Tag: Learn

Oracle Learning Paths, Offerings and Redwood: What’s Actually Changing?

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

Before we get started, a quick thank you to one of my blog readers. This article came about following a direct request from a customer who asked if I could explain what is happening with Oracle Learning Offerings and the new Learning Paths functionality. It’s the first time I’ve been specifically asked to write a blog on a particular Oracle Fusion topic, and after looking into it I realised they’re probably not alone in being confused.

If you’ve recently seen references to Learning Paths, heard that Offerings are going away, or wondered what Redwood means for Oracle Learning, you’re not the only one. Oracle is changing terminology, introducing new Redwood-native learning objects and modernising Learning administration at the same time. That makes it difficult to understand exactly what is changing and, more importantly, what it means for customers who have spent years building and managing learning content in Oracle Learning. So let’s unpack it.

One of the biggest sources of confusion is that two separate changes are happening at the same time. In Oracle Fusion Learning 26B, Oracle rebranded Specialisations as Learning Paths. Oracle states that the self-service learning experience now consistently presents Specialisations as Learning Paths, although administrators may still see the old terminology in some classic administration pages for the time being.

Learning Paths are therefore the new name for what many Learning administrators have known as Specialisations. They are designed to provide a structured learning journey containing multiple learning items, helping organisations create role-based, compliance-based or career-development learning programmes. They are not a direct replacement for a single Offering.

For many years, Oracle Learning followed a fairly structured hierarchy. A typical eLearning item might look something like this: Course → Offering → Activity. This provided flexibility but often resulted in multiple objects needing to be created and maintained for even relatively simple learning content. If you wanted to publish a straightforward self-paced training course, you typically found yourself creating several related objects before learners could access the content. It worked, but it wasn’t always intuitive.

Oracle has been redesigning Learning as part of its broader Redwood strategy. One of the most significant developments arrived in 24D with the introduction of the new Redwood Self-Paced Learning experience. Oracle describes this as a redesigned process that combines what were previously separate activities into a single workflow, bringing together content, activities and learning publication within one experience.

The goal is simple: reduce complexity; simplify administration; improve usability and create a more modern learner experience. Rather than forcing administrators through multiple setup steps, Oracle is moving towards a more streamlined content creation model.

So are Offerings being removed? This is where things get interesting. There is a lot of discussion within the Oracle Learning community about Offerings becoming less central to the Learning architecture. Industry commentators have suggested Oracle’s long-term direction is towards Redwood-native learning objects rather than the traditional Offering-centred model. However, what is important is separating community interpretation from Oracle’s documented position.

What Oracle has clearly documented is:

  • Specialisations are becoming Learning Paths.
  • Redwood Self-Paced Learning introduces a simplified approach to managing self-paced learning content.
  • Oracle continues to invest heavily in Redwood Learning experiences.

What I have not yet found in Oracle readiness documentation is a statement saying: “Learning Paths replace Offerings.” In fact, these are different concepts serving different purposes. Think of a Learning Path as a curriculum rather than an individual training item. A Learning Path might include: multiple self-paced learning items; instructor-led training; assessments; recommended learning sequences or mandatory prerequisites. In other words, Learning Paths help define what learners should complete and in what order. They are ideal for: new starter onboarding; leadership programmes; compliance journeys; certification pathways and role-based development programmes. This is broadly the same purpose that Specialisations have always served, just under a new name.

For most organisations, I don’t think there is a need to panic. My advice would be: first, start becoming familiar with Redwood Learning administration if you haven’t already. Second, review how much you rely on traditional Course and Offering structures for new content creation. Third, start thinking about Learning Paths from a learner journey perspective rather than viewing them as a replacement for individual training content. Most importantly, don’t assume that every mention of Learning Paths is related to Offerings. In many cases Oracle is simply referring to the rebranding of Specialisations rather than introducing a direct replacement for existing Offerings.

Having worked with Oracle Learning for many years, I can understand why customers are asking questions. The terminology changes are significant, and because they are arriving alongside the wider Redwood transformation it’s easy to assume everything is changing at once. What I find encouraging is Oracle’s clear focus on simplifying Learning administration. The historic Course, Offering and Activity model could be powerful, but it could also feel overly complex for straightforward learning scenarios. Redwood Self-Paced Learning is a good example of Oracle reducing that complexity and making content easier to create and maintain.

