Software Assurance

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Software Assurance e-learning offers self-paced, interactive training designed for end users and IT professionals, delivered via the Internet or intranet. E-learning provides a set of high-quality, guided, visually engaging, training courses that include unique features, such as:

The e-learning courses are designed to help your employees gain skills to be more productive with their current software and help them prepare for new versions with up-to-date, online training developed by Microsoft experts.

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The Microsoft licensing agreement determines which courses are included with your Software Assurance e-learning benefit. For every qualifying license covered in Software Assurance, one person in your organization can access e-learning courses for that product. In general, most Software Assurance customers have access to all three Microsoft e-learning categories: application (also known as information workers or IW), system (also known as clients), and server. Course access depends on the type of product licenses that the organization acquired from Microsoft.

Application: Customers have access to all application courses offered by Microsoft Learning. Examples include Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2003, and Windows SharePoint Services.

System: Customers have access to a select number of system courses, including Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Microsoft SharePoint Server.

Server: Customers have access to a select number of server courses. These are generally in the Designing series of courses on select Microsoft technologies. Additional IT professional and developer courses on server technologies are available for acquisition through Volume Licensing.

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There are three generations of content:

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Software Assurance e-learning courses are arranged by:

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Application and system courses typically take about one hour to complete. Server courses take approximately two hours.

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Courses are available in up to 16 languages other than English, including Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.

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Not all courses are available in all languages.

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Online users can search the e-learning catalog by keyword, topic, technology, language, collection, or audience.

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When you activate your Software Assurance e-learning benefit, you will receive an email message from Microsoft that contains the access code for application, system, and/or server course pools. The same access code is used by all students for the assigned pool, up to the number of licenses allocated to your company. For example, if your organization is allocated 50 licenses in the application pool, a single access code can be used for up to 50 students. Visit the Volume Licensing Service Center for more information.

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Occasionally, corporate spam filters intercept mail from Microsoft. Check the junk mail folder of your email software, or consult your email administrator. Also, please ensure that the benefit has been activated. If you still have not received the message, contact the Software Assurance e-learning support team.

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First-time users can activate their access code by going to the E-Learning for Business activation page. After their access code is activated, users can access courses directly from the E-Learning for Business site.

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E-learning course assistance is available in various languages from Microsoft Regional Service Centers worldwide.

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From the time students start a course, they have up to 12 months to complete it before access expires. Courses must be started prior to expiration of their organization’s Software Assurance coverage.

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Access codes cannot be reassigned. After a user has activated an access code with their Windows Live ID, the code cannot be transferred to another user.

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For those users who have access to all Software Assurance e-learning courses related to an access code(s), or pool, they have access until the Volume Licensing Agreement expires.

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E-learning course subscriptions are available for the length of an organization’s Volume Licensing Agreement with Microsoft. Unused subscriptions are not redeemable or refundable after expiration of the organization’s Software Assurance coverage.

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Students have access to the entire catalog for their specific course pool in all languages.

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For anyone with access to Microsoft Volume Licensing Services, reporting is available at the Business Administration Center.

You can track the Software Assurance e-learning benefit for employees in your organization by using three primary reports:

Assessment Activity report: Presents an employee’s assessment associated with a particular course, including, but not limited to, start date, finish date, and the score, date, and time of the assessment attempt.

Course Activity report: Shows an employee’s progress associated with a particular course, including, but not limited to, course title, topics completed, and the date and time the course was accessed and completed.

Login Activity report: Reports an employee’s sign-in dates and duration of sign-in (in minutes).

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Until employees have accepted the Data Sharing Notice, data is available only for e-learning courses in use, not courses related to specific students.

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When employees create their Windows Live ID, they can use a personal or a corporate email address—or they can create a new email address.

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The Windows Live ID, combined with an e-learning access code, helps Microsoft manage student progress. This tracking enables Microsoft to return the student to the location where they left off in a course, to provide the transcript of training they have completed, and to list the courses they have selected from the catalog.

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Companies with Software Assurance coverage can download SCORM 1.2 package files directly from Microsoft. This allows e-learning to be used without a Windows Live ID. SCORM 1.2 package files must be hosted in a SCORM-compliant Learning Management System (LMS). The server pool of courses is not available with this option.

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The offline player cannot be distributed across an organization's network.

The offline player requires that students initially activate and access Software Assurance e-learning content online, and then students can download courses for offline use. This option is useful for people who want to continue training without Internet access—for example, while traveling. Student records from offline work are updated to the server with each new online session.

The offline player is not a substitute for online e-learning, but is an option for using online content while disconnected from the Internet.

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There are two e-learning delivery options available to Software Assurance customers at no additional charge:

Note SCORM is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. Learn more about it in the "Behind-the- firewall solutions" section later on this page.

Other options are available for a fee:

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One option is available: Software Assurance e-learning via SCORM 1.2 packages. SCORM 1.2 packages must be hosted in a SCORM 1.2-compliant Learning Management System (LMS).

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Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning.

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Only the application and system course pools are available as SCORM 1.2 package files. Server courses are not available in SCORM format due to the complexities of virtual labs in those courses.

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Most application and system courses are available in SCORM 1.2 format.

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Microsoft has limited staffing for SCORM support. Please contact your LMS vendor or consultant regarding installing or using your LMS. Microsoft has worked to ensure operability with most retail LMS products that comply with SCORM 1.2 standards. For other questions regarding SCORM, please contact scormhlp@winse.microsoft.com

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The SCORM 1.2 content-only files can be purchased as a media kit for a small fee from your Large Account Reseller (LAR). In most cases, the media kit contains one or two DVDs that contain all courses for a pool. The following table shows the two media kits available. The SKU numbers refer to the English versions.

