Disclaimer: Some content in this article outlines how to use functionalities that will be publicly released to all clients at the beginning of December 2024. If you see differences between this article and your platform, check back at that time. Learn more about the release cycle.
Disclaimer: Some content in this article shows details only available with the new course page. As a Superadmin, you can activate the preview of the new course page for your user only, test it, and then activate it for all users. Learn more on the transition to the new course page.
Introduction
Learning plans are curated sequences of courses (e-learning and Instructor-Led Training (ILT)) that form the backbone of personalized learning journeys, fostering individual growth and organizational culture.
Whether assigned to individual users, branches, or groups, learning plans serve as crafted learning experiences, guiding learners through structured pathways of courses and resources.
Thanks to other features such as enrollment rules, certificates and certifications, learning plans empower you to shape learning experiences tailored to the unique needs and objectives of your people and your organization.
Requirements and limitations
- It is strongly suggested not to include more than 250 courses in a single learning plan, the proper functioning of the learning plan page is not granted above this threshold.
Learn more on DoceboU
Want to learn more about learning plans? Have a look at the dedicated course, Managing Learning Plans (opens in a new tab) on Docebo U!
Use case scenarios
Skill development: Learning plans play a crucial role in facilitating employee skill development. Create personalized learning paths based on individual roles and skill levels including a series of courses ranging from basic to advanced levels. Learners will then follow the pathway you structured, complete assessments, and earn certifications, thereby acquiring new skills or enhancing existing ones, in line with the organization's objectives. Managers can track progress, provide support and ensure that learning initiatives are tailored to meet the evolving needs of their teams.
Certification programs: Learning plans can facilitate professional certification programs within organizations. Many industries require employees to obtain certifications to ensure compliance with standards or to demonstrate proficiency in specialized areas. Use learning plans to streamline the certification process by guiding employees through the necessary training and preparation. Include courses, resources, and assessments to make sure that learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to pass certification exams and excel in their roles.
The learning plans page
All the learning plans in your platform are created and managed from a unique menu, called Learning plans. Reach this area by logging in as a Superadmin or a Power User with permissions on learning plans, then access the Admin menu from the gear icon. Click on the Learning plans item in the E-learning section.
The main element of the Learning plans page is the table listing all the learning plans created in the platform. You can customize the table layout to show only the columns that are relevant to you. To do so, click on Columns and select the columns (up to nine) to include in the table. Use the Change position command to drag and drop the columns in the list, sorting them according to your needs.
You can filter the content of the table by clicking on Filters and selecting the available filters. Filters are applied in real time. In addition, you can use the free text search area to look for learning plans and sort the content of some of the columns by clicking on the column header.
Move to the Additional fields tab to manage the learning plan additional fields.
Creating a learning plan
To create a learning plan, click on the plus button and select New learning plan.
In the slideout panel, fill in the learning plan basic details:
- Code: The learning plan code can be up to 255 characters long. Although optional and hidden from learners, it serves as a valuable tool for administrative tasks. You can edit the learning plan code at any time.
- Title: Set the learning plan title so that it is simple and clear. Learners should instantly understand the topic of the learning plan upon reading its title. Make sure that the title of the learning plan is not made up of special characters only, as they may corrupt the learning plan URL format.
- Short description: It is displayed under the title of the learning plan on the learning plan page. Use it to add extra context to the title when needed.
- Description: The learning plan description helps users to have a better idea of what they will learn. Configure the description layout using the available formatting options, as well as include links and images.
Accessibility hint: When adding images to the learning plan description, enter an alternative text when uploading the image, in the Image description field. The alternative text makes sense of that image when it cannot be viewed for some reason, ensuring that users with visual impairments can comprehend the context.
If there are mandatory additional fields to fill in, click on Next to move to the Additional information section of the panel and configure them. Finally, click on Create and edit to create the learning plan and configure it.
Configuring the learning plan properties
Once the learning plan is created, use the Properties tab to configure its properties.
Assigning courses to a learning plan
To assign courses to a learning plan, move to the learning plan Courses tab. If there are no courses assigned yet, click Assign courses and select the courses from the Assign courses panel that opens. After selecting courses, use the option button in the Mandatory column to indicate whether each course is required to mark the learning plan as completed. By default, courses are marked as mandatory. Please note that the learning plan must include at least one mandatory course to be published, otherwise its status will be set as Under maintenance.
