What’s Course Prerequisite?
Before you can enroll in a course or specialization in Oracle Learning Cloud, you need to fulfill certain criteria. This doesn’t apply to all courses, but some may have these prerequisites. In this article, we will guide you through all the configuration steps required to set up prerequisites for a course. However, as we’ve seen in the case of learning outcomes, you must have some basic setups ready in the Oracle Talent Profile to configure prerequisites. Essentially, this means there are prerequisites for configuring prerequisites 🙂 a bit of wordplay, isn’t it?
Prerequisites for Configuring Prerequisites
Before configuring prerequisites for a course, you must set up a Prerequisite Profile in Oracle Profile Management. We assume you have a basic understanding of profile concepts, which we briefly discussed while configuring learning outcomes for a course. You don’t have to stress if you have no prior knowledge. Typically, these profiles are configured by talent management consultants in your project, and your role is simply to use them in Oracle Learning Cloud. Nevertheless, having a basic understanding can be beneficial.
Learn to Configure Prerequisite Profile
To configure a prerequisite profile, follow below navigation
Navigation : My Client Groups » Profiles » Profile Types » Prerequisite
On Edit Profile Type: Prerequisite page, click on Add Content Section button. This will bring a Select Section pop-up window. Click on Select Content Section filed which will bring list of all sections you have already configured and enabled in Person Profile. You can follow this article for detailed navigation on how we configure person profile, which we can use in Prerequisite Profile » Learn to Configure Talent Profile in Oracle Talent Management.
Which content section you choose from the list entirely depends on the business requirement, but lets assume that language is one criteria and Languages section has already been configured in the person profile. Select Languages from the list and click on OK button
This will take you to Add Content Section page. Enter details as follows
- Section Name : Languages
- Section Source : <Defaulted to Languages>
- Section Description : Language prerequisites for courses and specialization.
- Active : Yes
In the Content Section Properties section usually you will not have to do any changes but ensure that Display property for the label Required is set to Show as we will use it later in the oracle learning cloud while configuring prerequisite for the course.
Once done click on Save and Close button. This will take you back to Edit Profile Type: Prerequisite page. You can also add following two sections to prerequisite profile.
Section Name | Section Source | Required Field |
Licenses and Certifications | Licenses and Certifications | Show |
Competencies | Competencies | Show |
Learn to Configure Course Prerequisites
We are done with all pre-configurations. To configure any prerequisites for any course, please follow below navigation.
Navigation : My Client Groups » Learning » Courses
On the Courses page, search for the Digital Marketing Fundamentals course you have configured earlier.
- Click on the course title to open it.
- Click on Edit button.
- Click on Prerequisites tab.
- Click on Add Content button.
- Select option Languages that you configured in the previous section.
Click Add on the Languages section and enter details as follows
- Language : English
- Reading : Moderate
- Required : Yes <Enable the checkbox, if you don’t enable it, learners can still enroll to the course even if they don’t have required prerequisites>
Once done click on Save button (don’t click on Save and Close). To keep it simple we have not added additional prerequisites otherwise you can also add prerequisites from Licenses and Certifications and Competencies section that you configured earlier.
Configure Default Assignment Rules
Although we have attached prerequisites with our course and set it required but still there are few other settings that might allow learner to by pass prerequisites. The very first thing we should check is the Default Assignment Rules of the course.
- Ensure you are still on the Digital Marketing Fundamentals page.
- Click on Default Assignment Rules tab
- Ensure following two options are not enabled
- Waive Prerequisites
- Number of days assignments are in pending prerequisites status before withdrawing learners
- Once done, click on Save and Close button. This will take you to Digital Marketing Fundamentals: Course page.
- Don’t close the window/page.
Manage Default Access
We are not done yet. Click on Manage Default Access button. Scroll to Learner Self-Service Settings section and ensure that “Allow enrollment when required prerequisites aren’t achieved for course and offering” is not enabled.
We are now done with all setups which will stop learners from enrolling to a course if they dont have required prerequisites.
Verify Course Prerequisites Configuration
To verify the setup we need one learner who doesn’t have English language attached to their person profile as English language is the prerequisite for the course. You can verify the same by following below navigation
Navigation : Me » Career and Performance » Skills and Qualifications
We have found one employee, who has English language attached to their profile but the language rating is Low, as the prerequisite rating for the course if Moderate this learner shouldn’t be able to enroll to Digital Marketing Fundamentals course. Let’s see the result
Enroll to the Course
Follow below this navigation to enroll to a course : Me » Learning
You can also follow oracle learning cloud employee experience article for the detailed step by step guide to register a course but on a high level, below are the steps
- Search for the Digital Marketing Fundamentals course
- Click on the course name to expand it.
