Annual Compliance Course Management

LMSica
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Fellow Docebo Superadmins, 

How do you handle compliance courses that require completion with a certain cadence within Docebo? What about recurring ILT courses? 

For compliance courses, we would rather directly enroll the learners into the renewal course, but the certifications feature only allows learner self-enrollment; there isn’t a dynamic enrollment feature. Right now, we are not using certifications because of this. We are creating a new course for each year and are manually re-enrolling employees each month...Ouch. We also need to make sure we keep the full completion history (we cannot erase previous completions). Thoughts? 

 

Jessica Overby

29 replies

Dahveed
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Hi Jessica!

I am in the same boat as you. We have annual compliance courses that need their records retained for  years. My solution was the same as yours, create a new course each year.

I don’t have the monthly cadence requirement, there is just a completion deadline towards the end fo the year. Then the employees’ leader is accountable for making sure they have the time to complete all the courses.

I have also set up enrollment rules so if any new employees start, depending on their role and department, they are auto-assigned the courses once they are in the system.

This works out, for me, for now since it’s a big task at the beginning of the year to create the courses and then assign all employees, but the rest of the year is on auto-pilot. I would dread having to do the enrollments monthly!

I’m curious to see if other folks have different/creative solutions to this issue!

David (aka Dahveed)
abartunek
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Although we actually do the same, another option would be creating a certificate for the course in the Certifications & Retraining menu and setting it to expire after 365 days. This combined with a notification “Certification has expired” could bring some good results.

It probably wouldn’t be best with ILT courses as you still need to create sessions manually but should work well for standard e-learning courses.

The other Adam B.
S
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Hi Jessica, 

We do the same as yourself and Dahveed. We have annual compliance courses in the beginning of the year and have to manually assign the courses. Then we set up enrollment rules so if any new employees start, depending on their role and department, they are auto-assigned the courses once they are added to the system.

As for as annual ILT course sessions, we have to create sessions manually and manually assign the course and session to the user. Then we set up enrollment rules so if any new employees start, again depending on their role and department, they are auto-assigned the course, but the have to chose the session once they are added to the system. However, you have to create a new ILT course every year with sessions.

Hopefully when Docebo can show multiple completions for a course or ILTs we will no longer have to do this. It is in the Idea Portal and it is planned - LMS-I-561. I had voted on this.

generic name
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Hi Jessica, 

We do the same as yourself and Dahveed. We have annual compliance courses in the beginning of the year and have to manually assign the courses. Then we set up enrollment rules so if any new employees start, depending on their role and department, they are auto-assigned the courses once they are added to the system.

As for as annual ILT course sessions, we have to create sessions manually and manually assign the course and session to the user. Then we set up enrollment rules so if any new employees start, again depending on their role and department, they are auto-assigned the course, but the have to chose the session once they are added to the system. However, you have to create a new ILT course every year with sessions.

Hopefully when Docebo can show multiple completions for a course or ILTs we will no longer have to do this. It is in the Idea Portal and it is planned - LMS-I-561. I had voted on this.

Awesome! that was my IDEA posted! :grin:

@abartunek “creating a certificate for the course in the Certifications & Retraining menu and setting it to expire after 365 days” I’m in the same boat and trying this route as well. Its only been a few months for us, but seems that’s the best course of action.

LucyGerber
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As a SystemAdmin for my company, we are having the same issue as listed above.  For us, it is a matter of SysAdmins “PUSHING” compliance training to the employees VS employee’s “pulling” training to their queue.  We all know that training is the last thing on an employees mind; so if the employee can ignore training, they will.  If Docebo would consider creating a frequency retraining requirement that SysAdmins could push to the learner, it would solve a lot of issues around the “Certification / Retraining” issue.  

Most compliance training falls into 5 typical frequency set-points (initial, quarterly, annually, 3-years or 5-years).  IF we could build, for example; the 4 frequency types and apply to any number of courses and each course respond independently of the others; this would solve the issue of having to have a 1-to-1 relationship with the Course and Re-training Certification.  Currently, we have 66 courses that require annual retraining - that means that we have to have 66 “retraining certifications”.  That’s a nightmare for housekeeping. 

So for now, we are not applying Retraining Certifications to our courses.  The beginning of each year, will be administratively heavy for the SysAdmin to get the compliance training scheduled for the year.

LMSica
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Although we actually do the same, another option would be creating a certificate for the course in the Certifications & Retraining menu and setting it to expire after 365 days. This combined with a notification “Certification has expired” could bring some good results.

It probably wouldn’t be best with ILT courses as you still need to create sessions manually but should work well for standard e-learning courses.

Thank you for mentioning the certifications functionality. This is something I am currently researching. It looks like the KB article on Retraining is incorrect about the system wiping out the previous completion date if the course is completed before the certification expires (YAY!). 

Unfortunately, I am running into two other obstacles. 1. The certifications email can only be turned on for ALL certifications, not specific certifications. 2. The learner has to click the Renew Now link to Subscribe to the new certification course. If they search for the course using the Search Bar at the top and complete it that way, then the certification dates will not be updated. There isn’t a way to lock the course from the search bar, which creates opportunity for user error. 

Another idea we are looking into is automating the enrollments using APIs and Power Automate...

Jessica Overby
R
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Yes, we have the same issue as you Jessica

The disconnect between course renewal and Certifications is terrible and causes us so much pain because users find the course and take it to renew (understandable!). Also the renewal link in the certification email doesn’t work on the Go Learn app, which is a problem as around 2/3 of our workforce are mobile and only have phones! 

We have to do a number of reports and manually update certifications for those who have retaken “the wrong way”.

I believe multiple completions will be available Q4 this year and work on the certifications is being planned but with no delivery date yet.

natemadel
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Hello All!

 

Good discussion in here and thanks @Adam Ballhaussen for giving me the heads up!. We know retraining is overly cumbersome at the moment and as Richard indicated above, we’re working on it. We plan to proceed in this way:

 

  • Step 1 - introduce a concept of “Archived Enrollments”. Basically, allowing an admin to archive a current enrollment(s), preserving some enrollment metadata, clearing the learning object progress of user in the course, and deciding if the user should then be “Re-Enrolled”. There’s a possibility we could also solve the “User Can’t enroll to multiple sessions” dilemma here as well with a related setting in session-based courses. 
  • Step 2 - Close the gaps on the certification piece. The current thought is to introduce a concept of “timers” for the auto-archiving/reset of enrollments above, rather than relying on the user action to reset / retake the certification. 

I can’t share specific ETAs with you just yet, but Step 1 is moving along nicely. It’s great to see you all collaborating here with some clever ideas and please know we’re hard at work trying to make your lives easier!

 

Nate

R
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Thanks for the clarification Nate. Any “archiving” and status changes very much needs to be available on a “set and forget” basis. We can’t replace one manual workaround with another manual intervention so it will be critical to the success to have robust and flexible “timers” that allow for different criteria based on different use cases. Time period of X days/weeks/months/years after completion is the obvious one.

Static date being another (archive and reset status for all users on X date each year).

There may need to be a hybrid of the two - reset all on 1st January unless completion date is less than X days/weeks.

I’m sure others can think of different timer use cases to meet their needs.

Hopefully this will mean the platform can be streamlined and we can dispense with certifications entirely, as the timers can achieve all we need at the course level. Although this would mean updated notifications for renewal reminders at the course level.

Looking forward to seeing further plans.

Richard.

G
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@natemadel :  You wrote:  

  • Step 2 - Close the gaps on the certification piece. The current thought is to introduce a concept of “timers” for the auto-archiving/reset of enrollments above, rather than relying on the user action to reset / retake the certification. 

We would not want to reset the enrollment if it erases our ability to track a learners assignment of the certification and failure to complete. It is critical for us to be able to understand the learners status in case of an audit or legal issue.  We need to be able to show that the leaner was assigned the training on this date but failed to complete it by this date.  Does the process that you mention allow for this and I’m just missing a key piece?

 

I agree with @Richard.Harknett regarding the need for a static date.  We have annuals that need to expire on a certain date regardless of the learner’s hire/transfer date.  I’m being blocked from the idea portal so I am unable to confirm if this has already submitted and then vote for it.  

Caitlin Leick
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Hi, @natemadel 

We are running into all the issues laid out above with our compliance recertification process. We are currently using certifications that trigger the learner to recertify 365 days after completion but, as stated above, this relies on the learner to initiate the recertification process instead of automatically re-enrolling the learner when it’s time to recertify. We are also looking to automatically release a refresher course each year after initial completion of the larger course but have been unable to find a way to do this without heavy manual intervention. 

For these reasons (among others), we are having to completely rework our compliance processes. 

Have there been any updates on the enhancements you mentioned in this thread? 

Caitlin Leick
natemadel
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Hey @Caitlin Leick!

 

The initiative for “Step 1” that I mentioned is underway now. It’s still a bit early to share an ETA, but the team is actively working on it and we’re anxious to deliver it to you all. 

 

Nate

C
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Wondering if we are any closer to an ETA on STEP 1.  Our annual Safety compliance training starts on 11/23 and we’d love to NOT have to recreate all 24 courses!

J
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  • Step 2 - Close the gaps on the certification piece. The current thought is to introduce a concept of “timers” for the auto-archiving/reset of enrollments above, rather than relying on the user action to reset / retake the certification. 

Nate

Nate - I was curious on the status of Step 2? Has any thought been given to introducing an Enrollment type rules for Certifications? Allowing organizations to specify when (i.e. 30 or 60 days prior to expiry), users would be auto-enrolled? Or, apply a enrollment rule on a fixed interval (Every Year, etc...) on September 01, a user would be auto-enrolled? 

S
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Also wondering if there’s an ETA on step 1? :nerd:

J

Hello All!  New to Docebo and have been digging into this very topic.  

@natemadel - Do you have any updates on this topic?

lrnlab
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Agree with all the comments posted and am hoping that what @natemadel describes is just the beginning the improvement we will eventually see in this area. Compliance type and recurring learning are not new concepts for LMS so it’s surprising that this hasn't been addressed earlier.

Some examples of what I’d be looking for to close these gaps:

  • a dedicated learner history database table that lives independently of course enrolment and can be managed by a top level admin*
    • *meaning that if a record needs to be updated or deleted from a user’s history, the super admin would be allowed to perform this function
  • on each course, have the ability to set a “retraining” cycle…
    • e.g.: initial period is the initial amount of time the user has to complete the course the first time they are assigned + a retraining cycle that can be configured in days, weeks, or months automatically one the course is first completed...so
      • user X is assigned course A
      • they have a 30 days to complete the course (due date is set by the system)
      • once they have completed the course, the NEXT due date is automatically set to whatever cycle date configured by the admin; most cases would be 365 days following completion
      • the course remains forever on their learning plan
      • Certificates are able to read from the HISTORY table mentioned above so that each time the user completes an iteration of the course, a record is added to their transcription giving them the option to pull certificates for each time they complete the course
      • All records appear in reports for any user

Just to name a few…

 

J

Hey @lrnlab I completely agree!  As an existing Saba/Cornerstone customer that is transitioning over to Docebo, it was kinda a shock this is an issue.  I know in Saba, this issue is handled at the course level, and can take any normal WBT course and turn it into a recurring course with a check box.  Below is a screenshot of the options on the Saba side that make this process seamless hope this provides some examples to devs of how this could be handled on the Docebo side:  

 

 

lrnlab
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So cool that added the screen shot @jason.watts thanks! Love all these options...

We just have to keep pressing...

jennadionn
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@natemadel or @Adam Ballhaussen
I think many of us are holding our breath for an ETA on these much-needed capabilities. As my organization scales, the workarounds to have our learners complete annual refresher training and our ability to audit their history of compliance is becoming a larger and larger burden. Do you have any update on the two enhancements mentioned in Nate’s message? 

  • Step 1 - introduce a concept of “Archived Enrollments”. Basically, allowing an admin to archive a current enrollment(s), preserving some enrollment metadata, clearing the learning object progress of user in the course, and deciding if the user should then be “Re-Enrolled”. There’s a possibility we could also solve the “User Can’t enroll to multiple sessions” dilemma here as well with a related setting in session-based courses. 
  • Step 2 - Close the gaps on the certification piece. The current thought is to introduce a concept of “timers” for the auto-archiving/reset of enrollments above, rather than relying on the user action to reset / retake the certification.
Adam Ballhaussen
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Hi @jennadionn! Thanks for following up here. Good news, for Step 1, our team is currently evaluating an Archive Enrollment function and is currently seeking feedback on the planned design. You can share your feedback on the post below:

 

 

As for Step 2 that you mentioned, do you know if there are currently any ideas that represent this use case? If not, I recommend explaining your thoughts in a bit more detail in a new idea. Thank you!

Adam B.
jennadionn
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@Adam Ballhaussen, thank you for your reply! I provided feedback in the link you sent.

Regarding Step 2, that was in Nate’s original message and it looks like a bunch of folks are commenting with their need for auto-archival and auto-reenrollment in that same Feedback Request, including me.  😄

J
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Do we have a status update on this? A new year is coming and I have to scheudle/release our annual compliance training.

We’re new to Docebo and were assured that retraining wouldn’t be an issue. If I was aware of this, we probably would select a new system.

M
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Could we get an update on the rollout of this functionality?

kgmeloy
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FWIW, my organization is needing the same, annual compliance training that is automatically pushed out to users, and crosses several different kinds of compliance (IT, HR, Sales).  I landed here ‘cause I was trying to set something like that up but couldn’t work out how to make it happen.  I’m kind of surprised this doesn’t already exist, but hopefully the above-mentioned enhancements are right around the corner. Please?

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