NEW: smart table of contents

Hi Michiel, what’s this new feature?

"The 'smart table of contents,' as we call it, just went live. It makes it easier to navigate through a LearningStone course timeline." 

How does it work?

"At the top, we created a horizontal bar so you can see at a glance what's available within your course timeline. You can click on the bar to jump down to a section and checked-off items change color. There’s also a table of contents that opens in a window so you can get a better overview. We call these two together the 'smart table of contents' because-it adapts to your content."

Were users asking for this feature?

"Yes, to be honest, I made the first sketch for this feature two years ago. You see, we were told by our users that it was sometimes difficult to scroll through very long timelines. Sometimes people would get lost in them. Thanks to the input of those users  we started working on this feature. And perhaps important to mention is that you can turn this feature on and off yourself when developing the course timeline, you will find a button for that in the editor. "

What else do you hear from users?

"Nowadays training agencies even hire people specifically to work on LearningStone and they are adding really a lot of new material, for example, they add dozens of videos. So you get more specialized people who tend to develop more complex structures. A really interesting development. "

Resulting in expanding timelines. Sort of a compliment for LearningStone?

"Yes you could put it like that. Timelines are getting longer and consist of more steps. We already had progress reports, but this table of contents is an important improvement of the usability of LearningStone course timelines.

Have you tested the new feature yet?

"Yes. A number of our users who had indicated that they had that need - including those with very complex timelines, participated in a beta test."

And?

"During the beta it turned out that the layout could be a bit better so we worked on that. But otherwise we received super enthusiastic reactions. I am now curious to see how it works in other cases. "

With this smart table of contents, the design of the timelines will also start to change, do you think?

"I think so. It will certainly have an impact. I think check-off lists and progress reports will become more important. Those will become part of the navigation."

What's next, on the tech front at LearningStone? What are you guys working on?

"We are busy working on a search function in our management application so that our support becomes faster, and we are thinking about more search functions. In addition, we are developing functionality that will make it easier to manage very large environments, with more than a thousand trainees. And there’s a lot more to come."