- Click on Learn More button to open it, which will take you to Course Details page.
- You will see a message, which prevents you from enrolling to the course “You haven’t met the prerequisites. You need to complete the prerequisites to enroll in this learning item.”
- Click on View Prerequisites button. This will take you to Prerequisites section of the course and display prerequisites configuration of the course.
- Scroll below to Available Offerings section, but you will not find button to enroll to the course. This proves our prerequisites configuration was successful.
Allow learners to enroll without prerequisites
We’ve observed that when a learner lacks the required prerequisite, they can’t enroll in the course. However, there may be instances where you’d like to permit enrollment even without the necessary prerequisite at the time of enrollment. Instead, you can provide them with a grace period of few days to fulfill those prerequisites before they can complete the course. Let’s see how this is done.
- Search for the Digital Marketing Fundamentals course.
- Click on Manage Default Access button.
- Scroll to Learner Self-Service Settings section and enable following checkboxes.
- Allow enrollment when required prerequisites aren’t achieved for course and offering
- Withdraw enrollments in the pending prerequisite status
- Enter 30 days for filed : Number of days a learner has to complete prerequisites before they’re withdrawn
- Scroll down and click on Save button.
- You receive a confirmation message : Your changes were saved.
Verify the configuration once again
- Login as same employee once again who was not able to enroll to the course earlier.
- Search for the course and click on it to expand it
- Click on Learn More button to open it.
- This time you will still see the warning message but the text would be different “You haven’t met the prerequisites. If you enroll, you will have 30 days to complete the prerequisites before you’re automatically withdrawn.”
- Scroll to Available Offerings section. Enroll button will be visible for he available offerings.
- Click on Enroll button for any offerings
- You will get enrolled with assignment status “Pending Prerequisites“
- If you search the course in your learning history status will be shown as “Enrollment Pending“
Learner will have 30 days to complete the prerequisites, if they don’t complete enrollment will be withdrawn. However, it doesn’t happen magically. There is a process that you will need to schedule to run on a daily basis that will keep on checking whether the learner has met the prerequisites or not. This is discussed in the next section.
Reconcile Learning Assignment Status
As per oracle recommendation we must schedule this process to run on a daily basis if course prerequisite is used. This process helps in updating learning assignment status when a learner accomplishes required prerequisites or fail to acquire within stipulate time (30 days in our case).
This process has following three important parameters as mentioned below
- Reconcile Pending Prerequisite Assignments with Talent Profile
- Reconcile Pending Prerequisite Assignment Status Expiration
- Reconcile Pending Payment Assignment Status Expiration
Reconcile Pending Prerequisite Assignments with Talent Profile
To automatically update the learning assignment status when a learner’s talent profile gets updated with the necessary prerequisites, you should schedule the process with this option. If the required prerequisites are found, the system will then adjust the learner’s assignment status accordingly.
Reconcile Pending Prerequisite Assignment Status Expiration
To automatically withdraw enrollment if a learner fails to acquire the required prerequisites within the specified time, you should schedule the process with this parameter as well.
What happens if learner acquires prerequisites?
Let’s login as same employee who last enrolled to Digital Marketing Fundamentals course and yet to complete prerequisites for the course. Follow below navigation
Navigation : Me » Career and Performance » Skills and Qualification
- Scroll down to Languages section
- You will see an entry for English language with reading level to Low
- Click on Action button and select Edit option.
- Change the rating from Low to Moderate <which is the prerequisite level for our course>
- Click on Save button.
- We assume there is no approval configured, if there is any, approve the same so that rating is update to Moderate.
Verify learning assignment status
As the learner has got necessary prerequisites let’s see what is the assignment status for Digital Marketing Fundamentals course.
-
- Search for the course in your learning history section.
- If the status is still Enrollment Pending, don’t worry, the process you schedule earlier is still not kicked.
At this point you can run that process again on a need basis to reflect the assignment change or wait for the process to run as per schedule.
Update Course to Remove Prerequisites
As we are using Digital Marketing Fundamentals course for many other purposes we would like to keep it open for all without any prerequisites. To remove the prerequisite open the course and click on Prerequisites tab and remove all prerequisites you configured for this course or you can untick the required checkbox.
Have Questions?
In this article, we gained practical insights into the concept of prerequisites for courses, you can also learn to associate prerequisites with a course. We explored the process of learning assignment reconciliation and the steps required to schedule it. Additionally, we discussed how to allow learners to bypass prerequisites or grant them a grace period to fulfill these requirements.
If you have any questions or need further clarification regarding the content covered in this article, please don’t hesitate to post them on our partner platform, hcmfolks.com. It’s a thriving community tailored for Oracle HCM professionals like us, where we can connect, share knowledge, and support each other in our journey.