Reviewing the Enhancements in SAP SuccessFactors Learning

The enhanced search feature includes a new filter for region.

When a region is associated with a learning activity in the search results, the region's description now displays as a filter option in enhanced search.

We added the region filter to make it easier for users to find courses offered near them.

Learners can access their learning activities of type courses, programs, and collections suggested by administrators, in addition to peer suggestions, all in one section, on the new Learning home page.

All person-suggested learning activities are displayed in the Suggested for Me section on the new Learning home page. The section was previously called Suggested by Peers.

In the Suggested for Me section, the learning cards are prioritized by suggestions from administrators, followed by peers. Learners can choose a card to learn more about the suggestion. If they aren't interested in a particular suggestion, they can mark it as not interested, or bookmark it for later reference on the cards. Learners can also recommend a suggestion to their peers using the Recommend option on Course Details.

Learning activities suggested by administrators are identified as Learning team recommends on the cards.

The enhancement helps you find all person-suggested learning activities easily in one section, enhancing the overall learning experience.

What's Changed

In the previous version, only learning activities suggested by peers were displayed on the new Learning home page.

We added the ability to use a background job when adding items to libraries. Navigate to System Administration → Configuration → System Configuration → LMS_ADMIN → BACKGROUND JOB SETTINGS and set useItemLibraryBackgroundJob to true to use a background job for adding library items. This setting is turned off by default.

We added the ability to use a background job when adding items to libraries to help improve system performance for large data upload operations.

On the new Learning home page, learners can view their learning assignments assigned as non-required items by administrators and managers in the Important Learning section.

In the legacy experience, these assignments are referred to as optional assignments.

In the Important Learning section, learners can view a list of learning cards of type courses, programs, and classes that are tailored to their specific needs. They can choose a card to learn more about the assignment. If they aren't interested in a particular assignment, they can remove it, or bookmark it for later reference on Course Details.

The visibility of the Remove option on Course Details is based on the configuration at each item and program level.

As an administrator, you can schedule the new automatic process job, Learning Reminder Email Notification to send email reminders to recipients for their pending assignments.

Additionally, when you create a Story report for learning items and programs, you can use the newly added columns Reminders Set for No Due Date Items and Removable Important Learning Item to report on the completion rates of learners' non-required assignments.

In the legacy experience, both optional and required assignments were displayed in one view within a learner's learning plan. To enhance clarity and provide meaningful context, we've now separated these assignments on the new Learning home page. Required assignments appear in the Required Learning section, while non-required assignments appear in the Important Learning section on the page.

What's Changed

We've enhanced the Course Home experience with registration comments for classes with no price and updates to the Request Observers search.

The Course Home experience now supports the following features:

• Users can now enter comments when requesting to register for classes with no associated cost.

  
• Users can now enter comments when requesting to register for classes with no associated cost.
  
  We’ve added functionality to the Course Home experience based on customer feedback for an updated user experience. We've included enhancements from Customer Community Idea 301705.

We've improved the progress tracking for SCORM 1.2 online content.

The suspend data for online content controls how progress on a learning session is stored and retrieved. We've increased the suspend data limit for SCORM 1.2 content to 64,000 characters to provide the additional storage capacity required for content progress to be successfully stored and retrieved.

We delivered this enhancement so learners can complete their training across multiple sessions.

We now support the Course Home experience for users with an external shopping account type.

For users with a Shopping Account Type of External, the Course Home experience is now enabled by default. This experience replaces the legacy Item Details and includes an improved user experience for purchasing online items.

When vouchers are available to use for online items, users will see the Buy Course action in Course Details.

This action navigates to a new page where users can either redeem a voucher or add the item to their cart to complete the purchase.

If no vouchers are available for the online item, the Add to Cartaction is displayed, which navigates the user directly to checkout.

We've extended the availability of the Course Home experience so that all users can benefit from an improved user experience.

As an administrator, you can choose to hide the Required Learning section on the new Learning home page if learners don't have any required training items assigned to them.

By default, the section is displayed on the page even when there are no required training items, displaying an empty section to learners. You can hide the section for specific user groups and organizations using the Hide the Required Learning section if no training is assigned option from the following pages respectively:

• Learning Administration → People → User Groups → Advanced Settings
• Learning Administration → People → Organizations → Advanced Settings

When you enable the option:

• Learners can view the Important Learning section at the top of the new Learning home page when they have assignments assigned as non-required items. See the following topic for complete information on Important Learning: The New Learning Home Page Displays Assignments Assigned as Non-Required Items

• The Required Learning section is hidden from learners.
• The status bubble of the curricula compliance indicator appears in the Important Learning section, if applicable.

