Hi,
I work with a nonprofit that helps to provide training to many local agencies in a transportation sector. We are in the middle of developing a national framework for the training and certification of a skilled occupation. We need a system for tracking local training that is happening in compliance with the national standards. We will also track certification exam enrollment and completion status. We would like local agencies to feed us this data. We may also have a module for trainer online forum.
Some of the data we may track include:
- Trainee demographic information
- Instructor demographic information
- Membership information (including dues, pay rates, pension, work history, etc.)
- Course registration
- Course information – start/end dates, duration, prerequisites, instructor, completion status
- Certificate of completion
- OJT information – hours
- Other certifications (outside of current program/trade)
- Stipends
- Training standards
- Curriculum
- Courseware
- Trainee/instructor correspondence
We have previously thought that we will need to contract with a software vendor to develop a new system or customize an off-the-shelf one. Then someone told me that Moodle is capable of doing all this, plus it's free to acquire and open source and has low customization and maintenance costs. I've been poking around a little bit and found the module closest to what we are trying to do seems to be the Gradebook. Can someone here tell me if what I've described is achievable in Moodle? Below are a few paragraphs I've written before, stil talking about SQL or Oracle based databases. One complicating issue is that we may need to work with a variety of local databases at each agency. I am not sure how easy it is to integrate them with the national system on Moodle.
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The Project will develop and maintain a Learning Management System (LMS) to track the test sessions and certifications achieved by technicians throughout the industry. A local counterpart of the LMS will keep track of the training and certification experience of workers at each property. Local programs may use a secure online interface to share information with the national system. This avoids the need to install and maintain complicated information systems at these geographically dispersed locations.
To minimize costs for implementing and maintaining the LMS technologies, a basic LMS may be designed using a readily available online collaboration system, such as Google Docs, linked with internally customized Excel or Access applications Information tracked and reports generated may be limited, though. Alternatively, the Project may work in partnership with a vendor specialized in LMS design based on platforms such as SQL or ORACLE servers. The system may be hosted at the vendor location. The development and maintenance costs will be significantly higher, but the potential for tracking and linking every piece of data and extensive reporting may be worth the investment.
LMS-generated statistics can provide scoring feedback to participants, to trainers at the request of participants, and to the National System. LMS data will allow for better evaluation of testing validity and reliability, and protection against legal liabilities. LMS data may be used for initial assessment of new hires, job placement or assignments, identification of departmental training needs and creation of professional development planning for individual employees.