For now, my advice is simple: treat Learning Paths as the evolution of Specialisations, keep an eye on Oracle’s Redwood Learning roadmap, and avoid assuming that Learning Paths are a direct one-for-one replacement for Offerings. The reality is a little more nuanced than that.

And finally, thank you again to the customer who suggested this topic. If there are other areas of Oracle Fusion you’d like me to explore in a future blog, feel free to get in touch. It seems I’ve accidentally opened the suggestions box.

Please note all screenshots are the property of Oracle and are used according to their Copyright Guidelines.

Oracle Learning 26D: Smarter Learning Through Practical AI

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

It’s quarterly release season again and Oracle Learning has delivered a surprisingly strong set of updates in 26D. What stood out to me wasn’t any individual feature. It was the direction of travel. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen Oracle talk extensively about AI, skills intelligence, digital assistants and, more recently, Agentic Apps. For many customers, the question has been whether these capabilities would genuinely change the way people work or simply provide another layer of technology to navigate. With 26D, Oracle Learning starts to answer that question.

Several of the headline updates focus on something far more practical than flashy AI demonstrations. They help managers understand whether learning is driving development, reduce administrative effort for learning teams, and make it easier for employees to manage their own learning journeys.

What’s particularly noticeable is that Oracle is investing across the entire learning ecosystem. Managers gain better visibility into skill development, learning specialists receive more powerful AI-assisted administration tools, and learners benefit from a significantly upgraded self-service experience. As always, Oracle may add additional functionality as the quarter progresses, but let’s take a look at the highlights announced so far.

If you’ve been following Oracle’s Agentic Apps journey, the Team Learning and Development Workspace for Managers is perhaps the most interesting Learning enhancement in 26D. One of the challenges managers often face is connecting learning activity with actual employee development. Completion rates and learning hours tell part of the story, but they rarely answer the question that really matters: is this learning helping people develop the skills they need? Oracle is clearly trying to bridge that gap.

The previous Skills Development by Skill and Skills Development by Direct panels have been replaced with two new views: Directs’ Progress on Development Objectives and Directs’ Learning Alignment with Development Objectives. Rather than simply showing learning activity, managers can now see whether development goals are progressing and whether completed learning is contributing towards those goals.

The Directs’ Progress on Development Objectives panel highlights which team members are making progress against assigned development skills during a 90-day evaluation period. Managers can take action directly from the workspace through delivered email actions, either nudging employees who haven’t started progressing or recognising those who have. The Directs’ Learning Alignment with Development Objectives panel provides a different perspective. It helps managers understand whether completed non-compliance learning aligns with an employee’s development objectives, using completion outcomes and learning context to make those connections visible.

One of the concerns I often hear when discussing AI in HR is whether we’re removing too much human judgement from people processes. Oracle has struck a sensible balance here. The agent analyses learning activity, identifies who may need support and drafts appropriate communications, but managers remain firmly in control. Nothing is sent automatically. The manager decides whether intervention is needed and whether the suggested communication is appropriate. To me, that’s where enterprise AI delivers the most value. Not by replacing managers, but by helping them spend less time finding issues and more time acting on them.

You may remember the Learning Creation Assistant, first introduced in 25D and enhanced further in 26B. In 26D, it has been renamed the Learning Catalog Management Assistant, and Oracle continues to expand what it can do. The main enhancement is support for questionnaire-based self-paced learning.

Learning specialists can now provide a questionnaire title or code and instruct the assistant to create the associated learning item. The assistant validates the questionnaire, determines whether it should be implemented as an assessment or observation checklist, and creates the learning in draft status ready for review and activation.

At first glance this might feel like a relatively small enhancement. In reality, it’s another step towards natural language administration. Learning specialists can focus on what they’re trying to achieve rather than remembering every configuration step required to get there. By allowing administrators to describe the learning experience they want to create and letting the assistant build the underlying structure, Oracle continues to remove friction from content administration. It’s exactly the type of repetitive setup activity that AI should be helping with. The assistant can also capture additional details such as mastery scores, attempt limits and visibility settings as part of the prompt, reducing the amount of manual configuration required.