Click on Assign to confirm your choice. As an option, or when you have already assigned courses to the learning plan, click on the plus button in the top right corner and select Assign courses. Follow the same procedure described in the previous paragraph.
You can remove the association of a course from a learning plan by hovering over the end of the course row in the table and clicking on the bin icon. From the same area, click on Jump to course to access the course on the Course management page.
Arrange the course sequence by dragging and dropping the courses in the list with the Change position command. Select more courses with the corresponding checkboxes in the Sequence column to change their position in bulk. The drag and drop is disabled when the courses composing the learning plan are shown on multiple pages. By default, the page shows 20 courses but you can increase this number to 100 using the Rows per page dropdown at the bottom of the page. If the learning plan is composed of more than 100 courses, we suggest uploading them according to your preferred sequence using CSV files.
When assigning or unassigning courses within a learning plan, keep in mind that this action will affect the completion progress of the learning plan. For example, if a learning plan is composed of three courses, and the learner completes two of them, the learning plan completion progress will be 67%. If you add a course to the plan, the completion progress will be reduced to 50%.
Assigning courses to learning plans using CSV files
To assign courses to a learning plan using a CSV file, click on the plus button in the top right corner and select the Assign courses via CSV option.
For a successful upload, it is important to create a CSV file properly formatted. Refer to the following table for the accepted values.
Docebo data field | Acceptable CSV values for the field | Notes |
learning_plan_id |
numeric |
The learning plan identifier in the platform database; it is determined by the platform and cannot be modified or removed. You have to include either the Learning plan ID or the Learning plan UUID in the CSV file for a successful import, but both fields cannot coexist in the same CSV row or the import procedure will return an error. |
learning_plan_uuid |
string |
The unique alphanumeric learning plan identifier is automatically calculated by the platform when the learning plan is created. It cannot be modified or removed. You have to include either the Learning plan ID or the Learning plan UUID in the CSV file for a successful import, but both fields cannot coexist in the same CSV row or the import procedure will return an error. |
course_id |
numeric |
The internal course identifier in a specific platform database; it is determined by the platform and cannot be modified or removed. You have to include either the Course ID or the Course UUID in the CSV file for a successful import, but both fields cannot coexist in the same CSV row or the import procedure will return an error. |
order |
numeric |
Indicates the course sequencing order in the learning plan. Example: 1 (first course in the learning plan), 10 (tenth course in the learning plan). |
required |
0/1 |
Sets if the course is mandatory in the learning plan. The learning plan must include at least one mandatory course to be published, otherwise its status will be set as Under maintenance. |
Prerequisites
Independently from the course sequence, you can arrange the hierarchy of courses in a learning plan, ensuring that learners must complete a prerequisite course before enrolling in another, potentially more advanced course. The course that must be completed first is the prerequisite for the following course.
To configure prerequisites, while on the Courses tab, identify the course requiring prerequisites and click on the icon of the Prerequisites column in the corresponding row. In the Set prerequisites panel that opens, select the prerequisite courses and click on Next. In the Completion options tab of the panel, set whether learners must complete all the prerequisite courses or only a number of them. When selecting the second option, type the number of required prerequisite courses.
In the Unlock interval area, enable the option Set a delay from the completion of the prerequisite courses to the access to the selected course to define a time-based delay (expressed in days, weeks or months) to postpone the access to the main course after the completion of the prerequisite courses. When using the Months option, please note that a month is calculated as 31 days and not as calendar months.
When establishing a prerequisite for a course within a learning plan, consider that if the same course is assigned to other learning plans, the users enrolled in those plans will need to fulfill the prerequisite requirement within the specific learning plan where it is set to unlock the main course across all associated learning plans.
Tip: Optional courses can also be set as prerequisites for other courses. This is useful for learning plans with many courses, where not all need to be mandatory. However, in smaller plans, marking a non-mandatory course as a prerequisite is less practical; it would be more efficient to simply make it mandatory.
