Create a Custom Certification Path

A certification path is a special type of custom journey that allows you to add exam information and if you want, you can require learners to upload their certification credentials after they get certified. When you create a certification path, you are able to track which learners are certified and which learners are tracking to become certified.

When you want to create a certification path, you use the same process as creating a custom journey. Having all required informational elements organized before you begin to create your certification path makes the four-step process go quickly. See Plan your Custom Journey to ensure you have all elements and review how changes to a journey impacts learners.

To make a journey into a certification path, choose the Journey type of Certification path when you are initially setting up the journey. Alternatively, you can create an aspire journey using AI, then edit the details to make it a Certification path. After you choose Certification path, you have options to:

  • Add exam number, level, and format
  • Pick any theme you want
  • Add as many tracks with as much content and specify action steps.
  • Label tracks with a Milestone type to help learners gauge where they are in the process.
  • Choose whether to require learners to upload certification credentials as the last step in the certification path in order to complete certification.

Skillsoft Certification Paths are only available in English. To offer a Skillsoft Certification Path in more than one language, make a copy of it, add the languages and content you need to the copy, then hide the original. You cannot edit a Skillsoft Certification Path.

Get started

  1. To create a Certification path, from the left navigation bar, select Content, then Journeys. The Custom Journey page displays.
  2. Select the Create Journey button.
  3. You have two options for creating a Certification path:
    1. Create with AI: If you choose this workflow, you answer a series of prompts and then AI creates tracks and suggests content for your custom journey. After you create the journey you can go back and edit it to make it a certification path. Choose this option if want the AI to assist you in writing descriptions and picking out content.
    2. Create on your own: If you choose this workflow, you design and create all tracks for the Certification path yourself.
  4. If you choose to create the journey without AI, select the theme that best meets your journey content design. The four-step process is the same for all themes:
      • With the Simple theme, learners see the journey and all its tracks on a single page and if you add a video, it plays inline. The Simple theme is great for shorter journeys with lots of video content.
      • With the Classic theme, learners see the journey with its list of tracks on one page, but each track opens in a separate page and all content opens in its own player. The Classic theme is great for longer journeys that don't have as many single videos. This is the theme used by Skillsoft Aspire Journeys.
      • With the Concise theme, learners see the journey more in a list format with numbered steps and few images. Each track expands on the page and content opens in its own player. The Concise theme is designed to support your custom certification paths. This theme is used by Skillsoft for its certification paths.

    If you choose to create the journey with AI, the AI builds the journey in the Concise theme by default. You can go back and edit the journey later to choose a different theme.

  1. To make the journey a certification path, choose the Journey type of Certification path when creating on your own. If you create a journey with AI, go back and edit the journey to select the Journey type of Certification path. Specify the additional criteria in support of certification.
  2. At the end of each step, you can Cancel without saving changes, Save as draft to continue at a later time, or move onto the Next step.
Note: If you need to preview or test your certification path prior to publishing it to its intended audience, create an audience of reviewers and target the certification path to the reviewer audience first. See Target Journey to Audience below for more details.

Create a Certification path on your own

Percipio includes a stepped process to guide you through creating your certification path.

