Help: Getting Started for Workspace Managers

1. Decide on a plan

A free-for-ever plan is great to give LearningStone a test run or when you’re only planning to be working with a small group with no archive.

A LearningStone workspace may consist of one or up to hundreds of “groupspaces” which you can compare to the rooms in a building. You can choose between “Collaborative Groupspaces” where the members can see each other and can work together or you can choose the “Solo Groupspaces” which are great for individual eLearning or one-on-one eCoaching. More on Collaborative versus Solo.

When you opt for a paid plan you’ll be able to add more than one groupspace, add your own design, and you will be able to archive groupspaces for later use and lots more. We only count active groupspaces, so feel free to archive as many as you like. And don’t forget, you’re free to downgrade every month.

2. Look professional!

Before you worry about other people and the course, make sure your profile looks professional.
Click on your profile image and choose “Profile” and enter as much information as you want. Make sure you upload at least one picture but a second picture standing up (or something fun) is a good idea too. LearningStone works best if people add at least one picture.
While you’re here, check your preferences. You might want more or less notifications per groupspace or you might want to set some privacy settings.

3. Decide who’s running the show!

If you’ve just ordered a free or paid plan, we’ve setup a workspace for you containing two groupspaces: the “Managers groupspace” and a test groupspace.
In the Managers groupspace you can be a Workspace Administrator (the boss!) who decides who is allowed into the Managers groupspace) or a Workspace Manager (both are allowed into all other groupspaces without being a groupspace manager).

A groupspace has “members” (the participants), a “coach” (the instructor, trainer etc.) who can edit everything in the groupspace and the “groupspace manager” who can also do this but also gets notifications about things link members asking to join. A coach and manager can be the same person if you like.
More information for managers

4. Edit the public website

When your workspace was generated, we added a one page public website. You can find it with your own URL like http://demo.learningstone.com/ (paid plans only) or by clicking on the workspace name.

If you’re a Workspace manager, you’ll a see a three-dots icon. Click on that to start editing.

Read more about editing public pages.

5. Change your skin

Your workspace has the default LearningStone skin which means a logo, a colored bar and a background image.

Go to Settings > Workspace Settings to change the design of the workspace.

Note that a groupspace can have its own background but not a different logo or top bar.

6. Names and functions

Go to a groupspace and choose “Settings”. Choose “General” and change the name of the groupspace.

Each groupspace comes with a set of preconfigured functions: a Start page with Course Timelines and a Social Timeline or “Wall”, “People”, “Dialogs” etc. Go to “Settings” and choose “Layout, functions”. You can just leave it as it is or you can turn functions on and off, decide who is allowed to edit each function. For example, if you don’t want groupspace members to add calendar events, just set this to “Visible”.

7. Add a course timeline

Go to Settings within a groupspace > Course Timelines > Open. Once in the course time library, you can copy or create a course timeline. The course timeline is a string of events, interactions and resources (documents, video’s etc.) that the participants will see.

We’ve given you an example, so play around with that until you understand what it does. And remember to add sections that are hidden until a later date if you’re not ready to publish everything straight away.

More on course timelines

8. Add a few welcoming posts on the wall

The social timeline or wall on the right-hand side of the start page, is pretty straightforward. Add some personal words and images that are suitable for the groupspace.

9. Invite participants

We call participants “Members” and there are several ways to get them to join. You can add them one-by-one or you can just add all the email addresses into a form and press send.

You might also just want to print a handout with a registration link. Go to the Invite page to do this.

Once you’ve invited them, you can edit details, send reminders and delete members on the “Organize Members” page.

More about inviting

10. Send messages to the group members

Once you have added members to the Organize members page, you can send them messages (which are sent to the normal email address). Choose “Messages” to do this or click on “Send message” in someone’s profile.

It’s good to know that you can also just reply to a LearningStone email in your normal email client (Outlook, Gmail etc.) LearningStone will make sure that it goes to the right person without giving you their direct email address.

Actually, managers and coaches can send messages to whole groups of people. Notice the tabs in the Messages > New message > Recipient.

11. Stopping

Once a training or coaching track has ended or the groupspace is no longer needed, you can decide to delete it or archive it. Archived groupspaces don’t count for your paid plan, so you can archive an unlimited amount of groupspaces (Paid plans only).

Just go over to Settings > Archiving or Deleting. Or go to the Catalog and choose “Archive” in the menu and then (in the Archive) choose “Delete” if really needed.

Archived groupspaces are frozen (members can’t post more information) but you can still get in touch with the members.

12. And next?

You’re free to upgrade, downgrade or close the workspace anytime you like. Just go over to Settings > Workspace Settings > Workspace Account details.

If you have any question whatsoever, use the Feedback button at the bottom of the screen and drop us a line!