Build an Accreditation

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LatitudeLearning® offers powerful tools to establish and maintain a variety of Accreditation programs in the LMS. This includes two very flexible Accreditation types: Certifications and Curriculums.  The accreditations a person earns help to assure that he or she is qualified to perform a job or task. In LatitudeLearning®, an Accreditation, whether a Certification or a Curriculum, is a set of course completion rules and related performance objectives that students must complete in order to demonstrate their professional competency. Our powerful goal assignment and accreditation engines help administrators automate their training programs and track compliance along the way.

Multiple tools work in tandem to evaluate prerequisites, equivalencies, electives, mandatory course rules, and even performance data to certify people's skills and drive employee performance. Because of this flexibility, it is important to understand your business or industry requirements prior to building a compliance program into the LMS. 

Learn the key concepts and terminology here first:

 

Then use this document to guide you through the process of building a Certification or Curriculum. Navigate to a specific section of this document using the links below, which are shown in the general order of precedence for creating and launching a compliance program.

 

TIP: Once you have created some of these data structures, you may be able to skip steps when adding new certifications.


 

Create a Program

A program is the time-frame during which a learner may earn a particular accreditation. It is possible to have multiple programs active concurrently. Courses completed after the end date of the program will not count toward the accreditation. 

Some examples might be an "OSHA Certification (2020)" that requires annual renewal, or a one-time "Customer Service Certification" for new employee on-boarding. 

To create a program in the LMS:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Accreditations > Add Program .
  2. On the “Add Program” page, enter information in each field as described below. All fields are required.

    a.     Language: Provide translations for Program Name. Default "English" is required.    
    b.     Program: Enter the program year in format [yyyy].
    c.     Program Name: Enter a descriptive title for the program.
    d.     Effective Date: Select the date on which the program becomes effective.
    e.     End Date: Select the date on which the program expires.
     
  3. Click Submit .

 

Create a Position Group

A Position Group is a collection of Position Codes, or job titles, that determine certification eligibility. For instance, if your "Teacher" position and "Substitute Teacher" position had identical training requirements, you could include both in a single position group called "Teaching Staff" and assign them the same accreditation goals. Users with unique requirements may need their own position group.

As a discrete way to manage users and their training, each Position Code may only belong to one Position Group at a time. 

To create a position group:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Organizations > Add Position Group .
  2. On the “Add/Edit Position Group” page, enter information in each field as described below. Fields designated with an asterisk are required.

    a. Organization (LMS): Display only. 
    b. Language: Provide translations for Position User Group Name. Default "English" is required.
    c. Position User Group Name: Enter the group name you want to track.
    d. Effective Start Date: Date on which the position group becomes active (MM/DD/YYYY).
    e. Effective End Date: Date on which the position group becomes inactive (MM/DD/YYYY). Leave blank to keep the position group effectivity open-ended.
    e. Record Date: Display only. System-generated date of record creation or most recent update.
    f. Positions: Click Select Positions to launch a picker from which you can search for and select the positions that will be associated with this group.

  3. Click Submit .

 

Add Generic Rules

Generic Rules form your base-level accreditation requirements. Because generic rules are not tied to a program or a position group, you can structure them for reuse in any number of accreditations. Develop a compliance program that utilizes any combination of Evaluation Types:

  • Completion - Learner must complete all of the rule-specified Courses and certifications/curriculums to satisfy the rule. For example, the learner must complete 1 Certification and  4 Courses to level up. 
  • Elective - Provide a list of Course and Certification/Curriculum options, then define the total number of completions or credits required. For example, the learner must complete 4 out of 7 listed courses. 
  • Department Objective - To satisfy this rule, a specified number or percentage of learners must be certified at the learner's organization. For example, a "Sales Manager Certification" requires that 50% of reporting sales staff have completed the "Sales Consultant Certification". 

Note: The following performance-based evaluation types require the ability to capture performance data for the selected metric. They were developed for a specific customer to meet a very particular requirement. If your organization is interested in using these evaluation types, please contact support@latitudelearning.com to learn more. 

  • Individual Performance - Learner must exceed the specified performance metric to satisfy the rule. For example, salesman must sell over 1,000 units. 
  • Location Performance - The learner's organization must exceed the specified performance metric to satisfy the rule. For example, the franchise must sell over 10,000 units. 
  • Top Percent - Learner's performance must exceed the target percentile to satisfy the rule. For example, the learner's sales volume must be in the top 90th percentile. 
     

To add a generic rule:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Accreditations > Add Generic Rule .
  2. On the “Add Generic Rule” page, enter information in each field as described below. Fields designated with an asterisk are required.

    a. Owner Organization: Display only. 
    b. Language: Provide translations for the Rule Name. Default "English" is required.
    c. Name: Provide a descriptive name or title for the rule.
    d. Status: Choose whether the rule is Active or Inactive for evaluation.
    e. Evaluation Type: Once you set the rule type, it cannot be changed.

