Skillsoft Library Maintenance

Skillsoft continually develops and releases new content to meet your evolving needs. We also periodically update the subject matter of existing content and make changes for accuracy. Occasionally we choose to retire content that is outdated, no longer relevant, or is replaced by newer content.

Your Skillsoft library is automatically maintained; you do not have to do anything to get new content or remove retired content from your site. Content that has been retired and removed from your site no longer shows to your learners, but if previously accessed by a learner, retired content still shows in reports.

All content that currently exists on your site, that has recently been added, and that is set to retire is contained in the All Content Listing report. You will see retire dates up to a year in advance so you have time to make necessary changes to your programs.

The following sections in this topic will give you the information you need to maintain your learning programs:

• New content releases
• Updates to existing content
• Retiring content
• Best Practice Approach to Program Maintenance
• FAQs

New content releases

New content, such as courses, books, videos, and practice labs, are released on Percipio on an ongoing basis. New releases can be found in the All Content Listing report, which is available to administrators and others with that privilege. You do not have to do anything special to get new content on your site.

Integration note: If you integrate Percipio with another LMS, new content is automatically considered as part of your content integration rules and imported automatically provided it meets the rules you defined.

Best practices for managing new content

To stay up to date on monthly releases, we recommend that you set up a custom report template and recurring schedule for the All Content Listing report to see just the latest content added to your site on a monthly basis. Review the report when you get it in your email to see if there is new content that makes sense to promote or assign to your learners based on the skills you are looking to build in your organization.

To set up a custom report template and schedule:

1. From the left navigation bar, select Analytics and then select the All reports tab.
2. Under the Content section, select the All Content Listing report.
3. Set these filters:
   • Added to Percipio = Last 1 month.
   • Content status = Published
4. Select these columns:
   • Area
   • Subject
   • Channel
   • Content title
   • Asset type
   • Content type
   • Journey title
   • Skills
   • First published date
   • Any other columns you feel necessary for new content
5. From Actions, select Save as new template.
6. Provide a name that makes sense to you, for example: New Content Added.
7. From Actions, select Create report schedule.
   • Schedule it for at least a year.
   • Set the frequency for once per month on the first day of the month.
   • Set Report date range to last 1 month.
   • Select to get notified when report is available.
8. If you want, you can share this report with others in your organization so they know what content has been added to your site.

Updates to existing content

Periodically, minor changes to content are required. This typically happens when content needs to reflect new technology features added since initial publication. We often choose to update existing content, rather than retire old content and release a new version of similar content. This allows us to use the same course code and UUID, seamlessly delivering updated content to your organization.

Retiring Content

We periodically retire content that is outdated. Content becomes outdated for two reasons. First, it may cover a subject that is no longer relevant, such as a course covering an application that is no longer made or supported. Second, a content topic may still be relevant, but the way in which we cover it may need updates. In both cases, we remove the content entirely from the library, which prevents learners from using that content in the future. In the first case, we may or may not have replacement content available. In the second case, we release replacement content.

Similarly, books and audiobooks are retired due to relevancy of the subject, overall usage of the books, and changing relationships we have with publishers.

When content is retired, it is automatically removed from your site. If learners accessed it, you will see it in reports and learners see it in their Activity list, but can't launch it.

Integration note: If you integrate Percipio with another LMS, content that has retired is automatically deprecated from your LMS. Learners will not see it in their assignments, or when browsing or searching. If they previously accessed the retired content, it still shows in their activity list, but they can't launch it.

Best practices for managing retired content

Before Skillsoft removes retired content from your site, we send an email letting you know that content flagged to retire will be removed from your site. Typically this email gives you 90 days notice. This notification goes out the first Monday of every month to site administrators and those with the privilege of managing content. The notification contains a link to the Content Status report. The Content Status report shows in which assignments, custom channels, and promotions retiring content is contained as well as how many learners have accessed it. Often times, the report contains a pending retirement date that is up to a year ahead.

In addition to this email, we recommend that you set up a custom report template using the All Content Listing report and schedule it for your's and your team's benefit so you can regularly review content that will be retiring. Use this report to identify the content that you used in your custom channels, journeys, dynamic content, promotions, learning programs, or assignments. By reviewing this report on a monthly basis, if a piece of content that is part of one of your major programs will be retiring, you will then have up to a year's notice to let learners know to complete it or change it out for the replacement content.

