Microsoft Viva Learning - Simply Explained

Welcome to another episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets here on M365. FM, I'm your host, Möko Peters. When was the last time your company asked you to complete a training course? And where did you go to do it? Was it a link in an email, a SharePoint folder, nobody updates? An old portal with a login you forgot years ago? That fragmentation is the real reason most learning programs fail. Not the content, but the chaos around it. Today's Knowledge Nugget is about something that's probably already sitting inside your Microsoft 365 license. Viva Learning, a single place inside teams where all your learning lives, with no extra setup and no extra cost for most of you, will break down what it is, where the content comes from, and how you can start using it today. The Learning Problem, here's the problem. Most organizations have training scattered everywhere. SharePoint folders with old PDFs, an LMS, nobody remembers how to log into, email attachments with YouTube links, and maybe a shared drive with a subfolder labeled Training 2023, untouched since 2022. Think of it like having training materials scattered across different rooms in a building. You never know which door to open. The result is a mess, employees waste time hunting for the right course, managers can't track completions, and HR has no idea what skills people actually have. The old model looks something like this. Go to this link, watch this video, send me a screenshot when you're done. It's manual, messy, and broken. Now here's the thing, the content itself is usually fine. The problem isn't that the training is bad, it's that nobody can find it. When you have to open a separate portal, remember a separate password, and navigate a separate interface just to watch a 10 minute video, most people simply won't bother. They'll put it off and forget eventually the deadline passes and nobody says anything. This fragmentation is the real reason learning programs fail. Not the quality of the courses, not the relevance of the topics, but the sheer friction of getting to them. So what if learning lived where you already work? What if you didn't have to leave your daily tools to find the training you need? That's the gap we were learning, Phil. It pulls everything into one spot so you don't have to hunt. What we were learning actually is. So what exactly is Viva learning? Let's get specific. Viva learning is a learning hub built directly into Microsoft Teams. It's not a separate website, a new login or another browser tab you keep open. You open Teams, click the Viva learning app, and there are all your courses in one view. That's it. Think of it as a digital filing cabinet for training, except instead of drawers labeled by department or year, everything is searchable and organized by what's relevant to you. You don't dig through folders or ask around for the right link, you just open the app and there it is. Here's the thing. Viva learning doesn't create its own content. It pulls together courses from multiple sources. Microsoft's own library linked in learning if you have licenses, your company's SharePoint folders, and even third party learning management systems. All these sources appear in one unified catalog inside Teams. You don't have to build anything. If your organization has Microsoft 365, Viva learning is already available in your tenant. It's just not turned on yet. Most people miss that it's sitting there waiting for an admin to flip the switch. Karawana from Microsoft confirmed this in a walkthrough, which you said a lot of customers don't realize Viva learning comes with their license. It's something many Teams overlook. The real difference from old training portals is that Viva learning lives inside your daily workflow. You don't leave Teams to learn, you don't open a separate browser or log into a different system. The learning sits right next to your chats meetings and files. It's like having a library inside your office instead of driving across town every time you need a book. Most people think learning is a separate activity. Viva learning makes it part of your workday. The ratings back this up. On G2, Viva learning scores 9.7 out of 10 for ease of use. That's noticeably higher than LinkedIn learning's 9.2. It also leads in mobile compatibility at 9.4 versus 8.8. The reason is simple. When you don't switch tools, the learning just happens. You don't have to schedule it or remember to go back. It's right there in the app you already have open all day. So to sum it up, Viva learning is a hub inside Teams that pulls together courses from Microsoft, LinkedIn learning and your own company's content. It's already in your license and it makes learning as easy as checking your chat. Content source 1. Microsoft's own library. The first content source is also the easiest one to turn on. Microsoft's own library. Viva learning comes with a built-in catalog from Microsoft. We're talking thousands of courses, learning paths and academies that are ready to go the moment you enable the feature. This includes Microsoft learn content, Microsoft 365 training and specialized academies like Copilot Academy. These aren't our long lectures. They're short bite-sized modules that run between five and 15 minutes. That's intentional. Microsoft designed them for learning in the flow of work, not for blocking out an afternoon. You watch a module, apply what you learned and get back to your day. Best of all, no extra licensing