Litmos Courses have three similar but very different features.  This article explains each one, what it does, and when to use it. 

Compliance

When to use compliance

The compliance feature is designed to track courses that need to be taken by a learner again and again. Once a learner has completed the course, the compliance status and completion status will change according to your settings to allow the learner to take the course again before their compliance is up. 

Setting Up Compliance for a Course

There are two main settings for compliance, "Compliant for" and "Automatic retake".  These two settings will control how long learners will be compliant and when they will be allowed to take the course again.  There is also a third setting, "Update this date for all people who have completed this course" which updates this setting for all learners who have completed the course. 

Compliance for: This setting sets how long the learner will be compliant for.  They will be compliant for this long after they have taken the course.  For example, if the learner completes this course on March 1st and this setting is set to 60 days, their compliance will be up on April 30th.

Automatic retake:  In an ideal world, your learners will never fall out of compliance.  This setting allows the completion status to reset so that they can retake the course and send them a reminder email (editable in Accounts > Email) while keeping the compliance status.  Using the example above, if a learner completes this course on March 1st and this setting is set to 21 days, they will receive a reminder email and their completion status will go back to incomplete for all modules; however, they will still remain compliant.    

In short the compliant email is sent = (Completion date + 60 days (compliance period)) - 21 days (resit period)

Update this date for all people who have completed this course:  Updates this setting for anyone who has already completed the course.  Using the example above, if compliance has been set for 60 days but then it needs to be changed to 30 days, use this feature to apply this date to everyone who has already completed the course. 

Send reminder every X Days/ Weeks: When enabled, set how frequently reminders will be sent to the Learner.

Until this course has been completed or X reminder have been set:  Set the conditions for when the recurring reminders will cease to be sent to the Learner. 

Compliance affect on Learning Paths

Compliance can only be set on the Course level, not the Learning Path level. However, if a course within a Learning Path has been reset due to a course results being reset through compliance, the Learning Path's results will reset as well to reflect this course reset. 

Troubleshooting Steps/ Things to look for

The most common errors with Compliance come from misunderstanding the feature.  Below are a few things to keep in mind:

• Due Date and Compliance are two features that do not interact with each other or change the other's settings. 
• A compliance status and completion status are two different settings.  If a learner is not complete for a course, they may still be compliant and vice versa. 
• Be mindful when changing compliance settings.  Changing these settings may make it difficult to retain the history as to why a completion status or compliance status may not appear as expected.  Be sure to use the "Update this date for all people who have completed this course" feature when appropriate. 

Due Dates

When to use Due Dates

Due Dates give learners a deadline for finishing their courses.  Once the course is overdue for the learner, they will have a red "Overdue" tag on the course or learning path and the course will have the date that the course is overdue.  Once the Due Date has passed, they will still have access to the course.  If removing access for a course is necessary, it may be recommended to use Due Date and Course Expiration together (see below). 

Setting Up Course Due Date for a Course

There are two main settings for due date, "Must complete by" and "Automatic email reminder".  These two settings control when learners are considered overdue and when they will receive the email reminder to take the course.  There is also a third setting, "Update this date for all people already assigned" which updates this setting for all learners assigned to the course. 

Must Complete by: When the course will be considered overdue.  This can either be a time span from the date they were assigned to the course or a specific date. 

Automatic Email Reminder: Send an email reminder (editable in Accounts > Email) to the learner to remind them to complete the course.  (Reminders are sent out at 10pm UTC. This cannot be changed within the system).

Update this date for all people already assigned to the course: Updates the due date to these settings for those who are assigned to the course. 

Send reminder every X Days/ Weeks: When enabled, set how frequently reminders will be sent to the Learner.

Until this course has been completed or X reminder have been set:  Set the conditions for when the recurring reminders will cease to be sent to the Learner. 

Due Date affect on Learning Paths

If a course within a learning path is overdue, the learner will see a red "Overdue" tag on the Learning Path and will see the Due date on each course that is overdue. 

Extending an Due Date

If a specific user needs to have their due date extended, this can be achieved by:

1. Navigating to the People sub tab within the course
2. Checking the box next to the User(s) to extend the due date for
3. Select "Extend Due Date" from the "Perform a bulk action on selected people" dropdown.
4. Select how much to extend the due date and click "Update"

Troubleshooting Steps/ Things to look for

• Due Date is a separate feature from Compliance and Expiration. Due Date does not interact with these features or their settings. 
• Due Date is only applied on your user's initial attempt and is no longer applicable once a user is complete. Due dates are not applied on re-take. 

Course/ Learning Path Expiration

When to use Course/ Learning Path Expiration

Automatically set an expiration for learners on a course or learning path.  Once the expiration date has passed for that learner, the learner will no longer have access to the course or learning path.  Administrators will still be able to pull reports on these courses and if they would like to give the learner additional time to view the course, they can extend the expiration date.

Setting Up Course Expiration for a Course/ Learning Path

There are two choices for Expiration, "A Time Span" and "A Specific Date".  These settings control when learners will lose access to the Course or Learning Path.  There is also a third setting, "Update this date for all people already assigned" which updates this setting for all learners assigned to the course. 

How to Extend a Course Expiration Date for one or more learners:

1. Navigate to the People sub-tab within the course
2. Check the box next to the User(s) to extend the access date for
3. Select "Change Access Expiration Date" from the "Perform a bulk action on selected people" dropdown.
4. Select how much to extend the date to and click "Update"

How to Extend the Learning Path Course Expiration Date:

1. Navigate to the People sub-tab within the Learning Path
2. Select/Check-mark the User(s) to extend the access date for
3. Select "Change Access Expiration Date" from the "Perform a bulk action on selected people" dropdown.
4. Select how much to extend the date by and click "Update"

What happens after the Course/ Learning Path is expired for a Learner

The learner will not see the course in their To Do list or Course Library.  Any achievement previously granted will remain in their achievements tab. 

Note:  This feature is different than the current course expiration feature which will expire the entire course for all learners on that day.

Note: Automatic reminder email checks for users who meet the setting of the Starting reminder day on that specific date of running a job. Changing/applying the setting later to start the reminder emails will not retrospectively add all the users (who missed the first reminder trigger) to the reminder service. It will only trigger a reminder for future users who meets the first reminder trigger. A solution in this scenario is to trigger manual reminder emails to those users from the course>people> bulk action dropdown menu and then they will be added to the reminder service and subsequently, they will start receiving reminders as per the configuration.

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For more on Course settings, check out the "How To: Manage General Course Settings" course in Litmos Dojo.