Maintenance of Certifications

Maintenance of certifications (MOC) provides a method of managing the expiration and renewal of certifications. This is handled through the creation and management of maintenance windows generated after a user has earned a certification.

Maintenance is determined by a setting on individual certifications. Once an MOC enabled certification has been earned by a learner, a certification window is generated. Windows describe the length of time that the certification is valid for that user. It can also include the criteria needed to maintain an up to date certification.  Each window can have the following statuses

In progress: MOC criteria is not yet complete on the current window

Ready for review: Only applies when all MOC review is enabled on a certification. All MOC criteria for the window has been completed and the window is ready for review.

Maintained: All MOC criteria has been completed. If MOC review is enabled then it also means that the window has passed review.

Expired: The window's duration has passed without achieving the Maintained status.

Upcoming: A window that will turn active once the current window has expired

Maintained (Previous): A status for past windows where maintenance was achieved but they have exceeded their duration. 

Below is an overview of the MOC workflow which is a continuation of the workflow chart on the  Certification article.

Enabling MOC

During certificate creation select the Maintenance tab and engage the toggle. This will reveal the maintenance fields.

Duration: Dictates the amount of time for each maintenance window

Maintenance criteria: The criteria that must be completed for a window to be maintained. Criteria is optional for an MOC window and is not required. Like certification level criteria, the maintenance criteria can be associated to the completion of content in the app or it can be left to manual reviews to determine completion. Criteria not associated to content will always require approval while criteria associated to content can optionally require approval. Also like certification level criteria, maintenance level criteria can be gated, rearranged in the list, and auto assigned.

See the attempt review section in the certification article for more information on auto assigning criteria.

In the detail of MOC criteria there is an Attempts table. This table only shows the attempts that were made during that MOC window. Progress on criteria content is always reset when a new window is generated. You may see attempt numbers that don't start at 1 if a user has completed the content before the window was generated.

Maintenance review - Require approval: Adds a review step after all criteria has been completed. After the review is confirmed then the window can reach the Maintained status. Criteria requiring review may also receive reviews for each attempt.

See the attempt review section in the certification article for more information on attempt reviews.

Enabling maintenance on an existing certification: If certifications have been created prior to the activation of the MOC feature in the tenant you can still activate MOC on those certifications. Doing so produces a unique radio field in the duration card where you'll need to select when the MOC start date begins. You can either select the current day or the date that the certification was awarded to each learner.

• Today: This selection only affects learners who have already earned the certification and sets the start date to the current day. Learners who earn the certification in the future will get start dates on the day they earn it.
• Date awarded: The start date for all learners including those who have already earned the certification will be the date they earned the certification.

Saving: Once you save the creation form any learners who earn or have earned the certification will gain a maintenance window based on the settings.

• !Note: Maintenance cannot be disabled on a certification once it is enabled and the form is saved.

Maintenance Windows

Initial states: When a learner earns a certification a maintenance window is generated with a duration and criteria determined by the settings in the maintenance tab of the certification. The window will then follow one of the routes shown in the flowchart above.

When all requirements are met and the window enters the Maintained status a new window is immediately generated with a status of Upcoming.

• Note: It may take some time for the window status to update after criteria is completed.

End states: When the end date of a maintenance window passes the previously maintained window gains a status of Maintained (Previous) and the Upcoming window becomes the current window with an In progress status.

If maintenance was not achieved the current window will instead enter the Expired status

Progress: Progress on any content that is in the criteria of the outgoing window is reset if that content is also in the criterion of the incoming (now In progress) window. This mechanic allows for repeated training over time using the same content. Progress for the same content is not carried over between windows.

If a window expires, any progress made on remaining criteria while it is expired will not be reflected in the window. If the window duration is extended such that it is no longer expired, then the progress will recalculate and any progress made while the window was expired will be applied to the now In progress window.

Navigation: Learners accumulate multiple windows over time. You can switch between them using the dropdown in the upper left area of the upper Maintenance progress card.

Editing MOC

Editing the Maintenance tab in a certification detail: All fields except for the MOC toggle can be edited.

• Criteria: Adjustments to the criteria are applied to windows at the In Progress, Ready for approval, Upcoming, and Expired statuses. Windows at the Maintained or Maintained (Previous) statuses no longer receive criteria updates.
• Adding or removing criteria to the MOC tab can affect the status of active windows. For example, adding criteria can move windows at Ready for approval back to In progress. Or in another case, removing all the criteria can causes windows to become Maintained.
• Duration: Edits to the duration only affect any new windows generated after the change. Any current MOC windows will still show the previous duration. 

Editing the current window: You can change the period for the current window for any user provided that the window hasn't reached the maintained status. Once a window is maintained the period can no longer be edited. This is done by accessing the context menu in the Maintenance progress tab in the learners table. (Certifications > select certification > Learners > select learner > Maintenance progress)

In the resulting dialogue you can adjust the period date and leave an optional comment on the reason for the change

Adjustments to the current period can change the window's status. You can clear an Expired status for example by extending the end date. The Start Date cannot be greater than the End Date and it also cannot be less than the Awarded Date of the host certification for that learner.

• Note: Currently comments made for changes are recorded into the database but won't be accessible from within the app.