Cleaning Your OLM Catalog Ebook

TIPS for
Cleaning Up
Your Messy OLM Catalog
Why Should I Care About
Cleaning Up My LMS Catalog? ........................... 2
My LMS is Out of Control –

Where Do I Even Start? ............................................. 4
Keep Your Catalog Hierarchy Straight ............ 9
Visualize Your OLM Catalog ................................ 10
Categories ........................................................................ 12
Courses................................................................................ 16
Offerings ............................................................................ 24
Classes ................................................................................ 27
Learning Paths ................................................................ 33
Learning Certifications 37
what’s inside
..............................................
Plan for the Future ........................................................ 40
Find Out More ............................................................... 44
synergy codeworks
Tips for Cleaning Up Your Messy OLM Catalog 1
Why Should I Care
About Cleaning Up My LMS Catalog?
You NEVER According to research gathered by the Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM), new employees decide within the first 30
get a second days whether they feel welcome in the organization. It is estimated
that 1 in 25 people leave a job because of a poor (or non-existent)
chance to onboarding program.
make a first
impression. Many times the Learning Management System is one of the first
systems new employees interact with at your organization when
they read new policy information, learn about corporate culture,
and acknowledge the Code of Conduct.
What kind of a first impression does your LMS make?
A negative interaction with your LMS can lead to a

negative onboarding experience, which can lead to
increased turnover that could have been avoided.
synergy codeworks
“We have a Learning
Management System at my
company, and it sucks!”
Having a cluttered Listing multiple Courses Mixing up functionality
Catalog with inconsistent that deliver the same intended for Learning
naming conventions can content is confusing and Paths, Courses, and
contribute significantly to Learners will be unsure of Offerings can make
end user frustration when which option to choose. learning programs
searching for available impossible to navigate.
training.
synergy codeworks
Where Do I Even Start?
Elect an Owner
Pick someone that truly cares about the system and has accountability for completing
the effort. If you are reading this eBook, then there is a good chance that the owner
is you.
Make sure you have a firm understanding of the intended functionality of the Learning
Management System and how each of the Catalog Objects fit together before em-
barking on this journey. You want to set yourself up for success by making sure you
have the foundational knowledge necessary to make your Catalog Clean-Up initiative
successful and sustainable.
synergy codeworks
Stick to a Timeline “Work expands

to fill the time
Give yourself a reasonable deadline to complete
available for its
your Catalog clean-up initiative, and stay focused completion.”
on your target. Setting deadlines and specific
tasks that need to be completed will help you
– Parkinson’s Law
keep your project focused. Projects with no
deadline have a tendency to drag on and are
subject to “scope creep,” which can cause the
project to never end.
synergy codeworks
Communicate with Other Administrators

If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, you will need to
kick some of them out.
Get buy-in from senior management that improving your Learning Management
System is a priority, and develop a formalized process to follow for being reinstated
as an active Learning Management Administrator on an as-needed basis.
Use Role Based Access Control to give Administrators the rights they need to do their
jobs, but no unnecessary privileges that could jeopardize your Catalog clean-up efforts.
synergy codeworks
Determine a Reasonable
Cut-Off Point for Recent Activity
Take a look at your learning content through the lens of your industry to determine
how long your content will remain relevant. Do you have mandatory safety training
that needs to be renewed on an annual basis and rarely changes? Are your technical
certifications one-time events that stagnate over time? Are some of your soft skills
training Courses timeless and always relevant?
By answering some of these questions, you will be able to determine what makes the
most sense as a cut-off date for archiving items in your Catalog.
As a general rule of thumb, if a Catalog object hasn’t seen activity (subscriptions,
enrollment updates, renewals, or attempts) in 18 months or more, it’s probably time
to end date them.

synergy codeworks
Find a Non-Production
Environment to Practice In
Don’t get excited and start making irreversible changes in a live environment that will
start sending out notifications to your employees in real-time as you make the changes.
Make sure you have a solid, tested, approved plan of attack before launching into
your Production system to make updates.
synergy codeworks
Keep Your Catalog Hierarchy Straight
Make Sure You Know the Difference
Between a Learning Path,
Categories
Categories
Course Offering, and Class

Learning Paths are used to logically group Forums Chats Courses
Learning Learning
related Courses together. Offerings only Paths Certifications
communicate how the content is delivered to the

end user (which medium and in which language).
Far too often new Learning Administrators
mistakenly create a Course when they mean to Offerings
create a Learning Path and use Offerings to
represent separate topics that should really have Forums
been Courses instead.
Don’t fall into this trap! Make sure you Classes Chats
have a firm understanding of how Catalog
objects fit together in the Catalog before
Web
beginning your clean-up effort, or you risk Conferences
ending up with a Catalog that is messy in new

and different ways when you’ve finished. Sessions
synergy codeworks
Visualize Your OLM Catalog
Start from the
Top Down
Close your eyes and imagine you’re starting from a clean slate. What are the top 10 Categories you
would use to organize all of your available curriculums? How could you organize your Subcategories to reduce the
number of clicks required for Learners that are browsing available Courses? How many of your related Courses will
you group together into Learning Paths? Where will your Learning Paths be stored?
Decide on your ideal future state first, and then start working on the step-by-step tasks that will be required to make
this happen
synergy codeworks
Make Microsoft Excel
Your Friend
Get a full data dump of your OLM Catalog in Microsoft Excel (from your Oracle technical team or through
the Catalog Maintenance Toolkit export) so that you can view the full picture of your data and sort through it efficiently
without navigating through the Oracle Learning Administrator front end.
synergy codeworks
Categories
What Are Categories

and What Are They Used For?
Categories are at the top level of your Oracle Learning Management Catalog.
You use Categories to: • Contain other catalog objects

• Are similar to folders on your PC
• Control available date ranges
• Enforce security settings, including Learner Access and Administrator Access
synergy codeworks
Categories
End Date or Delete Categories

with No Active Learning
It’s really frustrating for your end users to find themselves
in Categories that don’t have any active Learning. Don’t
leave Categories out there as placeholders for a day
when you’ll one day have content to fill them. Think of
your Categories like television channels. You
don’t want them published and available to the public
unless you have actual programming planned for them
or no one is going to come back to see what’s on.
synergy codeworks
Categories
Finalize Your List of Categories

Once you’ve visualized and documented your ideal future state, come up with a logical
naming convention to realize this vision, and lock in your top level Categories. Create these
Categories in your instance so that you can start the organization effort immediately as you
move through the rest of the Catalog

synergy codeworks
Categories
Create a New Category Called

ZZ – Archive to Hide Things Under
• I tsStart Date should be the earliest that anything was ever offered in the Catalog
(many companies use 1951-Jan-01 as the beginning of time in their OLM Catalog)
• I tsEnd Date should always be yesterday or earlier than yesterday so that its contents
are not displayed to Learners or Managers when they browse or search for training.
You may also want to consider mirroring your newly updated Category structure under the
ZZ – Archive Category (ZZ Archive – Employee Development, ZZ Archive – Project
Management, etc.) so that you can easily categorize and find archived Courses, Learning
Paths, and Learning Certifications if you need to refer back to them.
synergy codeworks
Courses
What Are Courses and What Are They Used For?

Courses are at the second level of the Catalog They allow you to define
the content of the learning that you will be delivering to your Learners, including:
• Topics and descriptions • P

rofessional credits that are awarded as a
• Objectives result of successful completion
• C
ompetencies that are delivered as a • Miscellaneous administrative details
result of successfully learning the content
Courses can serve as a prerequisite for another Course (mandatory or advisory). Courses can enforce
prerequisites to ensure that the Learner has completed any required Courses and/or holds any required
Competencies.
synergy codeworks

Courses
Be Ruthless and Take an Honest

Inventory of What’s Out There
Your first step is to harden your heart and take an honest inventory of your existing
Courses and determine which of them will ever be used going forward. Err on the
side of exterminating Courses that you’re unsure of. You can always un-end date it
later if you need it, or create a new equivalent that follows best practices you will
be enforcing moving forward.
synergy codeworks

Courses
Consolidate Duplicates
Evaluate the objectives of each of the Courses you are planning to keep and make sure that
there is no overlap. It is frustrating for end users to make decisions when comparing two very
similar options and it also makes accurate reporting a challenge.
synergy codeworks
Courses
Move Obviously Stale

Content into the Junk Drawer
Out of Sight, Out of Mind (And Out of Searches!)
Make sure that content that is outdated is really end dated and that enrollment periods are
no longer open so that Learners won’t find rogue Windows 98 Courses cluttering their
search results.
synergy codeworks

Courses
Make a List of Borderline Content

If anything really is questionable and you’re not sure whether anyone would find it relevant,
put it on a list in Excel for further analysis by an extended group of LMS stakeholders. If
you’re not the subject matter expert in a field and you’re unsure if two Courses that sound
similar are the same and if one should get the ax, then ask someone in that field to give you
insight into how those trainings have been conducted in the past.
synergy codeworks

Courses
Invite Your Stakeholders to

‘Pardon’ Borderline Courses
Open up the opportunity for other individuals within your company that may have an interest
in keeping older Courses active to have their say. It’s important to get buy-in wherever
possible for your clean-up effort, and giving people an active role in the process can help
alleviate potential concerns about the overhaul of the LMS.
synergy codeworks
Courses
Set a Deadline After Which

Non-Pardoned Courses will be End Dated
It’s Sometimes Easier to Seek Forgiveness Instead of Asking for Permission.
Instead of waiting for your stakeholders to respond with a clear go-ahead for end dating or
keeping Courses, word your request for participation in a way that makes it clear that
your default action will be to end date everything that is not specifically pardoned by a
specific date.
Give a reasonable period of time to review the content and send out one reminder message
the day before the deadline to give everyone one last chance to have their voice heard.
synergy codeworks
Courses
Use the Keywords Field

for Courses That Make the Cut
Adding keywords can increase the speed of searches for Learners
and Administrators and improve the overall end user experience.
Be sure to:
• Include common misspellings
• List the name of any Learning Path for which it is a component
• Avoid repeating words that already appear in the title or description
synergy codeworks
Offerings
What Are Offerings and What Are They Used For?

Offerings specify the way that Course content is delivered to your Learners
(both the delivery mode and the language).
The available delivery modes are

• O
nline scheduled ( e.g., live Webinar )
• O
nline on demand ( e.g., online self-study )
• Offline scheduled ( e.g, classroom )
• Offline on demand ( e.g., book )
Offerings should never include dates or the names of Courses because it only needs to communicate how
the content will be presented. Your Learners will have a better end user experience with Oracle Learning
Management if the naming conventions for your Offerings are consistent.
synergy codeworks
Offerings
PLEASE Don’t Repeat the Name

of Your Course for the Offering
If you remember only one tip from this eBook, please DO NOT EVER REPEAT
THE NAME OF YOUR COURSE AS YOUR OFFERING NAME because it will
confuse your learners.
Match the name of your offering with your delivery mode and language.
For example, for a Course named Introduction to Microsoft Excel, use names like Online
Self-Paced (English) and Instructor-Led (French) for your corresponding Offerings.
Don’t even repeat a tiny portion of your Course name in the Offering name. Ever. We really
want you to take this seriously.
synergy codeworks
Offerings
Stick to One Offering Per

Delivery Mode and Language
Re-use the same Offering whenever you’re delivering content using the same medium in the
same language. If you have a Webinar that you will be offering multiple times in the same
language, update the Learning Object for the Offering (by creating a new Learning Object
or changing the Starting URL of the existing Learning Object) instead of creating a new
Offering.
synergy codeworks
Classes
What Are Classes and What Are They Used For?

