SAP SuccessFactors Learning Programs and Curricula

Curricula Overview

The Curricula object was created to support the assignment and tracking of certifications/qualifications within highly regulated industries. A curriculum generally consists of a series of courses in which completions are required within a set timeframe. Some curricula may also have retraining periods to which the user must adhere to remain certified for a particular task or job.

To support the regulatory requirements of customers in such industries, Curricula is considered to be a standardized certification delivery system. This label means that everyone who is assigned a curriculum must follow the same rules without exception.

Programs Overview

The Programs object was created to deliver learning activities of various sources and types in a structured manner, similar to academic-style courses or MOOCs. The MOOC courses, also known as External/Open Content Network courses, are treated like normal items and their completion is tracked. A program typically consists of activities grouped in time-based or topic-based blocks and contains settings to control the flow of consumption by end users.

Programs are adaptive to the training needs of the program participant, meaning that rules and requirements may vary among participants that attended the same program at different times.

Programs comprise various types of learning activities, including the following:

online and ILT items
virtual sessions
links to images
documents
JAM groups web pages on the intranet and internet

Type

Programs in the LMS can be one of three types. The type dictates the structure and timing of the program in general.

Scheduled - Programs of this type have a set start/end date and time. This function can be compared to Curricula in SAP LSO, which are meant to be taken during a specific period.
Duration-Based - Programs of this type have a fixed duration overall, but learners can start the program at different times. Learners have more flexibility, allowing the program to be started at any point in time while dictating that it should be completed within a particular duration.
Open-Ended - Programs of this type provide the most flexibility, dictating no start/end date and no times or fixed duration.

Progress Restriction

Within Programs, admins can restrict the progress through the various activities in a couple of ways.

By Completion - Selecting this option for progress restriction requires users to complete previous sections before starting the next section of activities.
By Schedule - Selecting this option for progress restriction requires users to wait until the scheduled time before starting a section with respect to the overall timing and duration of the program and sections within it.

Comparing Curricula and Programs

	Curricula	Programs
When to Use	Curricula is ideal for training that is regulated, compliance-driven, and auditable. Use when: Training requirements are driven by regulatory policies Users must re-certify Users can be decertified based on later failure Changes in training requirements impact certification status Certification requirements must be consistent for all users Certification is required for a user, and compliance status must be maintained	Programs is ideal for MOOCs, leadership and onboarding programs, and academic-style courses. Use when: You want to deliver a group of learning activities The intent is to deliver content in structured/meaningful blocks Users must complete the training blocks in sequence My content includes external content, personal interactions, and custom activities that do not need to be validated by the system My content must be presented in a visual agenda layout
Purpose	Support the assignment and tracking of certifications within highly regulated industries.	Deliver learning activities of various sources and types in a structured manner, similar to academic-style courses and MOOCs.
Content	A series of courses whose completions are required within set timeframes. Some may have retraining requirements in order for a user to remain certified for a task or job.	Activities grouped in time-based or topic-based blocks and having settings to control the flow of consumption by the end users.
Characteristics	Considered to be standardized certification delivery systems. Everyone assigned a curriculum must follow the same rules without exception.	Adaptive to the training needs of the program participants. Rules and requirements may vary among participants that attended the same program at different times.
Logic	All logic is driven by individual item settings within curricula (e.g. prerequisites, approvals, due dates).	Logic is driven at the program level. Approvals, prerequisites, due dates at the item level do not apply.
Completion	Dynamic completion status that may change over time; “compliant vs. complete”. Requirement pools – provide different ways to meet compliance criteria.	Finite events – completion is final. Program completion achieved only by completing specific activities (can be down to specific scheduled offerings).
Certification	N/A	Certificate of completion (program level).
Activities	Can only contain LMS based activities (items, sub-curricula). All activities displayed to the end user as a list.	Can contain internal as well as external (non-LMS) activities (links to any web address / files, custom activities). Progressive display of activities that require attention.
Retraining	Retraining support	No retraining support. Finite events – completion is final.
Credit	Automatically grant credit based on past completions.	Credit granted only for post-program assignment completions.
Focus	Compliance-focused – getting list of all required activities done by a certain time.	User-focused – structure groups of activities in the order they are meant to be consumed.
Consumption Flow	N/A	Can easily control flow of consumption (progress and schedule-based restrictions).
Registration	N/A	Auto-registration into all scheduled offerings upon program enrollment (scheduled programs).
Commerce Support	Includes commerce support.	No commerce support (yet).

(Source – SuccessFactors release information)

QuickStart Guides

(Source – SuccessFactors Blog Post)

SuccessFactors has introduced QuickGuides in the LMS to provide organizations with another way to make their LMS more content-rich. They allow the end user population to participate in authoring that content if desired. QuickGuides are meant to be step-by-step instructional materials, quick (as the name suggests) and to the point.

One of the key things to understand about QuickGuides is they do not have to be just an administrator function. You can allow end users in your organization the ability to create QuickGuides. A new workflow has been introduced (Author QuickGuides) which allows users to create/publish QuickGuides to catalogs that are assigned to the user and accept user published content. On the surface this may seem like a foreign concept to learning admins, allowing end users in the organization to publish content of any kind to catalogs in the LMS. Keep in mind however the ‘social’ aspect to learning that is currently promoted through the integration with Jam. In my opinion this QuickGuide functionality is an extension of the social-side of learning that Jam promotes, allowing for further collaboration in the LMS directly for the user community to champion their learning needs. You do not have to give out the ability to author QuickGuides to everyone in your organization by any means, but do not just view this as an administrator only function as you’ll be missing a big part of the benefit of the solution.