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Knowledge Base & Wiki Basics & Fundamentals -With Confluence

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Based on 1,246 ratings
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Robert Hean

If you’re interested in learning how to more effectively manage, create or contribute to a knowledge base or a Wiki than this course is for you. I designed it specifically for individuals who are first time knowledge base users wanting to learn these skills, but individuals who have been tasked with managing, maintaining and updating knowledge bases will also benefit from the course. No prior knowledge base experience is necessary - this course covers ALL the basics.

Read more

If you’re interested in learning how to more effectively manage, create or contribute to a knowledge base or a Wiki than this course is for you. I designed it specifically for individuals who are first time knowledge base users wanting to learn these skills, but individuals who have been tasked with managing, maintaining and updating knowledge bases will also benefit from the course. No prior knowledge base experience is necessary - this course covers ALL the basics.

The lessons learned here can be applied to any knowledge base or wiki. The course, however, provide hands-on learning using Confluence (from Atlassian), which is a widely used knowledge base (and offers free version. ).

We’ll cover fundamental aspects of knowledge bases, including planning, processes and features.

Planning includes

  • Understanding your audience and their needs

  • Determining what content you'll need to meet hose needs

  • Designing a structure to encourage browsing and support search

Processes includes

  • Content audits and how they help keep your content fresh

  • The importance of publication workflows to ensuring new content meets your standards

  • How to engage your audience to use and contribute to your knowledge base

Features includes

  • Learning how to develop and deploy templates to standardize content

  • The importance of labels and how they drive search and they automate some tasks

  • Why good titles and headers are critical to your success

Who should take this course

  • Knowledge base admins or managers - This will help round-out your knowledge and help build better experiences

  • Anyone who contributes to a knowledge base - Anyone adding information to a knowledge base will benefit from understanding these basics

  • Team managers - Managers will benefit by understanding how to structure their team's knowledge, reducing friction and speeding up work

  • Individuals using a knowledge base - Folks using a knowledge base will benefit by understanding how they're setup, and how to more easily find information.

  • Product managers - Product managers will benefit by being able to setup repositories for their engineering / development teams, as well as customer-facing groups

This course also includes hand-on activities, including documenting your knowledge base structure in LucidChart (a free tool for diagramming processes), and setting up a live knowledge base in Confluence (a free and widely used knowledge base. ) so you can get some experience using these tools.

Hands-on activities include

  • Making and managing templates in Confluence

  • Using LucidChart to diagram your knowledge base structure

  • Creating that knowledge base structure in Confluence

  • Applying and maintaining labels in Confluence

  • Learning how a number of Confluence Macros work

Please join me in this course and start improving your knowledge base today.

Enroll now

What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Discover planning concepts necessary to setup a successful knowledge base
  • Apply hands on skills in starting and maintaining a knowledge base in confluence
  • Understand core processes necessary to maintain and grow a knowledge base
  • Design a knowledge base structure that will improve a users experience and provide better search results
  • Use confluence macros to reduce administrative overhead and automate some tasks
  • Learn to create impactful titles and headers that will provide a positive user experience and improve search results

Syllabus

Introduction

Many organizations have a knowledge base, but people find it hard to use.  This course is designed to help change that.

Read more

This lecture outlines the challenge many knowledge bases face (poor organization, lack of maintenance, etc), and what you can expect from the course

A short outline of how to use the Udemy platform, including lecture speed, note taking and navigation

Learn how to setup, and use, Draw.io, a free diagramming tool you can use during this course

In this lecture you'll setup a free LucidChart account which we'll use later in this course

In this lecture you'll setup a free Confluence account, which we'll use to practice our skills later

This lecture introduces you to the planning processes and concepts you'll need for a successful knowledge base. These include:

  • Determining your audience, content and structure

  • The importance of structure (how pages are arranged) in a knowledge base

  • Hands-on opportunities to build your own structure

Understanding who will be using your knowledge base is an important step in planning. It helps inform your content, but also other topics like access control and layout will also be impacted by who is expected to use it.

Here you'll learn different ways to identify what content your knowledge base needs, including how to work with your customers to determine their needs

How pages relate to each other impacts several aspects of your knowledge base, including search and browsing. Here you'll learn about the importance of both, and how to get started designing your structure.

This lecture digs deeper into what makes a good, or bad, structure in a knowledge base. You'll learn about the importance of good structure, and how to build it into your knowledge base.

