Hi all,
I'm interested to hear how you manage new versions of courses (that are aligned to both programs and certificates) when you wish to keep the same ID?
We are using the ID to match courses with our external reporting systems. I need to create new versions of courses as they arise whilst ensuring the ID is maintained through all versions.
Appreciate any ideas you may have!
HI Bianca,
Looks like this is an issue that other folks are also trying to figure out! The Course ID field does require the ID to be unique to each course. An alternative might be creating a custom course field that you could use for that repeated ID - when you create custom fields, you can decide if they will allow duplicate entries.
Cheers!
Wesley
[EDIT: Please note that this reply originally contained incorrect information about the Course ID and has since been corrected. Apologies for any trouble that may have caused. ~WH]
Thanks for your response Wesley!
I'm thinking if the course ID and Title are the same it would be impossible to distinguish between each of the versions? Is there any other field available to capture a version?
Do you know how I might also be able to introduce a new version of a course for only new learners from that point? This would ensure that those learners that have already started the course (and are in progress) would not have the start the new version.
Would changing the short name to differentiate between the versions be applicable? Keeping the Course ID, and the fullname the same? Then disabling any version you don't want available by putting in an end date for the course.
The short name displays in the notification subject to the learner, ideally we would like a history of the versioning to display to system administrators and have everything else remain consistent to the learner.
Any suggestions as to how we could disable the expired course only for future enrollments? And not those currently in progress?
Hi Bianca
It is possible to use audience based visibility to limit what programs, certification and courses are visible to users.
You can limit the visibility to enrolled users and audience members.
The versioning of courses can be achieved by backing up the course before the changes are made and renaming to include a version number and limit visibility to enrolled users. The restore the course to a new course and change the content.
If the course is part of a Certification or Programs then you can add the new course to a course set along with the old course and make completion based on completing either of the two courses.
Regards
Hi Craig,
Could you elaborate? How would I create a audience based on those users that are already in progress?
Thanks, Bianca
Hi Bianca
To create an audience of people who are in progress can be done with a dynamic audience rule . The exact rule depends on the structure of the program.
The rule would be something like
User has not completed the program
AND User not completed the old courses in the program
Regards
However, if you needed to track that people who had finished the original course needed the new updates this would not work. Any suggestions on what to do in a use case such as this?
I have the same question for Programs in particular.
I guess I could create a new instance of the Program with modifications but that is a lot of work.
How can I update a program and not affect users that have already completed the program (or completed a set in the program) ?
For example:
How to remove a course from a program when the course is part of a set and all the courses in the set need to be completed?
How to remove a course from a program when the course is the only course in the set (and that set is required)?
Thanks,
Joe
Hi Joe
How to remove a course from a program when the course is part of a set and all the courses in the set need to be completed?
How to remove a course from a program when the course is the only course in the set (and that set is required)?
The way program work when structures are changed is
Regards
Hi Craig
Thanks for the update.
I agree that when you remove a course from a programme this is the case. However when adding a new course or new version of a course to a programme we have found reporting is not consistent.
For example report builder will show a programme as not complete but on the learners record of learning and on current learning dashboard it still shows as complete.
This has led to confusion and as result any additions we make to a programme means we now have to recreate it and archive the old one.
That's our experience on T12 so this may have been resolved since.
Can you comment on our experience?
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul
There have been some recent fixes to program completion records e.g TL-33158 in 12.41 was a fix where Viewing the program overview report created a course completion record. What version are you using?
The completion records should display consistently across the methods it is being displayed if not then are you able to create a bug report with replication steps so we can fix this.
regards
In several of our Totara sites the 'course id number' field requires a unique ID. Could you tell us how we can make it so that the same number can be reused for different courses?
Thanks!
Evy
Hi Evy,
My original response was incorrect, apologies! Course ID must be unique for each course. Depending on what you need to use the field for (e.g. connecting to external systems) it is possible to create a custom user field that allows duplicate course IDs to be entered. The usefulness of that field will depend on what you need to do with that data! For example, if it just needs to appear in reports, a custom user field will appear in the columns you can display on some report sources.
Thanks!