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Adding a Custom Skills Widget

The Skills Widget provides Users with access to their Skills inventory so that they can quickly identify their current and expiring Skills, as well as those that have been newly assigned. Users can also view details related to all of their Skills, including the tasks required to complete an assigned Skill, and the opportunities for applying earned and in-process Skills. To add a custom Skills Widget, do the following. On the Control Panel:

Click on the LearnCenter Design menu to expand it.
Click Widgets.
Click Add Widget.
Select Skills from the Select Widget Type drop-down list.

Type a Name for the Widget.
Type a Description for the Widget.
Select a Status:

Active - to make this Widget available for use in LearnCenter. (Default)
Inactive- to hide this Widget from use in LearnCenter. Use this setting if you are not yet ready to make it available or if you no longer need it.

Click the Content tab.

Determine what displays in the Widget’s mini dashboard by selecting any of the following for Show Skills for Statuses:

Acquired – the Skills a User has already acquired.
Assigned – the Skills a User has been assigned, but has not yet acquired.
Expired – the Skills a User has already acquired but which have expired and need to be re-acquired.

Select any of the following for Show the Following Mapped Item Types for Acquiring and Using a Skill:

Test Instances
Assignments
Courses
Classes
Enrollments
Competencies
Certification Tracks
Job Profiles

You can also indicate which Categories of items you want to include. By default, All Categories is selected. You can manually select categories if you only want to include certain Categories.
Click the Filters tab.

Use the Filters tab to indicate what filters should be made available to assist Users in sorting the information that appears on the Widget.

Select any of the following for Mini Dashboard:

Total Skills - the total number of Skills associated with the User.
Acquired – the number of Skills the Users has acquired.
Assigned – the number of Skills assigned, but not yet acquired by the User.
Expired – the number of Skills that are expired.

From the drop-down list, select which of these will be set as the Default Filter for the page.
Select which Filters for Skills is available for Users:

Name
Description
Category

You may also indicate that you want to Only Show Skills with CE Credits (continuing education credits). By default, this check box is cleared (so that all Skills show, not just those with continuing education credits).
Click the Display tab.

Use the Display tab to customize the field labels and other aspects of the Widget details page.

Type the text you want to display for the Widget Header. This is the heading that displays at the top of the Widget. The default text is "My Skills".

Select one of the following for the Mini Dashboard:

Display - to display the mini dashboard.
Don't Display - to hide the mini dashboard.

Select the Only Display Mini Dashboard when page is opened check box to only display the Mini Dashboard when the Widget page opens. You may prefer to show only the mini dashboard if you have a lot of content on the page where the Widget resides. Selecting any dashboard metric expands the Widget to display the appropriate results. Selecting the metric again collapses the Widget and displays only the mini dashboard.
or
Clear the check box to display the entire Widget when the page opens. (Default)

Select the Default Sort Order for Plans from the drop-down list.

Select one of the following for Default View for Plans:

Card - to indicate you want the default layout for the Widget to appear as the card view. (Default)
List - to indicate you want the default layout for the Widget to appear as the list view.

Indicate which fields will display for Display for Skills Summary by selecting the appropriate check boxes.
(Optional) If you would like any of the field labels to display differently in your output for Users, rest your pointer near the default label and select . A field displays and you can type something else for the label. If you want to return the label to the original default text, click Restore Label. Click the check icon to accept the change, or click the x icon to start over. You cannot change the label for Name or Desicription.
Indicate which fields will display for Display for Skills Details by selecting the appropriate check boxes.
(Optional) If you would like any of the field labels to display differently in your output for Users, rest your pointer near the default label and select . A field displays and you can type something else for the label. If you want to return the label to the original default text, click Restore Label. Click the check icon to accept the change, or click the x icon to start over. You cannot change the label for Skill Name.
Indicate which Tasks you want to display:

List Skills Completed Tasks - to display Skills in which all mapped tasks have been completed.
List Skills Incomplete Tasks - to display Skills in which there are tasks that have not yet been completed.

Display Where Skill Is Used to display on the item detail pages.

(Optional) If your LearnCenter is SSO-enabled and you are planning to embed this Widget on a non-LearnCenter web page, click Embed. See Widget Portability - BETA for complete details on using the Embed tab.
Click Save when you are finished making changes.

What Users See

The following illustrations are examples of how this Widget displays to Users based on what the Admin selected in the Widget setup.

A mini dashboard at the top summarizes a User’s Skills inventory. This dashboard includes:

Skills Total – the total number of Skills associated with the current User.
Assigned – the number of Skills assigned to the current User that are not yet acquired.
Acquired – the number of Skills for which the User completed all required mapped tasks.
Expired – the number of Skills that have expired and need to be re-acquired by completing mapped items.

You can customize which of these items displays on the Widget during the Widget setup.

The Acquired and Expired dates on the Widget are based on the User's time zone, and not the time zone of the server. For example, if a User completed activities required for a Skill and acquired the Skill on October 21st according to the User's time zone, but the time of completion on the server was October 22nd, the User will still see an Acquired date of October 21st. Note that Admins and others viewing this information when not translated to a time zone, such as when viewed from the Control Panel, may see the server date of October 22.

Beneath the dashboard there is a summary list of all Skills, and Users can sort the results either by Skill Name or Status.

Users can also use Filters to further refine the result list. The sorts and filters are customizable during the Widget setup.

In the example above, the Admin set up the filter so that Users can search by Name, Description, or Category keywords.

Users can click each Skill to view further details. Clicking a Skill Name opens another window for viewing the Skill details.

Users can see a list of related Items such as completed and incomplete tasks, and they can get details about where a particular Skill is used within your organization (Certification Tracks, Job Profiles, and Competencies).

The items on the details page are customizable during Widget setup.