needed. If your organization has a qualifying Microsoft 365 license, most E3 E5 and business premium plans qualify, this library is included. You don't pay extra or sign up for a separate subscription. It's already there. Take Copilot Academy as an example. It walks you through using Copilot in Word, Excel, Teams and other Microsoft 365 apps. It's practical, not theoretical. You learn by doing. And because Microsoft updates this content regularly, every time they ship a new Copilot feature, you don't have to create your own training materials to keep up. The Academy updates itself. The admin can enable or disable specific providers, but the default library is ready to go out of the box. No configuration required, no content creation needed. Just flip the switch and your employees have access to thousands of courses. Content source 2 linked in learning. But what if you want more than just Microsoft's own content? That's where LinkedIn learning steps in. LinkedIn learning gives you access to over 16,000 expert-led courses covering business, technology and creative skills. Think project management, Python or public speaking. Viva learning pulls all of that directly into Teams, so you don't need a separate login. If your company already has LinkedIn learning licenses, connecting it to Viva learning is just a simple admin toggle. You don't rebuild anything. You don't migrate content. You just connect the two systems. And suddenly all those LinkedIn learning courses show up right next to Microsoft's content in one unified catalog. Employees see everything in one place, so they don't have to remember which platform has which course. And here's what consistency looks like. Managers can assign LinkedIn learning courses to their team and track completion, all from within Teams. The same interface they use for Microsoft's courses, the same reporting, the same workflow. LinkedIn learning stops being a separate subscription and becomes a built in training resource. Look at the G2 ratings. Viva learning scores 9.7 for ease of use, compared to LinkedIn learnings 9.2. That gap comes from removing the friction of switching between platforms. The content quality is the same. Both platforms score 8.9 for content library quality. But the experience of finding and using that content is much smoother inside Viva learning. So if your organization already pays for LinkedIn learning, you're leaving value on the table if you don't connect it. The courses are already there. The licenses are already paid for. You just need to connect the dots. Content source 3, your own content, SharePoint. But the most powerful content source might be your own. The training your company already created. Most organizations have internal training materials sitting somewhere, onboarding guides, policy documents, process walkthrough videos, compliance training that someone spend weeks building. The problem is that this content usually lives in a SharePoint folder. Nobody remembers the path to or buried in an email chain from three years ago. Viva learning integrates directly with SharePoint to solve that. You point it at a folder and the content becomes available as learning objects inside Teams. No migration, no reformatting, just a SharePoint folder and the right permissions. Let me give you the specifics. You can bring in up to 1000 files without any extra licensing. That's a SharePoint folder, a few clicks in the admin center and your entire internal training library shows up inside Viva learning. Metadata like description, duration and skill tags sync within 24 hours. So if you've got a folder with your new higher orientation video, your IT setup guide and your annual compliance PDF, they all appear in Teams, searchable and organized. This means your HR onboarding document, your IT setup video, your compliance training, all of it lives inside Teams. No more sending links and emails, no more attaching files to Teams messages, no more, it's on the Share drive, I think. Employees find everything in one place. The real power comes when you combine all three sources. Microsoft's library, LinkedIn Learning, your own SharePoint content. They don't compete with each other. They become a single catalog, a new hire logs into Teams, opens Viva learning and sees the welcome video from HR, the benefits overview from LinkedIn Learning, and the required compliance course from Microsoft, all without leaving the app. That's the experience that makes people actually use the tool. The managers view, assignments and tracking. So the content is there, ready to go. But how do managers actually use this thing? Viva learning isn't just a library where employees wander around hoping to find something useful. Managers can assign courses to specific people or entire Teams. From within Teams, a manager browsers the catalog picks a course, sets a due date, and that's it. Three clicks. Employees see assigned learning in their My Learning tab inside Viva learning, with no separate email reminder and no awkward, hey, did you watch that video yet? Chat. The assignment shows up in the same app they use for meetings and messages, so it's hard to miss. Managers can track completion status, who finished, whose in progress, who hasn't started. This replaces the old approach of sending an email with a link and hoping for the best. Now you actually know where your team stands. Let me give you a real example. A global savings and investments manager with about 15,000 employees rolled out Viva learning. On day one