  3. Click Submit . The rule "Evaluation Type" page opens automatically, allowing you to define the exact requirement.
 

Completion Requirement

 
 
  • Choose a Course/Certification: Select list of courses and/or certifications needed to satisfy the rule. 
  • CYO (Current Year Only): When flagged true, the rule will only evaluate course or certification transcripts completed within the current calendar year, regardless of program eligibility. 
  • Move Up, Move Down, Remove: Use these buttons to manage list items and display order. 
     

Elective Requirement

 
 
  • Choose a Course/Certification: Select the list of course and/or certification options. 
  • Allow Equivalents: When flagged true, the rule engine will accept equivalent course credit in substitution for listed course. 
  • CYO (Current Year Only): When flagged true, the rule will only evaluate course or certification transcripts completed within the current calendar year, regardless of program eligibility. 
  • Move Up, Move Down, Remove: Use these buttons to manage list items and display order. 
  • Elective Criteria: Define the number of required completions or credits learner must earn. 
     

Department Objective

 
 
  • Choose Minimum Certification: Use the picker to select a Certification. 
  • Choose Position Code Group Select the group that must complete Certification above. 
  • Objective Type: Choose whether the objective will be based on Percentage or Count. 
  • Objective: Enter the value associated with Objective Type above. (For example, Percentage=80% or Count=4). 

 

Add Primary Rules

Accreditations are built as a list of Primary Rules, which are simply a grouping of one or more Generic Rules. Just like their generic counterparts, Primary Rules can be structured for reuse in any number of certifications or curriculums. Create primary rules that evaluate compliance as either a “One of” or “All of” requirement; so that learners must complete either "one of" the generic rules in list or "all of" them to meet the primary training objective.

To add a primary rule:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Accreditations > Add Primary Rule .
  2. On the “Add/Edit Primary Rule” page, enter information in each field as described below. Fields designated with an asterisk are required.
     

    a. Owner Organization: Display only. 
    b. Language: Provide translations for the Rule Name. Default "English" is required.
    c. Name: Provide a descriptive name or title for the rule.
    d. Operator: Decide if this rule should evaluate All Of its generic rule components as required, or if users can earn credit by completing just One Of the generic rules in list.
    e. Status: Choose whether the rule is Active or Inactive for evaluation.

  3. Click Add Generic Rules to open a picker from which you can select the list of rule components. 
  4. Once you have added generic rules, use the Move Up, Move Down, Remove buttons to manage list items and display order. 
  5. Click Submit . 

 

Build a Certification or Curriculum

Accreditation functionality in LatitudeLearning is very robust, offering your organization great flexibility in designing training programs that develop and measure student competencies. Now that you have built all the rules around training requirements (Generic Rules), eligible participants (Position Groups), compliance standards (Program), it's time to tie these elements together and launch your actual accreditation as a certification or a curriculum.

To add a Certification or Curriculum:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Accreditations > Add Accreditation.
  2. On the “Add/Edit Accreditation” page, enter information in each field as described below. Fields designated with an asterisk are required.


    a. Owner Organization: Display only. 
    b. Language: Provide translations for the Name. Default "English" is required.
    c. Name: Enter the official name to display on printable certificates, compliance reports, etc.
    d. Description: Provide brief overview or note important details.
    e. Status: Choose whether the accreditation is Active or Inactive for evaluation.
    f. Display: When flagged false, this accreditation will be hidden from learners, but still display in administrator tools for reporting and program management purposes.
    g. Self Assign Goal: When flagged true, the accreditation will be available as a training goal in the Self-Assign Goals wizard and on the student Skills page.
    h. Program: Select a program the accreditation belongs to.
    i. Type: Certification is the standard. Select Curriculum if you want to tie this training path to a Skill Profile.
    j. Position Groups:  Click Select Position Groups to open a picker from which you can select the list of eligible user groups.
    k. Accreditation Level: Ordinal used to sort lists in learner's Certification and Skills pages. Also determines a user's "Highest Accreditation Achievement".
    l. Brands: If your organization has enabled and users Brands, select the brands associated with this particular accreditation.
    m. Include Brands from User's Non-Primary Location: if enabled, users can achieve an accreditation for brands they are associated with at non-primary location profiles if they belong to the same position group in the primary and non-primary profile.
    n. Enable Printable Certificate: When flagged true, learners can print a certificate of achievement from their Training History page.
     
  3. Skill Profiles define, as a matrix, one or more areas of expertise (Skill Areas) and the varying levels of competency within those areas (Skill Levels). Use these only in curricula, to configure where in the matrix the skills will display.

  4. Click Add Primary Rules to open a picker from which you can select the list of certification requirements. 
  5. Once you have added primary rules, use the Move Up, Move Down, Remove buttons to manage list items and display order. 
  6. Click Submit . 

 

View Accreditation Tree

After your Accreditation is set up, you can assign it as a training goal to your program participants and configure scheduled reports to track compliance. Our powerful accreditation engine will handle the rest.

If ever you need to review the overall set-up or revise this accreditation, the View Tree feature provides a complete view to assist you. The Accreditation Tree provides a detailed breakdown of all rule types, status, and affected position groups. Expand and collapse rules as needed, click links to navigate to rules of interest, or click Print to save for your records.