Customers who already implemented the earlier Learning Creation Assistant should note that the property on the agent must be updated to reference the new delivered runnable agent. Any customisations made against copied templates will also need to be reapplied.

One of my favourite enhancements in 26D is also one of the simplest. Learning specialists can now create task-based self-paced learning directly from rich text instructions, removing the need for a supporting content asset. That may not sound revolutionary, but anyone who has implemented Learning Cloud will recognise the problem it solves.

Many organisations need to track activities that happen outside the platform. Reading a policy, completing an offline activity, attending an external event or carrying out a workplace task are all valid learning experiences, yet administrators have often needed to create workaround content simply to make those activities available in Learning Cloud. 26D removes that complexity entirely.

Learning specialists can simply enter instructions directly within the Redwood learning experience. Learners see those instructions as part of the enrolment details page and complete the activity according to the configured completion rules. Where learner confirmation is enabled, employees can mark the activity as completed themselves. Where administrator verification is required, that option is hidden and completion remains under administrative control.

It’s not necessarily the most exciting feature in the release, but I suspect it will become one of the most useful. The feature is enabled automatically and requires no additional configuration.

This enhancement originated in Oracle Ideas Lab, which is always encouraging to see. Learning specialists can now add self-paced learning directly into a course structure, allowing learners to access online content through courses in the same way they access instructor-led or virtual offerings. From the course details page, administrators can either attach an existing self-paced learning item or create a new one directly within the workflow.

The standout capability, however, is the new Replace with Self-Paced Learning action. I particularly like the inclusion of the replacement capability. Replacing learning content in large catalogues can be surprisingly challenging. Organisations need to modernise content without losing visibility of historical completions, compliance records and in-progress learning.

Oracle has clearly thought beyond simply enabling a new feature and considered the operational reality of managing learning catalogues over time. When a legacy offering is replaced, completed and in-progress learning records are preserved for reporting and audit purposes. Learners already progressing through an offering can still complete it, while future assignments are redirected towards the new self-paced learning. Deprecated offerings become read-only and are no longer available for enrolment, assignment or discovery within the catalogue.

The final enhancement that caught my attention is the continued evolution of My Learning Assistant. We’ve moved well beyond the stage where conversational assistants simply answer questions. Oracle is increasingly positioning learning assistants as task-oriented experiences, helping users complete actions rather than just retrieve information. In 26D, learners can review assignments, explore recommendations, enrol onto learning and access key learning processes from a single conversation. That moves the assistant much closer to becoming a genuine learning companion rather than simply a search tool.

The assistant can now answer questions about active, overdue, mandatory, upcoming, self-enrolled and completed learning. It can recommend content from the catalogue, support enrolment directly where eligibility allows, and launch processes such as Record External Learning and Request Noncatalog Learning. Recommendation cards are also richer, displaying details including learning type, effort, pricing information, AI-generated reasoning and links to catalogue information.

Just as importantly, Oracle continues to ground responses in actual Learning data and workflows. If information doesn’t exist, the assistant won’t invent it. That may sound obvious, but trust is one of the most important factors in successful enterprise AI adoption. Users need confidence that recommendations and answers are based on real information, particularly when they’re making decisions about compliance or professional development.

Customers who deployed My Learning Assistant using the original 25D template should take note. Oracle recommends replacing the existing template with the updated delivered version to avoid inconsistent behaviour. Depending on your deployment approach, guided journeys used to surface the assistant through the Ask Oracle banner may also require updates.

If I had to summarise Oracle Learning 26D in a single phrase, it would be practical AI. There are no headline-grabbing announcements or futuristic concepts here. Instead, Oracle continues to focus on helping managers, learning specialists and learners spend less time navigating systems and more time focusing on development.

What I find particularly interesting is that Learning is becoming one of the strongest showcases for Oracle’s broader AI strategy. Across multiple features, Oracle isn’t attempting to remove people from the process. The technology is being used to surface insights, reduce administration and support decision-making while keeping humans firmly in control. That’s where I believe enterprise AI creates the greatest value. Not by replacing expertise, but by helping people apply it more effectively. And if Oracle continues along this path, Learning could become one of the strongest examples of AI delivering measurable business value within Oracle Fusion Applications.