A quick quiz on the importance of structure

In this lecture you'll learn how to use LucidChart to build a structure that we'll then build in Confluence in the next lecture

See how to build a structure using Draw.io

You'll learn how to use Confluence to build out your knowledge base structure

Wrap up the Planning section here

Gain an overview of the processes you'll need to setup and maintain your knowledge base. These include things like

  • Content Audits - reviewing what you've got to ensure it's up to date

  • Publication Workflows - a series of steps to ensure content is properly written before deployment

  • Content Strategy - How you'll continue to add content

  • More!

Content auditing - or regularly reviewing what is in your knowledge base - helps keep things fresh and ensures it is accurate. This improves engagement and keeps people coming back for more.

Publication Workflows are a series of stages a page goes through before being published. These help ensure content is accurate and conforms to formatting/style guidelines.

Learn the importance of having a good content strategy - basically how you'll continue to improve your knowledge base over time

Knowledge bases are used by people, so it's important to engage with your audience to ensure you're meeting their needs. You'll learn different ways of engagement, including new hire training and company-wide communication.

This lecture covers Page Owners - individuals who are responsible for reviewing and updating specific pages on a regular basis. You'll learn how to identify and approach these individuals to help keep your knowledge base fresh and up to date.

A short quiz to test your knowledge of page owners

Learn two different ways to track page owners in confluence - labels and page properties. Either one will make tracking and working with page owners significantly easier.

This test will examine your knowledge of Knowledge Base processes

Wrap up the Processes section with this lecture and review what you've learned

Get an overview of what mechanics and features are needed to manage your knowledge base. These include things like:

  • Templates

  • Labels

  • Titles

  • Headers

  • more!

Learn how templates help your audience more easily read content and also make it easier to add new items to your knowledge base by standardizing layouts

This quick quiz tests your knowledge of Templates

Get hands on in this lecture and learn how to use and setup, manage and edit templates in Confluence.

Learn how labels help you categorize your content. This helps improve search results, can improve browsing and also enables macros to interact with your content in several ways.

Get hands on in your Confluence knowledge base and learn how to add, manage and apply labels

Titles are incredibly important as they help your audience find content, but also let them easily browse.

This lecture digs deeper into what makes a good, or bad title, and you'll learn the importance of writing good titles for your content

This quiz will challenge you to identify the best title for a given page

Headers help break up a page making it easier to read - and to add content to.

This lecture digs deeper into what makes a good, or bad header, explains the importance of good headers, as well as some high-level insight into other ways headers can be used.

Generally a knowledge base should be open for folks to use... but sometimes you need to control specific content. Learn about access controls here.

Get hands on and see what access looks like in Confluence.

Version history keeps track of all changes made to a page - a very useful feature for compliance and more.

Get hands on and see what version history looks like in Confluence.

Review and wrap up everything you've learned about knowledge base mechanics and tools

Macros are incredibly useful tools that help supercharge your Confluence pages. This lecture outlines what they're for and how to add them.

Learn about the Table of Contents Zon macro - which automatically generates dynamic tables of contents that update themselves... but only for information in a specific area of the page.

Learn about the Table of Contents macro - which automatically generates dynamic tables of contents that update themselves.

Learn about the Include Page macro - which lets you mirror the contents of an entire page somewhere else.

Learn about the Excerpt Macro - which lets you define a portion of the page to use mirrored on other pages.

Learn about the Exceprt Include Macro - which lets you pull an Excerpt from another page onto the current one.

Learn about the Include Contents by Label macro - which lets you pull content in from other pages based on labels.

Learn about the Task Report macro - which lets you instantly build real-time tasks lists based on "to do" items.

Learn about the Live Search Macro - which adds a search bar to your page and lets you control what it searches through.

Learn about the Page Tree Search macro - which lets you add a search bar that only searches through a specific page tree.

Learn about the Page Properties macro - which lets you cross-display information on a page. Examples include page owners, status reports and more. Note - this needs to be used in conjunction with the Page Properties Report macro!

Learn about the Page Properties Report macro - which lets you aggregate information from Page Properties macros in a single spot.

