Working with Oracle User Productivity Kit Professional

Oracle's User Productivity Kit Professional is now on version 6.2! But what IS "UPK Professional"? Basically, it's Oracle User Productivity Kit 3.5.1, and Oracle Knowledge Pathways 5.5, sold together.

UPK 3.5.1 is the latest web-based training development tool from Oracle. It provides the ability for an author to record transactions in a given software package (such as SAP or Oracle E-Business Suite or JD Edwards EnterpriseOne) and then a user can play the transaction back in various modes, such as See It, Try It, Know It and Do It. A user can also Print It if a printout of the steps is needed.

UPK also lets users take a "quiz" using the same recorded transaction in Know It mode, but without the prompts helping them through the steps. UPK scores the results, and the results can be tracked in a separate reporting database (Usage Tracking, also included with UPK). UPK lets you store other kinds of information for delivery too, such as PowerPoints, Excel spreadsheets, simple web pages, and links to other documents or websites.

UPK version 3.5.1 has some nice improvements, such as:

• support for Internet Explorer 8.0 - SQL Lite database, instead of the old Firebird database, to run the UPK tool
• better Remote Desktop installability, so you can install it remotely and have various developers access the tool to create WBT content
• support for Java 6, update 12 - better object recognition in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0
• support for Siebel 8.1.1 and CRM OnDemand, better context recognition in Siebel eModules
• support for Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management and Oracle Transportation Management, and better Internet Explorer 8.0 context recognition (available in Service Pack 1)
• support for JD Edwards World, Siebel CRM and SAP (available in Service Pack 2)
• support for Firefox 3.5, configurable SmartMatch functionality, Java updates 14 through 16, and better support for various versions of Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft 9.1, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0, JD Edwards World, Siebel, Hyperion, and SAP (available in Service Pack 3)

The addition of Knowledge Pathways 5.5 lets you organize the UPK content into a website that presents the required UPK curriculum in a logical, easy-to-read sequence of courses, lessons, and topics. Users can see what they're supposed to study, and they can see what topics they've completed and which quizzes they've passed. This is much more useful than standard UPK, which only provides a curriculum in an outline. UPK can track what each user has reviewed and which quizzes each user has passed or failed (and the score), using Oracle Usage Tracking, but UPK still cannot tell an individual user what he/she needs to study and which topics he/she has already completed. Knowledge Pathways does that.

Version 5.5 of Knowledge Pathways now supports Internet Explorer 8.0. That's the only change.

So keep in mind, when Oracle says "Oracle UPK Professional 6.2," that's "just" UPK 3.5.1 plus Knowledge Pathways 5.5. UPK is a dynamite WBT development tool, and the addition of Knowledge Pathways just makes it even more useful and effective in your training efforts. Check it out! And then call Intelligo for help in learning how to use this powerful tool, and for help in creating and managing your training content and curriculum.