Equivalences

The Equivalence function meets the need to establish relationships between equivalent courses. Therefore the learner does not need to process several courses with similar content but passes one course and is automatically considered as passed on the related course. 

Use Cases

There are two use cases: 

• One course is replaced by another course with updated content and the learners must not be required to re-take the similar content. However, they should still be able to re-take it if they wish (A = B). 

• Some courses are a combination of other courses. In this case, the learner can be required to take either the overall course or the courses from that it is combined but not both (C = A + B). 

Currently, all equivalences are bidirectional, which means, there are no use cases where A is equivalent to B, but B is not equivalent to A.  

The multiple equivalence relation is possible, meaning that taking course A gives the learners credit for course B and C, taking course B gives the learner credit for both A and C, etc. 

Equivalences are valid for all processes and trigger them accordingly, e. g. if a course is used as a prerequisite for another or assigned to a learning path. 

However, the course passed by the equivalence is not considered as a course passed directly: it does not appear in the learning history, it can still be started and completed by the learner (but it is optionally and never required). Therefore, the new flag "Covered" is introduced. 

Equivalences functionality is part of the base license, no additional add-on components are required to be purchased in order to use it.

Set up a Navigation Entry for the Equivalences Function

To allow access to the equivalences manager, a type of navigation entry must be set up. 

After creating a navigation entry of type Menu, the default menu Manage equivalences must be selected from the list.  

After it is saved, the navigation entry can be released to the users that should have access to it. 

When a user with access rights to see this navigation entry will select it, the equivalences manager will be loaded in the same page similar to other managers in the system. 

Functions in the Equivalences Administration

A new manager is available that allows defining equivalence relations between courses and course templates. 

On the start page of the manager, all available equivalence relations are displayed. This list is paginated with a default number of 50 elements on page. Search is also available and can be done by Name, Identification code, Description, Object ID. The following columns are also available and they can be activated or deactivated from expanding the Columns section: Name, Identification code, Learning mode, Relations type, Last update, Planning status, Language 

An element is present in this list as long there is at least one type of relation defined for it. 

New

Further equivalence relations can be defined. 

The user has the possibility to add a new component and define relations for it: 

By selecting the "+" button, a selection of course templates and courses is available. 

The list is paginated with a default number of 50 elements per page. The list can be searched by Name, Identification code, Description, Object ID. The available columns are: Name, Identification code, ID, Learning mode, Last update, Planning status, Language. Then can be activated or deactivated from clicking on the arrow and selecting Column section. 

At this stage, only one component can be selected. 

After making the selection and clicking on Add, the edit mode will open, which allows the possibility to define the equivalence relations for the selected component.  

Categories of Equivalence Relations 

There are 3 categories of equivalence relations that can be created: 

• This component triggers the completion of: This category allows to define which objects will be considered Covered for the user if he has completed the component for which the relations are being defined. In this category it is not possible to define sets of components. All the components added in this category will be marked as covered when the main component is completed by the learner. 

• The completion of this component is triggered by: This category allows to define which objects the user can complete in order to have the current object considered as covered. In this category it is also possible to add relations as part of a set. This means that the components of a set need to be completed together in order to trigger the coverage of the main component. Objects which are defined outside of the set have an OR relationship between them. This means that by completing any of those components or alternatively the set if a set is available, the main component will be considered Covered. 

• The completion is triggered in both ways: Objects in this category define a mutual equivalence rule, meaning that if a learner completes the current element, he will gain coverage status in the components defined in this category, but also the other way around. Completing a component from that category will determine that the current object is set to Covered for the corresponding user.  

"Covered" is not an enrollment status, but an additional information which, when applicable for a user, will determine that the user has already completed objects which determine in turn that the component marked as "Covered" does not need to be processed anymore.  

However, if the learner chooses to, he can still enroll and process that component. 

Adding items to a preferred relation is done in the following way. User has to select a folder (each relation has the corresponding folder dedicated) and then click on “+” button where he/she can select either courses/course templates or by clicking on “New” button where set of components can be defined (excluding the 1st rule for which is not possible).

After defining all the needed equivalence relations, the changes can be saved. 

By selecting Save, the defined equivalence relations are created and the user is redirected to the start page of the manager, showing the outcome. 

For each object that did not previously have any relation defined, an entry in the manager will be now available. 

Sets of components: Adding multiple components via add component creates an OR relation between them. The components added within a set have an AND relation. 

When a course template is set to covered by an equivalence rule, all courses from this template will be set to covered. 

The coverage rules defined for a template apply for all versions of the template. It will not be possible to define different coverage rules for different versions of the course template. 

