Managing Programs

This chapter provides an overview of programs and discusses how to:

Define programs.
Update certification registration statuses.
Send program notifications.

Maintaining Learning Records and Objectives through Self-Service Pages

Understanding Programs

This section discusses:

Programs
Curricula
Certifications
Expiration rules for certifications
Program rosters

Programs

A program represents a significant learning goal that can be achieved by completing multiple learning activities. Programs are especially useful for learners who need to obtain a particular certificate, license, skill, or competency. They guide learners along a specified learning path, presenting activities in a logical sequence.

Programs are divided into one or more sections, with each section having its own set of business rules. A section can include catalog items or another program.

As a user with learning administrator privileges, you can:

Create programs and publish them in the learning catalog.
Grant learners access to programs by specifying the valid learner groups to which the learner must belong.
Specify which items or programs within a section are required and which are optional.
Determine the recommended order in which learners should complete sections and the recommended order of items within each section.
Decide whether to permit historical credit, equivalencies, and waivers for items or programs within a section.
Define one or more high-level objectives that the learner achieves by completing the program.

Learners can sign up for programs through the catalog or their manager, or an administrator can sign them up. Once the learner is registered for the program, the system tracks the learner's progress toward completion.

To successfully complete a program, the learner must:

Complete the required number of sections of the program.
Complete the required number of items for each section of the program.
Complete all core items successfully.

Both learners and managers can view the learner's progress on programs through the self-service pages. When the learner completes the last item within the program, the system updates the learner's program registration status to completed.

Unlike learning activities, programs have no enrollment limits or waitlisting.

Enterprise Learning Management supports two types of programs: curricula and certifications.

Curricula

A curriculum program guides the learner along a specific learning path over an unrestricted span of time to fulfill one or more objectives. Because a curriculum has no built-in time frame for completion, the learning is self-paced. The record of completion for a curriculum does not expire; therefore, the learner needs to only complete the curriculum once. If the program you want to create requires an expiration date, you should instead create a certification program.

You might define a Basics of Management curriculum program as follows:

Section 1 (catalog item section)

A Manager's Primer

Communicating A Shared Vision

Communication Etiquette
Section 2 (program section)

Business Fundamentals program

This program includes two sections: Section 1, which contains three catalog items and Section 2, which contains another program.

Certifications

A certification program enforces a fixed time period within which the learner must complete all items to become certified in a particular area. A certification covers a specific topic or set of topics that usually include a test that the learner must pass. Certifications have an expiration date, completion rules, and recertification rules. Popular examples of certifications are Microsoft MCSE and Sun Java Programmer certifications.

You might define a Sales Manager certification program as follows:

Section 1 (program section)

Account Management program
Section 2 (catalog item section)

Conflict and Confrontation

Strategic Selling

Territory Management

Final Test

You can also define completion and recertification rules such as the following: learners must complete the program 120 days or less after registration. If the learner successfully completes the certification, it remains valid for 365 days, after which the learner has 60 days to achieve recertification.

See Also

Understanding the Completion Engine

Expiration Rules for Certifications

When you define a certification program, you specify the expiration rules and the time boundary within which learners must recertify. You can apply a single set of expiration rules to the entire program or define different expiration rules for each section of the program. With the later option, referred to as cascading expirations, an expiring section causes the parent section to expire but it cannot cause a child requirement to expire.

To illustrate, say that a certification program consists of Section 1 and Section 2. Section 2 includes Program A, as shown in the following diagram. If Program A expires, the parent certification program will expire; but section 1 will not expire. Likewise, if Section 1 expires, it will not expire Section 2.

Cascading expirations

Recertification

When a completed certification reaches the recertification or “warning period,” the learner must recertify within the time boundary defined for the certification. Requirements for recertification depend on the program's definition. You can have learners:

Complete the entire certification program again.

In this case, you define a single set of expiration rules for the entire program.
Complete a recertification program.

With this method, you define one set of expiration rules for the program and create a second certification program that includes only those sections that are required for recertification.
Complete expiring sections of the certification only.

With this method, you define expiration rules for each section of the program. To recertify, learners do not need to repeat the certification program or register for a recertification program; they need only complete the expiring sections.

The system can generate warning notifications before a section or program expires, giving the learner time to enroll and complete the requirements before the certification expires. It can also generate notifications once the learner has completed these requirements.

If the learner does not complete the recertification requirements during the “warning period” and the certification expires, the learner must complete the entire certification program again to be recertified.

Expiration Dates

Numerous dates are associated with certifications. The following diagram illustrates the relationship of the dates and time frames that you define when you create a certification program. In this example, it is assumed that there is one set of expiration rules for the entire certification program:

Dates related to certifications

Program Rosters

Administrators can use the Administer Program Rosters component to view and update rosters for any programs within their learning environment. The permission lists that are associated with the administrator's role control the types of updates an administrator can make, such as dropping learners from programs, approving registrations, issuing program waivers, revoking or reissuing certifications, and issuing warnings.

See Also

Understanding Program Rosters

Defining Programs

To define programs, use the Maintain Programs (LM_PROG) component.

