and end time, change the description, enter organizers, an enrollment deadline, enter minimum and maximum enrollments, enable the waiting list, configure a reminder, and create a Teams meeting automatically if you want to create the event as an online event.

Finally, click on Save to create the new event. If configured, the specified organizers will receive an email invitation automatically.

Update events

If you want to change an event, click on the event and then on Edit.

Edit event

Please note that already enrolled users and organizers will receive a calendar update if you change the event title, location, start-, end time, or any columns that is part of the invitation email.

It also possible to use Status (Draft, Active, Cancelled) for your training event. See our article How to: Create training events in draft mode & cancel events and enrollments in one click

Create a Teams meeting

If you want to create the event as a Teams meeting, click on Create a new Teams Meeting in the event form.

Create teams meeting

In the dialog you will see that the organizers and instructors you entered in the event form will be configured as the presenters of the Teams meeting.

Create teams meeting - presenters

If the specified organizers or instructors should not be configured as presenters, disable the checkbox next to Organizers and Instructors.

Now click on Create a new Teams Meeting.

Once the Teams meeting is created, you can click on Meeting options to configure who can bypass the lobby, who can present, etc.

Create teams meeting - meeting options

The organizer of the Teams meeting will always be you, the user that creates the event in SharePoint.

If you want to read in more details about the Teams meeting option, check our article on How to: Create a Microsoft Teams meeting in SharePoint

Copy events

If you want to copy existing events, open the event, and click on Copy Event.

Copy event

This will open the new event form with the same values as the original event, except the Teams meeting. If you also want to create the new event as a Teams meeting, click on Create a new Teams Meeting in the Teams Meeting column.

Create a course

If you want to create a new course, click on + New.

New course as organizer

This opens a form that you can use to create a new course.

New course form

First select the content type. By default, you can choose the following types:

  1. Instructor-led Training Template: lets you provide a template for a classroom training or online training held by an instructor. Once created, you can schedule training events based on this template.
  2. Classroom Exam Template: lets you provide a template for an exam. Once created, you can schedule events based on this template.
  3. Self-paced Training: lets you provide any sort of content for self-paced training. Learners can enroll in.
  4. Online Exam: lets you provide an online-exam or quiz. Learners can enroll in.

New course form - select content type

After selecting the content type, enter the course title, description, etc. and click on Save.

Create a course page

Now you can create a course page for the new course by clicking on Create Course Page.

Create course page

If the course is a Self-paced Training or Online Exam, you can use the course page to provide documents, videos, quizzes, or other content to users. The course page uses a template that contains placeholder web parts you can use or replace with other SharePoint web parts. You can also change the banner, layout, colors, etc.

If the course is an Instructor-led Training Template or Classroom Exam Template, the course page will show a list of events created for the course. You can customize the course page, change the banner, change web parts, add additional web parts, etc.

Example 1: Course page for instructor-led training

Course page example - instructor-led

Example 2: Course page for self-paced training

Course page example - self-paced

This course page example uses the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathway Web Part to provide playlists about how to use Microsoft Teams. Learn more about Microsoft 365 Learning Pathway

You can also display your own videos using Microsoft Stream, upload documents using the File Viewer web part or embed or link external content.

See our article Use course pages in an Employee Training Management SharePoint site for more information

Create a curriculum

Create a curriculum to bundle courses into a curriculum.

If you want to create a new curriculum, click on + New.

New curriculum as organizer

This opens the form that you can use to create a new curriculum.

New curriculum form

Enter the curriculum title, a description and select the courses that are part of the curriculum. You can either select existing courses or click on Create course or exam to create new ones.

Edit Event, Course, Curriculum Forms

If you want to learn more on how to modify and customize your forms, have a look at the video and the article How to: Editing forms for events, courses, etc.,

Enroll users in an event

If you want to enroll multiple users or groups to an event, open the event and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users in event

All enrolled users will receive a calendar invitation via email.

Enroll users in a course

If you want to enroll multiple users or groups in a course, open the course and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users in course

All enrolled users will receive an email notification.

Enroll users in a curriculum

If you want to enroll multiple users or groups in a curriculum, open the curriculum and click on Enroll. By default, your user account will show up in the enrollment form. However, if you want to enroll other users, remove your user, and enter other users or groups.

Enroll users in curriculum

All enrolled users will receive one email notification per course that is part of the curriculum.

Enroll Office 365 groups and distribution lists

You can use Office 365 groups and distribution lists to make it easier to enroll users for the organizers. If you want to do so, read our article How to: Enroll Office 365 groups and distribution lists

Enroll external users

If you want to enroll external users or employees without an Office 365 account, select the enrollment form Enroll in course or exam (with e-mail address – for external users).

Enroll external users

Enter the user’s email address and name and click on Save to complete the enrollment. External users will also receive a calendar invitation via email. If you enroll external users in a course or curriculum, please note that external users will not have access to the course page to view the course content (self-paced) or the list of available events (instructor-led). If you want external users to be able to open the SharePoint website, view course pages, etc., please consider adding external users as guest users to the SharePoint website. You can assign events, courses or curriculum to guest users the same way as you do for internal users, using the enrollment form Enroll in course or exam (with user account).

Read our article for more information on how to enroll external users.

Add interested users

If you schedule an event based on an instructor-led course, it is possible to add users to the event that are enrolled in the course.

If you open an event, you can see if there are users enrolled in the course, but not yet in an event. You can either click on Add all to add all these users to the event, or you can click on the number of users to view the users enrolled in the course, select them, and click on Add Selected User(s) to enroll them in the event.

