Understanding Programs

A program represents a significant learning goal that can be achieved by completing multiple classes. 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 classes 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 courses 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 classes, programs have no enrollment limits or waitlisting.

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

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 (course 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 courses and Section 2, which contains another program.

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 Oracle Java Programmer certifications.

You might define a Sales Manager certification program as follows:

• Section 1 (program section)

  Account Management program

• Section 2 (course 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.

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.

This diagram illustrates two sections, one of which includes a program.

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.

Understanding the life cycle of a certification program and status changes

A certification program includes different dates and periods, from the time a learner registers to a certification program and when the certification expires.

The following diagram illustrates the life cycle of a certification program. In this example, it is assumed that there is one set of expiration rules for the entire certification program.

When a certification program is in Warning, Expired, or Revoked status, the system displays a status reason to the learner, manager and administrator, provided the display of status reason is enabled in the Install Defaults – Programs Page. Selecting the status reason, displays the detailed description of the status in a modal. To know more on the status and status reasons for programs, see Reason Codes Page.

This table illustrates the different dates and periods of a certification program. The dates given are indicative and are for examples only.

Certification Program Date or Period	Description
Registration Date	The learner registers to a certification program and the program status is Registered. For example, May 1, 2023.
Completion period	Learner makes progress in the program during this period. The program is in In Progress status. For example, the one month period after the registration, May 10, 2023 to May 31, 2023.
Warning period	The certification completion date is nearing. For example, five days period before the completion period ends, May 25, 2023 to May 31, 2024.
Certification Date	Learner completes the program. The program is in Completed status. For example, May 31, 2023.
Validity period	The certification is valid for the learner. The program continues to be in Completed status. For example, one year period after the certification date, May 31, 2023 to May 31, 2024.
Expiration warning period	The certification is about to expire. The program continues to be in Completed status. For example, 30 days period before the expiration date, May 1, 2024 to May 31, 2024.
Expiration Date	The certification is not longer valid and the program status changes to Warning after the expiration date. For example, May 31, 2024.
Recertification period	Learner can retake the certification. The program is in Warning status. For example, 45 days period after the expiration date, June 1, 2024 to July 15, 2024. After this, the program status changes to Expired.
Recertification warning period	The recertification period is about to end. For example, 15 days before the recertification date (or when the recertification period ends), July 1, 2024 to July 15, 2024
Grace period	The final period where the learner can retake the certification and before the program status changes to Expired. For example, July 16, 2024 to July 31, 2024.
Program Expired	The program status changes to Expired. For example, August 1, 2024.

The below table illustrates the statuses and status reasons for certification programs under various scenarios (The dates given are indicative and are for examples only. Refer to the previous table to map the status reason to corresponding periods).

Status	Status Reason	Reason Description	Scenario for certification status and status reasons
Warning	Expiration Period Warning	Valid – The certification is nearing expiration	The certification is in expiration warning period, certification is valid but is about to expire. For example, 30 days period before the expiration date.
Warning	Recertification period Warning	Certification expired – In recertification warning period	The recertification period is about to end. For example, 15 days before the recertification end date.
Warning	Nested Program Warning	Nested program status cascaded	The main program is already in Warning status, and the nested program also goes to Warning.
Warning	Grace Period Warning	Expired – in grace period	The program is past the recertification date and is in the grace period. After the grace period, the program status changes to Expired.
Expired	Nested Program Expired	Parent program valid – but expired because nested program has expired	The parent program is valid, but the nested program has expired (Cascading Expirations).
Expired	Program Expired	Parent program expired	The main program has expired, even though the nested programs are valid.
Revoked	Nested Program Revoked	Nested program revoked	The main program has expired, and the nested program is revoked (Cascading Expirations).
Revoked	Program Revoked	Program revoked	The parent program is revoked, even though the nested programs are valid.

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.