Instructor Notes

The Power Automate Fundamentals lesson currently allocates 120 minutes of learning time:

50 minutes directed teaching;
70 minutes practical activity;
five teaching blocks, each followed by an activity.

Activities are allocated 10, 15, 15, 15 and 15 minutes respectively. Record any breaks separately. The longer build times reflect the current lesson plan; do not assume these are all five-minute discussion tasks.

Session Map

Part	Focus	Activity	Practical time
1	Start the flow	Build a manual request trigger	10 min
2	Move data	Add a connector and notification	15 min
3	Shape values	Clean, format, and route inputs	15 min
4	Pause for a decision	Add an approval branch	15 min
5	Work from a table	Send personalised test emails	15 min

The session is intentionally practical. Each short teaching block is followed by an activity where everyone builds or modifies a real flow in Power Automate.

Workshop Rhythm

flowchart LR
  A[Teach 10 min] --> B[Build and test 10-15 min]
  B --> C[Test]
  C --> D[Inspect run history]
  D --> E[Discuss production risks]
  E --> A

Every activity follows the same pattern: build a small version, test with safe data, inspect the run, and then ask what would need to change before production use.

Before Teaching

Confirm which connectors are enabled in the tenant, especially Approvals, Excel Online, Word Online, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. If Word template actions are not available, run Activity 5 with personalised email body text instead of populated Word documents.

Check the specific Word Online (Business) premium connector access with the teaching account. Have learners use the supplied template; Word for the web does not provide the Developer tab for creating the controls. Use the learner setup checklist to confirm file locations and safe recipients.

Prepare a small test workbook and Word template in case learners cannot create their own quickly.

Delivery Notes

Keep the examples small. The aim is for every learner to build and run flows during the session, not to produce a production-ready automation.

Emphasise:

test data only;
ownership and permissions;
run history as the first debugging tool;
Excel tables as a requirement, not an optional formatting choice;
approval outcomes needing a durable record;
bulk email needing careful testing and local communication rules.

Timing

The learner follow-up pack provides a safe test matrix, a handover record and a five-minute paired test-design task. Use it as consolidation or a replacement activity; add its time explicitly if extending the workshop.

If time is short, keep Activities 1 to 4 hands-on and treat Activity 5 as a worked design plus a short demonstration. If time is available, learners can build the full Excel-to-email loop with one or two test rows.