of their pilot mandatory learning completions jumped 3,000% compared to the previous quarter. That's not a typo. 3,000% they removed the friction. Learning was easy to find and easy to assign, so completion rates skyrocketed. Managers can also share courses directly in Teams chats or channels. If someone asks how to use a feature, a manager can drop a link to the relevant course right there. Learning becomes a natural part of team conversations, not a separate task that gets scheduled and forgotten. The key insight is simple. When learning is easy to find and easy to assign, completion rates go up. Not because the content is better, but because the system stops getting in the way. How it all fits together the system. So let's step back and look at the whole picture. Viva learning isn't a single product you install. It's a layer that connects content, people and tools. The three content sources, Microsoft's own library, LinkedIn learning and your SharePoint folders become one unified catalog. Employees don't see three different tabs or search bars. They see one list of courses, search once, and find what they need. The source doesn't matter to them. What matters is that the course is there and they can start it with one click. The team's integration is what makes this work. You access everything from one app, one interface, one login, no switching context, no remembering which platform has the course you need. Your learning lives in the same place as your meetings, your chats, your files, it's not a separate activity you have to schedule, it's part of how you work. And the manager features turn learning from a passive library into an active tool. Instead of hoping employees find the right courses on their own, managers can assign, track and recommend. They can see who's progressing and who needs a nudge. So learning becomes something you manage, not just something you offer. The result is a system where learning stops being a chore and becomes part of your daily workflow. You don't block out an afternoon for training. You spend 10 minutes between meetings watching a module. You share a course in a team chat because someone asked a question. You complete an assigned course because it showed up in your learning tab, not because you got a reminder email you ignored. Think of it like a streaming service for training. You don't care which studio made the show, you just want to watch it. Viva learning does that for your company's training. The source is invisible. The content is what matters. Here's the thing. Most organizations already have the content and the license. They just need to connect the dots. Microsoft's library is included. Linked in learning is probably already paid for and your SharePoint folders already exist. The pieces are all there. Viva learning is the glue that holds them together. When you see it as a system, the value becomes obvious. Less searching, more learning, better tracking. And the whole thing runs inside the app, your employees already use all day. Your next steps. So what should you do next? Let me give you five steps to get started. Step one, check if Viva learning is already available in your tenant. Open Microsoft Teams, click the three dots at the bottom of the left navigation bar and type Viva learning in the search box. If it appears, you're good. If not, ask your admin to enable it. That takes about 30 seconds. Step two, connect your content sources. In the Viva learning admin tab, turn on Microsoft Learn. It's free and instant. If your organization has linked in learning licenses, toggle that on two. Then point to your SharePoint training folder and the system will ingest up to 1,000 files without any extra licensing. Metadata sinks within 24 hours. Step three, pin Viva learning in Teams. Right-click the app icon and pin it to your left rail. That gives you one click access every time you open Teams. No more searching. It's always there. Step four, start small. Don't try to build a full training program on day one. Assign one course to your team this week. Something simple like co-pilot academy, which is practical and short, or a new hire onboarding module if you have one. The goal is to get people using the tool not to cover everything at once. Step five, build a habit. Encourage your team to spend 10 minutes a week in Viva learning and use Teams channels to share what they learned. If someone finds a useful course, drop the link in the team chat, make learning a conversation, not a requirement. The easiest first step is enabling Microsoft learn in the admin settings. It's free, it's instant, and it gives you a full catalog of thousands of courses immediately, no content creation, no configuration, just turn it on. And here's the important part. You don't need a Viva suite license for the basic functionality. Most Microsoft 365, E3, E5 and business premium plans include Viva learning. If you hit the 1000 file limit on SharePoint, you can upgrade to a Viva learning or Viva suite license for more capacity. But for most organizations, the free tier is more than enough to get started. So that's Viva learning, a learning hub that's probably already sitting inside your Microsoft 365 license. Three content sources, one Teams app, and a lot of potential if you just turn it on. Start with step one. Check if it's available in your tenant. That's the best move you can make right now. Subscribe for more knowledge nuggets like this and drop a comment if you've already tried Viva learning in your organization.