Policy Number: WD-108
Effective Date: 11/01/2025
Last Reviewed: 10/01/2025
Workday Security roles govern what information individuals can access and actions they can complete in the Workday system. Other modules’ security roles are hierarchical in nature, granting access within Supervisory Organizations (e.g. at the School or Center level).
Many Learning Leads and Instructors provide training across the entire University and do not sit within the Organizational structure of their learners. Even when they do, such as with an HR Lead in a School, they typically need to assign centrally-provided courses which are outside of their immediate Organization. This necessitates leaving the security roles for Learning Leads and Instructors unconstrained.
Unconstrained roles mean Leads can create/edit courses and Instructors can schedule/manage offerings across the Learning system, not just for the courses they directly own. To ensure the Learning community can collaborate effectively while maintaining controls around course management, please read and abide by the following policy:
If my team owns a course/program I can:
- Decide who needs an assignment or delegate this decision to other training providers or leads or policy owners.
- Edit courses when needed: as a courtesy I can inform others of the change, but I am not required to.
- Grant manual credit for the course or give permission to others to do so.
- Assign the course as needed after permission from relevant leadership; as a courtesy I can inform fellow Learning Leads and Instructors but am not required to do so.
- Determine equivalencies or reciprocity agreements with other bodies like CHOP or Penn Medicine as adherent to regulatory or institutional requirements.
If my team does not own a course/program I must:
- Ask a course or program owner before editing the course, even for “obvious” updates like a typo, small setting changes, or offering times like changing 12AM to 12PM
- Only give manual credit for the courses I have been given explicit permission to manage and have been given explicit parameters under which to grant completion
- E.g. when a user produces a certificate or screenshot
- Only assign a course or program if I have first confirmed with the Course Owner
- This is especially necessary for large-scale assignments or routine usage
- Only waive or drop an assignment if my department/group or I have made that assignment
- If someone else assigned your course, do not assume you can waive that assignment. It is best practice to reach out to the assigner to confirm.
As a decentralized university, we can only function in a shared system if we abide by this policy. With any questions, reach out to the Workday Learning Team solutioncenter@upenn.edu. Note: the up-to-date Training Provider (course owner) should be listed under the Additional Details of the course/program. Our team can make updates to the training provider information if needed.Workday Security roles govern what information individuals can access and actions they can complete in the Workday system. Staff and faculty may need to facilitate sessions while delegating administrative tasks to team members. Though this facilitator will not be marking attendance or scheduling their own offerings, they need the Instructor role to be listed for visibility to learners and to receive Outlook calendar invites.
There is no way to list someone as a Facilitator without giving some limited security access as an Instructor. The Instructor role requires 90 minutes of training, so, in lieu of this training, please read and abide by the following policy:
As a Facilitator I will:
- Not forward calendar invites: instead, I will direct learners to enroll in Workday or ask my team to enroll them.
- Delegate all Workday Learning tasks to my team, including enrollment management.
- Allow my team to handle all settings changes and adjustments.
- Collaborate with my team for any changes rather than reach out to the Workday Learning team.
We must follow these shared policies to function effectively. For full Instructor access, you can receive training at any time. For questions, contact the Workday Learning Team at solutioncenter@upenn.edu.