  1. Describe your journey: In this step, specify the title and description of the certification path, chose an image and library location so the learner can find it, select whether learners can earn a custom Digital Badge or must upload credentials, and specify in which languages learners can access the certification path.
    • Choose your theme. You can view a sample theme to get an understanding of how each theme shows to learners. You can switch your theme at any time by editing the journey.
    • Percipio limits titles to 1024 characters and descriptions to 740,000 characters. We recommend the shorter the better.
    • We recommend that you make your journey and track titles short and succinct so they fit on your custom digital badges if you use them instead of credentials. The shorter the titles and descriptions the easier it is for learners to understand. Percipio does not limit the number of characters on titles or descriptions.
    • JPEG, PNG, or GIF images should use a 16x9 aspect ratio (for example, 1920x1080px) and be sized no more than 300KB. If you do not have a custom image, you can select a royalty-free one from the image gallery or use the default Percipio image.
    • To add a language, from the Language drop down, select Manage languages, then select the desired languages. For each language chosen, you must provide relevant translations for titles and descriptions and complete required fields.
    • To help you identify courses in a local language that you can add to a journey language view, you can see Find a course in a different language or use the All content listing report and filter on the English Equivalent Title column for the English title you are using.
    • You cannot move to step 2 until all required fields are specified for all selected languages.
    • You can only add or remove languages to a journey in this step.
    • For the Journey type field, specify Certification path. When you specify Certification path, learners can filter search results on Certification path to find it. In addition, the Certification path type provides additional fields for you to enter information about an exam and certification credentials and track milestones. These fields are:
      • Logo: If this is a certification body like Microsoft or AWS, you can find their logo an upload it here. If this a custom corporate certification such as Sale Training, add your own logo. This is an optional field and displays to learners on the certification path landing page.
      • Exam number: Many certification bodies have their own exam number schema. Enter the exam number the learner will take to become certified. This is an optional field and displays to learners on the certification path landing page.
      • Exam level: Many certification bodies have their own exam level schema. Enter the exam level the learner will take to become certified. This is an optional field and displays to learners on the certification path landing page.
      • Exam format: Many certification bodies have their own exam format. Enter the exam format the learner will take to become certified. This is an optional field and displays to learners on the certification path landing page.
      • Digital Credentials: In this section you specify whether the learner earns a Digital badge for completing the certification path or whether you will require them to upload their certification credential after they pass their exam. If you select Proof of certification, learners will be required to enter a URL to a digital badge or upload a .pdf as proof of certification outside of Percipio. This step will be required for journey completion and will display below all other required tracks. If you select Digital Badges, learners earn a digital badge upon completing all tracks in the certification path:
    • The Journey source functions the same as Content Source. Select a Content source from the list or enter a new value. We suggest you use the type ahead feature to avoid replicating an existing entry. Content Source is who owns the intellectual property; it is not the platform where the item resides, such as YouTube or SharePoint. Skillsoft uses source to distinguish brands and partner content like Wintellect and GoFluent. If you have the permission to manage content types and source values enabled, you can add new values to this field. If that permission is not enabled, you must pick from existing values for this field.By default, the value specified in Organization name is associated as a content source for your custom content, dynamic content, journeys, and live courses. You do not need to specify the Organization name in this field in order for learners to use the Organization name as a Content source filter on the search results page, but you must specify something as described above.
    • If you want the learner to earn a certificate of completion when they complete the journey, ensure the option: Learners earn a certificate of completion for completing this journey is checked. It is on by default if you have the site setting for completion certificates enabled. If you do not want the learner to earn a certificate of completion when they complete the specific journey, uncheck the option: Learners earn a certificate of completion for completing this journey. If you do not see the option that allows learners to earn a certificate of completion for completing this journey, turn on the site setting for completion certificates.
  2. Build your journey: This is where you build out your certification path structure. A certification path can have up to three parts: Introductory (optional content), Tracks (required content) and Related Content (optional content). Within each part, you create one or more sections or tracks, which you then populate with either Skillsoft or custom content items. Each track or section displays as a content strip to the learner.
    NOTE: Before adding any Skillsoft content to your custom journey, check the All Content Listing report to ensure items you want to include are not retiring soon. If you add items that get retired at a later date, they are automatically removed from the journey and no longer count toward completion.
    • By default, learners can complete a certification path in any order. You can choose whether you want to require learners to complete the certification path in the order you specify. When you require paths to be completed in a specified order, the next content item or track is not available until the previous one is completed. Learners can still expand tracks to see what is next, but they won't be able to launch the next content item until the previous content or track is complete. This ensures that learners progress through the material in a structured manner. You can choose between two options for requiring content to be taken in a specified order:
      • Tracks must be completed in the display order specified; content contained in each track can be completed in any order.
      • Tracks and the content contained in each track must be completed in the display order specified.
    • Make sure the appropriate language is selected before adding sections or tracks and making content selections.
    • For each language you selected, you must specify content for each track before you can move onto step 3.
    • You can add more tracks (click Add a track) or remove unwanted tracks at any time (click delete icon, white x in a red ciricle in the track). A best practice is to add no more than 15 items to each individual track, but there is no limit to the number of items you can add.
    • Each language option does not need to have the same number of tracks, the same number of introductory or related content sections, or even the same amount of content within each track or section.
    • You can add content in any language to any language view. For example, if you are creating an English UK journey view so learners in the UK using that site language see the journey, you can search for and add English US content to the UK journey so the UK users have a similar experience to your English US learners. Likewise, you can add an English US course to a Spanish language journey view and allow the learners to use translated closed captions to view the English US course with translated subtitles..
    • Images should be in a 16x9 aspect ratio, be less than 300KB, and be 1920x1080px.
    • We recommend that you make your track titles short and succinct so they fit on your custom digital badges. The shorter the titles and descriptions the easier it is for learners to understand. Percipio limits titles to 1024 characters and descriptions to 740,000 characters.
    • When selecting a content item to add to a track, notice the collections listed for that item. Content items can exist in more than one collection. Your learners need to be assigned to at least one of those collections through license distribution if you want learners to be able to see and complete that item in the track.
    • If learners are not assigned to a collection containing the content item selected for a track, learners do not see that item in the track.
    • Learners can complete the track and the journey without access to all content items.
    • You can add custom content and Live Courses (ILT) to a custom journey.
    • For the Introduction and Related content sections:
      • These sections are optional and are there for the learner to reference before, during and after going through the journey. Items display as a strip of content cards above/below the Tracks part in the order specified.
      • You can define multiple Introductory and Related content sections for an individual journey. Each section can have up to 15 items.
      • You have the option to add customized text, called a Rich text block, that displays in a new browser tab when the learner clicks the image block associated with it. You can add formatted text, images, tables, and hyperlinks in the Rich text block.
    •  You can remove a section or track at any time by clicking the remove button delete icon, white x in a red ciricle. When you remove a section or a track all content within that section or track is also removed from the journey.