Please note all screenshots are the property of Oracle and are used in accordance with Oracle’s Copyright Guidelines.

Oracle HCM Cloud Learn 26C

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

This is an exciting time for Oracle Learn. Release 26C is the last release before all Learn functionality becomes mandatory in Redwood, with the final switch happening in 26D. That deadline brings in the remaining Learning Admin tasks too. If you have not already made the move to Redwood for Learn, now really is the time to do it. In the meantime, here is a look at what is new in 26C.

The first feature I want to highlight is not directly related to the Redwood deadline, but it is too interesting to leave until later. Oracle has introduced Agentic Courses, a new approach to self-paced learning that uses AI agents to guide learners through curated content in a far more interactive and responsive way. Instead of working through static material, learners are supported by an experience that adapts to their pace, checks their understanding as they go, and offers targeted support where it is needed.

The structure is still defined by learning designers, but each learner can move through the content in a way that suits them. That includes recap, reinforcement and extra support where required. What stands out here is the ability to deliver genuinely personalised learning at scale, without increasing the effort needed to design or administer it. Learning specialists can reuse templates and deploy them quickly, while the AI handles the day-to-day interaction with learners.

The end result is more effective training, faster progression to competency, and better use of employees’ time, all while keeping outcomes consistent. It is also worth noting that this is not an agentic application, so there is no requirement to purchase the Agentic App platform to use it.

The next feature is the redesigned Redwood experience for specialisation management. This brings a much clearer and more visual approach to creating and managing learning paths. The new Activities tab pulls everything into a single interactive view, making it easier to understand the overall structure, see dependencies, and define completion and access rules. Alongside this, the Assignments tab gives a clear, near real-time view of learner progress, so administrators can track enrolments, monitor completion, and step in where needed.

The benefit here is both clarity and control. Learning specialists can build more structured and engaging learning journeys with less effort, while built-in checks help prevent common issues such as conflicting dependencies. For learners, it is much clearer what is expected and what comes next, which supports better engagement. For organisations, this means more effective delivery of training and stronger oversight of compliance and development programmes.

Another new page in Redwood is the updated experience for category and topic management. This gives learning teams a more straightforward way to organise and maintain their catalogue. The interface is built around tasks, with list, category and topic views supported by search, filtering and saved searches. Administrators can quickly create and update categories and topics, manage visibility and featured dates, and move easily between high-level structures and more detailed content.

The value here is in making catalogue management simpler and more consistent. Learning teams can organise content more effectively, which makes it easier for learners to find what they need. It also aligns with the wider Redwood experience, reducing the learning curve for administrators and helping improve productivity. In practice, this leads to a more organised and accessible catalogue that is easier to maintain over time.

Oracle has also introduced a set of enhancements to assignment status management. These give learning teams much tighter control over how assignments are handled, with expanded support for actions such as waitlisting, undoing completion, approving, withdrawing and allocating seats. There are also clearer rules around when each action can be applied.

In day-to-day terms, this means administrators can manage a wider range of scenarios directly within Redwood, without relying on workarounds. The improvement here is in both governance and day-to-day efficiency. By aligning actions to defined rules and adding more control, organisations can manage assignments more consistently and reduce the risk of error. It also becomes easier to handle exceptions and manage capacity, which supports a more reliable learner experience overall.

Another useful enhancement is within the Instructor Activity Center. The updated calendar now brings together teaching commitments and the instructor’s own learning calendar, making it easier to spot clashes and plan ahead. There is also a new seat availability filter, which highlights sessions that are low on enrolment, fully booked, or have waitlists.

This gives instructors a single, practical view of their schedule. They can manage their time more effectively, avoid conflicts, and take action where needed, for example by promoting under-enrolled sessions or adjusting plans. For organisations, this helps optimise class capacity and make better use of instructor time.

