Managing Classes

A class is a specific scheduled event, such as the HR101 item scheduled for October 15th at HQ in Training Room 220. An item may have many active classes at any time. This figure illustrates a class and its current registration.

Time Slots are blocks of time that make up a class. Each time slot can have one or more resources assigned.

Resources are assigned to a class or time slot within a class.

• Resource: Instructor

  Instructors can be added to the system and used when creating a class. Instructors can be authorized to teach an item. This allows administrators to find instructors for a class more quickly.

  If you use e-signatures, you can include the instructor as a sign-off step when an administrator adds history records. The user/instructor logs in to the user side and enters the e-signature PIN before the event enters the learning history.

  Note

  Instructors do not have administrator access to the system unless you create a specific administrator account. Instructors may access their classes from the My Classes page on the user side if they are given an Instructor role and the instructor resource entity is linked to a related user entity.
• Resource: Facility

  Facilities usually refer to a building or campus. A facility is selected when creating a class and is displayed to users when viewing the details of a class. It is recommended that a standard naming convention be established for all facilities. Choosing a facility will set the time zone for the class and use the facility’s holiday and workweek profiles – which determine which dates should be skipped when scheduling.

• Resource: Location

  Locations usually refer to a specific room or place where the training will occur. A location is selected for each time slot within a class entity. It is recommended that a standard naming convention be established for all locations.

• Resource: Equipment

  Equipment is what is needed to run the class such as LCD projectors, whiteboards, equipment, etc.

• Resource: Custom

  Custom resources can be defined and applied to a time slot within a class. These are usually created when there is a need to track costs. Examples of custom resources are catering, parking, and copying fees.

There are four system-defined states for registration:

• Enrolled
• Waitlisted (enabled per class)
• Canceled
• Pending (if request is awaiting approval)

There are different ways to register users into a class:

• An administrator can register a user.
• A manager can register their direct reports.
• If allowed, a user can self-register.
• If allowed, a user can self-register, but if an approval process has been selected, the approval process must be completed before actual enrollment occurs.
• Users may be automatically registered into one or more classes at the same time if the user is added to a Cohort or Program.

Generally speaking, when a user self-registers he may usually self-withdraw. This may depend on the approval processes and close dates for registration and withdrawal. When a manager registers their direct reports into a class, they bypass any approval processes and may be subject to global rules that affect manager registration. Administrators can typically override these rules and approval processes. If a user or manager has registered the user, the administrator may remove him from the registration or change his status. If configured, users may be permitted to withdraw from a class if their manager registered them. If an administrator registers a user, neither the user nor the manager may withdraw the user.

Email notifications may be customized at the global level, the item level, and the class entity level. Additionally, email notifications can be customized at the organization level to include header, footer and the From field specific for the organization that the user belongs. The email notification template may be modified using a traditional method of adding HTML tags, labels, text, and syntax tags (fields that are updated with user-specific or class data). Another method to edit these is with the Notification Template editor which allows localization of the templates without the need for labels and uses rich text format buttons instead of HTML.

Users receive an email notification confirmation that can include a vcal attachment for each time slot. Recipients double-click the attachment(s) to add the time slots to their personal calendar as desired. Alternatively, standard calendar invites may be sent (instead of vcal attachments).

This figure depicts a sample registration email sent to users.

If enabled globally, a class may also create a related event or meeting in one of the supported third-party VLS products. Users who register for the class in the LMS will receive an email notification and a separate one from the VLS service. The class may be configured to automatically add history records based on the time each user spends in the session. Instructors in the LMS may be configured to be hosts, presenters, or facilitators in the VLS session. Supported systems include Cisco Webex WBS31 (T31), Adobe Connect 9.5, Microsoft Office LiveMeeting, and Microsoft On Premise versions of Lync 2013.

The Add Learning History wizards are tools used to add history records for items, classes, or external events.

The Add Learning History for Multiple Courses wizard allows administrators to add history records for one or more events for one or multiple users. This wizard does not capture any costs related to the class.

You can add history records using the Add Learning History with Financial tool. This wizard allows you to enter financial information, such as price, cost, profit center, etc.

This feature allows an administrator to upload and attach documents to a user’s history record. It also allows users or managers to attach a file if they can add history records for themselves / their direct reports.