This enhancement improves the user experience by displaying the section when necessary, ensuring that learners see only the most relevant and high-priority learning items on the new Learning home page.

What's Changed

How It Looks Now

You can merge learning records in bulk from the secondary user ID to the primary user ID for multiple users simultaneously through import.

The secondary user ID (Merge From) is the source from which the data is merged, and the primary user ID (Merge Into) is the target into which the data is merged.

Merging users automatically transfers records such as learning assignments, learning history, and other learning records from the secondary user ID to the primary user ID for all users in a single merge job. On the Import Data page, you can use the entity type, Person to merge users in bulk. Following the job completion, you can download the user merge report from the new column, Report to view the job summary and results.

Merging data is permanent and can't be reversed once completed. Therefore, we recommend you validate the records before merging users. The validation job examines the data for invalid entries, duplicate entries, and other potential issues found in the import file. Additionally, it generates a User Merge Validation Report that you can use to address any data issues before merging users.

This enhancement allows you to seamlessly merge large batches of user records at once with minimal manual intervention. Additionally, it minimizes the need for individually merging users' learning records.

What's Changed

In the current version, you can use the Import Data page to merge users in bulk. However, you can still use the existing option to manually merge one user at a time on the Merge Users page.

In the previous version, you could only merge records for each user manually on the Merge Users page.

We've added the ability to create banners that display in a rotating carousel at the top of the new Learning home page.

We refreshed the image and text on the default banner that displays to users at the top of the new Learning home page.

In addition to the default banner, you can create up to 49 more custom banners. If there’s more than one banner available for a user, a carousel automatically rotates through their visible banners. Each user can see up to five banners in the carousel. They can stop the rotation by clicking on the banner. They can also manually scroll through the banners using the arrow icons.

As you go through the steps to build a custom banner, a preview displays at the bottom of the page. Each banner contains an uploaded an image. You can choose to display a text panel that contains a tagline, title, and content. By default, a banner isn't interactive. You can add a button with custom text that supports an action. The button can launch an internal or external URL, with the option to launch it inline or in a new window or tab. You can also configure the button to draft an email to a specific recipient.

You have the option of displaying a banner to everyone, or you can determine the visibility based on organizations or user groups. You can select up to 20 organizations or user groups for each banner. If you select a single organization, you have the option to include suborganizations.

The summary page for banners shows the currently configured banners and includes the following information and actions:

• Current count of banners

• Details for each banner, including the banner's name, who can see it, when it's active, and whether it's currently enabled

• Action icons to edit and delete each banner

• Access to additional actions to change the position of a banner in the list

• Button to add new banners

You have two options to set the order of banners. You can drag and drop banners within the list, or you can use the Move Within List option in the More Actions menu to select a new position. The position determines the order in which banners display to users.

The top five active banners display to users at the top of the Learning home page, based on these conditions:

• Visibility - The Target Group for the banner is "All Active Users", or the user belongs to one of the specified organizations or user groups.

• Date - The Active Period for the banner is "Always", or the current date falls within the specified range.

• Banner Status - The banner is enabled.

You can disable a banner while you're working on it and enable it when it's ready to display to users. The default banner can't be edited, deleted, or moved within the list, but it can be disabled. If you disable the default banner and no additional banners are enabled, the banner section is hidden on the Learning home page.

You can add translations for the text on banners, text on buttons, and alternative text for images.

We provided the ability to display customized banners on the new Learning home page to allow administrators to meet specific business needs and to facilitate adoption of the new Learning experience.

We've added the ability to hide the switch that allows users to go back to the legacy Learning experience from the new Learning home page.

When the new Learning experience is enabled, administrators can choose to hide the New Learning Experience switch from users. This option prevents users from switching back to the legacy Learning home page. The New Learning Experience label and the associated info button still display to users.

Enabling this option helps deliver a single, consistent experience to learners who no longer need access to the legacy Learning experience.

We've added the ability to create custom cards that display in their own section on the new Learning home page.

You can create up to 100 custom cards. People can see up to 8 cards, based on the current date, status of the card, and their organization or user group. By default, custom cards display in the Custom Cards section below the Requests for Me section on the new Learning home page. The section is hidden from users when no cards are available.