You can compare the All Content Listing report to a Learner Activity report to see if any learners are in the middle of completing a course that is soon to be retired. If they are, use the email campaigns feature to send them a notification to complete it before the retire date.

To set up a custom report template and schedule:

1. From the left navigation bar, select Analytics and then select the All reports tab.
2. Under the Content section, select the All Content Listing report.
3. Set these filters:
   • Added to Percipio = All time
   • Content status = Pending retirement
4. Select these columns:
   • Area
   • Subject
   • Channel: shows if the retiring item is in a custom channel
   • Content title
   • Journey title: shows if the retiring item is in a custom journey
   • Assignment title: shows if the retiring item is in an assignment or learning program
   • Dynamic content title: shows if the retiring item is in dynamic content
   • Promotion title: shows if the retiring item is in a promotion
   • Container type
   • Asset type
   • Content type
   • Planned retirement date
   • Replacement content ID
   • Replacement content title
   • Replacement content coming
   • Reason for retirement
   • Any other columns you feel necessary for new content
5. From Actions, select Save as new template.
6. Provide a name that makes sense to you. Example: Content pending retirement.
7. From Actions, select Create report schedule.
   • Schedule it for at least a year.
   • Set the frequency for once per month on the first day of the month.
   • Set Report date range to All time.
   • Select to get notified when report is available.
8. If you want, you can share this report with others in your organization so they know when content will be retired.
9. When you get notified that the report is ready, you can further filter on the Planned Retirement Date column for a specific date range to see what retirements are critical for you to address.

If regular monthly maintenance gets away from you, be rest assured that retired content automatically gets removed from your site and does not show to learners, but it does show in reports if there is activity against it. If you need a list of all retired content that was accessed on your site, you can access the Retired Content report.

Best Practice Approach for Program Maintenance

Regular maintenance of content in your learning library is critical to ensure learners are accessing relevant and up-to-date information. Skillsoft provides the following best practice approach to ensuring your programs remain current when library maintenance occurs:

1. Identify content experts and other administrators in your organization who can help with the process and give them reporting and editing permissions.
2. Review the All Content Listing and Content Status report on a monthly basis.
   1. Every month Skillsoft sends a Retiring content email with a link to the Content Status report.
   2. You can set a schedule for the All Content Listing report to appear in your inbox once per month.
3. From the Content Status report, look at the column called: Unique learners accessing. The higher the number, the more learners are engaged with this content. These high yield content items will be the ones you want to look at in detail.
4. For high yield content items, determine where the content is being used. From the All Content Listing report, review the following columns:
   • Channel: shows if the retiring item is in a custom channel
   • Journey title: shows if the retiring item is in a custom journey
   • Assignment title: shows if the retiring item is in an assignment or learning program
   • Dynamic content title: shows if the retiring item is in dynamic content
   • Promotion title: shows if the retiring item is in a promotion
5. If high yield content items are not showing in the columns above, identify where in your ecosystems learners might be accessing them from, such as another LMS, web page, or communication.
6. Run a Learner Activity report to see which learners are still in progress with the content that will be retiring.
7. Notify the learners who are in progress that the content will be retiring and ask them to complete it before the retire date. You can use the email campaign feature in Percipio to send emails using a custom-designed template. If an item retires while a learner is still in progress, they will never be able to complete it because they won't be able to access it any longer.
8. Meanwhile, you will want to update the sources with the identified replacement item, if available. You can find replacement items in the All Content Listing report.
   • You can edit channels, journeys, dynamic content, and promotions and simply replace content. When you edit a channel, journey, dynamic content or promotion, Percipio highlights the retiring content and displays the replacement content for an easy swap.
   • If you want to replace retired content within a published assignment, see Replace retired content. You can replace content in assignments if the assignment is in a draft or scheduled status.
   • If a published learning program contains retiring content, you will not be able to replace the content. Learners will still be able to complete the learning program as the retiring content no longer counts toward completion. You will have to archive the learning program and create a new one if you want to add replacement content. A best practice recommendation is to add a journey to a learning program, because you can edit a journey when content retires and add the replacement content item.
   • If you are using another LMS or system, you will want to work within their system to replace content as required.
9. Keep a record of changes made. You can do this in a spreadsheet or other type of document.

Frequently asked questions