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A Tour of Microsoft Learn

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This post was written by Dan Fernandez, Principal Group Program Manager for docs.microsoft.com.

Overview

Microsoft Learn is the easiest way to learn products and services through task-based, interactive learning with over 80 hours of free content, localized into 23 different languages, covering Azure, Dynamics, Power Apps, Flow, with more coming in the future! You can find more information on our Introducing Microsoft Learn blog post.

Learn includes:

  • 80+ hours of free learning content, in 23 different languages
  • Free fixed-time access to create and manage Azure resources using the Learn Sandbox - no credit card required
  • Learn by doing with step-by-step tutorials with interactive coding environments
  • Track progress, check knowledge, and validate your scripts to earn points, achievements, trophies, and levels

Try Microsoft Learn

Finding and filtering content

You can easily discover all available learning content through the Browse page. It provides the ability to search text and filter results by different tags including:

  • Job Role: Administrator, Developer, Solution Architect, Business Analyst, Business User
  • Level: Beginner or intermediate
  • Product: Virtual Machines, Storage, Power Apps, Power BI, and more

Animated GIF showing the Microsoft Learn browser page, and how to use the Refine Learning Content filters by selecting checkboxed items.

Modules and Learning Paths

All learning content is organized into modules, with 5 to 7 steps (also called units) covering a specific topic and is around 30 to 60 minutes long. As you can see below, each module has an overview, a set of learning objectives, time required for each unit, prerequisites, and the amount of Experience Points (XP) rewarded.

Screenshot of the Introduction to Azure course browser page, which is showing a list of the course sections and a Start button.

Learning Paths are ordered lists of modules that cover a broad set of topics, like the Architect Great Solutions in Azure Learning Path shown below.

Animated GIF of a Microsoft Learn browser page, which is showing the Architect Great Solutions Learning Path associated with a list of courses.

Free fixed-time Azure resources with Learn Sandbox

For new customers, learning a cloud platform can be frustrating, given the need for a credit card and a cell phone number to validate a free account. Existing customers also don't want to use their company's production Azure subscription for learning. To remove friction in the learning process, we've created the Learn Sandbox, allowing free, fixed-time access to a cloud subscription with no credit card required. You can safely learn, create, and manage resources without the fear of "breaking production".

Animated GIF of a Microsoft Learn browser page, which is showing the user engaging the Learn Sandbox within an article page.

Learn by doing with Azure Cloud Shell

Another key piece of feedback from customers is that while video and text is important, they prefer to learn by doing. To enable that, we've integrated the Azure Cloud Shell which enables you to run Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, .NET, Java, Node.js, Go and Python code directly in the shell, or use many of the included command-line utilities like Git, Kubectl, Helm, and more. All of this is available directly from your browser with no installation or configuration required.

Animated GIF of a docs dot microsoft dot com browser page, which is showing the user running Azure Cloud Shell within an article page.

Interactive code editing

Azure Cloud Shell also includes a browser-based code editor you can open by typing code .. It comes with basic syntax highlighting, allowing you to quickly create and edit code or configuration files in a familiar environment.

Animated GIF of a docs dot microsoft dot com browser page, which is showing the user editing code within an article page.

Knowledge Checks

Knowledge Checks are a set of multiple-choice questions designed to reinforce learning and comprehension. One key design goal of Knowledge Checks is to focus on learning content and not on "being right". You won't be penalized for answering a question incorrectly and we also provide context and information on why some chosen answers are not the correct ones.

Animated GIF of a Knowledge Check page, which is showing the user completing a multiple choice test and clicking a Check your Answers button.

Task Validation

To validate that you are successfully completing learning tasks, we've added Task Validation. As an example, below you can see how we use Azure Resource Manager to validate that the Azure Virtual Machine the user created in the module was deployed correctly.

Animated GIF of the Azure Resource Manager, which is showing the user clicking the Check Your Work button and completing a lesson.

Points, Achievements, Trophies, and Levels

We've also added some gamification to make it fun and easy to track and share your learning accomplishments on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This includes:

  • Points: Earned when you complete a unit in a module.
  • Achievements: Earned when you complete all units in a module (as shown below).
  • Trophies: Earned when you complete all modules in a learning path.
  • Levels: The more points you get, the higher your level.

Animated GIF of an Azure course page, which is showing the user scrolling down and clicking the Unlock Achievement button.

Tech Profile

As part of your initial registration, you also set up a user profile to share your points, achievements, trophies, and level with other users.

Screenshot of the Tech Profile browser window, which is showing the level and the number of earned badges and trophies associated with a user.

We want to hear from you

We want to improve the Microsoft Learn experience even more, and we need your feedback - let us know what you think, on GitHub and Twitter.