You can customize the title and select where the custom card section displays. Options for the section position are as follows:

• Below "Requests for Me"

• Above "Latest Bookmarks"

• Below "Latest Bookmarks"

• At the bottom of the page

If you've customized the standard section labels, the options display the customized labels.

As you go through the steps to build a custom card, a preview of the card displays. For each card, you can customize the text for the title and subtitle and upload an image. You define the visibility of cards to be available to all active users, or based on their organization or user group. You can select up to 20 organizations or user groups for each card. If you select a single organization, you have the option to include suborganizations. Cards can be active for a specific period of time or they can always be active.

Cards can have one of two behaviors. They can act as a link or they can display a dialog. The link options allow you to launch internal and external URLs, launch JavaScript URLs, or open an email message for a specific recipient. You can choose whether the link opens inline or in a new window or tab. The dialog option allows you to choose a design from multiple sizes and layouts. Dialogs support the following features:

• Embedding HTML

• Embedding a video file

• Embedding an iFrame

• Using a rich text editor to format text, insert multiple links and images, incorporate partner integrations, and preview or print your content

In Learning Administration, the summary page for custom cards shows the currently configured cards and includes the following information and actions:

• Section title and current count of custom cards

• Selection filter to view cards visible to specific organizations or users

• Link to edit the title and section position

• Details for each card, including the card's name, who can see it, when it's active, when it was last edited, and whether it's currently enabled.

• Action icons to edit and delete each card

• Access to additional actions to change the position of a card in the list

• Button to add new cards

You have two options to set the display order of custom cards. You can drag and drop cards within the list, or you can use the Move Within List option in the More Actions menu to select a new position. The position determines the order in which cards display to users.

The top eight active cards display to users on the Learning home page, based on these conditions:

• Visibility - The Target Group for the card is "All Active Users", or the user belongs to one of the specified organizations or user groups.

• Date - The Active Period for the card is "Always", or the current date falls within the specified range.

• Card Status - The card is enabled.

If there are no cards available to a user, the custom card section won't display on their Learning home page.

Translations can be provided for the section title, text on the cards, and alternative text for images. You can disable a card while you're working on it and enable it when it's ready to display to users.

We provided the ability to display custom cards on the new Learning home page to allow administrators to meet specific business needs and facilitate adoption of the new Learning experience.

The legacy Learning home page will reach End of Maintenance on May 17, 2024 and will be Deleted on May 16, 2025.

The news feature will reach End of Maintenance on May 17, 2024 and will be Deleted on May 16, 2025.

As part of the latest version of the Learning History enhancement, we've removed the MaximumLearningEventsDisplayed property from the LMS_ADMIN configuration (System Administration → Configuration → System Configuration).

We've removed the property because you no longer need to manually configure it to display the completed activities. The latest version of the Learning History page automatically loads all the completed activities as you scroll down, making it more efficient and user-friendly.

The latest version of Learning History offers a more intuitive page layout, meaningful page titles, improved filter and sort functions, and other user experience improvements.

The latest version includes the following enhancements:

We've expanded anti-virus scanning so it is active for all file uploads. Specifically we've added anti-virus scanning for QuickGuide creation and report import.

For QuickGuides, anti-virus scanning is now enabled for uploading a photo to a cover page or step during the QuickGuide creation or editing process. You create QuickGuides from My Learning → My QuickGuides → Add QuickGuide → Create a New QuickGuide page. For report import, anti-virus scanning is now enabled from Admin Center → Learning Administration → Reports → Report Import page.

We've added anti-virus scanning for all uploads to enhance security for our customer's environments.

We now include system configuration settings for Learning Administration Best Practices content. Specifically you can now change the BestPracticesLMSResourceFileURLPrefix and BestPracticesLMSResourceFileVersion values in System Administration → Configuration → System Configuration → BEST PRACTICES.

Please work with your certified implementation partner to configure these settings.

We included the ability to customize the upgrade settings for Best Practices content to let you choose the best time and URL to surface the latest Best Practices content.

We added a limit of one thousand items for drop-down lists of values on custom fields. If you have more than one thousand values for a custom field you will not be able to set dropDownEnabled to true for a custom column on the System Administration → Configuration → Search Selectors page.

Customers that have more than 1000 values and have the drop-down enabled will have the drop-down setting set to false after this release. We added a value limit for custom fields to help system performance.

Support of Skype as a VLS vendor for SAP SuccessFactors Learning will reach End of Maintenance on May 17, 2024 and will be Deleted on November 15, 2024.