For example, if a user completed a course that required a paper-based test at the end, the paper-based test could be scanned into a PDF or MS Word document and attached to the history record. Administrators use the Edit Learning History tool for this step.

Users can access attached files in the user interface by reviewing the details of the history record in their learning history, and administrators can access the attached files from the Administrator side of SAP SuccessFactors Learning by viewing the Completed Items tab link of the user entity.

On the user side, you saw examples of online learning, such as launching a web-based training module. On the administrator side, you will have administrators who set up online content.

Content objects are entities that contain instructions for the LMS to find and launch a unit of online content. Each content object points to one launchable file. Content objects can be re-used in as many items as required. Content objects can add a history record for an item that shows a successful (for credit) completion or a failed attempt.

A Content Package is a group of content objects. This provides an efficient way for administrators to add all relevant content to an item.

One option is to create a content object that launches a website for the user to access.

Most online content courses are designed to grant completion based on user interactions (view the whole course or pass a quiz). Development of online courses occurs outside of the LMS. The course developer publishes content using one of the two standards:

• AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee)
• SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) versions 1.2, 2004, or 2004 4Ed

In addition to AICC and SCORM, we can support browser and document-type launch methods.

Content objects are not directly assignable to users. First, administrators add content objects to an item. Then, the item can be assigned to users. History records are added to the learning history for the entire item, not for the individual online content objects.

Administrators need to configure the number of attempts a user has to pass an item. After each failed attempt, the user will have another attempt at all of the content within the item until the maximum number of attempts configured by the administrator. Once the user reaches the maximum number of attempts, the item will be locked, and an administrator is required to unlock the item so that the user may have another attempt. If an administrator unlocks the item for the user, the user will have one more attempt.

Exams in the LMS consist of a set of questions. Administrators can group related questions into a pool using an objective.

Exams and Quizzes in the SAP SuccessFactors Learning system are built with the Assessment Builder. The primary goal of this tool is to allow an administrator to create and work with either Exam or Quiz Type Assessments.

The main tool by which an administrator can create exam questions is the Question Library. Once a set of questions (or objectives, if desired) exists, they can be used to create Exam Type Assessments.

Exam Type Assessments may be created from questions associated with learning objectives. This permits better randomization of the question library questions so that two people taking the same Exam Type Assessment will have different questions pulled from different objectives.

The performance on each objective may be tracked, and the results used to compare a pre-test to a post-test for a learning evaluation. If content objects are tied to the same learning objectives, the adaptive learning process will allow users to skip content objects for learning objectives they have passed in the Exam Type Assessment. Users may also be sent back to review content objects for learning objectives they have failed on the Exam Type Assessment.

Administrators can create multiple variants of a question that test the same content but are asked differently.

If administrators create enough questions and variants of those questions, an organization can ensure that multiple users have different sets of questions on the same content. Each user may have different variations, including questions, variants, and question order.

Administrators may create Quiz Type Assessments that function similarly to exams but with a few differences. Quiz Type Assessments contain questions that are not independent, like question library questions, and may not be mixed and matched among multiple Quiz Type Assessments. There are no learning objectives associated with quiz questions. Only exams (not quizzes) may be used as a learning evaluation or with adaptive learning.

Surveys may be created, and existing exams may be used to support three levels of evaluation:

• Course Feedback: (User Satisfaction: Evaluation survey, sometimes called Smile Sheet)
• Mastery of Content: The user takes a test to demonstrate knowledge of the content (using two Exam Type Assessment objects designated as a pre-test and a post-test)
• Follow-up Survey: (Application of Learning) User demonstrates skill at work, and their application of the knowledge they gained during training is evaluated

Questions in this survey ask for the user’s feedback about the course material, presentation, instructor(s), and other factors of their training experience. If metrics are desired, a standard rating scale (such as a Likert scale) may be used consistently for all questions. The results may be broken down by page, item, and instructor.

Mastery of Content is where the user takes an exam before training (pre-test) to gauge knowledge coming into the training and the same exam (post-test) after the training. This allows administrators to run a report that captures the improvement in knowledge gained from the training.

A survey is created, applied to the item, and configured to include the user/employee, their manager, or both. After the item has been completed, the participants will be assigned the survey a set number of days after the completion of the item (days are set at the item level) and have a designated amount of time to complete this survey.