Training Frameworks

Training frameworks are a new feature that allows you to define a points system that can be linked to courses, via custom course fields, using a new type "Training value." You can set up multiple frameworks that defines how the values are calculated. This enables administrators to set values for courses and then use those earned values to drive activity such as Program completion. This separates course enrollment from the program, which may benefit some use cases. 

To set this up, start by creating a training framework by going to Site administration > Custom fields > Manage training frameworks.

When you click "Add framework," you'll be shown a modal window to configure the framework. Set a name (required), an ID number (optional), set the Context (either System or a specific category), choose whether it's "Public" or not, provide a description (optional), then set the points value to achieve completion of the framework, and finally decide whether it has "Restricted completion validity." Once you've made your choices and saved the framework it will look something like this:

Checking "Restricted completion validity" means that when this framework is used inside of a program the points earned for this framework will only be considered valid during the assigned period of the program. So if the program has a start date of January 1, 2024 and a end date of December 31, 2024 completing a related course between those two dates will count towards completing that framework for that specific program. 

Leaving that option unchecked will mean all courses that have a value set for a linked custom field will count, regardless of the date, once the course is completed. 

The context options, category or system, will determine who can add that framework to a program. If the context is set to a category linked to a tenant, that framework will only be available to site administrators or tenant admins of that tenant. If it's in the system context, it will be available to all tenants/users to use. 

Once you've created a framework, you can add custom fields to that framework. 

Create a Training Value Custom Field 

Start by creating the custom field. Start by going to Site administration > Courses > Default settings > Course custom fields. If this is your first custom course field, you'll need to start by creating a category. 

Click "Add a new custom field" and choose "Training value." You'll need to give the custom field a name, a short name, a description (optional), set whether it's required, is required to be unique (not recommended), whether the value is locked, and who it's visible to ("Everyone" by default). 

Most of the time, the default will work fine. "Locked," if set to yes, will require users to have some extra permissions to edit the values. This is a less common set up, but can be valuable in cases where you want instructors to be able to edit most fields, but want to limit some specific options. Visibility is another special case — the default of "Everyone" works in most cases and is recommended here since these values will be used to help users complete the training framework. 

Once the custom field has been created, you can go back to the framework and link the two together. 

From the "Manage training frameworks" page (Site administration > Custom fields > Manage training frameworks), click on the framework name you want to link to your new custom field. For this example, we're editing "Open LMS Training Framework." 

When you click on the framework name you'll be taken to a page with a button to "Add field." Click the button and you'll be shown a modal window that let's you search for custom course fields that use the Training value custom field type. Once you've picked your field, in this case Training Points, you'll click "Add field". 

Once that's done, the page will show the linked field(s). 

Now you can go into program management and add the Training framework to the content of one or more programs. To learn about managing Program content, you can review the related knowledge base article.