Feature Overview and Requirements

This document explains how to use the Goal Wizard to define user criteria, select one or more course-related training goals, and process the one-time goal assignment. The wizard guides portal administrators through each step of the goal creation process, providing simple navigation options and ensuring correct configuration along the way.

In addition to assigning goals using the goal setup wizard, it is also possible to automate goal creation by using Course Due Dates if certain configurations and settings are enabled. Both options are discussed below. 

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

Create a Course Goal using the Goal Wizard

To add a Goal Rule, navigate to the Administration menu >Manage Goals > Goals, and then click +Goal.

1. User Filter — Define the criteria that will pull up the users you want to assign the course goal. Create filters to find users who meet the stated selection criteria will be ultimately be assigned the Goal. These statements are separated by an implied “AND” so be careful to confirm the logic of your filters.
   Click Next.

2. Preview — Displays the current population of users who will be assigned the goal based on the criteria established in Step 1.  Preview the results and click Next to continue. Click Previous to refine user filters and view updated results until the list shows your expected results. 

3. Training Goal — Select a Goal Type = Course and choose one or more Courses which comprise the goal.
   — Pay attention to Earliest Score Date (ESD). Prior credit for the course will not count toward the goal if it precedes this date. By default, the ESD is set to 1/1/2000. It must be updated to enforce a tighter completion window for achievement. Earliest Score Date can be used to force loss of earlier goal achievement for all or some users. For instance, if a requirement for a course is annual and you loaded new content for the next year, setting a Course Goal’s Earliest Score Date to the date you loaded the new content would cause everyone to lose their previous goal credit and they would be re-assigned the goal again to complete the new content. Note that the ability to enroll in the new course is still subject to course enrollment restrictions and in some cases, would be pending transcript expiration.
   — Setting a Due Date requirement will allow graphic indicators and notifications to occur for users and managers when goal completion is past due.
   — Optionally set Days Before Due Date to Send a Reminder message to the assignees.  Entries should be whole numbers representing the number of days, separated by commas. For example: 7,5,1 would initiate reminders 7, 5, and 1 day prior to the due date maturing.
   — Click Next to continue.

4. Confirmation — Review and confirm your goal setup. Click the step name or corresponding edit buttons to return to earlier steps and view detailed information.
5. Click Run to assign the goal to the designated users.

Automate Enrollments based on Assigned Course Goals

You can automate enrollment in courses that are assigned by a goal, regardless of whether it was an ad-hoc goal or from a course goal rule.

1. From the Administration menu, navigate to Site Management > LMS Information > Goals Configuration section.
2. Enable Automate Interests from Course Goals.
3. Click Submit.

After a course goal is assigned ad-hoc or via a rule, interests will shortly thereafter be created for the course for each user assigned. After the interest is created, processing time to turn it into an automatic enrollment will vary depending on how many requests are in the queue and the results of standard eligibility checking. Students will not be enrolled if they are not eligible to take the course due to course catalog access, pending prerequisites, and pending approvals. After prerequisites and approvals are met, the process of auto-enrollment will continue.

Automate Course Goals via Course-based Due Dates

You can automatically create goals for courses a student enrolls in if you employ a due date on a specific course and have a certain configuration enabled.

We do not recommend using this option is you are already using ad-hoc and rule-based goals to assign the same course. They work in fundamentally opposite ways: 

• Ad Hoc/Rule-based Goals start with the Goal assignment and can (if configured) end with a course enrollment. The Goal can have a due date for achieving the requirements established in the goal.
• In this feature, it starts with a course enrollment and back-builds an ad-hoc goal based on the course due date.

Using both features can cause confusion for users if there is a course due date AND a goal due date:

• It may cause the user to have two goals for the same course.
• The goals, because they came to be in different ways, could have two conflicting due dates.
• The good news is that completing the course once would count toward completion of both goals.

Set Up Automated Course Goals by Due Date

1. From the Administration menu, select Search Courses and filter to find the desired course. Click the course name to open the edit page.
2. On the course General tab, scroll down to and expand the Additional Information section.
3. In Days for Student to Complete (Due Date) field, enter the number of days they have to complete the course as a whole number. 
4. In the Days Before Due Date to Remind Student field, enter the number of days ahead of the due date you want to have a reminder sent to the student. Use whole numbers separated by commas with no spaces. (e.g. 7,5,2 would send reminders 7, 3 and 2 days prior to the Due Date.) This is optional.
5. Click Submit at the bottom of the page.

6. To enable the automatic goal generation, from the Administration menu, select Site Management > LMS Information > Goals Configuration section.
7. Enable Automate Goals from Course Due Date.
8. Click Submit.