User controlled certification renewal with enhanced learner experience
Background
The system enables you to award certificates, which expire based on various criteria. A common scenario is for a certificate to expire a fixed period (typically a year) after the award. Users are then able to renew the certification and therefore be awarded a new certificate, prior to (or in some cases after) the expiry date of their current certificate.
The renewal process often requires a user to complete a course, or set of courses (within a curriculum), that they have completed previously (a re-assessment or refresher course). The attempts feature is used to enable this, with the system awarding a certificate once per attempt for the awarding item. To begin the renewal process, a user therefore needs to be in a new attempt for the content item.
There are two ways that a user could be in a new attempt for the relevant content item:
- The user could manually start a new attempt, by using the relevant option in the learner portal.
- The user would automatically be placed in the relevant state when a renewal window begins.
This resulted in a number of challenges:
- The user would need to know which content item they need to complete to renew a certification, requiring out of band communication from the administrator. This would normally be communicated in the renewal email sent by the system (where a renewal window is used), but this is more challenging where users are permitted to renew at any stage.
- The administrator would need to configure the content item for attempts, to permit the user to begin the process early. We refer to this as permitting explicit attempts.
- Permitting explicit attempts enables a user to retake a course where they have failed an assessment, and does not enable the admin to restrict the use of attempts to renewals only.
- Curricula do not support a user starting a new attempt manually, so curricula could not be used where users needed to be able to manually start a re-certification.
Updated Behaviour
To simplify this we have updated the Certificates area on the Achievements page in the learner portal. Whereas previously each certificate was listed in order of award, certificates are now grouped by certification, with only their most recent certificate for a certification being displayed by default. Users can optionally expand a certification to view previous certificates. This change makes it easier for a user to see, at a glance, their current status for a certification, with colour coding indicating the current status (white for a current valid certificate, yellow for a currently valid certificate which is expiring within the next 30 days, and red for a certification which has expired).
Alongside each of the items, there is now a Renew button. The visibility of this button is controlled by the configuration of the certification:
Renewal Window | Renewal prior to renewal window permitted | Renewal after expiry permitted | Renew button displayed |
---|---|---|---|
Not configured | N/A | Yes | Always |
Not configured | N/A | No | Prior to exipration date only |
Configured | No | No | During renewal window only |
Configured | Yes | No | Prior to exipration date only |
Configured | Yes | Yes | Always |
Configured | No | Yes | From the beginning of the renewal window onwards |
For certifications that do not expire | Never |
On clicking the Renew button, the user will automatically browse to the renewing catalogue item. The user can then complete the relevant item to renew their certification. This solves the first problem identified above, of the user needing to know what item to complete to renew the certification, as the system will direct them to the correct item automatically.
Should multiple items be configured as renewal options (with the user targeted to more than one of them), the system will pick one. Where the item is configured with multiple renewal items and the user is only targeted to one of them, the system will pick the relevant item. Should the user not be targeted to any of the valid renewal options, the system will hide the Renew button, and renewal will not be possible. As a reminder, where multiple items are selected as renewal items, the user will renew the certification by completing any one of those items. Should you require a user to complete multiple items to renew a certificate, then these must be included in a curriculum and the curriculum used as the awarding item.
When the user clicks Renew, where required, the system will also automatically begin the renewal process for the user. The user will not know that this has happened, but where a user clicks the button either prior to the renewal window starting for a certification configured with a renewal window, or at any stage for a certification without, the system will automatically start a new implicit attempt on the renewal item(s). Where a curriculum is used, this will include propagating of the new attempt to items within the curriculum (as configured). This solves the remaining three problems identified above, as:
- The administrator no longer needs to configure attempts on the content items. Certification renewal uses system controlled implicit attempts and ignores the attempts options configured in the administration portal.
-
As the admin is no longer required to configure explicit attempts, admins can now choose to restrict the use of attempts to renewals only, giving the admin the option to prevent a user from using the attempts feature to retake a failed assessment, without contacting an administrator where mandated by business requirements.
- Certification renewal uses implicit attempts which are supported for curricula, so curricula can be used in this way.
This is an example of the update interface, showing an expanded certification with a Renew button visible:
To further improve the workflow for users, certificate expiration is now displayed in the calendar. The calendar now displays:
- The expiration date of every certificate the user has been awarded (including those which have been superseded).
- The start of the renewal window for the most recent certificate (for each certification) only (where configured with a renewal window).
Where appropriate, the Renew button is displayed on the dialog which opens when the user clicks the item in the calendar, enabling them to identify certifications which are expiring from the calendar and to begin the renewal process, without the need to browse to the achievements page.
This is an example of the certificate shown above in the calendar view:
To support these changes for learners, updates have also been made to the administration portal. The administration portal now, in addition to the start date for the renewal period (where applicable) includes the user's renewal status, as one of:
- May start renewal - Where the user's renewal period has not yet started and they have not started the renewal process manually, or on a certification where there isn't a renewal window and the user has not started the renewal process,
- Manually started: {date time} - The date on which a user began their renewal manually, by clicking the Renew button on a certification either not configured with a renewal window, or prior to the renewal window for a certification with a renewal window.
- Automatically started: {date time} - The date on which a user began renewal automatically (at the start of a renewal window).
- Expired - Where the expiry date has passed and renewal after expiration is not permitted.
This is an example of the new columns in the Certifications area of the administration portal:
Finally, an option has been added to enable the administration to begin the renewal process for the user. This is equivalent to the user clicking the renew button in the learner portal on an item that is prior to the renewal window, or for a certification without a renewal window.
Bug fixes
Various bug fixes.
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