Classed are specific occurrence of an Offering and are the events that Learners are
actually enrolled in. For scheduled events, the Class communicates the dates, times, locations, valid
enrollment periods, and Resource bookings.
synergy codeworks
Classes
Consider Notifications
Don’t forget that even self-paced Classes still send out mass notifications
when they are end-dated telling Learners that the Class dates have changed.
Consider manually turning off the workflow mailer and marking messages triggered by the
archive effort as “Sent” or use the Catalog Maintenance Toolkit Extension to suppress these
messages.

synergy codeworks
Classes
Delete Classes with No Enrollments

Classes with no history can be deleted and removed from the Catalog without impacting
anyone’s Learning History. Unless you want to keep track of Classes that had no participation
to use to direct your scheduling efforts in the future, delete these empty Classes because they
provide no value.

synergy codeworks
Offerings
Classes
End Date Old Classes

that are No Longer Relevant
It’s easy to forget about stray self-paced Classes that no one uses anymore. Make sure that
you flag any old Classes for end dating if you missed anything during your analysis of stale
Courses.
synergy codeworks
Classes
End Date Classes if No Attempts or

Enrollments have been Added in
X Amount of Time
It’s easy to forget about stray self-paced Classes that no one uses anymore. Make sure that
you flag any old Classes for end dating if you missed anything during your analysis of stale
Courses.
synergy codeworks
P
Classes
synergy codeworks
Tips for Cleaning Up Your Messy OLM Catalog
Be Sure to Always Use
the Restricted Checkbox
As a best practice, you should always check the
“Restricted” check box for a Class, Learning Path,
Learning Certification, Forum, or Chat in Oracle Learning
Management (OLM). It may seem counter-intuitive based on the
name of the check box, but it really gives you more options with
regard to security and Learner Access in the system. The check box
would be better named something like “Enable Learner Access” or
“User Learner Access Settings” instead of “Restricted.”
If you forget to check the check box and you add enrollments to a
Class or subscriptions to a Learning Path or Learning Certification,
you won’t be able to select the check box at a later date. If you then
find that you need to make changes to your security settings (other
than using whatever the default settings are for your instance, such
as standard approval for all users), you will need to end date entire
Class / Learning Path / Learning Certification and start again with
a new Catalog object that has the check box checked.
Also, remember that Learner Access settings that are set

at a higher level always “win” in the case of a conflict
with Learner Access settings set at a lower level in OLM.

32
Learning Paths
What Are Learning Paths and

What Are They Used For?
Learning Paths are logical grouping of courses that complete a longer-term Learning
goal that is not satisfied by a single Course on its own. Learning Paths are made up of one
or more mandatory components and may also contain optional (elective) Courses.
Learning Paths that appear in the general Catalog are created by an Administrator and will be the focus
of your clean-up effort. Managers or Learners may also create their own personalized Learning Paths,
but these items are not visible to other end users or Administrators.

synergy codeworks
Learning Paths
Delete Learning Paths

with No Subscriptions
If no one ever used a Learning Path, there’s no good reason to keep it in the Catalog. As
long as a Catalog object does not have history associated with it, it is safe to delete.
synergy codeworks
Learning Paths
End Date (and Rename) Learning Paths

if They Have Been Replaced
Tuck away any Learning Paths that have been eclipsed by newer Learning
Paths. Make sure that you rename them to indicate that they are an older revision of the
Learning Path, end date them, and move them to a logical location. Make use of your new
ZZ-Archive junk drawer Categories to clean up the view for Administrators as well as Learners.

synergy codeworks
Learning Paths
End Date Learning Paths if They Haven’t

Had Subscriptions in X Amount of Time
Make sure that you’re also checking Learning Paths for relevance to make sure
that you don’t have antiquated curriculums cluttering up your search results and making your
Learners question whether anyone ever updates the OLM Catalog.
synergy codeworks
Learning Certifications
What Are Learning Certifications

and What Are They Used For?
Learning Certifications are objects that contain one or more Courses required to satisfy
a learning goal that has a due date. Learning Certifications may need to be renewed within a
regularly scheduled interval. They are the “less friendly” versions of Learning Paths that will lock end
users out of their training once they’ve passed their expiration date. All components in a Learning
Certification are mandatory.

synergy codeworks
Delete Learning Certifications

with No Subscriptions
If no one has ever used a Learning Certification, there is no need to keep it in the Catalog.
Delete any Learning Certification with no associated data by first removing all Component
Courses and then deleting it from the main Catalog tab of OLM.
synergy codeworks
End Date Learning Certifications

if they Are No Longer Relevant
If your industry safety regulation standards have changed and you still have old Learning
Certifications that have not been updated, be sure to end date them so that Learners are not
mistakenly subscribed to irrelevant material.

