Using SAP SuccessFactors Learning

Watch the video to get started on SAP SuccessFactors Learning unit.

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.

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.

• 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.

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 the Learning Interface for users.Navigating the Learning Interface

The following page elements appear on the new Learning home page:

• New Learning Experience Switch: This switch allowing users to navigate between the new and legacy experiences. When on the new experience, the user can launch a popup with information to help them transition from the legacy page.
• Dashboard Menu: Allows the user to navigate to My Team (applicable to managers only), My Classes (instructors only), and Learning Administration (admins only).
• Activities Menu: This menu provides access to Learning History, Curricula, Approvals, Reports and many others depending on permissions.
• Required Learning: This section shows assigned required training (assigned by others) prioritized by due date by default.
• Requests for Me: This section shows any observation requests that the user needs to address.
• Invest in Myself: This section shows learning that may have already started, or may be approved and ready for the learner to start. Previously self-assigned learning also appears here.
• Latest Bookmarks: This section displays saved courses and other learning content flagged using the bookmark feature. It provides users an easy way to manage their learning interests in a single page, separated from courses they're already engaged in or have been assigned.
• Suggested by Peers: This section allows users to see person-suggested items. The recipient can bookmark the opportunity, indicate that they aren’t interested, or click for more details.
• Personalized recommendations: Powered by the machine learning technology of SAP AI Business Services, personalized recommendations are generated to employees, based on employees' data. It includes their profile information, growth portfolio attributes, and their system interactions and activities.

• 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 with regard to their 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

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 Capital 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.

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 Domain - SAP SuccessFactors Learning creates areas of data access through the use of security domains. 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. In the diagram, Example of Domain Hierarchy, you have different levels of domain.
  • Root Domain (or Corporate Domain) - This is the highest level in the security domain tree hierarchy. The domain level starts from zero.
  • Domain B - Each security domain can have one or more child domains. Each sub-domain is numbered one level higher that its parent (e.g. a sub-domain created under the Root Domain is a level 1)
  • Public Domain - This is the only unsecured domain in LMS and cannot be deleted. When new entities are created, the domain field is pre-populated to the Public domain. The admin should choose the correct security domain instead of the Public domain.
  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 Groups - A group of one or more security domains. When applied to the permissions in an admin role, this will restrict the domains in which an admin may perform the permissions.
• Permissions - A combination of functions (such as view, add, delete, copy, and so on) and an entity (users, items, classes, instructors, assignment profiles, etc.) 
• Roles - Roles are associated to admins. A role is made up of a list of permissions and security domains. The permissions control the functions the role can perform and the Security Domain Groups control the domain the role perform the functions in.

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 HCM (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.

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.