PlusPlus now offers four main ways to organize learning so people can quickly find what matters to them: Channels, Collections, Tags, and Tracks. Together, these tools help you surface the right content for the right audiences, without relying on legacy Categories.
This article introduces how these features work and how to combine them so your catalog stays tidy, relevant, and easy to browse.
Note: Categories are being phased out and replaced by Channels as the primary way to group and discover content. This article reflects the new model.
Channels: your primary discovery hubs
Channels are your big, persistent “homes” for learning. They are typically organized around departments, audiences, or major themes (for example, Engineering, People Managers, New Hires, or Security).
Use Channels to:
Give specific audiences a place to start (“Everything for managers” or “Data Engineering learning”).
Keep content scoped to the teams who need it, especially when combined with access control.
Feature key content items, Collections, and Tracks so they stand out at the top of the page.
Good patterns for Channels:
Audience-based hubs: Engineering, Sales, Product, Support.
Role- or level-based hubs: Managers, ICs, Senior Engineers.
Major cross-functional initiatives: Security & Privacy, AI Enablement, DEI.
When in doubt, start by asking: “Where would people naturally go to look for this?” and place content in the Channel that best matches that audience.
Collections: curated topic groupings
Collections let you bring related learning content together in one easy-to-discover place, without making learners follow a required sequence. They are great for topical hubs and curated resource lists across Channels.
Use Collections to:
Curate topic-focused resource sets (for example, “Everything Python”, “Leadership Essentials”, “Reviving Old Features”).
Gather content from multiple Channels into a single, shareable view.
Highlight cross-functional themes that don’t fit neatly in just one Channel.
Feature curated Collections in Channels for greater visibility.
Collections work especially well when you:
Keep them focused (“Intro to observability” rather than “Engineering stuff”).
Give them clear titles and short descriptions that make it obvious who they’re for.
Use them to complement Tracks by grouping optional or “nice-to-have” content around a core learning path.
Tags: fine-grained topics and attributes
Tags still play a key role in making content searchable and filterable, but they now work alongside Channels and Collections instead of Categories.
Use Tags to:
Mark content with specific topics or skills (for example, AI, Oncall, OKRs, Culture).
Capture attributes you want to filter on, like framework names or internal program labels.
Create consistent “vocabulary” for discovery across Channels and content types.
Admin and governance tips:
Platform admins configure allowed tags in global settings so people filter with a clean, curated list.
When allowed tags are defined, creators choose from that list instead of adding ad‑hoc tags, which keeps search results coherent.
Avoid duplicates and near-duplicates; choose one canonical spelling for each concept so filters stay useful.
A simple rule: use Channels to say “who/what this is for,” and Tags to say “what this touches on in more detail.”
Tracks: structured learning journeys
Tracks provide a structured, completable learning path. They help you guide learners step by step through the content you want them to complete.
Use Tracks to:
Build onboarding paths (for example, “New Engineer Onboarding”, “New Manager Bootcamp”).
Sequence content in a defined order, with required or recommended items.
Offer certification- or milestone-style journeys where completion matters.
Tracks differ from Collections and Channels in important ways:
Feature | Channels | Collections | Tracks |
Primary purpose | Discovery hub | Curated resource set | Structured learning journey |
Order/sequence | None | Optional ordering | Defined sequence |
Completable | No | No | Yes |
Best for | Departments, roles | Topics, campaigns, themes | Onboarding, certification, upskilling |
You can combine them: for example, place a “New Engineer Onboarding” Track in the Engineering Channel and include a Collection of optional deep dives alongside it.
Putting it all together
To make content discoverable with the new model, think in layers:
Start with Channels to match your audiences (for example, Engineering, Managers, New Hires).
Add Tracks when you want a structured, completable path.
Create Collections to curate topical or cross-functional sets across Channels.
Tag consistently so search and filters surface the right items regardless of where they live.
A quick example:
You publish a new “Intro to Incident Management” article.
You place it in the Engineering or SRE-focused Channel so the right audience sees it first.
You add it to a “SRE Fundamentals” Track for new hires.
You also include it in a “Reliability & Oncall Best Practices” Collection that spans several Channels.
You apply tags like “Oncall”, “Incident Management”, and “Postmortems” so people can find it via search and filters.
This layered approach ensures that even as your catalog grows, people can still easily discover the content they need, when they need it