Renewing certification with another course

Just tested to see how it works...you can add the courses to the Certification itself via the app (assign items) and when the user clicks RENEW NOW via My Activities, they are presented with a screen showing what’s been completed and what they can do next to get rectified...looks like this:

Thanks @lrnlab

Presumably I have to link the certification to the original course and the recertification course and also tick the box (see below) otherwise RENEW NOW is not displayed.

Is it possible to change the message so that the learner knows that they can not renew via the original course?  Also is there a way of still showing an instructor-led-course for recertification even when there is not a session/event arranged yet?  Some of our ILT courses have a 5 year certification and are only attended by 1 or 2 people (and not necessarily at the same time) therefore the individuals contact the training department to arrange the recertification training and then a session is scheduled.

Hi @lrnlab 

I’ve had a play around and ILT course with no sessions scheduled does still show up when the Learner clicks on RENEW NOW so that’s handy😊  However, am I able to change the Your Certification message so that I can clarify that it is only the one course available for recertification and that they need to request that a session is scheduled rather than “one of the following courses” as stated in the current message?

SarahBee wrote:

Thanks @lrnlab

Presumably I have to link the certification to the original course and the recertification course and also tick the box (see below) otherwise RENEW NOW is not displayed.

Is it possible to change the message so that the learner knows that they can not renew via the original course?  Also is there a way of still showing an instructor-led-course for recertification even when there is not a session/event arranged yet?  Some of our ILT courses have a 5 year certification and are only attended by 1 or 2 people (and not necessarily at the same time) therefore the individuals contact the training department to arrange the recertification training and then a session is scheduled.

Not sure that’s how it works...if you want users to take a different course, do NOT tick that box as this will only wipe out the previous course data and allow the user to only retake the same course. 

in the example I added above, the user had already been certified and then when I added the 2nd course, it presented the user with the option to choose. Since a user can only complete a course once, in the example, the would only have access to the incomplete course. Does that help?

you can probably do this via the Localization app but I would be careful to make it too specific since if you user certifications for some thing other than this need, the message may not apply. Localization changes are system wide based on the language pack being used.

glad to help...hope it all works out for you.

Hi @lrnlab It’s me again.

I have been able to setup recertification using a different course than the original.  However, as the recertification course then needs to be completed every # years and the box allowing the user to retake the same course is not ticked, the user does not have a RENEW NOW button.

I tried to set up another certification code for the recertification course but the system will not allow me to assign the recertification course to the new code, presumably because it is already assigned to the original certification code.

Any ideas? 🤔

If you don't check the box that allows the user to retake the course, you need to add a new course as another piece they need to do to renew their certification. Once you do that the RENEW button appears. The button is not there is you don't add the additional course as there is nothing for the user to do since the initial course is already completed and by not checking the box to allow them to retake, there is no action needed...does that make sense?

Essentially you need to add the 2nd course for it to work without checkin the box.

Hi @lrnlab

Yes, I’ve carried out your advice and it works i.e. user completes original course and in a years time renews their certification by completing the second course. 

Where it appears to fall down is another year later when the user needs to renew their certification again, using the second course.  Because the box is not ticked the user is unable to repeat the second course.

My Learning
 

Test Qualification is the original course and Test Qualification Refresher is the second course required for recertification a year later.  However, in another years time the user will need to take the Test Qualification Refresher course again but in My Activities/Certification there is no RENEW NOW button (see below).
 

right, you would need to add a course each year...you can make a copy of the previous year and just add a date. Would that work?

@lrnlab That’s what I’m trying to avoid as we have lots of courses that require this type of recertification and the various users did not attend the training at the same time.

Those are the only 2 options at this time if you need to enable the RENEW button.

We did something different for one of clients that involves Groups and Enrolment Rules as they did not want the RENEW button however it is very complicated and involves course copies as well.

You may need to wait until the Certification archiving is launched; not sure when that would be though.

OK. Thanks @lrnlab 

Hi @lrnlab 
This is still illuding me I’m afraid.

I created a new ILT course (Course A) which needs to be renewed in 12 month’s time by attending a different ILT course (Course B).  I then created a certification and assigned Course A and Course B to it without ticking the “Allow users to retake the same course” box so that when a user has completed Course A and needs to renew it in 12 month’s time, they will be able to click on RENEW NOW and enroll onto Course B.
I then tested this by enrolling myself on Course A and completing the course.  However, When I click on Course A in My Learning there is no reference to recertification and when I access my certifications via My Activities, whilst the certification is listed, there is not a RENEW NOW button.

😩
 

The course itself does not carry any information about the certification. You can only see it via the Cert tab on My Activities. Did you check that course was not already completed? Sometimes when testing you have to clear out everything and start fresh...maybe that’s part of the issue you are seeing?

if you have been assigned the Certification and only completed 1 of the 2 courses attached to it, you should be able to see the RENEW button from the My Activities page.

https://help.docebo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020083240-Managing-the-Certifications-and-Retraining-App

It’s not specific as which course can or should be completed but it seems from the KB article that as long as you complete of the courses attached to the Certification, it will count towards the renewal. You must go via the RENEW button only.

Hi @lrnlab 

Thanks for the info.
I have started again with a Test User but still no joy.  I’m obviously doing something wrong but I have no idea what.
I have noticed that now, when a user, via My Learning,  clicks on a course they have completed and has a certification that needs to be renewed, the user can renew the certification from here rather than having to access the RENEW NOW button via My Activities and Certifications.  This is not the case with the First Aid Annual Refresher (Year 1) course that I have created.

My Test User has not been enrolled on the renewal course - First Aid Annual Refresher (Year 2) – and for the status to change to completed an Administrator is required to mark their attendance as Present.

The certification is set up with both First Aid Annual Refresher (Year 1) and First Aid Annual Refresher (Year 2) being assigned to it but it does not show any users even though my Test User has completed First Aid Annual Refresher (Year 1).  The Allow users to retake…… box is not ticked.
 

I am confused 🤔

@SarahBee did you get this resolved? Let me know if not; we have this working using the course equivalences along with enrollment rules - after completing the original course the user is auto-enrolled in the refresher course (which has the certificaiton associated) and this refresher course is used for the renewal each time moving forward. We just update the refresher course content as needed.

As an extension of this, has anybody found a way to make a certification (e.g. Level 1) renew when another course/certification (Level 2) is completed or renewed? After weeks of messing around I’m now told this isn’t possible, and having the level 2 certification cover/renew level 1 is a big expectation from our customers. A learning plan is not an option as a) not all customers who complete level 1 also complete level 2, and b) the learning plan enrollment and additional fields functionality doesn’t work the same way as the regular ILT enrollment/additional fields process, so we canl’t use it.

Also very interested to see if there is a solution to this topic. We are not able to renew certifications using a different course (neither through the “Renew now” button, where the courses does not show up, nor just completing a different course connected to the same certification). 

This does work, but… we had to completely restructure our course and recert configuration and delete and reimport all our users - the initial advice we got on setting this up using equivalency targets was completely incorrect.

In the certification settings (Certifications and retraining)

1. The ‘Allow users to retake the same course’ option needs to be unchecked/disabled.
2. The course(s) that can be completed for recertification needs to be included under the ‘Assign items’ for the certification.

When the learner clicks the Renew Now button, it will display all courses that are included in that assign list, that the user has not yet completed.

* this is the only way to renew the certification. Completing a course (even a valid recert course) outside of this process does not impact the certification expiry.

We even managed to get our level 1 certs to auto-update when level 2 recerts are completed (using equivalencies and enrollment rules).

A couple of things to be careful of:

• the same user visibility rules apply. If the user doesn’t have catalog access to see the course it won’t appear in their Renew options. We use an ‘All Recertification Courses’ catalog which is not included on any pages but all users are assigned to, so these courses can only be accessed through the renew process.
• you need to make sure self-enrollments are enabled for the recert courses
• only the learner can see the Renew Now option on their page. If a power user or even superadmin views the user’s personal summary you won’t see the renew now option (that caused some early confusion)
• once a learner completes a course it will no longer appear in their renew list, so we need to create a new set of recertification courses for each year and use validity dates to show/hide them. e.g. User completes initial course 2023, the next year there is a 2024 recert course they can renew with (only valid for that year), the next year a 2025 recert course, and so on

​@moenhavard I hope this helps. I think that covers all you need, but more than happy to provide more detail if you need any further direction. If so, let me know where you’re at with your setup and what is/isn’t working.

Thank you ​@gus !
We will try it asap, and get back to you :)