Using templates to create eLearning
By
Cath Ellis
In this episode of The Learning Pro Live, I sat down with the incredible Troy Ashman to geek out over one of the most exciting no-code tools in the L&D space right now: Glide.
If you have ever been asked to “build an app” for a learning project and immediately panicked about the six-figure budget and six-month timeline it would require, this episode is for you. Troy showed us how he built a fully functional, sleek community app using nothing but a Google Sheet and Glide, and he did it for free.
Here are the key takeaways from our chat on how you can leverage this powerful tool to create engaging mobile learning experiences.
The premise of Glide sounds almost too simple to be true: you populate a Google Sheet with data (text, images, links), and Glide turns it into a beautiful, progressive web app (PWA).
But as Troy demonstrated, it goes far beyond just displaying lists. He walked us through his “Point Guide” app, a community scavenger hunt built during lockdown. It features user profiles, leaderboards, image uploads, and even an admin approval workflow. All of this logic lives in the spreadsheet, yet to the user, it feels like a native app experience.
We discussed the massive potential for learning. Troy’s scavenger hunt mechanic could easily be repurposed for new employee onboarding. Instead of finding local landmarks, new hires could be tasked with “finding the marketing department,” “meeting a colleague for coffee,” or “locating the fire exit,” snapping a photo to prove completion.
This moves learning away from passive screen-clicking and into the real world. It is active, social, and mobile-first, everything modern learning should be.
Troy showed off some advanced tricks that blew my mind. By using Google Sheet formulas and Cloudinary (an image management service), he automatically applies filters and borders to user-uploaded photos before they appear in the app’s feed.
He also demonstrated how to create a custom onboarding flow using “If-Then-Else” logic columns. If a user hasn’t set up their profile yet, the app recognises this (via a True/False variable) and directs them to a setup screen instead of the main menu. It is very similar to the variables we use in Storyline, just applied in a different context.
A common barrier innovation faces is the rigid requirement to host everything on the LMS. We discussed how Glide apps can complement, rather than replace, the LMS.
You can link out to the LMS for formal compliance tracking, or use tools like Zapier to send completion data from Glide back to your system of record. As I mentioned in the stream, if you start using language like “learning app” instead of “eLearning course,” stakeholders often get excited rather than defensive. It sounds premium, innovative, and valuable.
The best way to learn Glide? Troy’s advice is simple: dive into their template library. Find an app that has functionality similar to what you want (e.g., an employee directory or an inventory tracker), copy it to your account, and look under the hood.
See how the spreadsheet is structured, how the relations are built, and how the data flows. The community support is fantastic, and once you understand the basic logic, the only limit is your imagination.
Watch the full interview above to see Troy’s screen-share walkthrough, including the backend spreadsheet magic and the live app in action.
