If you've been hanging around Trainual for a bit, you may have run into words or phrases that left you a bit mystified.

Fear not! Welcome to Trainual Speak πŸ˜‰ Here, you'll find explanations and context behind some of our commonly used terms. We'll also include resources for more learning.

Here's a list of the words we will break down in this article. Feel free to jump ahead; we don't mind!


🌟 Asynchronous

(AKA self-led online learning) is when trainees access their training without the instructor and get up to speed independently. And as a result, they can go through the information at any time and from anywhere.

πŸ”— Not sure what the best method is for your business? Check out this article from The Manual on Synchronous v. Asynchronous learning for more insights.


🌟 Content

Refers to all of the information that makes your company YOUR company! It's tribal knowledge, SOPs, documents, videos, 'How-To guides,' and the other million+ details swirling around in your head about everything related to your business.

Within Trainual, you can break down your company information into three buckets.

πŸͺ£ The Company Page - All about your Company's DNA, who your ideal customers are, and how to make them happy.

πŸͺ£ The Policies Page - The operating rules and standards (think Employee Handbook).

πŸͺ£ The Processes Page - The step-by-step, start-to-finish sequences related to a task or responsibility inside of your business.

πŸ”— Click here to learn more about your Company, Policies, and Processes Pages inside of Trainual!


🌟 Embed

A method of drawing external source links and making them accessible locally (that is, in Trainual content).

You see, we are all about simplicity! In Trainual, your People will have easy access to video content, documents, or other multimedia. When building content in subjects, our quick embed tool makes it super simple to embed things like:

And so much more!

πŸ”— Click here to learn more about how to insert Media with Quick Embed


🌟 My Desk

Everyone with a Trainual log-in has their very own desk. Yes, everyone. Even Dwight.

My Desk is the place where people consume content. They'll flow through every subject, topic, and step you create and soak in all the wonderful details.

Here's how you'll invite your People to review content on My Desk in 5 easy steps:

1️⃣ You send out an invite.

2️⃣ Your people will receive an email in their inbox.

3️⃣ They accept the invite (aka click on the link in the email) and create a log-in.

4️⃣ They log in and land on My Desk.

5️⃣ Then, My Desk is where they'll consume content (aka subjects).

And voila, you no longer have to repeat yourself. πŸ₯³


🌟 Subject, Topics & Steps

When your People are sitting pretty looking at their 'My Desk' page, they consume the content you created in Subjects. Here's what that will look like for them.

Let's break this down into five easy steps:

1️⃣ From My Desk, your people will click on subject cards.

2️⃣ Then, they'll click on the first topic.

3️⃣ They'll complete each step by reading, watching, or laughing at (in a good way) the content you prepared for them.

4️⃣ They'll keep going until they've completed every step, every topic, and every subject you've assigned on My Desk.

5️⃣ And finally, you'll both rejoice at 100% completion rates. πŸ₯Ή πŸ₯³

We've got a ton of learning resources about subject structure and content πŸ‘‡πŸΌ :

πŸ”— Learn all about Subject Structure (Subject, Topics, and Steps), including where to put and how to build your content.

πŸ”— Learn How to Use the Outline View to start building your subjects.

πŸ”— Check out this strategy guide on How to Create Awesomely Organized Subjects


🌟 Roles

Roles are a big deal around here. We love 'em. We use 'em all the time. And you should too, since they'll make your life much easier.

Roles allow you to:

Your Roles may mirror job functions (like Sales, Marketing, Ops, etc.) or points in time (like New Hire or Candidate Screening). When you're all done, your Roles Manager page will look something like this:

πŸ”— If you are unsure which roles to start building in your account, check out Role Suggestions by Industry.


🌟 Teams

Teams is a feature you can use to group people for management and reporting. For example, if you have multiple locations, you might group users based using their location as a team (e.g., New York Team, Arizona Team, etc.).

Teams also works in tandem with our Manager permission level. Managers on a specific team are empowered to create, edit and publish content to their team, as well as manage the user group.

If you find yourself wondering, "what's the difference between roles and teams?" We've got a resource for that! πŸ‘‡πŸΌ

🌻 SEOs: my desk, asynchronous, content, embed, subjects, topics & steps, roles, teams, glossary.

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