The final feature I want to call out is one that came directly from a customer idea. The Learning Catalog has been enhanced to give clearer visibility into how events, courses and learning paths are connected. The updated “Where Used” capability makes it much easier to explore these relationships, with clickable links that take you straight to related items. Supporting information is displayed in a structured way that mirrors the layout of the detail pages, making it easier to understand how everything fits together.

This improves transparency across the catalogue. Learning teams can see dependencies more clearly, which reduces the risk of unintended impact when making changes. It also supports more consistent management of learning structures, helping maintain a clean and well-organised catalogue over time.

As always, Oracle may introduce additional updates as the release cycle progresses, so it is worth keeping an eye out. If anything particularly interesting appears, I will share a follow-up to make sure you are fully up to date.

Please note all screenshots are the property of Oracle and are used according to their Copyright Guidelines

Oracle HCM Cloud Learn 26A

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

Release 26A has arrived, marking the start of the second phase of Recruitment for Learn becoming mandatory. This update sets the deadline for the first half of the required changes to Learning Admin pages, covering Resources, Recommendations, Self-Paced Learning and External Content. The remaining updates to Learn Admin pages will become mandatory with Release 26D. Let’s take a look at what is new!

Before you can use this first feature, Dynamic Skills must be enabled. Oracle have updated the licensing for Dynamic Skills over the past year, so it may already be included in your Core HR licence. If you’re unsure, it’s worth checking with your Oracle Customer Success Manager. Once enabled, you can take advantage of the AI Learning Catalogue Smart Search Advisor. This clever tool lets you search the learning catalogue using questions rather than just keywords, delivering more focused and higher-quality results. The results are semantically relevant to your query and tailored to you, taking into account your work history, talent profile and learning record. When active, you’ll notice a new section on the learning catalogue page after you search. This section highlights up to five learning items the advisor has identified as most suitable for you and your request.

There are several new features for Self-Paced Learning, starting with Redwood functionality for enrolment forms, evaluations and feedback. You can now collect the information you need when learners enrol by requiring an enrolment form, a questionnaire, or both. The Learner Info Collection options available in the Self-Paced Learning configuration under the Rules tab in the Enrolment section, offering four choices: no extra information, a combined page with both questionnaire and request form, just the questionnaire, or just the request form, each leading to the Enrolment Details page. These options are controlled by a single setting within Self-Paced Learning.

Oracle has added support for two new content types in Self-Paced Learning: CMI5 and AICC URLs. You can now upload CMI5 .zip archive packages when creating self-paced courses. This format combines the structured approach of SCORM with the flexible, detailed tracking of xAPI, enabling richer data sharing between the learning item and the server. The result? Deeper insights into learner progress and engagement. In addition, you can create self-paced courses by adding an AICC URL as content. Once the page refreshes, the Learning Format field appears, defaulted to Online Course, alongside the Mastery Score field. You can adjust the format as needed and set a mastery score, which moves to its usual spot on the Rules tab under Completion when you create the draft. The score can be updated later if required.

Oracle has introduced a new Redwood Learning Events page, offering a streamlined way to publish instructor-led training directly to your learning catalogue. This update simplifies setup and adds flexibility, allowing events to be defined by formats such as In-Person, Webinar, or custom options tailored to your organisation. Events can be delivered as standalone offerings or included in a course for equivalency, with improved scheduling that supports multiday and overnight sessions and calculates effort automatically. You can specify dates and times via a calendar or manual entry, integrate feedback through evaluations and ratings, and control when learners provide it. Enrolment periods can now be configured separately from catalogue visibility, enabling early access via deep links, while enhanced withdrawal and waitlist options give greater control. Although events cannot yet be added to specialisations and pricing isn’t included in this release, both features are planned for future updates.

The final feature worth highlighting is the new Redwood Course Management page, which brings a modern, visually appealing interface to Oracle Learning. Learning Specialists can now enjoy a streamlined experience with grouped tabs for managing courses, Definitions, Defaults, Access, Skills and Qualifications, User Experience, and More Details, alongside a step-by-step creation process for organising core details, descriptions, visuals and settings. All course offerings, whether instructor-led, self-paced or blended, plus associated events, are accessible from a single Offerings tab for quicker navigation. Learners benefit from improved course detail pages with clearer layouts, showcasing included content, expected effort, acquired skills, instructors, outcomes, languages and celebratory completion notices. They can also engage through ratings, comments and lively discussions via dedicated interaction tabs.