Click on Set prerequisites at the bottom of the panel to finalize the configuration.
Please note: If a Superadmin enrolls in a learning plan while in Learner view, they must fulfill the same prerequisites as other learners to unlock courses. However, Superadmins can keep managing locked courses from the Course management area.
Enrolling users in a learning plan (Updated!)
To enroll learners in a learning plan, move to the learning plan Enrollments tab. If you have not yet enrolled users, click Enroll users and select them from the Enroll users panel that opens as individual users, branches or groups. When enrolling users from branches, note that if your organizational chart has more than 1,000 branches, you will find a text input field for quicker selection instead of a list.
Click Next and set whether you need to set an enrollment validity period by selecting the option Enable enrollment validity period and defining a time frame.
If you set an enrollment validity period for the learning plan, learners will be able to access the learning plan for a limited time. Once the end date is reached, the learner's enrollment expires, resulting in the inability to access the learning plan any further. In addition, the same enrollment validity period will apply to all of the courses included in the plan. If a course is part of multiple learning plans and a user's enrollment expires in one plan, they will lose access to the course only in that plan but can still access it in other plans with different enrollment periods.
If the Show the Enrollment attributes option is enabled in the platform's advanced settings menu, the Enroll users panel, Additional information tab, also displays the Enrollment attributes section allowing you to configure the enrollment priority to clarify the importance of the learning plan or for learners, indicating whether it is mandatory, required, recommended or optional.
Click Confirm to finalize the enrollments.
As an option, you can enroll users by clicking on the plus button in the top right corner and selecting the Enroll users option. Then follow the same steps previously outlined.
Please note: When you enroll learners in a learning plan, you automatically enroll them in all the courses composing the learning plan. If, for example, you are enrolling the user to 7 learning plans, each one made up of 50 courses, the user will be enrolled in 350 courses. A background job will be started if the number of selected users multiplied by the number of courses exceeds 100 enrollments, supporting up to 250,000 enrollments.
All the users enrolled in the learning plan are listed in the Enrollments tab. You can customize the table layout to show only the columns that are relevant to you. To do so, click on Columns and select the columns (up to nine) to include in the table. Use the Change position command to drag and drop the columns in the list, sorting them according to your needs. Use the search area to look for users or filter them by clicking on Filters and selecting the relevant ones. Filters are applied in real time.
Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the user row to:
-
Edit: use this option to
- change the user enrollment validity period by enabling or disabling it, or changing it. Please note that if you edit the enrollment by leaving the Start of validity date empty, then both the start and the end of validity dates will be overwritten according to the configuration of the Enrollment validity period option in the Time options section of the learning plan Properties tab, as if they were reset. See the description of the Reset the enrollment validity option for more details.
- modify the enrollment priority, which will affect all the courses within the learning plan.
-
Reset the enrollment validity: reset the current enrollment validity period according to the configuration of the Enrollment validity period option in the Time options section of the learning plan Properties tab. If you have not set the days of validity, the enrollment validity period will be cleared. If you have configured the days of validity, the enrollment validity period will be reset according to the period you configured:
- If you select the option Start the calculation from the first time learners access any course in the learning plan, the enrollment validity period is recalculated according to the learner’s older first access among the courses composing the plan.
- If you select the option Start the calculation from when learners are enrolled in the learning plan, the enrollment validity period is recalculated according to the learner’s enrollment date.
- Unenroll the user from the learning plan. In the pop-up box, set whether you wish to unenroll the user also from the courses included in the learning plan. Remember that users will not be unenrolled from the courses shared with other learning plans. When selecting this option, you will then be able to choose whether to keep the user enrolled in the courses with completed and/or in progress status. Click Unenroll to finalize the action. Depending on the number of unenrollments, a background job may start. The tracking of the training materials included in the courses will not be reset upon unenrollment. If the user is enrolled back in the course, the completion status of its training materials will be restored.
You can perform these same actions for more users at a time by selecting them using the checkboxes at the beginning of their rows and then clicking Choose action at the bottom of the table and then one of the options above.
Please note: Enrolling a user in a learning plan bypasses the following course settings in the course properties, Catalog options tab:
- Self-enrollments are available during a specific time period (Course self-enrollment section).
