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SkillPort 6.0 User Guide
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SkillPort Features

Home Page

The Home page appears when you login to SkillPort. It presents summary information to help you develop your individualized learning plan and track your progress. You can access all of SkillPort's various features and learning resources from this page. Along the left side is a Short Cuts menu that provides access to SkillPort features and informational pages related to your e-learning program. The SEARCH-and-LEARN^tm feature is located at the top of the screen. The My Plan section contains links to the learning events that have been added to your formal learning plan, either by you or by your training administrator. The My Favorites area is where you can store links to certain types of learning event, such as SkillBriefs, Job Aids, and books, for quick access. The My Report section contains information regarding the number of courses you have started and completed. The Company News scrolling list displays links to various topics relating to news and learning events relevant to your company. Below is an example of a typical SkillPort Home page.

Note: Depending on how your SkillPort site is configured, some of the options described in the following sections may not be available to you.

Available Courses

SkillPort presents learning events in an expandable Available Courses. Depending upon the size of your course library, the SkillPort Available Courses may contain thousands of learning events, including:

Courses	Job Aids	Mentoring objects
SkillBriefs	TestPrep exams	Express Guides
Simulations	Custom content	Course evaluations

Note: SkillBriefs and Job Aids are available from the Course summary page. Mentoring objects, if available for your organization, appear in the Certification View.

Learning events are organized into curricula that keep related subjects together. The curricula are organized by subject-matter, represented by a folder icons that contain additional sub-categories or the actual learning events. As you select a category, the contents of the selected item are displayed in the Available Courses.

To view the contents of the Available Courses, click through the Available Courses hierarchy. A breadcrumb trail at the top of the course information panel will show you where you are. You can also click the View Expanded Available Courses link to see the entire Available Courses, however, this may take some time to display, depending on the amount of content you have access to.

To access a learning event, click the hyperlink title text next to the icon.

To quickly search for a specific learning event, you can also use SEARCH-and-LEARN

Certification View

SkillSoft's IT skills and business skills library offer content mappings to the professional certification programs of a number of vendors, including Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA.

The Certification View, available in the Available Courses, allows you to see SkillSoft's content organized by vendor certification and by vendor exam. You can use it to easily pinpoint the available content that will help you prepare for certification. The Certification View also offers brief overviews of the required and elective portions of each certification within the Available Courses, enabling you to determine where to most appropriately direct your efforts.

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SEARCH-and-LEARN

Use SEARCH-and-LEARN™ to quickly find information on a specific subject using keyword searches. You can search for all the different learning event types available on SkillPort, including courses, individual topics, simulations, books, SkillBriefs, and Job Aids.

Using SEARCH-and-LEARN

1. In the SEARCH-and-LEARN panel, type a keyword or phrase in the Search for field. 
2. Select a learning event category from the Category drop-down list. Alternatively, you can search all content categories.
3. If content in more than one language is available to you, choose a language from the Language drop-down list.
4. Click Search.
5. The search results appear below the SEARCH-and-LEARN panel. If you searched for all categories, the results will be grouped by category. The results will be ordered according to relevance, as indicated by a thermometer icon .

Refining your search

You can refine your search by

• clicking a learning event title to display a summary page for that event.
• clicking the View more ... link to display more search results for a particular category

Do a related search

1. After doing an initial search in SEARCH-and-LEARN, click a learning event title in the search results.
2. The learning event summary page appears in the main pane on the right and the other search results are shown as a list on the left.
3. Click the Related Search button to display a list of learning events that relate to the event you have selected.

For example, if you do a search on the word "programming", SEARCH-and-LEARN will likely return a list of events relating to a number of different programming languages. If you select one of those learning events, say a course on Java, and then do a related search, only learning events about Java will be returned.

Note: Once you have performed a related search, the Related Search button will not reappear until you have opened the summary page of another learning event.

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My Plan

My Plan contains items that are part of your formal learning program. You, your training administrator, or your manager can add learning events to your My Plan and assign them a goal and a completion date.

• The My Plan Display can appear empty - with a user prompt to click and get help assigning courses to your plan.
• My Plan contains only items that have scores tracked by SkillPort, such as courses, simulations, Test Prep exams, and custom courses.
• The My Plan Display lists items by: "Learning Event" title, "Due" date, "Assigned" check (appears when an administrator or manager assigned the course to you)
• You can click the button beside the learning event name to launch it directly.
• You can click the title to access a summary page where you can view details about the learning event.
• Learning events that your administrator assigned to a user group to which you belong are displayed separately from events that were assigned to you directly and from events that you assigned to yourself.

Adding learning events to My Plan

1. Find a learning event by browsing the Available Courses or by specifying a word or phrase using SEARCH-and-LEARN.
2. Click the name of the learning event that you want to add to your plan.
3. In the learning event summary page, click Add this Course to My Plan. You will be presented with a Details dialog that permits you to enter Due Date, Goal, and Reminder information.
4. Click the Submit button.

The learning event is now listed under My Plan.

Adding folders to My Plan

You can add folders to My Plan in which you can store related learning events.

1. In My Plan, click the Add New Folder to My Plan button.

2. In the Add to My Plan page, type a name in the Folder field.

3. Enter a goal and select a due date for the folder.

4. Select the appropriate email reminder option.

5. Click the Submit button.

The new folder should now be listed under My Plan.

Adding learning events to a folder

1. Find the summary page for the learning event, either by browsing the Available Courses or by using SEARCH-and-LEARN.
2. Click Add to My Plan.
3. In the Select Folder page, click the Select this Folder link next to the name of the folder.
4. Enter the goal, due date, and email reminder.
5. Click Submit.

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My Favorites

My Favorites is an area where you can store links to certain types of learning event for quick access. It supports SkillBriefs, Job Aids, and books - learning events that are considered part of your informal learning and do not have scores tracked by SkillPort.

You can click the button to launch the learning event directly, or click the title of the event to view its summary page.

Adding an item to My Favorites

1. Select a learning event by going to the Available Courses tab or by specifying a word or phrase using SEARCH-and-LEARN.
2. Select the learning event you wish to add to your favorites by clicking on the underlined name of the event.
3. Click Add to My Favorites.
4. Click the Close this Window button.
5. Click the Home page tab.

The learning event now appears under My Favorites.

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My Report

My Report displays a record of all your learning event activity. Your Learner Records Progress Report indicates your status with items currently in your learning plan, as well as those completed in the past and no longer part of your plan.

A summary of your report is shown in the My Report panel on the Home page. Click the Take me to detailed reports ... button or the My Report  shortcut to view the full report.

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Customizing SkillPort

You can customize the following aspects of SkillPort:

Update your User Profile

This option lets you update your User Profile which includes your name, email, and password information.

Configure Language Settings

This allows you to choose the language in which the SkillPort site appears. You can also choose a language preference for search results that will override your company's default language for the site.

Personalize your Shortcuts

This option lets you personalize which Shortcuts appear in the Shortcuts list as well as the order they appear.

 

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