Course
Definition
A course is a structured process defined by a training provider aimed at imparting skills and knowledge. In the system, a course is the specialization of acourse type defined by the attribute delivery method. When we talk of delivery methods, we distinguish between:
· Time-dependent courses
These are courses with a start and end date, held in a specific language and location. Delivery methods can be:
¡ Classroom training (location-dependent)
¡ Virtual classroom (location-independent)
¡ WBT in the classroom (location-dependent)
¡
· Time-independent delivery methods
Delivery methods can be:
¡ Web-based training (WBT)
¡ External WBT
¡ Static WBT
¡ Online test
As administrator, you do not create courses for these delivery methods in the system. For instance:
¡ You do not plan such courses.
¡ You do not schedule dates for such courses.
¡ You do not edit resources for them.
¡ You do not determine demand for them.
Only individual participants (person, user, external person, contact person) are allowed to book time-independent courses. Group participants cannot be booked on a time-independent course.
Comprises multiple courses.
Use
The following applies to time-dependent courses:
In Training Management, you set up a course offering by planning or creating courses. Once you have created a course, you can make bookings for it.
When you create a course, you select a course type and enter a variety of information for it, such as its location or its resource requirements.
It is also possible to create data for a course by using an existing one as a template.
When you use the planning function for courses, you can plan multiple course dates in one step based on the demand that exists for the course.
See also:
Creating a Course (with Resources)
Creating a Course (Without Resources)
Structure
When you create or plan a course, you store all of the data required for holding the course, such as:
· Internal/external
An internal course is a course that your company is responsible for organizing. An external course is organized by a third-party training provider. You cannot plan an external course, which means that you cannot carry out resource reservation for it. When you plan courses, internal courses are automatically generated.
· Status firmly booked / planned
You can create courses in one of two statuses: firmly booked (active) or planned. If you create a course with the status planned, you can send the participants preliminary confirmation of registration. Later, when you change the status to firmly booked, you can send out definite confirmations. It makes sense to use this option if a course is being planned well in advance and may in fact be canceled before definite confirmations are issued. This allows you to cancel courses before you have definitively confirmed participation bookings.
As well, when you change the status to firmly booked, waiting-list bookings can be converted to normal bookings, essential bookings, or prebookings.
If you create a course with the status planned, you must change its status to firmly booked at some point. This is necessary so that follow-up processing can be done.
However, you can also create a course with the status firmly booked from the start. If you do so, you send out definite confirmation once bookings are made on it.
See also:
· Locked
You can create courses in locked status. This means that no bookings can be made for them until they are unlocked.
See also:
· Course location
If you are using course locations, you must enter a location.
You define course locations in Customizing, under Training and Event Management ® SAP Learning Solution ® Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Location ® Create Location. You specify whether you want to use locations at all under Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Location ® Course Location Switch. If you have not set up locations, input is optional.
· Language
You must enter the language in which the course is held.
· Schedule
There are two possible ways to specify the actual time schedule of a course.
¡ By copying the schedule (schedule model) defined for the course type.
¡ By creating your own schedule for the course.
For more information, see Time Schedule.
You define the schedule patterns necessary for creating a time schedule in Customizing for Training and Event Management under SAP Learning Solution ®Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Define Time Schedule.
· Number of participants
Information regarding the number of participants (capacity) is automatically inherited from the course type if this information is available. You can, however, specify a different capacity for the course itself.
· Price and cost assignment
You can specify both an internal price for internal activity allocation purposes and an external price for billing.
If you want to determine a price for the course, you can use the function
Determine price
proposal on this data screen by choosing 
.
Cost assignment, which involves specifying a controlling area and a cost center, is required for cost transfer posting purposes.
· Training provider
You enter the organizer of the course. You define the organizer of the type Organization Unit and Company in Customizing, under Training and Event Management ® SAP Learning Solution ® Training Management ® Course Preparation ® Training Provider.
When you create courses, you can store more information for them than when you use the planning function (such as number of participants, price and cost assignment, and training provider data). When you use the planning function, data that has been maintained for the course type is automatically transferred to the corresponding course. If you want to override the data of the course type for courses you have planned, you can use the function Change Course.
· Bookability options
You can specify whether a course can only be booked as part of a curriculum or independent of the curriculum as well.
· Further Information
You can store descriptive or semantic information for a course here, in the following subtypes of the Description infotype:
General Description, Course Contents, Notes.
In addition, you can create links from the course to external information objects using the following infotypes:
Knowledge Link: The Knowledge Link infotype lets you link the course with objects in the SAP Knowledge Warehouse (such as training materials, CBTs, or videos).
Web Link: The Web Link infotype lets you link any URL addresses on the Internet that contain information that is relevant to the course.
You can display the info objects that are linked with a course by the Knowledge Link and Web Link infotypes either on the data screen of the course or in the Employee Self-Service (ESS) applications (if the course is listed in the ESS).
· Resource selection and planning options
When you create a course, you can also reserve the resources that are required for it. Resource reservation is optional. You can create a course without reserving resources for it.
When you plan a course, you make planning specifications regarding resource reservation. These specifications are used to reserve the required resources if available. You can reserve missing resources later with the function Change Course.
Note that you can only edit courses using Training Management transactions (such as LSO_PV1A, LSO_PSV2) designed specifically for this purpose. Do not use transaction PP01 (which you can use for course groups and course types) as this could lead to inconsistencies in the data.
See also:
Creating a Course (with Resources)
Creating a Course (Without Resources)
When maintaining courses, only use the appropriate transactions (for example, LSO_PV10 for creating a course with resources). Do not use transaction PP01. This will avoid potential data inconsistencies.