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SCORM 1.2 package files are licensed for use for the duration of your Software Assurance coverage with Microsoft. If your Software Assurance coverage expires, access to SCORM 1.2 content must be disabled and the course files deleted from your LMS.

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The courses are Microsoft intellectual property and are provided as a complete course. No part of the course can be removed, replaced, copied, reproduced, distributed in any format, or modified.

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Microsoft defines the SCO at the course level. The entire course is a single SCO.

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Microsoft does not sell Learning Management Systems. There are several LMS vendors in the marketplace. A community-supported SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK), originally developed by Microsoft, is available at the SharePoint Learning Kit site (English only).

Note This is a community-supported LMS, and Microsoft does not provide support for the SLK.

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Premier Support does not provide e-learning support.

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MeLL is the acronym for Microsoft E-Learning Library. It is a discontinued e-learning product that Microsoft provided as a behind-the-firewall solution that does not require an LMS. MeLL was discontinued in June 2006. Currently there is no solution for a behind-the-firewall solution without using an LMS.

Although MeLL was discontinued, and generally the courses are not available online, downloadable versions of MeLL (Microsoft Office 2003 and earlier) are available to Software Assurance customers through the Volume Licensing Service Center site.

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Training vouchers (IT classroom training) can only be used for instructor-led training and can be redeemed at any participating Microsoft Learning partner facility.

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The Software Assurance e-learning benefit covers a subset of all technical training available from Microsoft Learning. Additional technical courses can be acquired at reduced rates through Microsoft Volume Licensing.

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Customers who have Software Assurance membership in the application or system pool are eligible for Microsoft training vouchers (IT classroom training).

Training vouchers entitle customers to receive courses from Microsoft Learning partner locations for a specific number of training days. The number of days granted varies by program and the number of qualifying Software Assurance licenses acquired. The training vouchers are electronic and can be used at any participating Learning partner location worldwide.

Software Assurance training vouchers provide IT professionals and developers with the opportunity to receive in-depth technical classroom training, taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) at Learning partner locations. Courses are developed by Microsoft experts and can help your IT staff deploy, manage, and support the latest software.

You receive a number of training days based on the number of qualifying Microsoft Office and/or Windows software licenses covered with Software Assurance. To be eligible for training vouchers, you must have a minimum number of licenses covered by Software Assurance; this number varies by licensing program.

Note This benefit is not available to Academic Select License, Select Plus for Academic, Campus Agreement, or School Agreement customers.

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Benefits include:

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The training days given to your organization last the duration of the agreement. For example, if you have a three-year agreement, you have three years to use your training days.

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Training vouchers remain valid for 180 days from their creation date. If a voucher is not used by the designated employee within 180 days, it is revoked automatically, and the days go back into the company pool to be used by someone else. If the customer agreement has expired, vouchers and training days will be forfeited.

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You receive a number of training days depending on the amount of qualifying Microsoft Office and/or Windows software licenses covered by your Software Assurance agreement. To be eligible for training vouchers, you must have a minimum number of licenses covered by Software Assurance; this number varies by licensing program.

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First, ensure that you have a list of employees for whom you wish to create training vouchers, along with corporate email addresses. Second, know the length of the courses for which you want to create training vouchers. Finally, go to the Microsoft Volume Licensing site to create the vouchers.

Note You will not be required to enter the name of the course—only the length.

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The training voucher must be created for the length of the IT classroom training. If the voucher was created for fewer days than the length of the course because your organization has no additional days to add, the difference in days must be paid directly to the Learning partner.

Note If you mistakenly created the voucher for fewer days than you need, please revoke the voucher. Revoking the voucher will automatically return the training days to the company's pool of days, and a new voucher for the correct duration can be created. To revoke a voucher, visit the Volume Licensing Service Center site.

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If a designated employee uses their voucher with a value greater than the course duration, the Learning partner will only be reimbursed for the actual length of the course. Unused training voucher days will be automatically credited to your organization after the voucher is paid to the Learning partner.

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To change the status of a training voucher from assigned back to the eligible pool of days, you must revoke it in the system.

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The trainee must provide the training voucher number and the email address that he or she used when creating the voucher. If one of these items is incorrect, the Learning partner will not be able to validate the voucher.

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Employees must provide the benefit manager’s email address, along with the voucher number, when reserving the voucher. They must also provide their own work email address to the Learning partner.

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No, Software Assurance training vouchers exist in electronic format only. A designated employee could print out the reservation confirmation page and submit it to the Learning partner for verification if requested. The reservation confirmation page is sent to the employee automatically when the voucher is created.

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No, only those courses that are designed for the IT professional or developer audience and that are not first-look clinics, hands-on labs, or beta material, are eligible at this time.

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You can use training vouchers to attend some Microsoft Dynamics CRM courses. However, in general, Microsoft Dynamics courses are not considered Official Microsoft Learning Products; therefore you cannot use training vouchers to attend these courses.

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Training vouchers obtained through the Software Assurance training voucher program can be used only for courses on the eligible Software Assurance course list. Please inform the designated employee that he or she can select from the eligible Software Assurance course list only.

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Training vouchers can only be redeemed at participating Microsoft Learning partner locations.

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No. Learning partners cannot invoice Microsoft prior to delivery of services. Any Learning partner that does could potentially be removed from the program, required to reimburse Microsoft, and subject to legal action.

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One training voucher day equates to one classroom day of training. If a course is five days long, a five-day voucher is needed.

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No, the value is the same for all eligible courses, and there is no difference in value between a developer course and an IT professional course. Both require the same number of voucher days if the course length is the same.

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The trainee contacts the Microsoft Learning partner to indicate that he or she is no longer taking the class. The individual Learning partner's cancellation policies apply.

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The employee’s organization is responsible for the costs associated with a late cancellation. It is important to understand the individual Learning partner’s cancellation policies before canceling a course.