This section provides overviews of program creation, modification, and deletion; lists prerequisites; and discusses how to:

Define program details.
Define program sections.
Enter section completion rules.
Specify attributes for programs.
Identify prerequisites for programs.
Specify equivalent catalog items and programs.
Add notes and attachments to programs.
Establish program security.
Clone programs.

Note. When you create a curriculum or certification program or modify certain aspects of an existing one, you must rebuild the catalog index before your changes are reflected in the learning catalog. See page discussions for lists of the modifications that require rebuilding the catalog index.

See Also

Updating the Catalog Indexes

Understanding Program Creation

You can create programs in two ways: you can add a new program, or you can search for an existing program, clone it, and modify the cloned version.

Adding a Program

To add a new program:

Access the Program Search page.
Click the Add Certification link or the Add Curriculum link.
Define program details such as pricing, approval rules, and—for certification programs—completion rules.

If you are defining a certification program that has a single set of expiration rules, you define the expiration rules at this time as well.
Define the sections that make up the program and, if applicable, the expiration rules for each section.

Note. To have a single catalog item expire before the other sections of a program, you must create a section with that catalog item only.
Specify program attributes—category relationships, keywords for catalog searches, and learning objectives.
Identify required and recommended prerequisites.
Identify equivalent catalog items and programs.
Add notes and attachments to the program.
Define security for the program.
Activate the program by changing its status on the Manage Programs - Details page from Pending to Active.
Update the catalog search index.

See Updating the Catalog Indexes.

Cloning a Program

To clone an existing program:

Use the Program Search page to locate the program.
Click the Clone icon on the tool bar.
Enter a new program code.

This step may not be necessary depending on the settings on the Install Defaults component.
Identify the options to clone and click Continue.
When the Manage Program - Details page appears, make any changes that are needed.
Update the catalog search index.

See Updating the Catalog Indexes.

Understanding Program Modifications

To modify a program:

Use the Program Search page to locate the program.
Update the program by modifying an existing effective-dated row or inserting a new effective-dated row.

Note. Correction mode is the default state for the Manage Programs component. If Correction mode is not enabled on your permission list for this component, the default mode is Update/Display All.
(Optional) Enter a revision code for the program on the Manage Programs - Details page.
(Optional) For certification programs only, you can automatically notify affected learners and their managers of program changes.
- Click the Update Certification button at the bottom of the Manage Programs - Details page.
- Enter the date on which to notify learners.
  
  On the specified date, the system will send an email notification to learners whose program status is Registered, In Progress, or Completed. The notice alerts learners to the program change, but does not explain what modifications have been made. Learners can view new requirements on the self-service program detail pages.
- (Optional) Update the certification status of affected learners.
  
  In some cases, you may want to require that learners complete the new requirements immediately rather than during the next recertification period. You can use the group action feature of the Administer Program Roster component to update the certification status of those who have completed the program to Warning. Learners will able to see their new certification status on the self-service pages.

Understanding Program Deletions

To delete a program, two conditions must be met:

The program cannot be nested within another program.
No registration records can exist for the program.

Once a learner registers for a program you can no longer delete it, even if the learner is dropped from the program. You can, however, change the program status to Inactive on the Manage Programs - Details page. Inactive programs are accessible to administrators only.

To delete a program:

Use the Program Search page to locate the program.
Check for linked programs.

If this program is contained within another program, a Nested Program Relationship link appears near the top of the Manage Programs - Details page. Click the link to display the names of the parent programs. You must remove this program from the parent programs before you can proceed.
Click the Delete link on any page of the Manage Programs component.
Update the catalog search index.

Prerequisites

To use the following features, you must first activate them at the system level or for the administrator's learning environment:

Nested programs

This feature enables you to include a program within another program. To set the system-wide default, use the Allow Nested Program check box on the Install Defaults - Details page. The setting for the administrator's learning environment determines whether this feature is available when creating a program. One level of nesting is supported, meaning that program A can contain program B, but program B cannot contain other programs.
Cascading expirations

With cascading expirations, you can define expiration rules at the section level, rather than for a certification program as a whole. To define a program with this feature, the Allow Cascading Expirations option must be enabled for the administrator's learning environment.
Approvals

To define approval requirements for program registrations, the Program Registration check box must be selected on the Install Defaults - Programs page.
eSignature sign off

To require that administrators validate manual updates to a learner's certification status, the Require eSignature on Updates option must be activated for the administrator's learning environment.
Duplicate program codes

To assign the same program code to more than one program, the Program Code option on the Install Defaults - Details page must be set to Allowed. If it is set to Restricted by LE, each program that is associated with the same learning environment must be assigned a unique code.

Note. The Install Defaults component also controls conditions for updating and tracking a learner's certification status.

