Evaluate your training materials and discover what is best for your learners.

Skillsoft is where all CU employees take required compliance courses, as well as a wide range of recommended training based on their job, role or campus. While training can be offered in multiple formats, such as videos, meetings or documentation, Skillsoft allows users to take online training that is reported to HCM, the university training system of record for all employees.

Employee Learning and Development (ELD) manages CU's Skillsoft platform and the CU-specfic courses hosted there. If you would like to use Skillsoft to manage and report on your training efforts, our team of instructional designers can assist you — whether it's hosting a course you've created or helping you create a new course.

Get started

Before you contact ELD, we've provided these resources to help you determine the best approach to adding a course to Skillsoft.  

  1. Determine whether a custom course is right for your needs and the type of course.
  2. Review the process for creating a collaborative course.
  3. Take the next steps to begin creating your course.

Is a Skillsoft Custom Course right for you?

When evaluating whether your training materials would be a good fit for a Skillsoft course, consider the following:

What is the reason for the training?

  • What is the business or compliance need? Are there new policies or laws that may necessitate the need for the training?
  • What problem does the training solve, or what behavior does the training encourage/discourage?
  • Is the training required? If so, how often?
  • Does the course need to be tracked in HCM to meet new university, state or federal compliance or auditing reporting requirements?
  • How is the training currently offered?

What are the course goals and objectives?

  • What do learners need to know or be able to do after the training?
  • How should learners be assessed? Will there be review questions throughout the course or just a quiz at the end?
  • If learners are not assessed through a quiz, should they review and accept an acknowledgement of responsibilities?

Who is the training audience?

  • Who is the training intended for?
  • How many people will take the course?
  • Is the training intended for one campus, more than one campus or all CU campuses?
  • What prior knowledge or experience with the subject matter will the audience be expected to have?

How could the course be transitioned to Skillsoft and maintained?

  • What training materials could be used to create the course?
  • If the training is currently offered through video or in-person training sessions, is there an upcoming session an instructional designer could attend?
  • How often will the course material need to be reviewed and updated?
  • Can any portions of the training material become interactive exercises or full simulations?
  • Is a subject matter expert (SME) available to provide and/or review the course’s content?
  • Are there webpages or documents that should be linked to in the course for future reference?
 

Hosted vs. Collaborative Courses

When evaluating how to get training material into Skillsoft, two approaches can be taken with different levels of effort and cost to consider:

Hosted Courses

SMEs are responsible for gathering and organizing course materials, as well as developing the course using software such as Articulate Storyline or Captivate to create a SCORM package for publishing.

Getting and maintaining software licenses involves a degree of cost.

ELD can provide content review and edits if requested, assist with testing the course to ensure it tracks in Skillsoft, and contact SMEs regarding scheduled content and technical reviews.

Collaborative Courses

SMEs are responsible for gathering and providing course materials. ELD uses these materials to create a course outline, script and beta version of the course, which will all be reviewed and approved by SMEs. ELD will also ensure the course tracks in Skillsoft and contact SMEs regarding scheduled content and technical reviews.

ELD already has software licenses, so no additional cost is required.

 

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Process for creating a collaborative course

A collaborative course involves the following steps:

  1. Meet with ELD to discuss the items to consider, as outlined above.
  2. Gather and provide your course-related materials to ELD.
  3. ELD creates a course outline that includes the course’s title, target audience, learning objectives and an outline of major topics. It also indicates whether a quiz or acknowledgement should be included.
  4. The Subject Matter Expert (SME) reviews the course outline and provides edits, where necessary.
  5. After the SME approves the outline, ELD creates a script. The course script acts as a course blueprint, with all course slide content written out and all potential interactivities and simulations described.
  6. ELD provides a statement of work (SOW) outlining next steps and deadlines.
  7. The SME reviews the SOW and course script.
  8. After the SME approves the script, ELD creates a beta version of the course. No further significant content can be added after script approval. The beta version of the course shows how the course will appear and behave once it is live in Skillsoft.
    • The SME reviews the beta version to provide minor corrections, where necessary.
  9. After the SME approves the beta version of the course, ELD publishes it on Skillsoft.
  10. ELD will contact the SME for regular content and technical reviews to ensure that the course content remains up to date for years to come. Feedback from the end-of-course survey can be provided to assist in future review and update cycles.

 

Next steps

If you have reviewed the content above and would like to turn your training materials into Skillsoft course, email system.training@cu.edu and include the following information:

  • What is the topic of the potential course?
  • What campus or campuses are the audience for the potential course?
  • Who will attend the initial call to discuss business needs?
  • What days and times are potential options for that initial call?