Wrap up the course with a quick review of what you've learned

Get discounts on my other courses

Traffic lights

Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Provides hands-on experience with Confluence, a widely-used knowledge base platform, allowing learners to immediately apply what they learn to a practical tool and build a portfolio
Covers planning, processes, and features of knowledge bases, offering a holistic understanding beyond just the technical aspects of using a specific platform like Confluence
Explores content auditing and publication workflows, which are essential for maintaining a high-quality and up-to-date knowledge base that users can rely on for accurate information
Teaches how to use LucidChart for diagramming knowledge base structures, which is useful for visualizing and organizing information architecture, improving navigation and user experience
Focuses on Confluence, so learners should be aware that the hands-on skills may not directly translate to other knowledge base platforms without some adaptation and further learning
Requires learners to set up accounts with third-party services like LucidChart and Confluence, which may involve agreeing to their terms of service and providing personal information

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Create your own learning path. Save this course to your list so you can find it easily later.
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Reviews summary

Knowledge base basics with confluence

According to learners, this course provides a solid foundation in knowledge base and wiki basics, with a strong focus on practical application using Confluence. Students particularly appreciate the clear explanations and the opportunity for hands-on exercises covering essential features like templates, labels, and macros. While described as excellent for beginners and those new to Confluence or KB management, some learners found the content might be too fundamental if they already had prior experience. Overall, it's seen as a useful starting point for understanding how to plan, build, and maintain a knowledge base effectively.
Detailed look at key KB/Confluence features.
"The sections on templates and labels were particularly useful for me."
"Understanding the importance of titles, headers, and structure was valuable."
"The macros section in Confluence opened my eyes to new possibilities."
Provides a clear overview of KB basics.
"This course gave me a really good handle on the basics of managing a knowledge base."
"I learned the fundamental concepts needed to get started with a wiki effectively."
"It lays out the essential planning and process steps clearly."
Excellent practical exercises using Confluence.
"Working directly in Confluence during the course was incredibly helpful."
"The exercises for setting up spaces and using features were very practical."
"I appreciated getting hands-on experience with Confluence macros and templates."
Most suitable for newcomers to KBs or Confluence.
"As someone totally new to Confluence, I found this course perfect."
"If you have experience, parts of this might feel a bit slow or basic."
"It's a great starting point, but don't expect advanced techniques."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Knowledge Base & Wiki Basics & Fundamentals -With Confluence with these activities:
Review Information Architecture Principles
Reinforce understanding of information architecture principles to design effective knowledge base structures.
Browse courses on Information Architecture
Show steps
  • Read articles and watch videos on IA principles.
  • Analyze existing knowledge bases for IA effectiveness.
  • Practice designing site maps for hypothetical knowledge bases.
Review 'Don't Make Me Think, Revisited'
Improve knowledge base usability by applying principles from a classic usability text.
View Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense... on Amazon
Show steps
  • Read key chapters focusing on navigation and clarity.
  • Identify areas in your knowledge base that violate usability principles.
  • Implement changes to improve usability based on the book's recommendations.
Review 'Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond'
Deepen understanding of information architecture concepts with a classic text in the field.
View Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond on Amazon
Show steps
  • Read key chapters focusing on structure and organization.
  • Take notes on relevant concepts and examples.
  • Apply the book's principles to your Confluence knowledge base.
Four other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all seven activities
Confluence Macro Mastery
Reinforce understanding of Confluence macros through hands-on practice and experimentation.
Show steps
  • Choose five Confluence macros to master.
  • Create example pages demonstrating each macro's functionality.
  • Document the use cases and limitations of each macro.
Create a Confluence Template Guide
Solidify understanding of Confluence templates by creating a comprehensive guide for their use.
Show steps
  • Research best practices for Confluence template creation.
  • Document the process of creating and managing templates.
  • Include examples of effective template designs.
  • Share the guide with other knowledge base users.
Redesign a Knowledge Base Section
Apply course concepts by redesigning a section of an existing knowledge base to improve usability.
Show steps
  • Identify a section of a knowledge base with usability issues.
  • Analyze user needs and content requirements.
  • Design a new structure and navigation for the section.
  • Implement the redesign in Confluence or another platform.
  • Gather user feedback and iterate on the design.
Knowledge Base Best Practices Compilation
Deepen understanding by compiling a comprehensive resource of knowledge base best practices.
Show steps
  • Research and gather articles, blog posts, and case studies on knowledge base best practices.
  • Organize the materials into categories such as planning, content creation, and maintenance.
  • Summarize key takeaways and insights from each resource.
  • Share the compilation with other knowledge base professionals.