Defining Installation Defaults for Programs

Defining Default Values for a Learning Environment

Pages Used to Define Programs

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Search Programs	LM_PRG_SRCH	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Search Programs	Search for or add a certification program or curriculum program.
Maintain Programs - Details	LM_PRG_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Details	Define general program information and details about payments, approvals, vendors, and external data. For certifications, also define completion and expiration information.
Update Certifications	LM_PRG_PUSH	Click the Update Certifications button on the Maintain Program - Details page. The button appears for certification programs only.	Enter the date on which the system will notify learners of revised certification requirements.
Maintain Programs - Sections	LM_PRG_SCN_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Sections	Define sections for a program and the item details for each section.
Section Rule Details	LM_PRG_SCN_RULE_PG	Click the Section Completion Rules link on the Maintain Programs - Sections page.	Specify which sections of the program the learner must complete.
Maintain Programs - Attributes	LM_PRG_ATTRIB_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Attributes	Link a program to one or more categories and specify the relevant keywords and objectives.
Maintain Programs - Prerequisites	LM_PRG_PRQ_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Prerequisites	Identify other items, objectives, and programs that the learner must complete or that you recommend the learner complete prior to registering for this program.
Maintain Programs - Equivalents	LM_PRG_EQUIV_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Equivalents	Identify catalog items and programs that are equivalent to a given program.
Maintain Programs - Notes/Attachments	LM_PRG_NANDA_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Notes/Attachments	Enter notes for a program and attach files. Note. You can optionally include notes and attachments elsewhere in the system, such as for an item or activity.
Maintain Programs - Security	LM_PRG_SEC_PG	Enterprise Learning, Catalog, Maintain Programs, Security	Identify the learning environment and learner groups that can access this program.
Program Cloning	LM_PRG_CLONE_PG	Click the Clone link on the Details page.	Copy a program and modify it to create a new program.

Defining Program Details

Access the Maintain Programs - Details page.

Note. When you modify the Certification Code, Curriculum Code, Effective Date, Long Name, Short Name, Status, Certification Program, or Expiration Date fields, you must rebuild the catalog index before the changes are reflected in the learning catalog. Changes to approval and payment information also require that you rebuild the index.

See Updating the Catalog Indexes.

Program Details

Certification Code or Curriculum Code	Enter a code for the program. The system displays the code in the catalog. You may be required to enter a unique program code, depending on the program code option on the Install Defaults - General page. See Setting Up General Installation Defaults.
Effective Date	The program displays in the catalog on or after the effective date, provided that the status is set to active.
Nested Program Relationship	This link is useful after you define a program. It only appears when this program is contained within another program. Click to see the names of the parent programs. Clicking a parent program opens the Items component so that you can view and edit that program. Because you cannot delete a program that is nested within another program, this link provides a convenient way to check for and remove the association with parent programs before you delete this program.
Long Name and Short Name	The system displays these program names in the catalog. For recertification programs, it's recommended that you include the term recertification in the name so that learners can easily spot these programs in the catalog.
Status	Possible values are: Pending: Select to indicate that this program is under construction and not yet published. These programs are only accessible by administrators. When you create a new program, the system automatically sets the status to this value. Active: Select to indicate that this program is ready to be published in the catalog, making it available to learners for registration. The system displays only the programs with active status and valid effective date in the catalog. For this program to appear in the catalog search, you must regenerate the catalog index. Inactive: Select to indicate that this program is no longer in use. These programs are only accessible by administrators. See Updating the Catalog Indexes.
Coordinator	Select as a coordinator for this program an instructor within your learning environment, as defined on the Instructor page.
Revision	To track different revisions of this program, enter a distinguishing value. For example, if you revise a program twice you might enter A for the original, B for the first revision, and C for the second revision. It is recommended that you also change the effective date if you change a revision because effective dating provides true revision control.
Owner	As a reference, enter the name of the person responsible for constructing or managing this program.
Description	Enter a description of the program, such as topics covered and intended audience. This description is available to learners through the catalog.
Abstract	The abstract does not appear in the catalog.
Certification Program	If you are creating a certification program, leave this field blank. If you are creating a recertification program, enter the name of the original certification that this recertification applies to. For example, if you are defining a recertification program for Sales Director called Sales Director Refresher, you would enter Sales Director in this field. You can define multiple recertification programs for a single certification program. This field is hidden when you select Use Cascading Expirations.
Approval Type	If registration in the program requires approval, select the approval process definition here. The approval process definition defines the conditions under which registration must be approved and who must give their approval. This field only appears when program registration approvals are enabled on the Install Defaults - Programs page.
Special Approver	This field is applicable when you select a value in the Approval Type field. You can designate any Enterprise Learning Management user as a special approver for registration. The approval process definition selected in the Approval Type field determines when the person named here is required to approve the registration. If the approval process does not require a special approver, the system ignores the name entered here.
Allow Certification Waiver or Allow Curriculum Waiver	Select to permit a manager or administrator to waive this program for a learner using the supplemental learning feature. (Administrators can always use the program roster to waive programs regardless of the selection here.) With a waived program, the learner gets credit for having the knowledge or experience equivalent to this program without having to register for it and complete it. The system marks the program as waived for the learner. When a program is waived, the system automatically assigns learning objectives that are associated with the program to the learner in Met status. A program waiver does not translate to waivers for the items that make up the program. See Managing Supplemental Learning. Clear this check box to indicate that learners cannot get a waiver for this program.
Use Cascading Expirations	(Certification programs only.) Select if you want to define expiration rules at the section level. Each section of catalog items can have its own expiration rules, which enables a single section of the program to expire rather than the entire certification. The check box appears only when the Allow Cascading Expiration option is enabled for the administrator's learning environment. When selected, the Expiration Information group box on this page is hidden and appears on the Sections page instead.
Require eSignature on Updates	Select to indicate that manual updates to a learner's program status require eSignature validation. When an administrator uses the program roster to update a learner's program status, the system will prompt for the user's Enterprise Learning Management password. The check box appears only when the Require eSignature on Updates option is enabled for the administrator's learning environment.

