Using SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Define terminology used in SAP SuccessFactors Learning
  • Demonstrate how to navigate within SAP SuccessFactors Learning as a User and Admin
  • Review the security model in SAP SuccessFactors Learning
  • Describe migration and maintenance of data in SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Overview of SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Begin the video to get started on SAP SuccessFactors Learning.

SAP SuccessFactors Learning is a part of the SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management suite. It is a learning management system (LMS) which allows users to be assigned, self-assign, and complete learning items, such as courses and other learning activities.

Terminology in SAP SuccessFactors Learning

SAP SuccessFactors Learning follows the key concepts of the Learning Needs Management model to track training for users. To understand the LMS, you need to first understand the terminology.

  • User: A user is a person such as an employee, contractor, or customer for whom you wish to assign learning needs and track completions.

  • Items: An item is an entity that can be assigned and tracked. This can be a course, document, assessment, video, and so on. It may be learning or non-learning, online or in-person, optional or required, one-time or recurring (if assigned as part of a curriculum).

  • Curricula: A group of one or more items (and/or curriculum requirements) that can be assigned to users and have its completion status tracked as a group.

  • Programs: A list of activities such as items, links, HTML, or text that are organized into sections. A program may be scheduled, duration-based, or open-ended.

  • Classes: A class is an occurrence of an item with dates, times and resources (for example, instructors, locations, and so on). Classes allow users to be registered or self-register.

  • Libraries: A library provides access to items, curricula, programs, and classes that a group of users (defined by different criteria such as region, organization, and so on) can self- assign, self-register, or recommend.

  • My Learning Assignments: List of items assigned to a user that must be completed.  It also contains the date by which each item should be completed.

  • Learning History: A list of all history records for the user. A history record is a user’s participation in the completion of an item or external event.

  • Reports: Reports may be run in the LMS to provide status information about assignments, completions, and other details about learning entities and users.

Additional Terminology

  • Admin: An Admin is a person with the permissions to create and assign learning entities, run reports, add completions to the learning history for users. Different admin roles may include different permissions for access to specific entities and users.

  • Evaluations: Three levels of evaluation may be tracked in the system by creating surveys and exams and assigning them to users. These include: Course Feedback Surveys, pre- and post-exams (used in Learning Evaluations), and Follow-up Surveys.

Navigation within LMS as a User (Employee, Manager, and Instructor)

Navigating the Learning Interface as a User

Users can access the user interface of SAP SuccessFactors Learning by selecting the Learning from the main navigation drop-down menu. 

Watch this video to learn more about how to navigate within SAP SuccessFactors Learning as a user.

Note

A new Learning experience that includes a new home page, enhanced search to quickly find learning based on desired skills or interests, and optional personalized recommendations based on machine learning can be enabled.

The new Learning home page is organized by cards. The courses the users must take are prioritized at the top, followed by self-directed learning, bookmarks, and recommendations. Curricula compliance is shown with status bubbles on the interface. A switch on the interface allows users to navigate between the new and legacy experiences. Here's a preview of the new Learning experience.

Employee Interfaces

Users begin by accessing their To Do list in SAP SuccessFactors HXM. Their To Do list will show the top five items they have due the soonest along with a link to take them to their learning home page in the LMS.

They may also use the Home drop-down menu and select Learning to take them directly to SAP SuccessFactors Learning.

News Page

When accessing the Learning Home Page, Users may see the News Page pop-up. This alerts your users of what is happening with learning in your company. This page can be used as a way to broadcast learning FAQ’s, initiatives, or new information to your users.

LMS Home Page

The user side layout is a landing page with configurable tiles. These tiles can include:

  • My Learning Assignments: This tile displays items, requirements, surveys, and programs assigned to the user.
  • My Curricula: This tile displays a pie-chart status of items within assigned curricula. The full details of all curricula currently assigned to the user may be seen by clicking within this tile.
  • Learning History: This tile displays events recorded in the last 30 days. There is a link to the user’s entire history from this tile.
  • Find Learning: This tile allows the user to search and browse the library.
  • Featured: Items that were highlighted in the library as New, Featured, or Revised appear here.

LMS Home Page Additional Tiles

  • Links: This tile displays links to standard functions on the user side such as: My Quick Guides, Collections, Reports, Add Learning History, Approvals, and others. Easy links to internal and external web pages may also be created by admins and displayed here.
  • My Team: This tile is available to managers, and displays a pie-chart status of all direct report assignments.
  • Recommendations: Items, Curricula, Collections, and Programs that were recommended by the user’s peers or by admins.
  • Available Classes: Classes for items that have been assigned.
  • Self-Assigned: Items that the user has self-assigned from the library.
  • Bookmarks: Entities that the user has bookmarked for easy access later such as collections and quick guides.
  • Custom Tile: This tile is configurable with a rich text editor or HTML by an administrator to provide content to specific users e.g. users that are part of the same organization or user group.
  • Achievements: This is used to display a leader board when gamification is enabled.
  • Viewing assigned training, curriculum status, and overdue learning for their employees.
  • Assigning items and curricula.
  • Registering users into available classes.
  • Recording completions for direct reports.
  • Running reports for direct and indirect reports.
  • Delegating responsibilities to other users.
  • Assigning alternate managers for their direct reports.
  • Reviewing training requests (as a Training Manager).
  • Manage Approvals

Instructors will be able to make certain actions in regard to their scheduled courses (classes), depending on their given permissions. Some key actions are:

  • Viewing their scheduled courses and printing the roster
  • Viewing students who have registered for the course
  • Adding learning history records for the users enrolled in their classes
  • Adding walk-ins to the registration (during class time)
  • Viewing time slot details and class documents
  • Tracking attendance by time slot (manually or using QR codes)
  • Launching a feedback survey for some/all students
  • Adding history records for ad hoc training (that has not been created as a class)
  • Updating and viewing VLS accounts and launching a VLS session
  • Sending email notifications to users

Navigation within LMS as an Admin

Admin Interface

The SAP SuccessFactors Learning instance is seamlessly and fully integrated into the SAP SuccessFactors instance. This makes it possible for a Learning admin to easily access the Learning Administration Home Page from within the SAP SuccessFactors Instance.

Watch the video to learning more about how an admin can navigate within SAP SuccessFactors Learning.

There are four sections of the admin screen:

  • Human Experience Management Platform Header: Available on all pages as the administrator navigates within SAP SuccessFactors Learning.
  • Header Toolbar: Component sits above the Entity Header and is displayed when the administrator navigates within SAP SuccessFactors Learning. In addition, this contains the Full Screen Mode feature and access to online help.
  • Menu Navigation: Allows admins to select the appropriate areas they are working with to find entities and settings.
  • Workplace Area: The workspace area is the area to the right side of the menu navigation. It renders the pages driven by the selections made from the menu navigation.

Security Model in SAP SuccessFactors Learning

SAP SuccessFactors Learning uses a security model which is different from the Role-Based Permissions (RBP) model that is used in the other SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

In SAP SuccessFactors Learning, different security objects are used to control data access. It uses a combination of security domains, security domain groups, permissions, and roles.

  • Security Domains and Domain Hierarchy

    SAP SuccessFactors Learning creates areas of data access through the use of security domains. These control all entities in the learning application with the exception of references which are global.

    Note

    It is recommended to have the smallest amount of security domains that are actually needed to prevent administrators from accessing entities that are outside their responsibly that they must not access.

  • Security Domain - Security domains are used to indicate what data can be seen and by whom. Security domains can be built in a hierarchical structure, with each security domain having one or more children. Security domains should be created wherever there is a need to restrict data to some administrators and prevent other administrators from searching, viewing, editing, adding, or deleting the data.
  • Security Domain Groups - A security domain group is a group of any one or more domains. These may be applied to the permissions in an admin role to determine exactly where the admin may perform that permission.
  • Permissions - Permissions in a role are comprised of functions (such as view, add, delete, copy, and so on) tied to entities (such as users, items, classes, or programs), 
  • Roles - A role is a list of permissions that are grouped together and associated to the instructor, user, and admin entities. These permissions allow access to menus, links, and tiles.

Complete an Assigned Course

Business Example

In this exercise, you will launch a course, complete it and print a completion certificate.

Steps

  1. Log in to the SAP SuccessFactors instance.

  2. Using the main navigation menu on the Home Page, navigate to Learning.

  3. Select Continue to close the news popup window.

  4. In the My Learning Assignments tile, select HR HandbookStart Course.

  5. Select Launch Content.

  6. Select Agree.

  7. Select Refresh After Done.

  8. Select Print Certificate.

  9. Wait for the Report status to be completed. You should now see the Certificate of Completion.

  10. Go back to My Learning.

  11. Select the Learning History tile. You should see the HR Handbook course.

Migration and Maintenance of Data by Using Connectors

SAP SuccessFactors Learning provides standard connectors that help to migrate and maintain data in your Learning system. You can also schedule the built-in connectors to import data into the LMS.

Some standard connectors related to Learning are:

  • User Connector - SF: SAP SuccessFactors loads and updates users in an integrated environment from the SAP SuccessFactors HXM (BizX) suite.
  • Competency Connector: SAP SuccessFactors creates competencies and associated rating scales in the LMS.
  • Security Domain: Loads new security domains, updates existing records, and manages the hierarchical relationship of domains.
  • Organization: Loads new organizations, updates existing records, and manages the hierarchical relationship of organizations.
  • Item: Creates new items in SAP SuccessFactors Learning and updates existing records.
  • Admin Connector: Loads new admins and updates existing records.
Note
Only the User Connector-SF and the Competency connector will bring information from SAP SuccessFactors HXM.

Competencies in Learning

Note

If you wish to use Competencies within the SAP SuccessFactors Learning, they must be created in SAP SuccessFactors Career Development Planning first.

Competencies are measurable attributes such as skills, abilities, knowledge, or behaviors.

In SAP SuccessFactors, competencies can be set up in Job Profile Builder to describe what a successful employee in that job should be able to do. The Competency Connector - SF can be scheduled in the LMS to pull the competencies into the LMS where they may be associated to items or programs.

Competencies associated to an item indicate the level to which a user is expected to demonstrate the competency upon successful completion of the item. Items may be configured to automatically assess (rate) the associated competencies for the user when the user completes the item

When items have been associated to competencies, users may search for items by competency and add items as learning activities to their development plans in Career and Development Planner.

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