An Intro to Competencies

Updated April 16, 2024 17:25

Competencies are a feature of Absorb LMS that rewards Users for completing Courses by including customized designations to the User Profile. For example, by completing a first aid training course, a User could earn a Competency named 'CPR Certification'.

This article will cover how to create and assign a Competency and award Competencies on an increasing scale using Competency Levels.

Tips

You can configure Competencies to have unique names and images to be used as an icon or "badge" to be identified on User Transcripts.
Admins can easily grant or restrict access to additional catalog content by identifying those who have earned specific Competencies.

To begin the creation of a Competency, you will need to navigate to the Competency Report. From there, you will to able to assign, add, and manage Competencies and their Categories. It is also possible to Edit and Delete existing Competencies.

How to Create a Competency

The following instructions will guide you through the process of creating a Competency in the Admin Experience.

Access the Admin Experience.
On the left hand side of the Admin Interface, open the Courses menu.
From the Courses menu, select Competencies to open the Competencies Report.
From the Competencies Report select Add New Competency from one of two locations.
From the Add New Competency page you can configure the Competency and Save it.

Competency Settings

When creating a Competency there are a series of settings that can be configured. Only Name is required, but it is recommended to consider the others and confirm they benefit your use-case.

Setting	Details
Name	Enter the Name of the Competency. This is a required field; the Name is visible to Admins and Learners.
Category	Select a Category you wish to organize the Competency under. The options presented depend on the configuration of your Portal.
Description	Enter a Description of the Competency. The Description provides details about the Competency and it is visible to Admins and Learners.
Has Badge Image	Has Badge Image is a toggle. When the toggle is ON you can upload an image to represent the Badge earned alongside a Competency. The Badge, if uploaded, will appear in the Learner Experience and Transcript. OFF: The Competency will not include a Badge Image. ON: The Competency will use a Badge Image. When turned ON the Badge Url option will appear. Click Choose File to open the File Manager and upload/select the preferred Badge Image. Example Badges:
Leaderboard Points	This field will only display if you have purchased Absorb Engage. It allows the default point value to be overridden for Leaderboards based on the value entered for the awarded Competency.

Competencies Report Actions

Starting from the Competencies Report, select a Competency. Once you have selected the Competency, it will highlight blue, and new Actions will populate on the right-hand side. From there, you have use the following Actions:

Edit Competency
Assign to User
View Users
Delete

Click on the Action you wish to execute.

Action	Details
Edit Competency	Click this Action to make changes (edit) to an existing Competency.
Assign to Users	Click this Action to manually assign a Competency & Competency Level to a User.
View Users	Click this Action to open the Learner Competencies Report. The Learner Competency Report details User achievements. From here, you can modify the report to show additional data fields or create new Competencies. The report also has other administrative actions such as messaging the User, viewing their Transcript, or deleting the Competency from their profile.
Delete	Click this Action to delete a Competency. If a Competency is deleted, it will not be retained as historical data in a User's Transcript.

Assigning Competencies

Once you have created a Competency, you are then able to assign it to Users manually or through an automated process configured at the Course Settings level.

The following consists of the two options (automated vs manual) for assigning Competencies:

Automated Assignment

The process of automatically awarding a User with a Competency is configured at the Course level. The following method indicates how to set a Course to award a Competency to a User upon completion.

From the Admin Experience, access the Courses Report.
Edit or Add an Online Course, Instructor Led Course or Curriculum.
Under the Completion section, click Add Competency.
You will be able to select the Competencies and the Level to be awarded.
Save the Course.

Manual Assignment

Alternatively, you can choose to manually assign a Competency to a User through the Competencies Report. After clicking the Assign to Users Action from the right hand side menu, you will be given the option of choosing the Competency, Level (if applicable), and which Users the Competency should be assigned to. Click Assign from the right hand side to finalize the Action.

Competency Levels

Competency Levels are a way to award Competencies on an increasing scale from 1 to 10. This allows for further control on directing how your Users enroll and proceed through Courses as you can award an incrementally more valuable version of the same Competency.

How to Set up Competency Levels

All Competencies will default to Level 1 when being assigned. If you wish to offer more levels, please reach out to your Absorb Representative requesting this, and we would be happy to enable multiple levels up to a maximum of 10.

Competency Levels allow you to control and direct how your Users enroll and proceed through their Courses. Competency Levels are awarded in a progressive and consecutive manner. Learners must achieve earlier levels before they can complete higher levels.

Higher Level Competencies

If a Learner is assigned a higher Level Competency the LMS will automatically treat them as if they have received earlier Levels as well.

When a Learner has a Level 1 Competency and then earns or is assigned Level 2 of that same Competency, the Level 1 is replaced with the Level 2.

User Transcripts

It is possible for a User to earn many different Levels of the same Competency, however, only the highest level of Competency earned will appear on that User's Learner Transcript.