Advanced workflow settings

16 May 2024
7 minutes to read

Advanced workflow settings

Updated on 16 May 2024
7 minutes to read

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When setting up a learning plan template, you can use one of four workflows. If you select the Custom workflow, you will be able to click the Advanced workflow settings button. Using the advanced workflow settings you can define what permissions a learner and their manager have when accessing a learning plan.

Plan settings

Plan settings allow you to set how the learning plans are marked as complete. There are three available options.

Option	Description	Notes
Manually, by a user with ‘complete’ permission	Either the learner or the manager is able to manually mark the plan complete. This permission is set in Plan permissions. The manager has this permission by default.	-
Automatically, when all items have completed	The plan automatically completes when all items in the plan have a complete status. A learning plan can be reactivated by a Site Administrator, learner or manager with Complete/reactivate status.	-
Automatically, when the plan completion date has passed	The plan automatically completes when the end date set on the learning plan has passed. A learning plan can be reactivated by a Site Administrator, learner, or manager with Complete/reactivate status.	-

Plan permissions

The plan permissions allow you to set the global learning plan permissions. Permissions for an individual learning plan will be inherited from the permission settings for the template that plan is based on. Changing the permissions for the learning plan template will affect all plans created from that template.

There are four permission levels available:

Allow: Allows the user to perform the action
Deny: Prevents the user from performing the action
Request: Allows the user to request that this action is performed
Approve: Allows the user to approve an action

Permissions are further refined for each component.

There are two additional actions available here. Using Approve you can give users the ability to approve a learning plan. You can use Complete/reactivate to give users the ability to mark a learning plan as complete or reactivate a learning plan.

Editing learning plan permissions.

Course settings

On the Courses tab you can customise the settings available for courses on learning plans.

Settings	Description	Notes
Due dates	Select whether due dates should be available or required for courses on learning plans: None: No due date field appears on the learning plan Optional: The due date field is optional Required: The due date must be completed	-
Priorities	Select whether priorities should be available or required for courses on learning plans: None: No priority is set for courses in a learning plan using this template Optional: A priority can be set if required on courses in a learning plan using this template Required: A priority must be set on courses in a learning plan using this template	Selecting Optional or Required will enable the Priority scale setting.
Priority scale	If you have selected Optional or Required for the Priorities setting you can select a priority scale for courses on the learning plan.	When Priorities is set to None a priority scale is not required.

Course permissions

Course permissions allow you to define the level of actions that can be performed by the learner and manager in the learning plan.

There are four permission levels available:

Allow: Allows the user to perform the action
Deny: Prevents the user from performing the action
Request: Allows the user to request that this action is performed
Approve: Allows the user to approve an action

In this section there are also two additional permissions. Set Completion Status lets you allow users to set the course completion status, and Delete Mandatory allows users to delete mandatory components of the course.

Click Save changes before leaving this page.

Editing course permissions.

Competency settings

On the Competencies tab you can customise the settings available for competencies on learning plans.

