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Totara Program management allows you to create learning paths for learners where you can define dependencies and control the order and flow of the competencies and courses your learners complete.

A program includes completion dates and time limits for your learners to complete each stage of the program. There is also the ability to set up customised messages and reminders that are sent to learners and managers as part of the program.

Program management allows you to enrol learners based on their organisation, position, management hierarchy, or audience, and set different completion criteria for each group if required. Learners can also be enrolled individually.

Program management also handles the requirement for courses to reoccur on a set cycle, such as yearly. This is great for handling compliance training that staff may be required to complete every year.

Create a program 

To create a program you will need to be logged in as a site administrator. If you have these permission you can then follow these steps:

1. From the Administration block follow the path Site administration > Courses > Manage programs.
2. Select Add a new program to set up a new program.
3. Complete the Details section (see below). 
4.  Select Save changes and the Program Overview tab displays. You have now created your program; the next step is to add the program content and program assignment.

Details

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When creating a new program there are a number of details you will be required to add, these are:

Edit a program

Once a program has been setup it is still possible to make changes by editing the program.

1. From the Administration block follow the path Site administration > Courses > Manage programs.

2. In the table find the program you wish to edit. 

3. Select the Settings icon, or alternatively select the program to open it, then select Edit program details.

Whilst editng a program you can amend the details, add content, assign learners, and manage messages. More about how to do each of these can be found below. 

Add program content

Program content can include any course or competency on your Totara site.

Content is added in sets. The sets represent the order in which learners complete the learning. A set can contain:

• A competency and assigned course(s)
• Course(s)

Time frames and conditions can be established for each set.

To add content to your program, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Content tab.

2. Select what you would like to add from the Add a new dropdown menu and select Add. Follow the instructions below for the content type you choose to add.

   If	Then
   Adding a course	1. Select Set of courses from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. 2. Click through the course categories and click on each of the courses you wish to add. You need to select your courses in the order you wish them to appear in the set. 3. Selected course(s) appear in the current selection column, click the delete icon to remove the course from the program selection. 4. Click Ok to complete the course selection. See also, course set settings below. Note Note that if completion tracking is not enabled for a course, that course will not be available to add to a program.
   Adding competencies	1. Select Competency from the Add a new dropdown menu and click Add. 2. Select the competency framework from the dropdown list. 3. Select the competency you wish to add. 4. Click Ok to complete the course selection. When you select a competency that has a linked course(s). The linked course(s) is/are automatically pulled through into the set. See also, competency settings below.
   Adding a recurring course	A program can only have one recurring course with no other courses or competencies. See Recurring Courses to learn more. See also, recurring course settings below.

3. Give your set a name and complete the settings relevant settings (see below for more information). 

4. You can have one or more course sets. If you have more than one, you can choose the rule between them:

   • Or: Learners can either complete the learning in the first course set or the second course set. The learning of both course sets is available at the same time. 

   • Then: Learners must complete the first course set before being given access to the second course set. 

   • And: If both course sets need to be completed. 

   Tip
   Follow steps 2-4 above as required if you need to add additional content.

5. A warning message appears. Click Save all changes. The content has now been added to your program and you are ready to set the learner assignments.

Course settings 

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These are the available settings when adding a course set.

Competency settings 

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These are the available settings when adding a competency.

Recurring course set 

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These are the available settings when adding a competency.

Assign learners

Program assignment allows you to select the learners who need to complete the program. You can select users by organisation, position, audience, management hierarchy, or individually. Once you have assigned learners to the program, the system automatically takes care of course enrolment.

To assign learners to your program, go to the Assignments tab, select what you would like to add from the Add a new drop down menu and select Add. Follow the instructions below for the assignment type you choose to add.
 

Set the due date for each group / individual you have assigned to the program. When setting the completion criteria you have two options:

• Complete by: allows you to set a fixed completion date.
• Complete within: allows you to set a completion date relative to an event. The events include:
  
  • The date the learner first logged in.
  • Position assignment date.
  • Job assignment date.
  • The date the learner completed another program.
  • The date a learner completed another course.
  • The date record in a profile field.
  • The date they were assigned the current program.
    
    

Select Set fixed completion date or Set time relative to event to save your completion criteria, then select Save changes and confirm your changes. Once saved, a confirmation message appears at the top of the screen. Your program assignments are now set.

Add program messages

You can create and customise automated messages which are emailed to users assigned to a program. You can also add an optional message for managers depending on the message type selected.

1. Create a program message by editing your certification and selecting the Messages tab. The enrolment message and exception report message is added by default for every program.
2. Select the message type from the Add a new drop down menu and select Add.

3. Add a subject line and message body.

4. Select Send notice to manager if you want to send a message to the manager of a learner at the same time the learner message is sent. If a learner has multiple job assignments with more than one manager, the message will be sent to all managers.

5. Select Save changes to save your message. You will be prompted to confirm your changes or you can choose to continue editing.

(This video is taken from the Program and certifications course in the Totara Academy, where you can access more resources and learning materials - including other videos). 

Message types

Variable substitution

You can insert variables into the subject and / or body of a message so that they will be replaced with real values when the message is sent. Variables should be inserted exactly as shown.

Capabilities that can edit

It is possible to assign a variety of editing permissions within the program functionality. Anyone with one or more of the following capabilities will see an Edit program details button whenever they view a program. By clicking on this they will then see the Overview tab, followed by additional tabs based on the capabilities they have assigned to them as follows:

• totara/program:configuredetails: For the Edit tab.
• totara/program:configurecontent: For the Content tab.
• totara/program:configuremessages: For the Messages tab.
• totara/program:configureassignments: For the Assignments tab.
• totara/program:handleexceptions: For the Exceptions tab (this applies even if there are no exceptions currently).
• totara/program:editcompletion: For the Completion tab (the completion editor must be enabled in site cofig).

Scenario

Program containing a course and assigned a dynamic audience

A user in the dynamic audience enrols in the course through the program and is later removed from the audience.

When the External unenrol action option for program enrolment is set to:

If the user is added to the dynamic audience again and the External unenrol action option for program enrolment is set to: