In this chapter you will work through the process of building a learning center. This learning center aggregates not only available classes but also class-associated documents, discussion lists, and links to external resources. This chapter’s solution will be built using the functionality in SharePoint Foundation, but the chapter also describes some of the enterprise features that may be available in your environment. In addition, you will explore implementing SharePoint Designer workflows to automate certain tasks.
Before you begin designing any solution, you must understand the business problems being faced. After you identify and understand the problems, you can architect a solution to properly address them. The following sections review some of the business problems associated with the sample learning center.
There is a saying that “context is king.” When it comes to classroom learning, this is especially true. Many times, learning classes have associated documents, group discussions, and external links to give further context to the content in the class.
In the current system, each class has a folder on a file share with its own copy of class documents. Many times this content is identical across multiple classes, which consumes additional disk space on servers.
The discussion boards and links are maintained in separate systems. The discussion boards are hosted on a third-party system that the organization does not own, and the links are hosted on a website that the development team built.
Users need one unified location where associated content can be viewed. Administrators would also like to reduce the duplication of documents that currently exist.
In the current system, classes are maintained on a spreadsheet shared monthly by the learning administrators. End users read through the spreadsheet and then reply as to which classes they want to attend. In this model, there can be a delay of days to weeks before users receive updated information on class offerings. In addition to the delay in sending out information, dozens of classes are added to the calendar each month. This means not only that users do not have a real-time view of the classes, but they also have difficulty identifying newly added classes. Users need the ability to find newly added classes quickly and easily.
When learning administrators add new classes, there are a number of repetitive, manual implementation steps required for each class. In the existing system these steps include creating a document repository, a discussion board, and an external links list. These steps are common to all classes and could be automated given a suitable framework.
You have covered three different problems that are affecting the success of the learning center. In summary, they are as follows:
Associate documents, links, and discussion forums to classes in a unified location
Find recently added classes in real time
Provision classes with class-related infrastructure