Settings	Description	Notes
Due dates	Select whether due dates should be available or required for competencies on learning plans: None: No due date field appears on the learning plan Optional: The due date field is optional Required: The due date must be completed	-
Priorities	Select whether priorities should be available or required for competencies on learning plans: None: No priority is set for courses in a learning plan using this template Optional: A priority can be set if required on courses in a learning plan using this template Required: A priority must be set on courses in a learning plan using this template	Selecting Optional or Required will enable the Priority scale setting.
Priority scale	If you have selected Optional or Required for the Priorities setting you can select a priority scale for competencies on the learning plan.	When Priorities is set to None a priority scale is not required.
Automatic assignment	Automatic assignment allows the learning plan to automatically pull through competencies assigned to the learner's position and organisation, with any courses linked to the competencies. The linked courses that will be added are only those that are visible to the person who creates the learning plan, at the time they create it. This powerful functionality allows your organisation to automate a significant amount of the training workflow. Using the options below, you can automatically assign learners with competencies and associated courses based on their position or organisation. There are four options you can use to set automatic assignment: Automatically assign by position: When this option is checked the learning plan automatically pulls competencies assigned to the learner’s position into their learning plan Automatically assign by organisation: When this option is checked the learning plan automatically pulls competencies assigned to the learner’s organisation into their learning plan Include completed competencies: When this option is checked all competencies assigned to the learner's position and/or organisation appear in the learning plan, even if the learner has completed the competency Include linked courses: When this option is checked courses which have been linked to competencies are automatically pulled through into the learning plan	Learning plans are not tied to a specific job assignment. You can assign learning plans to audiences, and audiences can be created using job assignments as a criteria in their rule set. Also, courses/competencies are only pulled through the moment that the learning plan is created. There is an option to enable subsequent additions of courses to have their associated competencies appear in the learning plan under the Competencies tab. If you make the course optional then the user can delete the course from their learning plan, so they will only need to complete the courses that are on their learning plan to get the linked competency updated to completed.
Default status	By default when a competency is pulled into a learning plan the status field shows as blank. When you check Assign newly approved competencies their default status the default status from the competency scale displays in the learning plan when the competencies is assigned.	-

Competency permissions

Competency permissions allow you to define the level of actions that can be performed by the learner and manager in the learning plan.

There are four permission levels available:

Allow: Allows the user to perform the action
Deny: Prevents the user from performing the action
Request: Allows the user to request that this action is performed
Approve: Allows the user to approve an action

Click Save changes before leaving this page.

Editing competency permissions.

Objective settings

On the Objectives tab you can customise the settings available for learning objectives on learning plans.

Settings	Description	Notes
Due dates	Select whether due dates should be available or required for objectives on learning plans: None: No due date field appears on the learning plan Optional: The due date field is optional Required: The due date must be completed	-
Priorities	Select whether priorities should be available or required for objectives on learning plans: None: No priority is set for courses in a learning plan using this template Optional: A priority can be set if required on courses in a learning plan using this template Required: A priority must be set on courses in a learning plan using this template	Selecting Optional or Required will enable the Priority scale setting.
Priority scale	If you have selected Optional or Required for the Priorities setting you can select a priority scale for objectives on the learning plan.	When Priorities is set to None a priority scale is not required.
Objective scale	Select an objective scale. An objective scale is used to measure a learner's progress towards their objectives.	-

Objective permissions

Objective permissions allow you to define the level of actions that can be performed by the learner and manager in the learning plan.

There are four permission levels available:

Allow: Allows the user to perform the action
Deny: Prevents the user from performing the action
Request: Allows the user to request that this action is performed
Approve: Allows the user to approve an action

Click Save changes before leaving this page.

Editing objective permissions.

Program settings

On the Program tab you can customise the settings available for programs on learning plans.

Settings	Description	Notes
Due dates	Select whether due dates should be available or required for programs on learning plans: None: No due date field appears on the learning plan Optional: The due date field is optional Required: The due date must be completed	-
Priorities	Select whether priorities should be available or required for programs on learning plans: None: No priority is set for courses in a learning plan using this template Optional: A priority can be set if required on courses in a learning plan using this template Required: A priority must be set on courses in a learning plan using this template	Selecting Optional or Required will enable the Priority scale setting.
Priority scale	If you have selected Optional or Required for the Priorities setting you can select a priority scale for programs on the learning plan.	When Priorities is set to None a priority scale is not required.

Program permissions

Program permissions allow you to define the level of actions that can be performed by the learner and manager in the learning plan.

There are four permission levels available:

Allow: Allows the user to perform the action
Deny: Prevents the user from performing the action
Request: Allows the user to request that this action is performed
Approve: Allows the user to approve an action

Click Save changes before leaving this page.

Editing program permissions.

The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to using Learning plans in Totara Learn. Here you can learn more on how to use learning plans, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

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What's Next

Create a learning plan

Table of contents

Plan settings
Course settings
Competency settings
Objective settings
Program settings