Career center

Learners who complete Knowledge Base & Wiki Basics & Fundamentals -With Confluence will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Knowledge Manager
A Knowledge Manager ensures that information within an organization is readily available and easily accessible. This includes developing, implementing, and maintaining knowledge management systems. This course helps you build a foundation in knowledge base planning, processes, and features, including audience understanding, content determination, and structure design which are essential for a Knowledge Manager. Through hands-on exercises using tools like Confluence and LucidChart as covered in this course, you can gain practical experience in building and maintaining effective knowledge bases, a critical area for any successful Knowledge Manager.
See salaries and explore the career path for Knowledge Manager
Content Strategist
Content Strategists plan, develop, and manage content to achieve specific business goals. They focus on creating and maintaining engaging, relevant, and consistent content across various platforms. This course helps you understand content audits, publication workflows, and content strategy all of which are important for a Content Strategist. By understanding audience needs, designing effective content structures, and implementing processes for content maintenance, as taught in this course, you can greatly contribute to successful content strategy initiatives. The practical exercises involving Confluence will also enable you to develop templates and labels for organizing content, a crucial skill for any Content Strategist.
See salaries and explore the career path for Content Strategist
Technical Writer
A Technical Writer creates documentation such as user manuals, how-to guides, and other technical documents. A key skill for a technical writer is organizing information in a clear and accessible manner. This course provides you with hands-on experience in planning, structuring, and maintaining knowledge bases, making it valuable for any aspiring Technical Writer. The course's focus on designing a user-friendly knowledge base structure, crafting effective titles and headers, and using tools like Confluence to create templates and manage content directly translates to the skills needed to excel as a Technical Writer. This course also covers audience analysis, which is important for a Technical Writer.
See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Writer
Information Architect
Information Architects design the structure and organization of information systems, focusing on usability and findability. They work to ensure that users can easily navigate and find the information they need. This course helps you understand the principles of knowledge base design and structure. It also gives you a hands-on opportunity to design a knowledge base structure using LucidChart and implement it in Confluence. This course's emphasis on audience understanding, content organization, and the effective use of labels and titles will help anyone interested in becoming an Information Architect.
See salaries and explore the career path for Information Architect
Documentation Specialist
Documentation Specialists are responsible for creating, organizing, and maintaining important documentation for internal or external use. This role demands familiarity with knowledge base principles. The course provides a comprehensive overview of knowledge base management, including planning, implementation, and maintenance. By learning how to design knowledge base structures, perform content audits, and utilize tools like Confluence, as covered in this course, one can develop the necessary skills to effectively manage and improve documentation systems. As a Documentation Specialist, you want to make information accessible no matter who the audience is.
See salaries and explore the career path for Documentation Specialist
Training Specialist
Training Specialists develop and deliver training programs to employees, customers, or other stakeholders. They often need to create and maintain knowledge bases or wikis to support their training efforts. This course helps you understand the fundamentals of knowledge base management, including planning, processes, and features. By taking this course you will gain hands-on experience with Confluence and LucidChart. This experience will allow you to build your skills and provide you with the ability to build training resources. This course will help you excel as a Training Specialist.
See salaries and explore the career path for Training Specialist
Content Manager
Content Managers oversee the creation, distribution, and governance of content across various channels. They ensure that content is accurate, consistent, and aligned with organizational goals. This course may be useful in introducing you to knowledge base management, including content audits, publication workflows, and content strategy. The course's focus on audience understanding, content organization, and the effective use of labels and titles will align with the responsibilities of a Content Manager. This course may help you manage knowledge bases, create templates, and apply labels.
See salaries and explore the career path for Content Manager
Information Manager
Information Managers oversee the storage, organization, and retrieval of information within an organization. This course may be useful if you are curious about principles of knowledge base design and structure. It also gives a hands-on opportunity to design a knowledge base structure using LucidChart and implement it in Confluence. This course's emphasis on content organization, and the effective use of labels and titles may align with some of the responsibilities for Information Managers. This course may improve your understanding of access controls and macros.
See salaries and explore the career path for Information Manager
Project Manager
Project Managers oversee the planning, execution, and closure of projects. They often need to create and maintain project documentation, which is similar to managing a knowledge base. This course may be useful by giving you a strong understanding of knowledge base management, including planning, implementation, and maintenance. By learning how to design knowledge base structures, perform content audits, and utilize tools like Confluence, one can develop the skills to effectively manage and improve project documentation systems. As a Project Manager, you want to make information accessible no matter who the audience is.
See salaries and explore the career path for Project Manager
Business Analyst
Business Analysts identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems. They may be involved in creating and maintaining knowledge bases to support business processes. This course may be useful in introducing you to the fundamentals of knowledge base management, including planning, processes, and features. By taking this course you will gain hands-on experience with Confluence and LucidChart which may allow you to build your skills. This course may improve your understanding of knowledge base structure.
See salaries and explore the career path for Business Analyst
Archivist
Archivists are responsible for appraising, collecting, organizing, preserving, and providing access to historical records and documents. This role requires organizational skills and attention to detail. This course may be useful in teaching you about knowledge base management, including how to plan, structure, and maintain knowledge bases. By understanding content categorization, labeling, and information architecture, you can improve your ability to organize and preserve historical records effectively. This course may also help you build better experiences in accessing information.
See salaries and explore the career path for Archivist
Records Manager
Records Managers oversee the creation, maintenance, and disposal of an organization's records, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. This course may be helpful due to its coverage of knowledge base processes, including content audits, publication workflows, and content strategy. By learning how to implement effective processes for content management, you can improve your ability to manage and maintain records in a systematic and compliant manner. This course may help you build a structure for your team's records.
See salaries and explore the career path for Records Manager
Librarian
Librarians are responsible for curating, organizing, and providing access to information resources in a library or information center. This role requires a strong understanding of information organization and retrieval. This course may be useful in gaining an understanding of knowledge base management, including how to design knowledge base structures, create templates, and apply labels. By learning how to improve search results and user experience, you can enhance your ability to provide access to information resources effectively. This course may improve your ability to improve user experience.
See salaries and explore the career path for Librarian
Data Analyst
Data Analysts collect, process, and analyze data to extract insights and inform business decisions. While seemingly unrelated, organizational skills are crucial for a Data Analyst as well; this course may be useful in teaching you about knowledge base structure and improving search results. By understanding content categorization, labeling, and information architecture, you can improve your ability to organize and analyze data effectively. The course's focus on improving search results may improve your data analysis and retrieval skills.
See salaries and explore the career path for Data Analyst
Help Desk Specialist
Help Desk Specialists provide technical support to customers or employees, answering questions and resolving technical issues. This course may be useful in improving your ability to find information quickly and efficiently. The course's focus on good titles and headers, as well as the use of labels and templates, can help you to locate information quickly, which is useful when providing support to users. This course may also improve your understanding of knowledge bases in general, improving your experience when using one.
See salaries and explore the career path for Help Desk Specialist