Learning path: All components that are marked for the learner as Covered, are displayed accordingly.

Import

Edit

When editing such an entry from the manager, the defined relations for that object will be visible: 

Delete

At the start page level, where all objects that have equivalence rules defined are displayed, the admin has the possibility to select one or more entries and remove them. 

This will have as effect deleting also associated entries that will therefore be left without any equivalence relation. 

In the example above, when I delete object A, all 5 entries will be deleted. 

Equivalence Export 

The equivalences manager provides also the possibility to export the rules via a dedicated export button available in the action bar. 

The export is a csv export that can be opened and converted to a table in MS Excel by using the function Text to Columns. 

The exported file will contain the rules in the following order: Last updated > descending.

Equivalence Import

For a correct import of the equivalences rules into the system this file containing the instructions should be used → Equivalency Import.pdf

Handling ACLs within the Equivalences Manager

Only the courses for which the user has at least Execute ACL will be visible in the manager.

The rule can be edited and deleted though the user does not have access to all components.

User will not see the courses for which he had NO ACL in the manager, nor in the export file.

Impact of the Equivalences Functionalities

Impact of the Equivalence Relation Definition 

Based on the available equivalence relation rules, the outcome is that courses and course templates will be marked for learners as "Covered". 

Impact in the Learning Path 

All components that are marked for the learner as "Covered", are displayed accordingly. 

The outcome is also that the "Covered" component will count towards the progress, even if it is not completed by the learner. 

Prerequisite Handling 

When courses/clusters or course templates are available as prerequisites for other courses or learning paths, the prerequisite object will be considered fulfilled if the user has this object covered. 

There is no visual distinction on the prerequisite overlay screen indicating that the object is only covered and not fully completed. The prerequisite which is covered will be displayed as fulfilled. 

Communication between ILS and the Equivalences Function

To ensure that the equivalences relations are updated and working properly, it needs to be activated via the Configuration manager → Edit Equivalences → Enable Equivalences is set to TRUE.

To ensure that the configured rules generate in the system the desired behavior, namely that courses are set to covered or are no longer covered because of the rules being deleted or changed, the two services will communicate over API the following events: 

Whenever a user completes an object, the Equivalences service will be notified via API about the completion or cancellation event for the given user 

The service will in return inform ILS, based on the rules, which objects should be set to Covered for the learner, or which objects should no longer be considered covered. 

A cron job will be available at ILS level to ensure that the history of completions for already concluded components is delivered to the Equivalences function (de.imc.clix.eqs.EqsResetCoverageDataJob).

Equivalences Behavior for Courses and Course Templates 

A covered Course template has as effect that all courses created from any version of the template are set to covered as well. It will not be possible to define different coverage rules for different versions of the course template. 

When a specific course is covered based on a rule, that course will be set to "Covered" if the other conditions apply, but it will not have as effect the propagation of coverage to the template or the other courses created from the same template. 

Learner View 

Learners are able to see if a course is covered for them. This information is present on course and course template tiles in the catalogue, as well as course and course template tiles inside the learning path. 

In the header area of the details page it is also possible to view if there are equivalence relations defined for the corresponding course or course template, even if the object is not yet equivalated. This allows learners to tell whether they are recieving credit on any other objects by finishing the current course. 

When hovering over the equivalence icon, an overlay will be opened which will display all the equivalence relations defined for the current course or course template. The courses and course templates will be visible in this overlay to learners either if the learners already have an enrollment state on the corresponding object or if the courses/course templates are available to them via the catalogue. Otherwise, even if the course or course template is available as an equivalence relation, it will not be displayed.  

When courses are available in the list of equivalence relations, the learner can navigate to the corresponding course by selecting the title of the course.  

When inside the course room or when accessing the description page of the course or course template, if the corresponding object has equivalence relations defined, an indicator will be visible in the header even if the learner is not already covered on that object. 

In the catalogue it is also possible to view directly which courses or course templates are covered and therefore where the learner does not need to enroll anymore. 

Supervisor View 

The supervisor also has the possibility to check that a certain course is covered for his employee. This information is visible either in the header, once the details page is opened, or on the course tile in the catalogue.  

Limitations 

The columns in the manager are fixed and no advanced search or filtering is possible.  

It is not possible to define clearances for the rules created in the manager. 

Media assigned to a course cannot be passed by equivalence. 

If skills are assigned to an entity passed by equivalence but not to the entity passed by the learner directly, these skills are not set to achieved. 

At this point we don’t offer the possibility of searching by courses which are included in an equivalence relation. Only the icon which is displayed on the Catalogue and Description pages for the corresponding courses/course templates is the indicator for the Equivalences function.

Test Cases