Cornerstone OnDemand Learning Administration Training Course

Course overview

Cornerstone OnDemand learning administrators are expected to keep assignments accurate, learning records defensible, and learner experiences straightforward while responding to frequent changes in curricula, compliance rules, organisational structures, and reporting requests. Poorly configured workflows can create duplicate training, missed certifications, incorrect transcripts, manual data corrections, and dashboards that leaders do not trust. This course prepares administrators to manage Cornerstone Learning as an operational system rather than simply publish courses and answer learner queries.

Participants work through the configuration decisions behind a controlled learning environment: organisational units, permissions, user criteria, training purpose, learning objects, curricula, cohorts, equivalencies, prerequisites, assignments, approvals, notifications, and recurring certification rules. They learn to build targeted assignments without over-enrolling users, configure learning content and sessions, troubleshoot enrolment and completion issues, and distinguish standard reports from reportable custom fields. Reporting work includes transcript analysis, completion-status reporting, scheduled delivery, and data validation using Microsoft Excel.

Delivered over five instructor-led days in a classroom or live online environment, the programme combines demonstrations with administrator scenarios, configuration workshops, and troubleshooting cases. Participants use a structured build workbook to design a sample compliance and capability programme, including audience rules, curriculum structure, assignment logic, approval path, communication plan, and reporting specification. They leave with this completed implementation pack, reusable configuration checklists, and a certificate of completion.

The course is best suited to experienced learning coordinators, LMS administrators, HR systems professionals, and L&D operations staff who already work with Cornerstone OnDemand or are about to assume configuration responsibility. It is also valuable for managers who need an internal administrator able to translate learning policy into reliable system controls and usable management information.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure organisational units, user criteria, and permissions to control learner visibility and administrative access
• Build curricula, cohorts, prerequisites, equivalencies, and training-purpose structures for governed learning pathways
• Create assignment rules using dynamic population criteria, due dates, exemptions, and recurring certification settings
• Publish online courses, instructor-led training, materials, and SCORM packages with appropriate completion logic
• Design approval workflows, notifications, and registration settings for instructor-led and self-service learning
• Diagnose transcript, enrolment, completion, and assignment exceptions using a structured troubleshooting method
• Produce completion and compliance reports in Cornerstone Reporting 2.0 and validate outputs in Microsoft Excel
• Develop a documented Cornerstone learning administration blueprint for a defined business programme

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Cornerstone OnDemand Learning Administrators — who configure learning objects, assignments, and learner records
• Learning Operations Managers — who need dependable processes for compliance, capability, and service delivery
• L&D Systems Specialists — who translate learning policy and process requirements into LMS configuration
• HRIS Analysts — who support user data, organisational structures, permissions, and reporting across HR platforms
• Compliance Training Coordinators — who must evidence mandatory learning completion and certification status
• Learning Coordinators — who are moving from course administration into configuration and reporting responsibility

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience administering learning in Cornerstone OnDemand, including locating learner records, creating or maintaining basic training items, and reviewing transcripts. Familiarity with common L&D concepts such as mandatory learning, curricula, enrolment, completion status, certification renewal, and learner audiences is assumed. Participants should be comfortable working with spreadsheets, filtering data, and interpreting simple reports. Access to a Cornerstone training tenant or sandbox is useful for post-course practice but is not required during attendance. No programming, API development, database administration, SCORM authoring, or prior reporting-builder expertise is required.

Training methodology

An instructor leads configuration walkthroughs in Cornerstone OnDemand and then sets scenario-based build tasks that mirror common L&D operations requests. Participants map policy requirements to organisational units, user criteria, curricula, assignments, sessions, approvals, and reports; they also investigate deliberately introduced transcript and enrolment faults. Small-group reviews compare configuration choices and their downstream reporting effects. Each day closes with a practical artefact, and the final session converts these artefacts into an implementation plan for the participant’s own learning environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Learning architecture, access, and data foundations

• Cornerstone Learning navigation, administration areas, and configuration dependencies
• Organisational units, positions, divisions, and user data relationships
• User criteria and dynamic population targeting logic
• Security roles, permissions, constraints, and delegated administration
• Training purpose, subject areas, and catalogue governance
• Learning object types and transcript record behaviour
• Configuration impact assessment and change-control documentation

Workshop: Participants map a sample organisation into user criteria and administrator access rules, producing a role-and-visibility matrix.

Day 2: Learning content, curricula, and learner pathways

• Online course configuration and completion criteria
• SCORM 1.2 package settings, launch behaviour, and completion tracking
• Instructor-led training events, sessions, rosters, and attendance
• Materials, tests, evaluations, and supplemental learning assets
• Curricula structure, section sequencing, and completion requirements
• Prerequisites, equivalencies, substitutions, and exemption decisions
• Versioning, retirement, and catalogue maintenance controls

Workshop: Participants build a role-based curriculum with online, instructor-led, and SCORM components, producing a documented learner pathway.

Day 3: Assignments, registrations, and compliance automation

• Assignment types and audience-selection strategies
• Dynamic assignments using user criteria and organisational changes
• Due dates, grace periods, recurrence, and certification renewal rules
• Assignment exemptions, exceptions, and reassignment controls
• Registration workflows, waitlists, withdrawal rules, and seat management
• Approvals, manager actions, and notification templates
• Testing assignment logic before production release

Workshop: Participants configure a recurring compliance assignment and approval workflow, producing an assignment test script and communication schedule.

Day 4: Reporting, records, and operational troubleshooting

• Transcript statuses, completion records, and common record anomalies
• Troubleshooting enrolment, launch, attendance, and completion issues
• Cornerstone Reporting 2.0 report types and source selection
• Report filters, fields, joins, prompts, and calculated data considerations
• Compliance, overdue-learning, certification, and session-utilisation reports
• Scheduled report distribution and recipient-access controls
• Microsoft Excel validation using filters, pivot tables, and exception checks

Workshop: Participants investigate a flawed completion report and transcript case, producing a corrected report specification and root-cause log.

Day 5: Governance, optimisation, and implementation planning

• Learning administration operating model and service-level responsibilities
• Configuration standards for naming, ownership, documentation, and approval
• Release-impact assessment and regression-testing priorities
• Data-quality controls for user feeds, organisational changes, and learning records
• Learner experience diagnostics using searches, catalogue behaviour, and notifications
• Stakeholder requirements workshops for new learning programmes
• Ninety-day Cornerstone administration improvement roadmap

Workshop: Participants assemble their learning administration blueprint and present a 90-day implementation roadmap with risks, owners, and success measures.

Tools & standards covered

Cornerstone OnDemand Learning, Cornerstone Reporting 2.0, Microsoft Excel, SCORM 1.2

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions