How To Create A Curriculum In Cornerstone OnDemand: A Step-by-Step Enterprise Guide
Creating a structured curriculum in Cornerstone OnDemand requires mapping out prerequisite dependencies, grouping modular learning objects, and establishing clear completion rules to automate employee career progression. By leveraging the Cornerstone Learning module's administrative settings, organizations can seamlessly bundle individual materials, online courses, and external activities into cohesive, trackable educational tracks.
Pre-Operation & Administrative Prerequisites
Building a scalable curriculum within an enterprise learning management system demands meticulous upfront planning. Before configuring your training path inside the Cornerstone OnDemand platform, you must establish clear instructional design goals, assign administrative security roles, and gather all necessary digital assets.
- Essential Tools & Access: Global Administrator or Learning Administrator security roles within Cornerstone OnDemand, a finalized instructional design blueprint, and pre-uploaded learning objects (e.g., SCORM packages, videos, and instructor-led training events).
- Mandatory Prerequisites: Active catalog inventory containing the individual training materials, defined competency models mapped to your job profiles, and a clear understanding of your organization's organizational unit (OU) hierarchy.
- Duration & Benchmarks: Initial administrative planning generally requires two to four hours, with a standard curriculum configuration taking approximately 45 to 60 minutes per track, assuming all underlying learning objects are already active in the system.
Step-by-Step Cornerstone Curriculum Execution
Step 1: Access the Curriculum Creation Wizard
Navigate to the Admin menu within your Cornerstone portal, hover over Catalog, and select Curriculum to open the curriculum management dashboard. Click on the Add New Curriculum button to launch the initialization wizard, where you will define the high-level administrative parameters, such as the title, training language, and portal visibility.
Pro-Tip: Standardize your curriculum naming convention using prefix tags (e.g., ONB- for onboarding or COMP- for compliance) to streamline future searches in global reports.
Step 2: Configure General Properties and Metadata
Fill in the mandatory descriptive fields, including the curriculum title, long description, objectives, and associated keywords that facilitate user searchability. Assign the appropriate delivery method, specify whether the curriculum is optional or mandatory, and assign the training to specific Cornerstone divisions, departments, or locations using dynamic assignment profiles.
Step 3: Structure the Curriculum Hierarchy with Modules and Sections
Build the instructional architecture by dividing the curriculum into distinct sections or modules that group related training items together. Click the Add Section button to create logical blocks, such as Foundational Knowledge, Advanced Application, and Final Assessment.
Warning: Avoid nesting sections more than two levels deep, as overly complex hierarchies negatively impact user experience and complicate completion tracking.
Step 4: Add Training Materials and Define Completion Rules
Populate your newly created sections by searching the central catalog for existing courses, tests, materials, and events, and attach them to the curriculum. Establish clear completion rules by determining whether items must be completed sequentially or if users can consume them in any order. Configure whether completion of the entire curriculum requires finishing all assigned items or a specific subset.
Step 5: Establish Pricing, Approvals, and Availability
Define financial parameters if the curriculum utilizes cost centers, and configure manager approval workflows if enrollment requires supervisory sign-off. Set the availability dates to control when the curriculum appears in the user catalog and establish re-training recurrences if the content requires annual or periodic renewal.
Step 6: Review, Test, and Publish the Curriculum
Perform a thorough audit of the curriculum configuration by reviewing the summary screen for metadata errors, broken prerequisites, or incorrect assignment maps. Utilize the Test User functionality to impersonate a learner and verify that the catalog view, enrollment process, and progress tracking function smoothly before formally publishing the curriculum for general consumption.
Danone Cornerstone Ondemand - Danone France - CRHM
Cornerstone Curriculum Configuration Specifications
| Parameter | Recommended Setting | Administrative Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Completion Type | Sequential or Flexible | Determines whether learners must progress through materials in a strict order or at their own pace. |
| Assignment Type | Dynamic Grouping | Automatically assigns the curriculum based on user profile attributes like job title or location. |
| Recurrence Rule | Absolute or Relative | Controls automatic re-enrollment timelines for mandatory compliance and safety training. |
| Approval Workflow | Manager Review | Requires direct supervisor authorization before a user consumes budget or restricted resources. |
Common Configuration Failures and System Fixes
- Issue: Learners cannot view the published curriculum in their self-service catalog.
- Root Cause: The availability dates are misconfigured, or the dynamic assignment profile excludes the user's specific organizational unit.
- Actionable Fix: Review the availability tab parameters and verify that the target user's division, department, or position matches the assigned group filters.
- Issue: Curriculum completion status fails to update after a user finishes the final course.
- Root Cause: One or more prerequisite learning objects within a section remain uncompleted, or the curriculum rules require manual administrative sign-off.
- Actionable Fix: Inspect the user's transcript to ensure all child items registered a successful status and verify that completion rule dependencies are accurately mapped.
- Issue: Automated re-training notifications trigger prematurely or fail to launch.
- Root Cause: The recurrence offset is incorrectly calculated from the original assignment date rather than the completion date.
- Actionable Fix: Edit the recurrence settings within the curriculum properties to base renewals strictly on the completion date timestamp.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I include external learning activities in a Cornerstone curriculum?
Yes, administrators can add external training objects, such as third-party certifications or offline workshops, to a curriculum structure alongside native online courses. These items often require user-submitted documentation or manual manager verification to trigger completion.
What is the difference between a course and a curriculum in Cornerstone OnDemand?
A course represents a single, self-contained instructional unit with its own materials and assessments. A curriculum acts as a container or parent structure that groups multiple courses, tests, and events into a single, cohesive educational program.
How do dynamic assignment profiles affect curriculum enrollment?
Dynamic assignment profiles automatically enroll users into designated curricula based on real-time updates to their HR profile attributes, such as department changes or promotions. This ensures compliance training scales automatically without manual intervention from learning administrators.
Can I set prerequisite rules between different sections of a curriculum?
Yes, Cornerstone allows administrators to lock subsequent sections until the learner satisfies the completion requirements of preceding sections. This guarantees a controlled, logical flow of information for complex, multi-stage training paths.
Optimize Your Enterprise Learning Strategy Today
Mastering curriculum creation in Cornerstone OnDemand empowers your organization to deliver structured, scalable training that drives employee performance and regulatory compliance. Schedule a platform consultation with our certified system architects to streamline your advanced learning architecture and maximize ROI.
