Quick Start buttons in Knowledge Centers

EKP's Knowledge Centers provide convenient access to all resources associated with a learning activity. Knowledge Centers are available for both modules and programs.

A Knowledge Center for a module can contain a single Quick Start buttons that is used to launch any associated course. A Knowledge Center for a program can contain Quick Start buttons for each of its constituent modules.

As with most other Knowledge Center items, a system-wide configuration options enables administrators to control whether these Quick Start buttons appear. In EKP 4.6 and earlier, Quick Start buttons could be enabled for both module and program Knowledge Centers, or disabled for both module and program Knowledge Centers.

In EKP 4.7, there is a third option—it is now possible to enable Quick Start buttons for module Knowledge Centers, but disable them for program Knowledge Centers. This can be used to simplify program Knowledge Centers, while enforcing the use of module Knowledge Centers as a single point-of-access for launching courses. (Note that the Knowledge Centers for the individual modules in a program will be accessible from the program's Knowledge Center.)

More on elective program modules

In a previous post, I described how program sessions can contain both required and elective modules in EKP 4.7.

But what happens if a session contains a large number of elective modules? How does a learner keep track of which ones she is working on?

In EKP 4.7, an administrator can specify which elective modules are automatically assigned to learners who enroll in the program session. Learners can then add more elective modules to their list of active modules, or remove elective modules that they do not intend to complete, via the program's Knowledge Center. (Required modules are always assigned automatically.)

EKP displays a list of available elective modules at the bottom of the Knowledge Center's Main tab. The learner can click the appropriate Enroll button to add a module to her list of active modules for the program.

The list of active and completed modules indicates whether each module is required. The learner can remove incomplete elective modules from the list of active modules by clicking the appropriate Withdraw Enrollment button. The module is returned to the list of available modules. Required modules cannot be removed from the list of active modules.

Elective program modules in EKP 4.7

In EKP 4.7, it's possible to specify that some modules in a learning program session are elective, meaning that the learner is not required to complete the module in order to complete the program session.

It's also possible to specify the number of credit hours the learner needs to earn from elective modules before the program is considered to be completed. (That is, in order to complete the program, the learner needs to complete all the required modules, and also sufficient elective modules to earn the required number of credit hours.)

EKP can display three new columns on the Enrolled Learning Modules tab. These show, respectively, whether a program module is required or elective, the number of training/credit hours available for a module, and the percentage of a program that has been completed. (An administrator can choose whether to show each of these individual columns by going to Manage > System Administration Manager > System Configuration > System Configuration.)

The required/elective and training hours columns are also available in program Knowledge Centers.

(Note that, in order for EKP to automatically mark programs as completed when the appropriate requirements are met, the option Enable Automatic Completion of Learning Programs must be enabled under System Configuration.)

What are learning program sessions for?

A learning program is a co-ordinated sequence of modules designed to meet a particular learning objective or objectives. Programs can be "blended" in that they can combine both synchronous and asynchronous modules, and both online and offline modules.

Typically, you would create multiple sessions for a particular program if you have essentially the same sequence of modules taking place at different times, or in different geographical locations. For example, you might have a Spring 2007 session and a Fall 2007 session for a particular program. Usually an individual learner would be enrolled in at most one session of a particular program.

Note that this applies mainly to programs that include at least one instructor-led module. There's typically no reason to have more than one session for a program that contains only "asynchronous" online modules.

If you need to have multiple sequences of modules with different learning objectives, it's generally more appropriate to create multiple programs, rather than having multiple sessions of a single program.