synergy codeworks
Plan for the Future
Document Your New Rules (including the word “because”)
Change is hard.
Your Learning Administrators have been doing things their own way for a long time, and it will require effort for them
to learn new naming conventions, rules for creating Catalog objects, and keeping the Catalog clean.
You can help to calm fears by explaining why these specific process changes are necessary.
Linguistic studies have shown that adults learn best when they understand why they are doing something, and the
simple act of justifying requests with the word “because” can help you achieve flexible attitudes in others.
It is interesting to note that the reason you give doesn’t even need to be a good reason. A study conducted
by Ellen Langer showed that would-be line skippers were allowed to cut in front of people 33% more often if
they used the word because:
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
(60% people allowed the cutter in)
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies?”
(93% of people allowed the cutter in)
“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”
(94% of people allowed the cutter in)
synergy codeworks
Plan for the Future
Distribute Rules to Your Administrators
Use a simple, infographic styled printout to display the best practice rules your Learning Administrators can print
and keep on their desks as a reference. Consider using an easy graphics tool like Canva to create your print out.
simple infograpics
synergy codeworks
Plan for the Future
Train Your Administrators on Best Practices

Come up with a clear plan for retraining Administrators that were not actively involved in your day-to-day
Catalog clean-up efforts and decisions. Be sure that new Administrators receive adequate training before
they are set loose on your newly cleaned Catalog to set yourself up for success.
synergy codeworks
Plan for the Future
Trust But Verify

Validate that your newly training Learning Administrators are following the recommended best practices
so that your Catalog remains an organized, well-oiled machine. Have your technical team
pull regular extracts of the entire Catalog for you to review on a regular basis, or use the
Catalog Maintenance Toolkit to run regular Catalog Recommendations in Microsoft Excel format.
synergy codeworks
Find Out More
Watch a free, related webinar on Spring Cleaning Your
Oracle Learning Management (OLM) Catalog.
http://bit.ly/WebinarLMSCleanUp
Kick the tires on the Catalog Maintenance Toolkit
to automate your OLM Catalog clean-up effort.
We are the only Learning Management experts

focused on creating a smarter workforce.
synergy codeworks
www.synergycode.com
877-487-9637 / 1 Washington Street, Suite 485, Dover, NH 03820
If you found this information helpful, please share:
synergy codeworks

Cleaning Your OLM Catalog Ebook

Transféré par

Informations du document

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Cleaning Your OLM Catalog Ebook

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

TIPS for

My LMS is Out of Control –

Keep Your Catalog Hierarchy Straight ............ 9

Visualize Your OLM Catalog ................................ 10

Learning Paths ................................................................ 33

Plan for the Future ........................................................ 40

Find Out More ............................................................... 44

What kind of a first impression does your LMS make?

A negative interaction with your LMS can lead to a

Stick to a Timeline “Work expands

Communicate with Other Administrators

Course Offering, and Class

communicate how the content is delivered to the

ending up with a Catalog that is messy in new

What Are Categories

You use Categories to: • Contain other catalog objects

End Date or Delete Categories

Finalize Your List of Categories

Create a New Category Called

What Are Courses and What Are They Used For?

• Topics and descriptions • P

Be Ruthless and Take an Honest

Move Obviously Stale

Make a List of Borderline Content

Invite Your Stakeholders to

Set a Deadline After Which

Use the Keywords Field

What Are Offerings and What Are They Used For?

The available delivery modes are

PLEASE Don’t Repeat the Name

Stick to One Offering Per

What Are Classes and What Are They Used For?

Delete Classes with No Enrollments

End Date Old Classes

End Date Classes if No Attempts or

Also, remember that Learner Access settings that are set

What Are Learning Paths and

Delete Learning Paths

End Date (and Rename) Learning Paths

End Date Learning Paths if They Haven’t

What Are Learning Certifications

Delete Learning Certifications

End Date Learning Certifications

Train Your Administrators on Best Practices

Trust But Verify

We are the only Learning Management experts

If you found this information helpful, please share:

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi