Why use Guides?
Guides in PlusPlus make it easy to create, maintain, discover, consume, and track self-paced technical tutorials. They can be authored by people who are not professional instructional designers, don't have a license for eLearning authoring tools, and want to use a format like Markdown that they already know.
Guides are especially helpful for getting new engineering hires up to speed quickly, as existing experts capture and share their knowledge at scale. Beyond tutorials for engineers, the format works for training broader audiences.
Here are a few more benefits:
Author in Markdown. Import a Markdown package or a Google Doc, or write the Guide directly in PlusPlus with the built-in Markdown editor, currently in beta.
Versioning keeps fast-moving content current. Learners stay on the version they started until they choose to switch.
Integrate Guides into a track, or assign them automatically to onboarding engineers.
Guides are discoverable and progress is trackable.
Publish Guides from outside PlusPlus — from CI, your own scripts, or an AI assistant — using the Developer API.
Solution
Here are the typical steps to getting started with Guides in PlusPlus:
Make sure Guides are enabled in your instance of PlusPlus.
For more, see How to enable self-paced content types.Create the Guide. From Content, select New and choose Guide.
Import a Google Codelabs-formatted Markdown package or a Google Doc. If the built-in Markdown editor is enabled for your instance, you can write the tutorial directly in PlusPlus instead; the editor is currently in beta.
For more on this step, see How to import Guides to PlusPlus.Assign the Guide to engineers in your org.
You can do this by integrating the Guide into a track, assigning it directly to an engineer, or setting up automated rules to assign it to onboarding engineers.Track progress and get feedback on the Guide.
You can manage Guide assignments and gather feedback on the content.Update the Guide with new versions of the content.
Import an updated package, push one from your own automation with the Developer API, or edit the source in the built-in editor and publish a new version.
Go deeper
Guides in the big PlusPlus picture
Guides are just one way you can offer self-paced learning content with PlusPlus. We also offer courses, articles and videos, as well as the ability to facilitate live, relational engagement with live events, office hours, and mentorship. You can also incorporate Guides, videos, articles, courses, and live events into a sequential learning playbook with PlusPlus tracks.
For a closer look at all the content types available in PlusPlus for both live engagement and self-paced content, see PlusPlus 101: Content you can create.
Why not use eLearning? SCORM? CMI5?
Traditional eLearning formats such as SCORM and CMI5 are well-suited for L&D professionals who have the time, skill, and resources to build highly interactive content in dedicated authoring tools. While eLearning courses can be highly interactive, scripted, and polished for the learner's experience, they are expensive to produce (especially collaboratively) and maintain. The source files are proprietary and cannot be versioned and iterated on using tools and workflows that engineers are already familiar with.