The Professional version of the Knowledge Center brings many advantages over the Standard version:
Knowledge Paths
Knowledge Paths allow Training Managers to create bespoke courses of content and assessments. The Paths can be made up of one or more Activities, each of which can contain a pre-course assessment, an entire or partial outline of content and a post-course assessment. A curriculum can be enforced within the Paths to ensure that a user works through an outline of content and proves their proficiency in that area, using the assessments, before they can access further material.
The content inside each Activity can be automatically tailored to the user based on their responses to the pre-course assessment. If the user proves that they are proficient in a particular area of the content, by achieving a predetermined score on the questions associated with that area, then they can choose to opt out of that area of content.
Knowledge Paths are assigned to users either directly or based on the User Groups that they belong to. User Groups are often created to represent the different job roles in an organisation but could equally represent departments, divisions, geographical location, etc.
The navigation of each Activity can be defined. The collapsible outline structure can be hidden from users if required, and users can also be permitted to work through the outline in any order or forced to take each item in the order in which they were authored.
Icons against each item enable users to clearly see which items they have previously accessed; they indicate whether the item is partially or fully completed and whether the user has passed or failed an item. If a user leaves a Path they can continue from the point that they left or start again.
Notebook
Users are able to bookmark pages of content similar to the favourites feature inside an internet browser. Comments can be added to each entry and a hyperlink to the page is also included.
Expert Advice and Feedback
Experts can be assigned to Knowledge Paths to provide support to end users. Inside the content pages the end user can click an icon to open the Question window. Previously asked questions can be viewed from here, or the user can ask a new question relating to the content or associated business process. The defined expert or experts are then sent an email closing the question or leaving it open for further comments. The end user is sent an email notification for any answers provided.
Similar functionality is available to provide feedback on the content. Feedback Monitors are defined against the Knowledge Path and reviewers and end users can provide feedback using a similar screen to the Question window. Again, email notifications are provided.
Custom User Fields
One of the strongest features of the Professional version is the ability to customise the information that can be stored against each user. Custom User Fields can be added to the user profile screen to record any required data. The user profiles include by default Last Name, First Name, Username, Email, Password, Start and End Dates, the Active flag and permissions. Custom User Fields can be defined in a number of formats such as free text and selection lists and can be optional or mandatory. The big advantage of Custom User Fields is that they can be used to group and filter the reports from the Knowledge Center.
Custom User Fields are often used to map the organisational hierarchy of an organisation by including Team Leader, Manager, Director, Department, Division, etc. Other uses include geographical location, job title, payroll number and qualifications.
Advanced Reporting
The reporting capability of the Professional version is far superior to that of the Standard version as a higher level of detail is captured around the content, assessments and questions. The Custom User Fields provide grouping and filtering capabilities and the ability to integrate any third party Business Intelligence tool introduces a wealth of functionality.
Progress percentages, number of attempts, scores and time taken for each subject, as well as pre and post assessments are captured per user. Course usage statistics and even individual question responses are also captured. Each end user has the ability to view a Usage Summary Report which includes their progress. Team Leaders, Managers and Training Staff can be assigned the ability to report across the organisation. Oracle has provided a data model and database views of the database to allow the information captured to be reported on any third party Business Intelligence tool, for example; Oracle Discoverer, Crystal Reports, Business Objects, Cognos and even Microsoft Excel. The reports can easily be integrated into the Knowledge Center interface as an external report.
By leveraging existing third party Business Intelligence tools and resources you can easily, and with little cost, take advantage of their advanced features including graphs, dashboards, drilldowns, export to other file formats such as PDF, scheduling of reports and delivery via email.
User IDs and Custom User Fields can be passed to the external reports for grouping and filtering but can also be used to enforce secure, hierarchical reporting. For example, a Team Leader could run a report and, based on their User ID, the report would only contain the information about the users that report to them. A Manager could run the same report and see a wider range of data.
Third Party SCORM with Version 11.1.0.1
With the release of UPK Version 11.1.0.1 Oracle has added support for third party SCORM content in the Professional version of the Knowledge Center. SCORM is a set of technical standards for eLearning tools which define how content should be written and structured so that it can be read by compliant LCMS and LMS systems. This means that any content that has been created with another tool can be imported into the Knowledge Center, tracked and reported on as long as the content adheres to the SCORM standards.
The Knowledge Center can now become the single point of all eLearning content for your end users. Soft skills training can be integrated with systems training as well as other assets and skills can be utilised.
Summary
Organisations who require a robust platform to deliver and track both UPK and third party e-Learning content will find UPK Professional provides an affordable and simple solution.
Whether for compliance or simply to meet the demands of the organisation, bespoke Knowledge Paths and a role based deployment can ensure targeted learning with the standard and external reports providing distributed hierarchical reporting, secured, grouped and filtered using the Custom User Fields.