Add interested users

To only add specific users to the event, select the users you wish to add and click on Add Selected User(s).

Add interested users - select users

You can copy the enrollment link to promote specific events, courses, or curriculums, share it with users via e-mail or post it on Yammer, Microsoft Teams, on other SharePoint pages, or anywhere else.

Copy enrollment link

If users click on the link, the enrollment form will show up automatically.

Manage Enrollments by event

Open an event in the For Organizers section and click on Manage Enrollments to view the users enrolled.

Manage enrollments for event

In the view you can see users enrolled in the event, users on the waiting list, users that cancelled, etc.

Enrollment view

In this view you can sort, filter or group by status, event date, user or any other column that is available in the view.

Enrollments group by status

Enrollments grouped by status

You can also use this view to confirm the attendance for users. See Confirm the attendance/ Update Achievements.

Manage Enrollments by course

Open a course in the For Organizers section and click on Manage Enrollments to view the users enrolled.

Manage enrollments by instructor-led training

In the view you can see users enrolled in the course. If the Status is set to Waiting for Event, the user is enrolled in a course that is instructor-led and the user is not yet enrolled in an event. The value in the Achievement column shows if users already completed the course (Pending or Achieved).

Enrollments view instructor-led training

Manage Enrollments by curriculum

Open a curriculum in the For Organizers section and click on Manage Enrollments to view the users enrolled.

Manage enrollments by curriculum

In the view you can see users enrolled in the curriculum. You can group the enrollments by course if you click on the Course or Exam column and then on Group by Course or Exam, …

Enrollments view for curriculum

…or you can group the enrollments by user if you click on the Full Name column and then on Group by Full Name.

Enrollments by full name

Manage Enrollments for all courses

To view the enrollments for all courses, click on View all Enrollments in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page or click on All Enrollments in the left navigation.

All enrollments

In this view you can filter or group by courses, full name, event date, etc. You can also use Export to Excel if you want to export all enrollments to Excel.

Manage Waiting Lists

If you want to view the waitlisted users for a specific training event, open the event and click on Manage Enrollments. Now you can filter or group by Status to only show users on the waiting list.

Manage enrollments in waiting list

If you want to view all users on the waiting list across all events, open the All Enrollments view and filter by Status is equal to On Waiting List.

Manage enrollments in waiting list - all events

Alternatively, you can add the column Number of Users on the Waiting List to the upcoming events view to see how many users are added to the waiting list per event.

Number of users on the waiting list

Confirm the attendance/ Update Achievements

if you want to confirm attendance in an event, open the event in the For Organizers section and click on Manage Enrollments (see Manage Enrollments by event).

Now select all the users that attended the event and click on Update Achievements.

Update achievements

In the form, change Achieved to Yes, enter the Date Achieved and the Date Expires, if you want users to re-do the course after a specific period.

Update achievements

Now the value in the Achievement column will change from Pending to Achieved.

Achieved achievements

View Achievements

To view the achievements for all users, click on View all Achievements in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page or click on All Achievements in the left navigation.

All achievements

In this view you can see all achievements (Achieved and Pending), you can filter or group by learner, course, event, etc. You can also use Export to Excel if you want to export all achievements to Excel.

Manage Learners

To view all learners, click on View all Learners in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page or click on All Learners in the left navigation.

All learners

For each enrolled user, an item in the Learner list will be created. You can also add learners manually, configure a manager, view achievements and enrollments by learner and assign curriculums.

Assign curriculum

Manage Primary Skills

To view and manage primary skills, click on Manage primary skills in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page.

Manage primary skilly

In this view you can view all primary skills, change them, and add new once.

Primary skills

You can also create new primary skills directly in the form when creating events or courses.

Create primary skills in form

Primary skills can help users to find recommended courses or courses they are interested in and managers and organizers to find learners with specific skills.

Manage Instructors

To view and manage instructors, click on Manage Instructors in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page.

Manage instructions

In this view you can view all instructors and add internal instructors with a user account or external instructors with an email address.

View instructions

You can also create new instructors directly in the from when creating events or courses.

Create instructions in form

Manage Email Templates

To view and manage email templates, click on Manage e-mail templates in the Quick Links section on the For Organizer Page.

Manage email templates

In this view you can view all email templates you can use if you want to send email to enrolled users based on an event, course, or curriculum.

Click on New to add a new email template. First enter a title and define if the template is valid for Scheduled Training Events, Training Catalog or Curriculums. This will give you a list of available placeholders that you can use in the email template. You can use {WebURL}, {ListURL}, {ItemURL}, {EnrollURL} and any column in the selected list(s). Now enter the subject and the email body as HTML.

Email template form

Send emails to users, organizer, trainers, and others

If you want to send other e-mail notifications to attendees, organizers, trainers, and other users, use the option Send E-Mail.

Send emails

This opens a form that allows you to select the recipients (participants, organizers, trainers, or others), an e-mail template that you want to use, or you can also enter subject and body directly. Instead of selecting participants, organizers, trainers, or other user columns, you can also enter e-mail addresses or distribution lists directly in the Attendees section.

Send emails form

Click on Save to send the email to the selected users.

Other features

In this user guide we only described the basic feature of the solution. It is however very easy to customize the solution, include additional columns, views, reports, workflows for management approval, additional notifications, etc. using SharePoint OOTB features, Power Automate or other apps available in Office 365. Have a look at our How-to section to learn more about specific app features and customizations or send an email to [email protected] if you have any specific requirements or if you need some tips and tricks on how to configure the solution.