As you can imagine, the Learning team plays an important role here at OpenClassrooms. It's also the only team you rarely see in a startup because it's specific to what we do.
What does the Learning team look like? How is it organized, and how does it get the job done? Let's find out!
Mission
The Learning team's mission is to provide the best education experience possible. The team has several objectives:
To plan our learning strategy: consider which topics we will cover in the next 18 months, determine which jobs are in high-demand, decide whether to file a new certification request for a degree or to partner with a specific brand.
To craft content: designing, planning, and creating text and course videos, as well as exercises, projects, and assessments. We recruit and train experts to create content.
To ensure continuous improvement: courses and learning paths demand constant maintenance as technology evolves quickly. Luckily, we don't have to do it alone: our users often contact us when they come across a mistake.
To drive learning experience development by applying educational theories and staying up-to-date with pedagogical innovations.
Roles
The Learning team consists of specific subteams:
Learning Designers use their knowledge of educational theory to create our learning paths, including courses and projects. They help subject matter experts (our external experts) present material in a compelling, well-researched way to optimize student learning!
The Multimedia Experts comprises specialists who produce instructional videos, audio tracks, static or animated visuals, and other multimedia content to create great courses. They work on each course from pre-production to post-production. Over time, they have developed instructional design skills, allowing them to make important educational decisions while creating multimedia content.
The Learning Products team ensures that we produce and maintain the programs most needed in today's job market while achieving business's best outcomes. In other words, Learning Products is the voice of the customers within the Learning team. They impact the entire content value chain from portfolio management & roadmapping to revenue enablement.
The Quality Assurance team works collaboratively with other teams to ensure that our courses, paths, processes, and overall learning experience continue to meet the required quality standards. They are the voice of the customer for the learning team - they are responsible for sharing weekly data regarding student satisfaction, and they'll manage student feedback through our internal ticketing tool.
The Accreditation and Academic Partnerships team helps OpenClassrooms achieve official international recognition of our status as a higher education institution and our educational programs’ quality and standards. They work with external regulators and accrediting bodies to understand the requirements we must meet to gain recognition and have the authority to offer formal qualifications. They make sure we have the freedom to operate as an educational institution and can deliver authentic diplomas to our students.
Meetings and Habits
Each squad on the team has routines and habits; this typically involves daily stand-ups to discuss the day's priorities and potential challenges. Here are some examples of meetings that the Learning team attends:
Learning Team all-hands meeting (once a month): This meeting helps people keep up with what everyone else is doing. Learning leadership will discuss strategic projects they’re working on, showcase successful initiatives, and inform the team on anything new and noteworthy.
Lessons Learned (whenever the team thinks that a bit of self-reflection will help): This is a retrospective meeting where the Learning team talks about how they work and what they could do better. They freely express the factors that enabled them to do a great job, what didn’t help, and what best practices can be implemented in the future.
Gates or final reviews (multiple times a week, whenever new content is ready to publish): The team meets to discuss new content just before publication. Once approved, the new courses and paths can be published on the platform.
There are also more spontaneous meetings whenever the team needs to talk. 😛They can happen at any time - remotely or in the office.
Documentation
The Learning team hosts all its documentation on Notion, our OpenClassrooms wiki. Here’s an overview of the Learning section summary:
You should find anything you need:
Our Pedagogy and Learning Products
Planning and Production
Strategy
Templates (to create a new path, for instance)
Guides (how to shoot a video, build exercises)
How to onboard new people
Collaboration With Other Teams
The Learning team collaborates with every department, from Product and Revenue to Student Success and Mentorship.
The Learning Products team works closely with the Revenue team to ensure we create training programs that match employers’ needs. The Learning Design and Production team collaborates mainly with Student Success and Mentorship to guarantee the best end-to-end educational experience for all our students.
