SAP Learning Solution and the Collaboration capabilities of SAP NetWeaver

[Former Member]

While attending SAP TechEd06 in Las Vegas, I was asked how SAP Learning Solution integrates with the Collaboration capabilities of SAP NetWeaver. Since this is an excellent example how SAP applications are utilizing Collaboration for business process, I thought I would highlight how Collaboration is used in SAP Learning Solution.

SAP Learning Solution is a Web-based solution that is meant to meet employees' learning needs by providing a learning portal that offers a user interface for employee’s to put together their own training program at anytime or anyplace.

The SAP Learning Solution consists of a learning portal, an authoring environment, and Training Management in the SAP back-end system. Supported roles of SAP Learning Solution include learners, authors or instructional designers, and training administrators.

• The Learning Portal is the employee's or learner’s personalized learning environment. It is seamlessly integrated with the NetWeaver Portal. All of a learner’s learning activities are matched with the mySAP HR data in the back-end system and the learner data is converted to employee data.
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• The Authoring Environment contains tools that enable authors and instructional designers to create course content and tests. Additionally, external authoring tools can be easily integrated into the Authoring Environment.
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• Training Management supports both Web-based and classroom learning methods by providing access to a virtual learning environment via the learning portal. It helps the training administrator to plan and design the course catalog.
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  Did you know that SAP Learning Solution also utilizes the Knowledge Management capabilities of NetWeaver Portal for storing and administering all learning content? This means SAP Learning Solution can take advantage of KM services such as status and version management for learning objects, subscriptions, discussions, workflow, and search capabilities. There is a direct link from the catalog structure to the content stored in Knowledge Management.
  
  
  
  The training administrator is typically responsible for triggering the automatic creation of the collaboration room. One or more Collaboration Rooms can be created for each course of SAP Learning Solution. The room is based on pre-defined templates which define which functions are available in the Collaboration Room. When a learner registers for a course in the Learning Portal, they are automatically registered as a member of the collaboration room. They can now collaborate with others learners signed up for this course.
  
  Functions which can be apart of a Learner’s Collaboration Room include:
  Asynchroneous Collaboration
• Team News - Edit and publish team news to all room members.
• Team Calendar - Schedule meetings and synchronize with calendars of groupware solutions (MS Exchange, Lotus Domino).
• Team Tasks - Create, browse, assign, edit, and track team tasks
• Team Discussion - Share information and exchange ideas, all organized by discussion topics Document Sharing.
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  Synchroneous Collaboration
• Instant Messaging - Create and send instant messages and respond immediately
• Chat - Discuss in real time with multiple users
• Contact List - See whether other portal users are online and available
• Application & Desktop Sharing - Share applications and your desktop from any portal page in real time
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  Of course integration of 3rd party tools via Synchroneous Collaboration Framework (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Windows Messenger, Office Communicator, WebEx) is also possible. For more information please see the SAP Learning Solution and Collaboration Documentation.
  
  Collaboration means bringing learners (portal users and groups of portal users) and applications together to enable wide-ranging communication on the Web. The collaboration room in the Learning Portal of the SAP Learning Solution enables you to set up virtual learner communities where portal users can speedily and efficiently exchange information with one another.A collaboration room is a flexibly structured, virtual working environment suitable for all sorts of tasks. There may be one or more collaboration rooms available for each course.For example, a course can be linked with a collaboration room to enable all participants of the course to be part of a virtual learning group. Learners’ access to the functions of the collaboration room depends upon their roles. When you register for a course to which a collaboration room is assigned, you can display the course and the rooms assigned to it in the Learning Portal under Training Activities.You can enter a room, for example, if you want to communicate with other learners taking the same course, simply by clicking on it. You can also display the collaboration rooms assigned to a course under Collaboration. Access to functions within the Collaboration Room is dependent upon their roles. For example, you can link a course with a collaboration room to enable all participants (role student) of the course to participate in the collaboration room.
  
  It is the training administrator who can assign a collaboration room to a course to enable learners to collaborate with one another. The Training Administrator is typically the one responsible for triggering the automatic creation of collaboration room assigned to specific training based on pre-defined collaboration room templates. This then enables Learners booked to a specific course, who are automatically registered as a member of the assigned collaboration room, to collaborate with others learners signed up for this course. The Training Administrator is typically the one responsible for triggering the automatic creation of collaboration room assigned to specific training based on pre-defined collaboration room templates. This then enables Learners booked to a specific course, who are automatically registered as a member of the assigned collaboration room, to collaborate with others learners signed up for this course.