- Pending admin approval (Course enrollment policy section).
Automatic enrollment in courses of a learning plan
The general rule for learning plans is that a user who is enrolled in a learning plan must also be enrolled in all the courses of that learning plan. Consequently:
- When you enroll a user in a learning plan, they are automatically enrolled in all its courses.
- If you add a course to a learning plan, the users enrolled in the learning plan are automatically enrolled in the newly-added course.
However, course enrollments are not lost as a result of changes to learning plans. In particular:
- If you remove a course from a learning plan, the learning plan’s users are not unenrolled from that course.
(If you unenroll a user from a learning plan, you can choose whether or not to also unenroll them from the courses composing that plan)
Assigning a learning plan to catalogs and channels
You can assign and un-assign learning plans to catalogs and channels from the corresponding tabs in the learning plan configuration area. Either click on Assign catalogs or Assign channels in the tab when there is no assignment, or on the plus button in the top right corner of the page, and select Assign to catalogs or Assign to channels. Make your selection in the panel that will open and press Confirm to complete your action.
To remove the assignment of a learning plans to a catalog or channel, hover your mouse at the end of the catalog or channel row and select Unassign. From the Channels tab, hover your mouse over the end of the channel row and click on Jump to channel to directly access the channel in the Channels menu.
Remember that users will see the learning plan in catalogs and channels only if they have visibility permissions on them.
Please note: If you assign a learning plan to a catalog, users will be able to buy the learning plan or enroll themselves in it (depending on the settings of the course catalog and the learning plan itself).
Publishing a learning plan
When a learning plan is created, its status is Under maintenance, meaning that it is not visible to learners. When you are ready to make it visible, change its status to Published using the Status dropdown at the bottom of the learning plan page. Click Save changes to confirm.
Please note: Learning plans must include at least one mandatory course to be published.
As an option, while in the Learning plans page, use the option button in the Published column to change the publication status from Published to Under maintenance. You can change the publication status for more learning plans at a time by selecting them using the checkboxes at the beginning of their rows and then clicking Choose action at the bottom of the table and selecting the Change status > Published option.
Marking a learning plan as completed
A learning plan is considered complete when all mandatory courses within it are marked as completed according to their respective completion methods.
If the learning plan awards a certificate, it will be issued on the completion date of the last course.
Deleting a learning plan
To delete a learning plan, from the Learning plans page, identify the plan and click on the ellipsis menu at the end of it row, the select the Delete option.
You can delete more learning plans at a time by selecting them using the checkboxes at the beginning of their rows and then clicking Choose action and then Delete at the bottom of the table.
When you delete a learning plan, the courses associated with it are not deleted, and the users are not automatically unenrolled from the courses included in the learning plan. Unenrolling users from courses within the learning plan must be done manually after the plan is deleted.
Configuring global settings for learning plans
The platform Advanced settings include a section for learning plans listing the Redirect behavior option.
If you select this option, learners are redirected back to the learning plan page after completing any course. The redirection does not work if the last training material in the course is played in fullscreen mode. Should this happen, the learner will be redirected to the course page and not to the learning plan page.
Power Users and learning plans
When working with Power Users, please consider the following scenarios:
- When Power Users are assigned to all courses, they will also keep full visibility also on the learning plans they created.
- When Power users are assigned to all courses and learning plans in visible catalogs, they will keep full visibility also on the courses and the learning plans they have created, even if they belong to catalogs they don’t have visibility on.
- Power Users inherit the visibility of the courses included in the learning plans they manage.
- If Power Users have Edit permissions on learning plans, when they add courses to a learning plan they manage, the users already enrolled in the plan will also be enrolled in the newly added course. This enrollment occurs even if the Power Users have not specifically assigned those users as resources. Power Users will be able to see only the users assigned to them in the Enrollments tab.
Notifications
To ensure that your users and managers receive immediate notifications for specific events related to learning plans, ensure that the Notifications app is activated on your platform and that you have properly created and configured the notifications for learning plans.
Tips & tricks
- You can create a learning plan with different certifications assigned to it. To do so, assign the certifications created with the Certification and retraining app to the courses included in the learning plan and not to the learning plan itself.