Deleting a competency or learning objective

Deleting an element removes it from the system, along with any links it might have had to other elements. It does not affect any other elements—deleting an element does not delete any elements attached to it.

Deleting a competency element does not delete the entire structure beneath it, only the top-level element itself; any learning objectives still exist. To delete an entire competency structure, you must delete all the elements in the structure.

Elements you cannot delete

On the Delete page, these elements are disabled and you cannot select them:

• competency whose status is "Approved" or "Archived"
• learning objective attached to an "Approved" or "Archived" competency, since doing so would change the competency’s definition
• competency or learning objective shared from another org unit.
• an element if it is part of a relationship that you do not have permission to modify ( if you do not have permission to modify links between learning objectives and activities, you cannot delete any activities attached to a learning objective)

Click the Information icon next to a disabled element to see why you cannot delete it.

Deleting and re-evaluation

Deleting elements that are part of a competency structure might cause users to be re-evaluated.

If you delete all children attached to a learning objective or competency, anyone who previously completed the parent element has their result changed to Incomplete. This is because an element is only considered complete if all of its children are complete; elements that have no children cannot be completed.

Delete a competency or learning objective

1. Click Competencies on the navbar.
2. From the Competency List page, click Delete on the tool menu.
3. On the Delete page, select the elements you want to delete.
4. Click the Delete Selected button.

Archiving instead of deleting

If you don’t want to use a competency any more, and your organization uses the Status feature, you can change the competency’s status to Archived.

Learners cannot see or complete archived competencies. They are restricted to users with sufficient permission settings.

By archiving a competency, you keep a record of the users who achieved the competency while it was active. If you delete the competency instead, user results for that competency are deleted along with it.

Archive a competency

1. On the Competency List page, click the name of the competency.
2. On the Edit Competency page, set the Status to Archived.
3. Click Save.

See also

• Allowing re-evaluation of users who’ve achieved a competency
• Changing competencies and re-evaluation
• Status, revision control and workflow