    • For any track, in addition to adding content, you can add an Action link. An Action link lets you specify something the learner must do such as go out to a website and register for an exam. When you add an action link, you specify the URL, a title the learner sees as the action and a description. You can add any other instructions within the description. This allows you to guide the learner to complete an action outside of Percipio in order to complete the journey.

    • Because you selected Certification Path as the Journey type in step 1, you must specify a Milestone type for the track. This helps the learner mark significant achievement. These milestones also display in analytics and help surface insights on your learners’ progress. Your options are:
      • Learning: Select this milestone when the learners' main focus is on understanding concepts and gaining knowledge of how to apply the concepts prior to them engaging in hands-on practice. You might select this when content in a track are courses, videos, and books.
      • Practicing: Select this milestone when the learners' main focus is on applying or practicing the concepts and knowledge they previously learned. You might select this when content in a track contains labs, practice exams, or AI simulations.
      • Obtaining: Select this milestone when the learners' main focus is on obtaining vouchers and scheduling an exam or applying for certification. You might select this when you add an action link to a track that the learner needs to follow to complete certification.
  3. Target journey to audience: In this step, you have the option to make your journey available only to a specific audience; otherwise, it is visible to all learners on your Percipio site.
    • The audience must be defined for it to appear in the list. See Create a New Audience if you do not see the one you want.
    • If you do not select an audience, the custom journey displays to all learners via the All users audience.
    • For the learners of an audience to be able to complete all items in a track, the audience must be assigned to the collections containing those items.
    • If learners in an audience are not assigned to a collection containing the content item selected for a track, learners do not see that item in the track.
    • Learners can complete the track and the journey without access to all content items.
    • You cannot target your journey to an individual, only a defined audience.
    • If you need for others to review a journey before the intended audience sees it, create a new audience of the designated reviewers and add only that audience. After the reviewers approve the journey, you can remove them from this step and add the intended audience by editing your published journey.
    • If you have the role of content coordinator you cannot target a journey to an audience. Save the journey as a draft and notify a site admin or content curator.
  1. Review and publish journey: In this final step, you have the option to review and edit any section of the certification path before you publish it, edit the audiences, and check to ensure learners are licensed to access the content in the certification path.