Oracle often slip in a few extra features during the month, so it’s always worth keeping an eye out. If anything truly exciting comes along, I’ll share another blog post to keep you updated and ensure you don’t miss out. In the meantime, take a look at my latest write-up on the new Core HR features in Release 26A, you can find it here.

Please note all screenshots are the property of Oracle and are used according to their Copyright Guidelines

Oracle HCM Cloud Learn 25D

~ K8 Mead ~ Leave a comment

Release 25D has landed, and Oracle are gearing up for phase 2 of Redwood for Learn—this time turning the spotlight on Learn Admin pages, which are mandatory by release 26A. The focus is on making things smoother and smarter when it comes to resources, recommendations, self-paced learning, and external content. With the deadline fast approaching, it’s no surprise there’s a whole bunch of handy features to help you make the switch. Let’s dive in and see what’s new!

If you’re someone who often forgets to reconcile learning assignments, this new feature is for you. With just a quick tweak to a profile value, any course, offering, specialisation, or self-paced learning you kick off will now automatically trigger the reconciliation process. That means all your linked learning assignments stay up to date, saving you from the hassle of mismatched or outdated info.

25D is bringing with it a new unified catalogue listing page, which will be your central location for all your Learn admin tasks. This new feature changes how admin access works for courses, specialisations, and offerings. Once you switch to the single learning catalogue view, courses, offerings, and specialisations will show up on the Learning Catalogue page. Just a heads-up: the old data security rules won’t apply anymore for the following tasks: viewing, managing courses, offerings, or specialisations in the catalogue. If your admins already have full access, there’s nothing you need to do. If you’ve been limiting access to certain items, now’s a great time to simplify things using catalogue administration profiles. Just set up profiles that define who can manage what, replacing the old security roles. Then, link your courses, offerings, and specialisations to the right profile—HCM Data Loader (CourseV3, OfferingV3, and SpecializationV3) can help with bulk updates.

If your organisation uses external learning content, you can now set default visibility rules for each provider, deciding who gets access and how the content shows up in topics and communities. It’s a great way to make sure the right people see the right stuff in the right places, all while keeping things aligned with your learning strategy. This update gives you more control over how third-party content is delivered, helps avoid misuse, and lets you manage licensing costs more efficiently. To get started, just head to My Client Groups > Learning and Development > Configure External Provider and tweak the audience and catalogue settings for any providers whose content is imported as self-paced learning.

With learning content getting better and richer, it’s no surprise the file sizes are growing too. Oracle’s on the ball, they’ve upped the max file size for Self Paced Learning, so you can now upload videos, SCORM packages (1.2 and 2004), AICC ZIPs, and presentations up to a whopping 2GB. PDFs are still capped at 1GB, but that should cover most needs. If you’ve already got Self Paced Learning switched on, there’s nothing you need to do—just enjoy the extra space!

The final feature I want to highlight, is one that has been a frustration for many people and now it has been resolved. You can now clear out old self-paced learning from your Oracle Learning catalogue—whether it’s inactive or has missing content. Just click the new Delete button and you’ll see how many people completed it. You can choose to keep those completions by moving them to a legacy item, note down a reason for deleting it, and add a quick comment if you like. Once you confirm, the system runs a scheduled process that permanently removes the learning and all its links—like specialisations, communities, recommendations, initiatives, HCM goals and journeys. If you’ve chosen to keep completions, they’ll be safely moved so learner history isn’t lost. Just make sure self-paced learning is switched on and that you’ve added the new security privilege: WLF_DELETE_LEARNING_CATALOG_ITEM_PRIV.

Oracle often slip in a few extra new features throughout the month, so it’s always worth keeping an eye out. If anything truly exciting drops, I’ll put up another blog post to keep you in the know and make sure you’re not missing out. In the meantime, please check out my latest write-up on the new Core HR features in Release 25D, you can find it here.

Please note all screenshots are the property of Oracle and are used according to their Copyright Guidelines