Background

The original GitLab CI/CD course was a monolithic 8-hour certification course that was several versions behind the most recent release of GitLab. I already had ideas for needed fixes to the course to better align with adult learning theory best practices, but I also wanted to get a better sense of the feedback from others on how it could be improved. I gathered data from:

• End of course surveys
• LMS course participation statistics (e.g., registrations, completions, quiz scores)
• Internal team members including:
  • Customer success managers
  • Technical writers
  • Product managers

Some of this feedback included comments like:

• The course has too many iFrames that just point to documentation pages without any context
• There aren't enough quiz questions
• Course content was too long (average completion rate was 28%)
• Several hands-on labs had confusing instructions
• Content was out of date

Results

• Increased average course completion percentage from 32% to 68%
• Received end-of-course feedback from a customer that it was "the best training I found from GitLab"
• Recommended on LinkedIn by the VP of Customer Success at GitLab
• Boosted average course CSAT from 90% to 95%

Project Plan

I created a detailed project plan with a proposal to completely restructure the content into a 6-course learning path. I made an epic in GitLab to track my work and individual issues for each course, with a release cadence of publishing one course every three weeks. This drastically improved the content publishing cycles that were occurring quarterly.

My Role

I led this project end-to-end through the course design lifecycle. After identifying the project needs, subject matter experts, and work parameters, I began writing new instructional content. I started with an outline of the learning path objectives, broken up into courses, then drilled down into the more detailed scripts. I created and edited course videos, designed graphics, and built the courses in the learning management system. When the project was complete, I initiated marketing efforts and pulled reports on new course feedback and statistics.

Improvements

• Added 26 instructional videos to add content variety, incorporate hands-on examples, and add instructor presence
• Created a question bank of 50+ new knowledge check questions to reinforce learning concepts
• Revised learning objectives to target higher order skills
• Updated for accessibility including closed captions, alt text, plain text versions of instructional images, appropriate heading styles, and audio narration for text-only pages
• Added new course images including infographics and gifs to improve visual interest
• Revised step-by-step instructions for hands-on labs for clarity and increased realism

Access the Content

The learning path is publicly available on GitLab University - see the registration page.