Use Labels to Organize and Optimize Course Content in Skilljar

We’ve just enhanced our Labels feature to make it even easier for learning professionals to surface and find relevant information about courses in the Skilljar dashboard.

Internal Labels provide learning professionals with the ability to organize pages, plans, paths, courses, and assets in a global, flexible, and scalable way through the Skilljar dashboard. Though not visible to learners, labels can be easily created and assigned to courses, helping to surface relevant information about the content to an admin.

Skilljar’s own labeling system for our content in Skilljar Academy. Admins can use labels to filter relevant content in the dashboard.

Use this guide to glean best practices, avoid common pitfalls, and apply helpful tips to efficiently organize and manage your content, ensuring a seamless experience for creators and learners alike.

Guide to Optimizing Use of Skilljar Labels

I. Getting started with labels: An overview

Assess your content: Begin by reviewing your existing content to identify key categories, themes, and characteristics.
Brainstorm label ideas: Gather input from various stakeholders, including content creators, instructors, and learners, to identify potential labels that align with your organizational goals and content strategy.
Prioritize and select labels: Based on the brainstorming session, prioritize and select the most relevant and useful labels that will help you effectively organize your content.
Develop a labeling guide: Create a clear and concise labeling guide that includes the purpose, naming conventions, and usage guidelines for each label.
Train your team: Ensure that all relevant team members understand the labeling system, how to apply labels consistently, and how to use the labels for content organization and analytics.
Integrate labels into your workflow: Incorporate the label application process into your content creation and management workflows, making it an integral part of your content strategy.
Monitor and refine: Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your labeling system, seeking feedback from users, and refining the labels as needed to better serve your organization’s needs.
Leverage support: Use Skilljar’s Help Center and monthly coffee chats to share best practices, ask questions, and learn from the experiences of other organizations using labels effectively.

II. Getting started with labels: At step-by-step guide

Clarify label purpose: Before creating labels, clarify and document their intended usage, such as navigation, reporting (e.g., Tableau), or functional roles.
Create ground rules and decision trees: Formulate ground rules or decision trees to guide label creation and application processes.
Establish a consistent naming convention: Create and adhere to a clear and uniform naming convention for labels to streamline content organization.
Develop filter guidelines: Design filter guidelines to facilitate quick and efficient content discovery, categorization, and analysis.
Encourage label reuse: Promote consistency by reusing existing labels and creating new ones only when they align with established categories.
Schedule data governance reviews: Periodically review labels to maintain effective data governance, prevent system clutter, and ensure efficient platform usage.
Embrace simplicity: Start with a straightforward labeling system and refine it as your familiarity with the tools and platform grows and as your audience’s needs evolve.

III. Create and implement labels

Identify content buckets: Determine general ‘buckets’ for organizing your content and ensure all content receives appropriate labels.  Consider buckets such as:

• Target Audiences: Label content by its target audience (customer, partner, internal, etc.).
• Modality: Label content by its modality (Webinars, Live Training, Office Hours, Quick Tips, Courses, etc.).
• Skill level: Label content by user skill level (beginner, intermediate, expert).
• Content type: Label content by type (text, video, audio) to see which performs better.
• Duration: Label content by how long it takes to read, watch, or complete. This way you can compare content lengths to see which performs better.
• Department/Team: Label content by which function will benefit most from the information (Marketing, Finance, Customer Success).

Identify important characteristics: As your course catalog grows, you’ll want to easily identify content based on internal markers such as:

• Last Update: Label content by the year or quarter of its last update (useful for identifying update needs or scheduling content reviews).
• Instructional Designer: Label content by the designer responsible for its creation.
• Product, Feature, or Content Area: Label content according to the associated product, feature, or content area.

Be consistent: Build labels into your standard operating procedures to ensure content is labeled appropriately.
Get creative: Don’t be afraid to explore other labeling ideas that work best for you and your organization.

IV. Leverage analytics and reporting

Efficient content sorting: Employ labels effectively to organize and categorize content for streamlined retrieval and management.
Utilize dashboard analytics: Harness Skilljar’s built-in analytics features to track label performance and make data-driven decisions about content management.
Monitor trends: Analyze usage patterns for each label and trends to identify areas for improvement and potential gaps in content coverage.
Measure content effectiveness: Use analytics data to assess the impact of differently labeled objects on content engagement, completion rates, and learner satisfaction.
Optimize content strategy: Based on the analytics insights, make informed adjustments to your content strategy, such as updating outdated materials, refining labels, or developing new content.

V. Navigating common pitfalls

Overly complex labels: Refrain from creating too many labels initially to prevent confusion and difficulty in choosing the right ones. As your course content grows, you will become more adept at creating relevant labels based on your organizational needs.
Ambiguous categories: Concentrate on defining the most crucial categories for your content to simplify organization and navigation.
Case sensitivity: Remember that labels are case-sensitive; ensure consistency in capitalization to avoid duplicate or misplaced content.

A well-organized customer education program will flourish as you add more users and your content catalog grows. Adhering to these best practices for creating and utilizing internal labels with Skilljar will help to optimize content organization and management for both creators and learners.

Skilljar customers can learn more about how to create and implement labels by contacting your CSM or Skilljar’s Customer Support team.

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