    2. Note: Check that targeted learners have access to all collections for content added to the journey. Use license distribution to assign collections. If a learner does not have access to a content item within a journey, they do not see that content item. Learners can complete the track or the journey without access to all content items.
    • Select View Details to see the collections associated with the content selected for the journey.
      • Select Download journey content list to generate a CSV file of all the journey's content and within what collection it is located.
    • Check that targeted learners have access to all collections for content added to the journey. Use license distribution to assign collections.
    • If a learner does not have access to a content item within a journey, they do not see that content item. Learners can complete the track or the journey without access to all content items.
    • Review how your track and journey titles display in your custom Digital Badges. If a title appears too long, select Edit Digital Badge Titles and modify the title to fit the badge. When you modify a title, it does not change the actual title displayed in the user interface.

Create a Certification path with AI

The platform includes a stepped process to guide you through creating your journey with AI.

  1. Journey definition: In this step, answer the prompts about the details of your journey. Be as specific as possible. The AI uses your responses to create the outline and generate your journey content.

    Follow the tips below for answering each of the required fields:

    • How would you describe the journey you are creating? In this field, give a brief description of the journey. This should include the main topic of focus for learners completing the journey.

    • What should learners be able to do after completing the journey? In this field, state the main learning objectives of the journey. The AI uses your responses to this question to create specific tracks and associated learning objectives for your journey.

    • What are the job roles this journey targets? In this field, list the job roles of learners that you plan to take this journey. Your answer to the question helps the AI tailor content to the correct audience and expertise level.

    • What are the key milestones your learners will achieve while taking this journey? In this field, list specific skills that learners should gain by completing the journey. These should be smaller skills or learning objectives that support your main goals for the journey.

    • What tools or technologies would you like included in this journey? In this field, list specific applications or platforms that learners may need proficiency in to master the topics in the journey. Examples of this may include communication platforms such as Slack or Zoom, productivity tools such as Excel, or project management tools such as Jira or Confluence.

    • What language would you like this journey created in? Choose a language for your journey to be created in. You can create translations for your journey later from the edit view.

    • Select your preferred content modalities in rank order. Select the given modalities in descending order of how many of each you want included in the journey. Note, you do not need to select all modalities. Note that Attend is not available during beta. Modalities available and the types of content that comprise them include:

      • Watch: courses and videos.
      • Read: books, book summaries, and any other articles or blogs that your organization might add.
      • Listen: audiobooks, audio summaries and podcasts that your organization might add.
      • Practice: labs and CAISY AI simulations.
      • Assess: Skill Benchmarks.

  2. Journey outline: In this step, you review the AI generated outline for your journey. The outline includes titles and descriptions for the journey and each track, and the learning objectives associated with each track. Edit any of the outline details you need before moving on to the next step.

    You can edit the following elements of your journey outline:

    • Journey title and description: The journey title and description show at the top of the page. Review these fields and select the edit icon to make any changes to the text in these fields.
    • Track titles and descriptions: Review the titles and descriptions of each of the tracks. Select the edit icon to make changes to the text in any of these fields.
    • Reorder tracks: Use the up and down arrows on the left side of a track to move it up or down one place in the journey. Select and drag the 6-dot icon to move the track anywhere in the journey.
    • Remove a track: If you feel a track is unneeded for the goals of the journey you can remove it. To remove a track, select the remove icon next to that track.
    • Add a track: To add a new track, select Add track outline. Complete the required fields.
    • Edit learning objectives: Review the learning objectives for each track. To remove a learning objective, select the remove icon . To add a new learning objective, select Add a learning objective. Type out the new objective and select the save icon .
    • Show skills: To view the skills associated to the learning objectives in each track, turn on the Show skills toggle switch. Note, you cannot edit the skills or skill levels, but if you edit the learning objectives of a track, the skills update based on your changes. You must turn off the Show skills toggle switch to make changes to a track's learning objectives.
    • Show skills progression view: If you turn on Show skills, you have the option to Show skills progression view. Skills progression shows how individual skills progress throughout the journey. Use this view to map skill growth from beginner to advanced levels across multiple learning tracks.

  3. Map content: In this step, you review and edit the content items that AI has mapped to your journey tracks. Currently, AI only maps Skillsoft content, not custom content. You can manually add custom content to any track. In the future, AI will also map custom content.

    You can edit the following elements of your content map:

    • Add introduction: You can add an optional introductory section for your learners that contains any materials that may be helpful for completing the journey such as prerequisites. To add an introduction, select Add introductory section. Give the section a title and then add content or text. Select Finish adding section to journey.
    • Remove a track: If you decide the content in a track in not necessary for the overall objectives of the journey, you can remove it. To remove a track, select the remove icon next to the track.
    • Reorder tracks: Use the up and down arrows on the left side of a track to move it up or down one place in the journey. Select and drag the 6-dot icon to move the track anywhere in the journey.
    • Add a track: To add a new track, select Add track outline. Complete the required fields and add content, the select Finish adding track.
    • Edit track title and description: To the edit the title or description for any track, select the edit icon . Make any changes to the title or description fields. Select Finish editing track to save your changes.
    • Add a thumbnail image to a track: To add an image that displays in the content card of a track, select the edit icon from the track. Browse from images on your device or select Choose an image from gallery to see available options.
    • Remove content from a track: To remove a content item from a track, select the edit icon from the track, then select the remove icon from the content you want to remove.
    • Reorder content in a track: To reorder the content in a track, select the edit icon from the track. Use the up and down arrows on the left side of a content item to move it up or down one place. Select and drag the 6-dot icon to move it anywhere in the track.
    • Add a content item to a track: To add either a custom content item or a Skillsoft content item to a track, select the edit icon from the track, then select Add content from library. Search for and add content from your Skillsoft library, then select Add content.
    • Add a link to a track: You may want to add a link to an external resource as part of a track. To do this, select the edit icon from the track and select Add new action link. Fill in the required fields and select Add to Journey.
    • Add related content: You may want to add content that is related to the journey but that you do not want to be required for learners to complete. This may include books that would take too long to read as part of the journey but would supplement the user's learning. To add related content, select Add related content section. Give the section a title and add content, then select Finish adding section to journey.

  4. Finish and publish journey: In this step, you review all the details of your journey before moving on to publish it to learners.

    To finalize your journey:

    • You can edit the following elements of your journey:

      • Title and description: To edit the title or description of your journey, select the edit icon . Make any changes and select the save icon .
      • Edit a track: To edit any of the details of track including its title, description, image, or content, select the edit icon next to the track. Make any necessary changes, then select Finish editing track.
    • You cannot add, remove, or reorder tracks at this step of your create process. If you need to make changes to your track structure you must return to the previous step.
    • You must save your journey to a Library location before you can publish.
    • Final details: Review the AI-generated details in this section before publishing your journey. Select Edit to change any of the information in a field. Be sure to select Save to save any changes you make.
      • Journey source: Use the journey source to inform learners about who created the journey or where the content originated from.
      • Digital credentials: Choose whether learners can earn digital badges and/or Certificates of Completion for completing the journey.
      • Completion criteria: Choose if learners must complete the journey content in order.
      • Target audience: By default, the journey is published to the All Users audience, but you can choose to publish it so that only selected audiences see it.
      • Library location: You must select an area and subject for your journey before you can publish it to your Percipio site.
  1. Once your journey has been created with AI, save it as a draft.
  2. From the Journey page, locate your new journey. From the Actions menu , select Edit.
  3. In the Journey type field, select Certification path from the drop down. The journey automatically updates to include Certification path elements.
  4. Fill in the additional fields with Certification path details:
    • Choose a vendor logo
    • Upload a custom logo
    • Exam number
    • Exam level
    • Exam format

After you publish a journey, it is available for consumption by the learners who are targeted. You are also presented with an option to add the journey to a Learning Program. A learning program is a way for a group of learners called a cohort to move through a learning experience together. You can track the progress of each cohort separately through the learning program and send customized notifications to each cohort.

For more information on Learning Programs, see Learning Programs.

Note: It may take several minutes for the journey to display in the library and search results.