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Knowledge Base & Wiki Basics & Fundamentals -With Confluence.
Cover image
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited
Save
Classic guide to web usability, offering practical advice on designing user-friendly websites and applications. While not specific to knowledge bases, its principles of simplicity, clarity, and intuitive navigation are highly relevant to creating effective knowledge base structures. This book valuable resource for understanding user experience and applying it to knowledge base design.
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense...
Paperback
$$
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited : A Common Sense...
Hardcover
$$$
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense...
Kindle Edition
$$
Cover image
Information Architecture
Save
Foundational text in the field of information architecture. It provides a comprehensive overview of IA principles, methodologies, and best practices. It is particularly useful for understanding how to structure and organize information to improve usability and findability. This book is commonly used as a textbook in library science and information management programs.
Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond
Paperback
$$
Information Architecture: For the Web and Beyond
Kindle Edition
$$

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Course image
Rating
4.6 Filled star Filled star Filled star Filled star Half star
Effort
3 total hours
Via
Udemy
Instructor
Robert Hean
Language
English
Traffic lights
Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Provides hands-on experience with Confluence, a widely-used knowledge base platform, allowing learners to immediately apply what they learn to a practical tool and build a portfolio
Covers planning, processes, and features of knowledge bases, offering a holistic understanding beyond just the technical aspects of using a specific platform like Confluence
Explores content auditing and publication workflows, which are essential for maintaining a high-quality and up-to-date knowledge base that users can rely on for accurate information
Teaches how to use LucidChart for diagramming knowledge base structures, which is useful for visualizing and organizing information architecture, improving navigation and user experience
Focuses on Confluence, so learners should be aware that the hands-on skills may not directly translate to other knowledge base platforms without some adaptation and further learning
Requires learners to set up accounts with third-party services like LucidChart and Confluence, which may involve agreeing to their terms of service and providing personal information
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