An open letter to openSAP
Dear openSAP,
I’m a developer and a learning enthusiast. I try to utilize free learning opportunities as much as possible because learning is the only sustainable way of progress. You would be pleased to know that I’m among those who were early adopters of this course when it started with “Development on HANA”. I’ve also shared my views with the community and you can find them with some navigation skills on this portal.
I attended SAP TechEd Bangalore this year and could see how much of SAP’s road map revolved around SAP Cloud Platform and I couldn’t get more excited as I knew what was being talked about. A part of this was because I was regular with the “SAP CP Essentials” course offered by you just during the same time period. Unfortunately, I could not complete the course because I had to plan for my travel and agenda at TechEd. Yesterday, I received an email from you saying, “I’ve received certificate of participation” and a general statement that to get a record of achievement (ROA) I’ve to reactivate the course by paying 39 Euros.
Let me tell you that in the geographical location I belong to, one INR (India Rupee) equals 0.013 EUR. It effectively means that the course which was once free with ROA is too costly to get an ROA after a certain time in India. I do respect the fact that learning is still free without ROA. Whenever a discussion on learning comes up in the community, openSAP’s name is inevitable.
Other options like SAP training and SAP Press books are already costly to an extent that it takes conscious saving for availing either of these and similar is with the other latest options provided. I would request you to let us know what goes behind to fix the cost of ROA in an openSAP course. Do you consider the world wide community before fixing the price? It would also be great if you could analyze and possibly share the below question:
a) Where are your greatest attendees from? How many of these who could not complete the course on time, get an ROA by buying it? What %age of these are from lower economy?
I would rest my case if you say that many in India pay for an ROA. The point is, I’m not saying to make it free but as you consider different time zones in the course, why can’t you also consider the currency conversion factor while fixing the price of reactivation code? Thanks!
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Kumud,
Thank you for taking time out of your weekend to raise this important point. I’ll take the time to explain so please bear with me on this.
When we started openSAP, there was only the option to earn the RoA during the scheduled times and reactivation was not an option. We completely understand that our learners have busy lives and might not have time to complete each assignment or final exam – and there are a variety of reasons like vacation, TechEd, SAPPHIRE, illness, helping children with homework, family illnesses etc etc. We wanted to make it possible for our users to have a bit of flexibility but it was important that we didn’t lose learners in our scheduled sessions – this would really lose the value of discussion forums and the deadlines would end up without a purpose – the openSAP MOOC would not survive and it would just be another e-learning that suffers from procrastination.
So, we came up with the solution that we add a “minimal charge*” – one that is low enough to afford but not too low that discourages people to join the course as it runs. But you’re right, depending on your location and currency, minimal has a completely different meaning. The payment solution is via SAP Store as we don’t have the ability to take payments on our site and the price was set in € as a basis. We do run promotions from time to time where it’s 50% off to try and make it affordable (and we have another one coming in November), but this is probably still a lot of money when it’s converted to Rupees.
Let me go back to the team this week and start a discussion with SAP Store about options for currency conversions there to see what is possible to make it feasible for learners around the globe, not only in India. I will come back to you after those discussions with an update (of course, I can’t make concrete promises but I will do my best).
Thanks for raising this topic with us and stay tuned for an update.
Have a nice weekend!
Kind regards,
Claire
*You can find the cost of other MOOC provider certificates in this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2016/09/06/4-ways-to-take-classes-on-the-cheap/#3c4765e95f8f
Please note: All learning content is always available free of charge on openSAP and if you complete assignments and final exam during the scheduled course dates, earning a Record of Achievement remains completely free of charge.
Thank You Claire and I understand your view. Thanks for considering the request. I'm hopeful that many of us will be able to reactivate few of the courses!
Regards,
Kumud
It is a great idea to charge a minimal amount for reactivating the RoA hence get more learners during scheduled sessions. But, I agree with Kumud, 39 euros is not really minimal.
Thanks Mithun for sharing your views!
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Kumud,
Thanks for your patience. We’ve been evaluating the prices a lot over the past 2.5 weeks and we have worked closely with our colleagues at SAP Store. We need to continue working on a permanent solution but we do have an interim solution to offer, which we hope satisfies the needs of our learners in emerging economies.
As mentioned previously, we had planned promotion on our reactivation codes and this is planned to start next Monday, November 20. Globally, this will be with a 50% discount but for India and some other countries, this will be a discount of 80%.
The promotion runs from next Monday, November 20 until December 8. While we search for a permanent solution with our responsible colleagues, we will continue a 60% discount in India and some other countries and 25% in non-Euro countries (until at least December 31).
We will continue to find a permanent solution but hopefully this temporary measure will help.
Kind regards,
Claire
Thanks Claire. This is highly appreciated. If I may suggest on the "minimum" amount for code reactivation, one of the ways would be to fix x%age (the percentage your team decides) of the average salary of a developer depending on the region to bring uniformity of the amount charged. You would have to judge considering also the people who have just started with the SAP world!
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Claire,
Is any permanent solution being thought for ROA activation. I saw the page today and it still has the same rates.
Thanks!
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Kumud,
I've reached out to my colleague who is working with the pricing team. I know they had reviewed the prices but I don't know the exact date that it is planned to go-live. As soon as I get that information, I will share it with you!
Kind regards,
Claire
Hi Kumud,
There is a meeting next week and I'll get an update afterwards so please stay tuned.
Kind regards,
Claire
Hi Kumud,
We've arranged a price of 1500 INR for India. This is now available on the store.
I hope this helps!
Kind regards,
Claire
Hi Claire,
I consider this a good move. I also hope that the pricing team would consider other online courses like Udemy and arrive at a more optimized pricing. Thanks!
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Kumud,
there is no much value in RoA. I doubt that recruiters know what RoA is and looking for one. Just active a course without RoA and take it for free.
Regards, Uladzislau
Hi Uladzislau,
I agree with you. I don't need an ROA for recruiters or anyone else. I think it would be for myself when I analyze my learning curve. I definitely agree with you that silently taking the course is good option but just in case I want to measure my learning curve, ROA and giving the final exam gives a sense of being tested in some ways! Thanks!
Regards,
Kumud
Thanks Kumud for taking care. Ruppees and Reais earner are unfortunately in the same boat.
I second Uladzislau Pralat in his opinion that - although a Good Indicator - the Record Of Achievements (RoA) doesn't seem like a huge Asset that you can "monitise" ... (or not yet anyway)
So I would also suggets you build up your Knowledge and your Portfolio with these OpenSAP courses, either in 'Active' mode or 'Selfpaced' ...
Having a Broad mind and (sometimes little more than Basic) Knowledge on new SAP Technologies, because you were eager to learn, is the REAL ASSET you can Promote in your CV / Career.
True and I agree with him as well with some justification behind ROA.
Regards,
Kumud
I think value really depends on the market that you are in.
Certification may not be valued in some countries but without it in others you have little chance of an interview. OpenSAP courses can be one of those things that people want the achievement to include on applications as demonstration of their willingness to acquire new skills.
I was under the impression the reactivation fee was to cover administrative costs in people being available to support the learners. Now comments in this post claim it's to be a bit of a deterrent in studying the course outside of the planned timeframes
The challenge of planned time frames is that the location you are in can have completely different idle or busy periods. As a result, you may find when a popular course is scheduled that you are close to a major deliverable.
As a slight tangent, SAP Press books are in a similar category. Suggestions are made in the careers tag for members to purchase the book. Quite a few members have commented that they couldn't afford the book after a currency conversion. A bit unfair if you are not located in a country with a good Euro conversion rate.
At this point I'm a bit confused by the nature of this fee. This page also claims that the fee is "to encourage learners to continue joining openSAP courses during the scheduled runtime". But even for the US EUR 39 (45 USD) is not a negligible amount for an "encouragement fee".
If this is the issue of recovering the cost (e.g. actual people need to do something) then it's a different matter. Not sure why it'd be needed though... The courses where peer review is necessary are not eligible anyway and for the rest the tests should be automated. So what does a person do that can't be done by a script?
I agree that a certificate could have limited usefulness. But considering that opensap courses usually take quite a bit of time to complete, it'd be nice to have something to put on the wall, as a result.
Jelena Perfiljeva
I paraphrased and inferred based on statement:
"Our aim is to support learners who could not complete the course during the scheduled run time to earn a Record of Achievement, without affecting the experience of a live course."
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/10/20/opensap-course-reactivation-option-now-general-release/
Thanks Colleen for sharing your views. openSAP has said that they would come back with some justification or reduction of cost. Thanks!
Regards,
Kumud
Good point to raise Kumud. Few points to consider as a reference for OpenSap.
1. SAPPress and many other publishers release lower priced editions to be sold exclusively in Indian subcontinent.
2. Udemy has different pricing based on PPP in different countries.
Thanks Krishna for your insights here. Definitely helpful!
Regards,
Kumud
Hey Claire and Kumud,
good that you both pointed out that this fee is applicable only if you fail to complete in the given time - if you're in the timeframe, everything is still free.
And interesting to learn the background to this.
If it wasn't for this detail, I would have been afraid that SAP is now trying to directly monetize the user base it build on OpenSAP over the last years!
I hope find a good solution!
best
Joachim