Course Follow-Up
Use
You can follow up time-independent and time-dependent courses. For instance, you can follow up Web-based training or an online test in the Learning Portal for SAP Learning Solution, whilst you follow up classroom training, virtual classroom training, or a curriculum in Training Management.
Once a course has begun or is given the status firmly booked, you can perform follow-up activities for it.
Prerequisites
● The course must be in firmly booked status. A curriculum always has firmly booked status.
● The course may not be canceled.
● The course may not have a historical record flag (see below).
● You have made the required settings for follow-up processing in Customizing. This includes:
○ Specifying control options for each participant type
○ Specifying control options for the process steps
You have to select the process steps that you want to execute in the follow-up process. If you do not, the process steps are not executable, that is, you cannot enter or select any values.
○ Reasons for a fail result
In Customizing choose: Training Management ® Recurring Activities ® Follow-Up Processing
Features
Follow-up processing for courses consists of a series of individual dialog steps that are performed for the course itself and the participants. The system guides you through the individual steps:
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1. Follow up course
You select the delivery method and the course you want to follow up.
Choose Data Screen to access the dialog box Follow Up Participation.
2. Follow up participation
Depending upon Customizing settings:
○ You specify whether a participant is included in follow-up processing. The system automatically flags participants who have not yet been followed up; participants already followed up are not flagged. You can change these Customizing settings for participants as required.
○ You confirm course participation (present, absent, unconfirmed)
For "absent", the system triggers a cancellation in the subsequent process flow.
○ You specify whether the course was passed (pass, fail, not rated).
○ You select a reason for a fail result according to your Customizing settings.
○ You specify whether participation should be followed up in the system. The following applies:
■ If you want participation followed up by the system, you must select the field Participation followed up.
■ If you do not want participation followed up by the system, do not select the field Participation followed up.
○ If you selected the follow-up guideline individually in Customizing, the system checks whether all participations in the curriculum have been followed up, then it follows up the curriculum itself.
○ If you selected the follow-up guideline for the curriculum as a whole in Customizing, the system checks whether all participations in the curriculum and those for all elements of the curriculum have been followed up, then it follows up the curriculum itself.
Check Your Entries
Before you perform the following process steps, you must check all your entries. For example, in the process step Follow Up Participation if you:
○ Make changes to confirmation of participation
○ Make changes to pass result for course
○ Enter a reason for a fail result
If you enter a value in the Reason field, the system checks whether the value course failed is entered in the Course Passed field.
If this is not the case, the system expects a different entry (such as course passed) in this field before you are allowed to continue with the next step.
In the event of errors, the system creates an error log and highlights the fields concerned in color.
○ Flag participation as followed up
Choose Check Entries to have the system check your entries.
You can also follow up individual participants, save them in the system, then later on perform follow up processing for the course and set a historical record flag for it.
Choose Continue to access the dialog box Transfer Qualifications.
3. Transfer qualifications
The course objectives can be awarded as qualifications to the participants. The system collects the qualifications stored for a course type, and generates a proposal for qualification transfer to the individual course participants. The system reads the qualification proficiency from the relationship between the course type and the qualification stored in the participant’s master data. In Customizing, you have stored information about how participation should be followed up in the IMG activity Control of Process Steps, for example:
○ Without changing the qualification proficiency – the proficiency and validity proposed by the system cannot be changed. You can always follow up the participation, regardless of the rating (for example, passed or failed). The system transfers the qualifications according to the Procedure infotype (1030) and follows up the course participation.
○ With qualification proficiency change – the proficiency and validity proposed by the system can be changed. You can always follow up the participation, regardless of the rating (for example, passed or failed). The system transfers the qualifications according to the Procedure infotype (1030) and follows up the course participation.
○ Follow up pass result (without proficiency change): You can follow up the pass result (without a change in the proficiency) if the Rate Participation step is passed. The system transfers the qualifications according to the Procedure infotype (1030) and follows up the course participation.
○ Follow up pass result (with proficiency change): You can follow up the pass result (with a change in the proficiency) if the Rate Participation step is passed. The system transfers the qualifications according to the Procedure infotype (1030) and follows up the course participation.
The above activities depend on the procedure settings you make in Customizing for Training Management under Recurring Activities ® Follow-Up Processing ® Control of Process Steps.
The procedure defines how qualifications are assigned to participants.
If you want to define a special procedure for a particular course type, you can do so using the Procedure infotype (1030).
Depending on your Customizing settings, the system automatically flags all participants with pass results for qualification transfer; participants with fail results are not flagged. You can change these Customizing settings for participants as required.
4. Following Up Courses
You specify the following for the whole course:
○ Flag course as followed up
A course can be followed up once all of its participations have been followed up.
If a curriculum is to be followed up, this does not mean that all elements (courses) of the curriculum are automatically included. This is because there may be participants who were not booked as part of the curriculum for whom follow-up processing has not yet been performed. On the other hand, when you want follow up a course, you must select all participation bookings that can only be followed up as part of the curriculum, and not directly as part of a course. This may result in a followed-up course that has some bookings that have not been followed up.
○ Historically record course
A historical record flag is set for a course if you selected the historically record indicator in the process step Follow Up Courses. The course is delimited to the date of follow-up processing for the course, and no further processing is possible for the course.
If a historical record flag is to be appended to a curriculum, this does not mean that all elements (courses) of the curriculum are automatically included. This is because there may be participants who were not booked as part of the curriculum for whom follow-up processing has not yet been performed. On the other hand, when you want to set a historical record for a course, you must select all participation bookings that can only be followed up as part of the curriculum, and not directly as part of a course. This may result in a historically recorded course that has some bookings that have not been followed up.
Therefore, the system first performs follow-up processing for the curriculum and then for the individual courses. If follow-up processing is to be performed for an individual course, the system checks whether there are bookings for a curriculum that have not yet been followed up. If this is the case, a historical record flag cannot be appended to the course. A historical record flag can only be appended to the course when follow-up processing has been performed for all participants who were booked as part of the curriculum.
You can only set a historical record flag for a course that has been followed up.
A course with a historical record flag can no longer be changed in any way. Historically recording is irrevocable.
Check Your Entries
Before you perform the following process steps, you must check all your entries. For example, in the process step Following Up Courses if you:
○ Flag the course for historical recording.
If the indicators followed up and historically record are not active, this means that in the preceding process steps not all participants were flagged for follow-up processing.
The system can only follow up a course if all participants have already been followed up or have been flagged for follow-up processing in a previous process step.
Choose Check Entries to have the system check your entries.
5. Save follow up
The system displays an overview of the course you want to follow up including all of the dialog steps performed so far:
○ Follow up participation
○ Transfer qualifications
○ Follow up courses
If you want to make any further changes, you can do so in the relevant dialog steps. When you have no more changes to make, you can save the follow up process.
Result
● The course objectives are awarded as qualifications to participants.
● Confirmation of participation is output automatically for all participants according to your Customizing settings. You access these settings by choosing Training Management ® Day-to-Day Activities ® Correspondence ® Request-Based Correspondence ® Correspondence Generation.
○ Specify Correspondence Control Options per Delivery Method
○ BAdI: Specify Correspondence Control Options
○ In addition to the settings in the Correspondence Control Options infotype (5048)
● The course is historically recorded if it is possible for all delivery methods and if it has been selected.
Historically recorded courses do not feature in the course catalog.
See also:
Follow-Up Control Options (Infotype 5047)