Pricing

Use this group box to enter the base price that the learner must pay to register for the program. When a learner registers for a program, the system tracks the learner's payment method and payment details. The price for the program is independent of the price for items that make up the program. The learner pays for each separately. No discounts exist for items or objectives completed before program registration. No charges are incurred for waiving a program.

Currency Code	Select the currency for all monetary amounts that you define for this program. Currency codes are delivered with your system as translate values and you can modify them.
Internal Price	Enter the registration price for internal learners.
Internal Drop Charge	Enter the price charged if an internal learner drops the program.
External Price	Enter the registration price for external learners.
External Drop Charge	Enter the price charged if an external learner drops the program.

Training Units

Price	Enter the price in training units for this program when the payment method is training units.
Drop Charge	Enter the training units charged if a learner pays in training units and then drops the program.

Completion Information

Completion information applies to certifications only.

Completion Type

Select how you want to calculate the completion period for the certification:

Fixed: Select to calculate the completion period from the date the learner registers.

Delayed: Select to calculate the completion period from the date the learner completes the first item in the program.

Completion Period

Enter the number of days within which the learner must acquire the certification. The system uses this value and the completion type to calculate the learner's target completion date for the certification.

For example, let's say the completion period is 60 days and the completion type is fixed. If the learner registers on January 1, then the system immediately sets the target completion date to March 3 and the learner must complete the certification by that date. Let's change the completion type to delayed. If the learner registers for the certification on January 1 but does not complete the first item until February 1, then on February 1 the system sets the target completion date to April 3. Until then, no target completion date is set.

Note that the target completion date is only calculated once, which is the first time an item within the program is completed successfully. Therefore, re-taking any item will not change the target completion date to a new date.

If the learner does not complete all requirements for certification by the target completion date, the system updates the learner's completion status to not completed when the Process Program Updates process (LM_CERT_STAT) runs. The administrator has the ability to override the target completion date (extend it) through the program roster, provided the adminstrator has the appropriate security authorization.

Historical credit does not affect the target completion date. If the program is set to allow historical credit and the registration process determines that the learner has already completed at least one item, the process marks that item as complete within the program. However, the target completion date remains blank. If the Completion Type field is set to delayed, the learner must enroll in and complete (or have waived) an item within the program in order to set the target completion date.

Warning Period

Enter the number of days in advance of the target completion date from which you want to send an email notification. This notification warns the learner to complete the certification requirements before time expires. If the learner has already completed the certification, the system no longer generates an email warning. For example, if the target completion date is October 14, enter 14 to notify the learner on October 1 that only two weeks remain to complete the certification.

Expiration Information

Expiration rules apply to certifications only. Use the fields in this group box to define the expiration rules for the certification program as a whole. When the Use Cascading Expirations check box is selected, this group box is hidden and you define expiration rules for each section of the program on the Sections page.

Validity Period	Specify the number of days the certification remains valid for the learner after the learner completes the certification. The certification expiration date adjusts according to the completion date and this value. For example, if a learner completes a certification on May 1, 2006, and you have specified 365 in this field, the learner's certification will expire on April 30, 2006. Alternatively, you can enter a fixed expiration date in the Expiration Date field.
Expiration Date	Specify the fixed date on which the certification expires. Use this field as an alternative to specifying a validity period. The Expiration Date and Validity Period fields are mutually exclusive; if you specify the expiration date, the Validity Period field becomes unavailable to edit. Clear both fields to indicate that the certification has no expiration.
Grace Period	Enter the number of days the certification remains valid after the certification expiration date. During the grace period, the certification remains active in the learner's history. After the grace period, actual certification expiration occurs. The grace period gives the learner and the certifying entity time to validate certification efforts. For example, if the learner takes three days to send recertification test information to the certifying entity, the grace period allows the learner to remain certified during this time. This date never appears to learners. Note. The certification expiration date defined by the Validity Period or Expiration Date field is the soft expiration date that the system communicates to the learner in notifications. Actual certification expiration (hard expiration), occurs after the grace period expires.
Expiration Warning Period	Enter the number of days before certification expiration to indicate when you want the system to send a reminder notification to the learner about the upcoming certification expiration. Clear this field or enter 0 to indicate that you want the system to send the email on the actual certification expiration date.
Recertification Period	Enter the number of days before actual certification expiration within which the learner must complete the recertification program to reinstate certification status. If the recertification period expires, the learner is ineligible for recertification and must complete the original certification again. For example, if the learner needs 30 days to complete a recertification program, set the Recertification Period to 30, to indicate when the learner should receive a notification that it is now time to begin recertification. The learner would then have 30 days to complete the recertification before they reach the soft expiration. Then, after the Grace Period expires, the certification status would changed to Expired. Clear this field or enter 0 to indicate that learners can obtain recertification at any time.
Recertification Warning Period	Enter the number of days before recertification expiration to indicate when you want the system to send a reminder notification to the learner. For example, if you enter 14, then 14 days before the Recertification Period ends the learner would receive a notification. Clear this field or enter 0 to indicate that you do not want the system to send this email notification to the learner.

Vendor Information

Vendor and Vendor Code

If this program is provided by an external vendor, select the name of the vendor and enter the vendor's code for this program. This information helps reconcile data from an external load.

External Information

External ID and Information

If this program contains data imported or migrated from an external source, enter the external source's unique ID for this program plus any additional information from the external source that doesn't fit into this program structure. For example, you might enter in the Information field a description, notes, and comments from the external data source about this program, such as information about format, rules, historical certification codes, and so on. These fields are for administrator use only.

Update Certification

As certification requirements change, administrators can publish new or revised requirements to learners whose certification status is Registered, In Progress, or Completed. After updating the requirements, click the Update Certification button to access the Push Information page. This page lists the number of learners who are currently registered or who have completed the program. You can enter a date for sending an email notification to affected learners and their managers. The program's effective date appears by default.

The email does not describe the nature of the change, so you may want to use the email feature accessed through the program roster pages to send a second email that highlights the new or revised requirements.

Note: We recommend you insert a new effective date before updating existing requirements, if you want to track revisions to the program. Otherwise, all learners registered in the program will need to complete the new requirements once their status has changed.

See Understanding Program Modifications.

Defining Program Sections

Access the Maintain Programs - Sections page.

Each program must include at least one section. Each section can include one or more catalog items or another program. To create a section that contains catalog items, click the Add Item Section link at the bottom of the page and identify the items to include. To create a section that includes a program, click the Add Program Section link and identify the program to include. (Separate sections are required for items and programs.) Learning activities are part of each catalog item and cannot stand alone within a program.

Note. The Add Program Section link appears only when the nested program option is activated for the administrator's learning environment.

Section Details

Each item section must include at least one item. A program section can include only one program.

Section Name	Enter a name for the section to distinguish it from other sections within the program. The system displays to the learner the section name in the catalog.
Instructions	Enter instructions for the learner about how to complete this section. These instructions appear in the catalog and the learning plans of those who register for the program.
Section Order	Enter the recommended order in which the learner should complete this section of the program in relation to the other sections, going from lowest number to highest. This number determines the sequence in which sections are listed in the program's description in the catalog. The number for each section must be a whole integer and unique. The system does not enforce this order.
Items to Complete	Enter the total number of items that the learner must complete from this section to fulfill the requirements for the section. The number must include the required items for the section.

Item Details

Use this group box to select the items or program for the section.

Order	This field applies to item sections only. Enter a number to specify the recommended order in which the learner should complete the items within the section. If two or more items have the same number, the learner can complete those items in any order before continuing to the next order number. The system does not enforce this order.
Required	For item sections, select this check box to specify that the item is required for completion of the section. Clear to indicate that the item is optional within the section. For program sections, this check box is automatically selected.
Item or Program Long Name	Select the item or program. If selecting a program, you can only select from those that have no nested programs.
Allow Waiver	Select to permit a manager or administrator to allow learners to waive this item. With a waiver, learners get completion credit for having the knowledge or experience equivalent to the item without actually having to complete the item. Waivers are granted through the Supplemental Learning component. Clear this check box to indicate that the learner cannot waive this item.
Historical Credit	Select to permit the learner to get credit for this item or program if the learner has completed it before registration. The system grants the learner completion credit upon registration, provided that the learner completed the item or program (or the item or program was waived) within the historical credit validity period, as defined in the Credit Period field. Clear this check box to require the learner to enroll in and complete the item or program regardless of whether the learner previously completed it. Note. If the learner enrolls in and completes learning activities for the same item or program multiple times, the system uses the most recent completion for the historical credit. Note. When creating a nested program, consider enabling the use of historical credit. If historical credit is not allowed, a learner who completes the nested program before registering for the parent program, may be prevented from meeting the parent program's requirements.
Credit Period	If you have allowed historical credit, enter the number of days from the date of registration within which the learner must have completed the item or program. For example, if you set this value to 90, then the learner must have completed the corresponding item within the last 90 days before program registration. Leave this field blank if you want no time restriction on when the learner must have completed the item or program to receive historical credit.
Allow Equivalent	Select if the requirement can be satisfied by completing an equivalent catalog item or program.

Expiration Information

Expiration rules apply to certification programs only. This group box appears for item sections when the Use Cascading Expirations check box is selected on the Maintain Programs - Details page.

Enter the expiration rules that pertain to this section only. The fields are similar to the expiration fields on the Maintain Programs - Details page; however, the rules you define here apply to this section only.

Entering Selection Completion Rules

Access the Section Rule Details page.

Rule Type

You can require that learners complete all sections that you specify or a subset of those sections. Select the appropriate rule:

Must Complete a Subset of the Following Sections

Must Complete All of the Following Sections

Complete at least

This field appears when you select Must Complete a Subset of the Following Sections. Enter the minimum number of sections the learners must complete.

Specifying Attributes for Programs

Access the Maintain Programs - Attributes page.

Note. When you add, remove, or modify categories, keywords, or objectives, you must rebuild the catalog index before the changes are reflected in the learning catalog.

See Updating the Catalog Indexes.

Category Relationships

Select the categories under which you want to list this program in the learning catalog.

See Defining Learning Categories.

Order	Enter a number to indicate the order in which you want to list this program within a category in the catalog.
Category	Select the category within your learning environment to which this item belongs.

Keywords

Keywords help users locate this program when searching the catalog.

Keyword Type	Select the keyword type or category.
Keyword	Select a keyword for this program. You can only select keywords that belong to the selected keyword type.

Objectives

Identify the objectives and, if applicable, corresponding proficiency levels that learners meet by completing this program. Learners receive credit for meeting the objectives that have been directly assigned to them.

A program's objectives have no relation to its constituent catalog item objectives. The objectives at either level function independently of one another. Define objectives on the Objectives page.

See Setting Up Objectives.

Identifying Prerequisites for Programs

Access the Maintain Programs - Prerequisites page.

Required Prerequisites

The program registration process checks that the learner has met all required prerequisites for this program, before confirming the learner's registration. The registration process does not check prerequisites for catalog items within a section of a program because the catalog item prerequisites function independently of the program prerequisites. Administrators can override prerequisites during group and mass enrollment. Managers cannot override prerequisites for a learner directly, but can use the Supplemental Learning page to give learners waivers on catalog items, objectives, and programs.

To add a prerequisite for the program, click the Add Required Prerequisites link and enter the prerequisites.

Type	Select the type of prerequisite: Catalog Item, Objective, or Program.
Prerequisite	Select the name of the prerequisite catalog item, objective, or program.
Proficiency	This field pertains to objectives that are selected as prerequisites. If the objective is associated with a rating model, select the proficiency level.
Relationship	Select one of the following values to build a phrase expressing how prerequisites within this program relate to each other: Select End if this is the last prerequisite. Select And if there are additional prerequisites. Select Or if there are multiple prerequisites and the learner needs to complete any one of them.
Done	Click to hide the data entry fields for required prerequisites.

Recommended Prerequisites

These fields are similar to the Required Prerequisites fields. Use them to select catalog items, objectives, and programs that you recommend learners complete before taking the current program. Recommended prerequisites that the learner does not meet do not prevent the learner from registering for the program.

Specifying Equivalent Catalog Items and Programs

Access the Maintain Programs - Equivalents page.

Select the catalog items or programs that are equivalent to this one. When a program or catalog item has a prerequisite, learners can complete an equivalent program or catalog item to meet the prerequisite.

If the learner completes more than one equivalent item or program, the system refers to the item or program that was completed most recently, for the certification requirement.

Adding Notes and Attachments to Programs

Access the Maintain Programs - Notes/Attachments page.

Notes

Enter any notes about the program and, if applicable, select the Display Note to Learner check box for the note.

Attachments

To add an attachment, click the Add Attachment link. Then either enter the path to and the name of the attachment, or click the Browse button to locate the attachment, and click the Upload button. After you upload the attachment, the system displays the attachment file name in the description field. You can edit this description.

To display attachments to the learner, select the Display check box next to the attachment description.

To delete an attachment, select the check box next to the attachment description and click the Delete Attachment button.

Other aspects of attachments are discussed in the Managing Learning Activities chapter.

Note. Your system configuration determines the size of the files that you can attach.

See Also

PeopleCode Developer's Guide, Using Methods and Built-In Functions, Understanding File Attachment Architecture

Understanding Attachments

Establishing Program Security

Access the Maintain Programs - Security page.

Note. When you add or remove learning environments or learner groups, you must rebuild the catalog index for programs before the changes are reflected in the learning catalog.

See Updating the Catalog Indexes.

Learning Environments

Use these fields to specify the learning environments for which this program is valid.

Learning Environment

For new programs, the system displays the administrator's learning environment as the default. By adding other learning environments, you enable administrators of those environments to update this program and associate learning activities with it as well.

Important! If you are creating a program, be careful not to delete your learning environment. If it's not, you will lose the ability to access this program after you leave this component.

Primary

This object must be associated with at least one learning environment. In this field, select the primary environment with which this object is associated. You cannot remove the primary learning environment from this page without first selecting another environment as the primary. You can change the primary learning environment on this page at any time.

Learner Groups

Identify which learner groups can access this program in the catalog. The administrator can select from the learner groups that have been defined for any of the learning environments associated with the program. To access this program in the catalog, a learner must meet the group membership criteria that you define here.

Learner groups assigned to the program are not automatically assigned to constituent catalog items and programs. For example, you might grant the North America learner group access to the Professional Development curriculum, but only a subset of learners within the North America group may be able to complete the program. This is possible if only some members of the North America group are also members of learner groups associated with the catalog items in the program. Assigning a learner group to the program does not mean that all learners in that group will have access to all items and programs within the program.

It is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure that there are no conflicts or inconsistencies between learner groups assigned to the program and learner groups assigned to constituent catalog items and programs.

To add learner groups, click the Add Learner Group Security link.

Name

Select the name of the learner group.

Relationship

Specify how this learner group is related to others in the list when used to determine whether or not a person has access to the program

Values are:

And: A learner must be a member of both this learner group and the next in the list.

Or: A learner must be in this learner group or the next in the list.

End: A placeholder for the last learner group in the list. The system ignores any learner groups that are listed after End.

To define security such that a learner must be a member of learner group A, and a member of learner group B or C, you must reuse learner group A. The resulting security would look like this:

Learner group A and

Learner group B or

Learner group A and

Learner group C end.

Important! Associate the program with at least one learner group. If you do not select a learner group, learners cannot access this program.

Done

Click to hide the data entry fields for learner groups.

Cloning Programs

Access the Program Cloning page.

See Understanding Program Creation.

Program	Enter the name of the new program. By default, the system displays the name of the copied program.
Program Code	Enter the code for the new program. By default, the system displays the code for the copied program. The value that you enter must be unique if the Program Code Option on the Install Defaults - General page is set to restricted. See Setting Up General Installation Defaults.
Effective Date	Enter the effective date of the new program. By default, the system displays the effective date of the copied program.
Owner	By default, the system displays the name of the administrator who is cloning the program.
Program Status	The system automatically sets the status of the new program to Pending. After you save the new program, update its status on the Maintain Program - Details page.
Clone All or Custom	To copy all values from the existing program, select Clone All. To copy selected values, select Custom.

Custom Options

The check boxes in this section become available when you select the Custom option. Select the program attributes that you want to copy from the existing program to the new program. When you click Continue, the Details page appears with the cloned data, which you can update.

Note. Selecting Sections is an all or none option; either all the sections are cloned or none of the sections are cloned. If you do not select Learning Environments, the new program inherits your learning environment and corresponding learner groups.

Updating Certification Registration Statuses

To have the system update learners' certification registration status to Not Completed, Expired, or Warning, use the Program Status Updates (LM_RCTL_CURR_STAT) component.

This section provides an overview on registration status update processing and discusses how to run the Update Program Statuses process.

Understanding Registration Status Update Processing

Use the Update Program Statuses component to:

Update learners' registration statuses to Not Completed for certifications the learner does not complete by the target completion date.

The system compares target completion date, today's date, and the registration status of the program. If the target completion date has passed (target completion date is one day before current date) and the learner's registration status is Registered or In-Progress, the process updates the registration status to Not Completed and generates the Registration Incomplete email to be sent to the learner.
Update learners' registration statuses to Expired when the grace period ends.

When the current date is equal to the end of the grace period, the system updates the registration status to Expired and generates the Certification Expiration email to be sent to the learner.
Update learners' registration statuses to Warning when the beginning of the expiration warning period is reached.

When the current date is equal to the number of days before the expiration date as defined in the Expiration Warning Period field on the Program Details page, and the learner's certification status is Completed, the system updates the registration status to Warning and generates the Certification Warning email to be sent to the learner.

The generated emails go into the enrollment notification queue and are sent to learners when the LM_NOTIFY process runs. Use the Enrollment Notifications run control page to run the LM_NOTIFY process.

Important! You should schedule this process to run at least once a day. The process updates only the programs whose target completion date was one day earlier.

Page Used to Update Program Registration Statuses

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Update Program Statuses	LM_LECR_RCTL_STAT	Enterprise Learning, Program Status Updates, Update Program Statuses	Process registration status updates for programs.

Running the Update Program Statuses Process

Access the Update Program Statuses page.

To process program registration status updates:

Add a new run control ID or search for and select an existing one.
Enter the date for which you want to run the process.

When scheduling the job to run on a nightly basis, make sure this field is blank. In this case the system uses the current date every time it runs. For non-recurring instances, this field gives you the ability to process status updates in a back-dated environment. For example, if you did not run the process over the weekend, you can run the process twice—once for each date missed. When backdating a run, you must specify the exact date missed. If you leave this field blank, the system will use the current date.
Click Run.

The system displays the Process Scheduler Request page.
In the Process List grid, select the Application Engine processes you want to run and click OK. The choices are: Set Program to Incomplete (LM_CERT_STAT), Set Certification to Expired (LM_EXPR), and Set Certification to Warning (LM_WARN).

See Understanding Registration Status Update Processing.

Sending Program Notifications

This section provides an overview of program notifications and discusses how to:

Create ad hoc program notifications.
Run the notification processes for programs.

Understanding Program Notifications

This section discusses the three types of program notifications:

Ad hoc program notifications.
Reminder and warning program notifications.
Status update program notifications.

Note. Enterprise Learning Management delivers predefined templates in PeopleTools for program notifications.

Ad Hoc Program Notifications

Use the Ad Hoc Program Notifications page accessible through the program roster components to send email messages about a program to registered learners and interested parties.

Reminder and Warning Program Notifications

Use the Program Notifications component to send reminders and warning emails to learners about their certifications and recertification statuses. The system generates these notifications based on delivered workflow templates. Through this component, you can run the following program notifications processes:

Process Name	Object Name	Description
Certification Completion Warn (certification completion warning)	LM_CMPL_WRN	Generates reminder emails to learners about their upcoming deadlines for certification completion.
Send New Program Updates Noti (send new program updates notification)	LM_CERT_UPD	Generates emails to learners notifying them that changes have been made to the certification program they have completed or for which they are registered.
Certification Expiration Warning	LM_EXPR_WRN	Generates emails to learners warning them of their upcoming certification expiration.
Re-Certification Warning Notif (re-certification warning notification)	LM_RECRT_WRN	Generates emails to learners warning them of their upcoming deadline for completing a recertification.

Important! You should schedule these processes to run at least once a day.

Status Update Program Notifications

Use the Enrollment Notifications component to process program notifications emails for status updates. When there is a status change for a learner's program registration, the system automatically generates a program notification to alert the appropriate users of the change. The system generates these notifications based on delivered workflow templates. These program notification emails are queued, and you must run the Enrollment Notifications Application Engine process (LM_NOTIFY), through the Enrollment Notifications component, to process the notifications.

See Sending Enrollment, Registration, and Waitlist Notifications.

Important! You should schedule the Enrollment Notifications process to run at least once a day.

See Also

Workflow Notifications and Attachments

Pages Used to Send Program Notifications

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Ad hoc Program Notifications	LM_PRG_NOTIF	Enterprise Learning, Learner Tasks, Administer Program Rosters Search for the program and click the Roster button. Select the learners to notify. In the Group Action field, select Send Notification and click Go.	Send email messages about the program to learners and other interested parties.
Program Notifications	RCTL_CURR_NOTIF	Enterprise Learning, Notifications, Program, Program Notifications	Run the program notification processes to send learners reminders and warnings about their certification status.

Page Name

Object Name

Navigation

Usage

Ad hoc Program Notifications

LM_PRG_NOTIF

Enterprise Learning, Learner Tasks, Administer Program Rosters

Search for the program and click the Roster button. Select the learners to notify. In the Group Action field, select Send Notification and click Go.

Send email messages about the program to learners and other interested parties.

Program Notifications

RCTL_CURR_NOTIF

Enterprise Learning, Notifications, Program, Program Notifications

Run the program notification processes to send learners reminders and warnings about their certification status.

Creating Ad Hoc Program Notifications

Access the Ad hoc Program Notifications page.

To, CC, and BCC

The To field displays the learner email addresses for the learners you selected on the roster. You can also manually add email addresses. Use the CC and BCC fields as required.

Subject and Message Text

The system automatically displays default entries that include the program code and description. You can edit and spell check these as required. You can also use standard HTML tags to format the text of your message.

Send Email as HTML

Select this check box to have the message displayed in rich text HTML if you are using HTML tags as you compose your message.

Send Notification

Click when you are ready to send this program notification. The system displays a confirmation page where you can click OK to send the message or click Cancel. If you click OK, the system queues your message and returns you to the Ad Hoc Program Notifications page.

Running the Notification Processes for Programs

Access the Program Notifications page.

To process program notification emails:

Add a new run control ID or search for and select an existing one.
Enter the As of Date for which you want to run the processes.

When scheduling the job to run on a nightly basis, make sure this field is blank. In this case, the system uses the current date every time it runs. For non-recurring instances, this field gives you the ability to process program notifications in a back-dated environment. For example, if you did not run the process over the weekend, you can run the process twice—once for each date missed. When backdating a run, you must specify the exact date missed. If you leave this field blank, the system will use the current date.
Click Run.

The system displays the Process Scheduler Request page.
In the Process List grid, select the process that you want to execute, and then click OK.

It is recommended that you schedule all the processes to run once every night.

The overview for this section provides descriptions for each of the processes.

See Understanding Program Notifications.

To, CC, and BCC	The To field displays the learner email addresses for the learners you selected on the roster. You can also manually add email addresses. Use the CC and BCC fields as required.
Subject and Message Text	The system automatically displays default entries that include the program code and description. You can edit and spell check these as required. You can also use standard HTML tags to format the text of your message.
Send Email as HTML	Select this check box to have the message displayed in rich text HTML if you are using HTML tags as you compose your message.
Send Notification	Click when you are ready to send this program notification. The system displays a confirmation page where you can click OK to send the message or click Cancel. If you click OK, the system queues your message and returns you to the Ad Hoc Program Notifications page.