Wadeware is using the firm’s platform to create unique and engaging learning experiences for Microsoft
Elly Yates-Roberts |
This article was originally published in the Spring 2019 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
When you’re developing learning experiences for one of the world’s leading technology companies, you need the best platform available. For more than 10 years, IT consulting and content development provider Wadeware has been working with Learn on Demand Systems’ cloud-hosted platform to create a wide range of learning labs for Microsoft. “A lot of different groups in Microsoft use Learn on Demand Systems as their preferred platform,” says Bill Wade, owner of Wadeware.
Wadeware uses the platform to develop labs for Microsoft’s public, internal and partner training, and it’s crucial that as well as engaging learners, they set them up to succeed.
“Learn on Demand Systems has invested in developing a hosted platform that closely integrates the user experience with the lab experience,” says Wade. “For example, a lot of our labs include long PowerShell commands of around 150 characters. A couple of years ago, if a student mistyped a single character they’d have to start over or at least type that command again. Learn on Demand Systems has innovated around problems like that so a learner only needs to click on the command in the lab and it will be typed out in the virtual machine. That takes away a lot of the human error and helps make the lab run a lot smoother.”
The platform also enables valuable prompts where needed. “Learn on Demand Systems has integrated a lot of video, as well as different types of alerts and warnings,” says Wade. “Developers can include alerts at certain points in a lab, so the student knows to look out for a particular behaviour. As well as making the lab more efficient, that also makes the student more aware of what might be happening during the lab.”
Ultimately, Wade says the quality of the platform shines through in the quality of the labs developed on it. “It’s a very professional, well-constructed and efficient platform that makes the labs we write look professional, well-constructed and efficient too,” he says. “We’ve even used it as an example to show some of our other customers, who don’t use Learn on Demand Systems, the difference between what a truly integrated lab platform looks like versus one that is homegrown and put together piecemeal using different technologies. That’s important because the maturity of the platform determines how clients can use it and how it can benefit them. Over the years working with the platform, its impact has gone from ‘these are pretty good’ to ‘wow, I didn’t know we could do that!’”