Configuring Viva Learning… A Lesson Learned!

Microsoft Viva Learning is a centralised learning hub within Microsoft Teams, that provides users with personalised learning content that they can browse whenever required. This learning content can be collated from sources including LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and third-party providers such as Udemy. In addition, organisations can host in-house learning content which is stored in SharePoint Online.

I was recently configuring Viva Learning for a client, where they were specifically sourcing learning content from SharePoint Online.
When sourcing content from SharePoint Online, a SharePoint Site is created and Viva Learning automatically provisions a special ‘Learning App Content Repository’ list which Viva Learning uses to find all of the learning content on the site. Having followed the instructions provided by Microsoft, it was apparent that something was awry. While the content was present, nothing was appearing in Viva Learning.
As per the Viva Learning documentation, content is usually not available for up to 24 hours after uploading, however in this particular case, a week had passed, and still no content.

Having created, deleted and re-created content on the site, having reset all the settings in the Teams Admin Centre, and having checked all permissions against the Microsoft documentation, the issue still occurred and no content was being pulled into Viva Learning. It was time to get Microsoft Support onto the case, but after three weeks of being bounced from the SharePoint team to the Microsoft Teams ‘team’, and multiple cases of recording my screen and sending logs, I was still no further forward. Until of course, Microsoft realised that their documentation was slightly inaccurate. A whole section around permissions was missing, specifically around creating a designated Viva Learning Security group in the M365 admin center and adding the consuming users to that. It was a small change to the documentation, but it was key to content being available.

So, if you find you cannot get Viva Learning to work properly, here is the method that works, including creating the specified Viva Learning Security Group.

Configuring Viva Learning

Pre-requisites

This blog assumes that you have activated Viva Learning and created a SharePoint Site (Viva Learning Content) and activated it within the M365 Admin Org Settings:

Create a Security Group & Add Users

We need to create a ‘Viva Learning’ security group in M365.

1. In the M365 Admin Center, under ‘Active teams & groups’, click ‘Add a group’

2. Choose ‘Security group’

3. Give the group a suitable name and description

4. Ensure the settings are correct, then click ‘Create group’

5. Open the group and click ‘View all and manage members’

6. Click on ‘Add member’ and select all users whom you wish to consume Viva Learning content. Then click ‘Add’

Create Viva Learning SharePoint Library

7. Once the security group has been created and populated, navigate to the Viva Content SharePoint Site


8. Create a new Document Library to add Learning Content

9. Browse to the new Library and create a ‘Training Content’ folder

Upload Viva Learning Content

10. Open the ‘Training Content’ folder and click the ‘Upload’ button in the Library ribbon. From the dropdown, click ‘Files’

11. The explorer window will open. Browse your computer to where the files are that you wish to upload.

12. Select the files you wish to upload by highlighting them all with your mouse or holding down ‘CTRL’ and left clicking each file you want.


13. Once ready to upload, click ‘Open’


14. The files will be uploaded


15. Click ‘Edit in grid view’ in the library ribbon

16. Edit the ‘Name’, ‘Title’ and ‘Description’ fields so that they have sensible names and descriptions for each of the learning materials.

The ‘NAME’ and ‘DESCRIPTION’ field are used in Viva Learning to identify your content, so ensuring these have sensible, readable text is important.


17. Now click the current Library name, to return to the folder view

Configure Access Permissions

18. Click the three ellipses (three dots) next to the folder name


19. Click ‘Manage access’ from the dropdown


20. Click the ‘+’ icon next to ‘Direct access’


21. In the ‘Grant access’ input field, type ‘viva learning’. Click ‘Viva Leaning’ when it drops down

22. Uncheck ‘Notify people’

23. Click the ‘Grant access’ button

Create Link to Content

24. Click the three ellipses (three dots) next to the folder name. Click ‘Copy link’ from the dropdown


25. Click the ‘Copy’ button in the popup

26. Close the confirmation window by clicking the small ‘x’

27. On the Site Navigation, click ‘Site Contents’ to the far right

28. Click ‘Learning App Content Repository’ from the Site Contents menu

29. Click the ‘New’ button

30. Under ‘Title’, type a suitable name for the content

31. Under ‘Folder URL’ press ‘CTRL + V’ to paste the link we copied in Step 26.

32. Click ‘Save’

Now you have your uploaded content, and the location for SharePoint to find it:

Repeat this process for all content sources. Once complete, you may need to wait at least 24 hours for the content to be visible in Viva Learning

Microsoft Teams

33. In Microsoft Teams, on the left-hand panel, click ‘Viva Learning’

34. When the content has crawled successfully, the content will appear!


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