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Help Needed with Setting Up a Certification Program

Welcome to this forum!

Hello everyone,

I have a bit of a headscratcher here as I try to set up a certification course for my company. We certify all our operators on their stations. To be certified, we require that they take and pass a Competency (Quiz), and then pass 3 Proficiencies (Observed and Graded using a Rubric) at least 2 weeks apart. We have implemented a test-out policy where an Operator can skip the 3rd Proficiency by getting 100% on Proficiency 1 & Proficiency 2. Once a user is marked as complete, we consider them certified for 2 years.

After 2 years, we only require them to be observed and pass 1 Proficiency and not the rest of the material as required in the original course.

Currently, we are using a manual way of marking when they will be due for recertification, as when our system was first set up, no one bothered to test out the certification process through Totara.

I am trying my best to understand it, which is why I am now here asking for some guidance from others who have gone through this same process. My trial run did not turn out how I had hoped, so I am looking for insight as to where I might have gone wrong or maybe to find out if it cannot function as we hope it to.

Details:

Certification Course: Test Certification

Original Certification Path: Certification Test Course

Completion requirements for this course are a passing grade on the Quiz, and at least 2 passing grades on the Proficiencies, Site Admin verification then marking course complete for user.

Once a user is complete, Certification is good for 2 years & 3 months.

Set up in the Certification as:

                Use Certification Completion Date
                Active Period is active for 27 Month(s);
                Recertification Window
                Period window opens before expiration: 3 Month(s).

Recertification Path: Recertification Test Course

ONLY contains 1 Copy of the Proficiency, as this is all we require for certification.

This course was created as I did not see an option that would allow us to use the original course but specify, we only required 1 item to be completed within and which item that was.

So, this recertification course only has the Proficiency in it.

When I tested this system, I used a Test Learner account we have created. I assigned them to the Certification Path.

Issue #1: The user assigned to the certification path did not get enrolled in the course via this assignment. I had to manually enroll them in order for this to appear in their course work.

For the test, I altered the course recertification period to days instead of months.

I logged in as the test user. An completed the Original Certification Path, and then when they came due for the Recertification, I completed them through that before it expired.

Issue #2: Even after completing the Recertification path before expiration, the grades within the Original Path are wiped for the user appearing as though they have not completed the course. Is there a way for this data to stay intact while the Recertification data is the one that gets wiped out for every recertification period?

I hope this has been clear to understand. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

- Atticus Martin

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Hi Atticus

Issue #1: The user assigned to the certification path did not get enrolled in the course via this assignment. I had to manually enroll them in order for this to appear in their course work.

Assigning the user to a certification does not enrol them in the courses in the certification - the user needs to launch the course from the certifaction interface. This is because there may be some course set logic where one courses needs to be completed before the other course can be enrolled in.. A workaround would be to emrol the user in the first course of teh certification as well or include instructions in the welcome notification.

Issue #2: Even after completing the Recertification path before expiration, the grades within the Original Path are wiped for the user appearing as though they have not completed the course. Is there a way for this data to stay intact while the Recertification data is the one that gets wiped out for every recertification period?

When the window opens, data and activity completion for all recertification pathway courses will be reset, including courses and activities completed by RPL. Primary certification path courses will be reset only on expiry, and only if they are not also on the recertification path. So any course you don't want reset in primary path shouldn't be in the recertification path.

Regards

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Hello Craig,

Thank you for the response. I am curious by what you mean here: "Primary certification path courses will be reset only on expiry, and only if they are not also on the recertification path. So any course you don't want reset in primary path shouldn't be in the recertification path."

How do I make a course a Primary Certification Path course and not include it in the recertification path.

I basically have an original course let's call it "Pre-Solder Certification". The operator in the original course needs to pass a quiz and up to 3 instances of a Proficiency (Rubric). Once they complete that course they are considered Certified by our company. However, they need to be re-certified every 2 years, but that re-certification only needs to be passing 1 Proficiency to ensure they have maintained their skills & job knowledge. So we have a second course called "Pre-Solder Recertification" that needs to come due 2 years after the completion of original "Pre-Solder Certification" and then continue to become available every 2 years that an operator is enrolled/active.

How can I go about ensuring the Certification Course with the 4 activities remains unchanged (when not expired) and trigger the Recertification Course with 1 activity to open to them every 2 years for recertification? I think that is where I am stuck and having a hard time navigating through the options in setting this up. All of the Programs, Certifications, etc. are a little confusing. Any help would be appreciated.

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Hi Atticus

The courses that are included in the Recertification path can be picked independently of the primary (original) by choosing add a new set of courses after the Recertfiaction path label.

If you tick the use existing certification content all the courses in the primary path will be added but these can be edited to delete any courses that are not required to complete again.

regards

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I am still stumped about this. I am providing some screenshots below to help clarify the issue and see if that might lead to some solutions.

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Aside from the correct certification settings - 2 years, 3 month window etc., perhaps the first certification course can be a proxy course, which has its completion settings such that it is completed when the 'real' competency course is completed. This way the competency course remains unmolested by the certification. The proxy course would need to be clearly labelled so that its completion status is ignored on learning transcripts etc.

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