Dive into SumTotal Learn 19.3

We always appreciate a good user experience, and SumTotal 19.3 is bringing us a better experience and improved tools for administrators across the entire suite. This release includes improvements to employee development, social and gamification tools, talent management, and reporting and analytics. 

Our focus this month is on improvements in SumTotal learn. We will take a deep dive into SumTotal Learn in our Lunch & Learn on October 30 to explore new versioning options, the SCORM update, and other changes that will be important to administrators. Here’s a peek at what’s coming in the webinar. 

New Versioning Options 

New enhancements give administrators a lot more control over managing and launching Versionals and their versions and new options to control how each Versional operates. (A Versional is the parent activity that hosts all your versions.) 

• New settings enable you to use Versional group assignments to control whether users are automatically assigned or assigned and registered and automatically adjust due dates. 
• Using the TMU file, you can now modify any updatable properties for any version that hasn’t reached its effective date, and use new fields to control personal assignments, enrollment options, and date options. 
• You can now require learners to complete all active versions of a Versional. This is a domain-level setting. 
• You can also control this requirement on the activity level on the Grading and Completion properties page and in the Training Migration Tool (TMU) source file. 

You can download the SumTotal Learn 19.3 Versioning User Guide now from SumTotalConnect. 

SCORM Update 

New SCORM 2004 4th Edition support is a minor change for administrators and invisible to users but will have a noticeable impact on learning design. 

• Designers can make learning more flexible and adaptable because they are no longer limited to only the navigation calls available to learners. They can initiate “jump” navigation calls from a Shared Content Object (SCO), giving them more sequencing options to make learning more adaptable. 
• Progress measures data can be rolled up with activities having different weights, making progress bars more accurate. 
• SCOs can share data to enable designers to create cohesive sequenced content. 
• Objectives data can be shared with other SCOs and courses via global objectives, enabling simpler and more effective creative sequencing.ⁱ

V4 files operate the same as other uploaded files but disable options to hide SumTotal Player navigation and to disable scrollbars in the content player window. 

For details on uploading V4 files, download the SumTotal Learn 19.3 Training Migration Tool (TMU) User Guide from SumTotalConnect. 

Other Enhancements 

• Administrators can authorize users to remove selected learners from the rosters of all child activities from the parent activity’s roster. It applies to child activities, offerings, versions, and subscription links. There are some exceptions and things to consider, so it’s a good idea to review the SumTotal Learn 19.3 Administrator Guide before you enable this feature. 
• SumTotal Intelligent Assistant continues to improve with the addition of modality features so learners can specify modes (Read, Watch, Listen) to narrow the search. Users can add those activities to their Favorites playlist with one click on the heart icon. New users don’t even need to create a playlist. SIA automatically generates a “My Favorites” list for them. 
• Administrators can configure Expertise Mapping to enable learners to receive relevant recommendations for learning activities. The mapping process links the expertise level (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced) of learning activities to the Development Wizard. Step 3 in the Development Wizard now normalizes the target rating with the development rating to eliminate confusion between the two. 

We don’t know about you, but we are happy to see SumTotal spending so much time in making sure the user experience is the best it can be. 

Get the recording to learn about the enhancements. 

References:

1. Rustici, Mike. “SCORM 2004 4th Edition.” SCORM.com, January 2, 2009. 

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