Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

by Mark Anderson -
Number of replies: 5

Hi All)

I'm evaluating moodle for 2 reasons:

1. We want a better way of tracking our SOP certification (who needs certifying on what (by job role) and what they are certified on)

2. We want a platform to provide learning tools (and tracking) of new technologies (e.g. OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, etc.)

Pretty sure I understand most of how moodle works now, but not sure of the best way to set it up

What we want to do when we have a new employee (or job role change) is link them to a cohort  based on their role, then they automatically get the learning plans and courses. "Teachers" also get a list of people who need certifying

Example

We have a job role of inventory assistant (IA) 

They need to be trained and certified on 6 SOP's

The certification process (right now) is reading/training and them demonstrating to their teacher or manager that they know how to carry out the process. We do want to add quizzes, uploads, etc. to each SOP certification.

To test this and evaluate the platform, I setup 1 course per SOP (some SOP's are used by multiple departments). Right now, there is one activity (file) in each course

I set it up as follows, but not sure it's the best way

Cohorts
    Inventory Assistant
        Tom
        Dick
        Harry
        Mary

Courses
   SOP's
        Accounting
            Courses...
        Inventory
            Course 1 - Cycle Counting
               Activity - File
            Course 2 - Location Change
                Activity - File
            Course 3 - Returns
                Activity - File
        Sales
            Courses...

I then created competencies

Competencies
   SOP's
        Accounting
           Invoicing
        Inventory
            Cycle Counting
            Location Change
            Returns
        Sales
            Credit Notes
    Microsoft
        Office365
            Excel
            Outlook
            Word
        Collaboration Tools
            OneDrive
            Sharepoint
            Teams

Linked Competencies to courses

Competencies
    Inventory
            Course 1 - Cycle Counting - Competency: Cycle Counting
            Course 2 - Location Change - Competency: Location Change
            Course 3 - Returns - Competency: Returns


Created Learning plans linked to courses and cohort

Learning Plans
      Inventory Assistant Cohort
            Inventory
                Competency: Cycle Counting (Linked Course 1 - Cycle Counting)
                Competency: Location Change (Linked Course 2 - Location Change)
                Competency: Returns (Linked Course 3 - Returns)

Seems to be a lot of duplication with 1:1 course/competency links

Thought about setting up an "Inventory Assistant" course and having 1 activity per SOP and then link competencies to activities, but would have same no of competencies, and not sure how it would work if I need two activities to complete a competency.

Other thought I had was setting up an Inventory Assistant competency and they get it when they have completed all the courses, but we do need an easy way to report on things like:

  1. Who is required to be certified on each SOP and are they?
  2. What SOP's does an employee need to be certified on and are they?
  3. What percentage of required certifications are complete?

Anyone got any suggestions/thoughts on my setup?

Mark

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In reply to Mark Anderson

Re: Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

by Shirley Gregorczyk -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Learning plans are not related to courses - they are related to Students. The Learning Plan Template Framework and Competency Framework are unforgiving. Consider how you will use these structures.

I suggest you set up a small test of one course, one cohort, on learning plan with the desired competencies and look to see if that meets your needs. Competencies and Learning Plans have no end dates. When a student needs to train on the most, current SOP how with you workaround a competency that is valid forever?

You will find your need reports, this is a considerable requirement for your tracking requirements. The native reports within Moodle are activity completion, course completion, and competency breakdown (per student, not across a course or learning plan) at the course level.

For my learning plans (200+)  I use an excellent plug-in Monitoring of Learning Plans that is very visual, but the data cannot be exported.

You should visit the Moodle Downloads page to research the various plug-ins. Who has completed a certificate does exist within a course, across the site you may/or may not find a plug-in that meets your needs.
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In reply to Shirley Gregorczyk

Re: Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

by Mark Anderson -
Thanks Shirley

I was wondering about how to certify on a new version. How do people typically handle stuff like that. for example I have my FAA pilot's license, and I need to re-certify periodically, How would you set something up like that in Moodle

reporting is a big issue. If we had a local install it would be no problem, as I know SQL inside out, but with the cloud, it's a whole other kettle of finish

I've seen lots of posts about plug-ins and they all say "download" but yet to figure out how they work with cloud version

Thanks again

Mark
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In reply to Mark Anderson

Re: Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers
Mark, I am catching only parts of this. What do you mean "with the cloud?" Where will your Moodle be hosted? Do you suspect that you will not have access to Moodle's database?
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In reply to Mark Anderson

Re: Structuring Courses and Learning Plans

by Shirley Gregorczyk -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
Revising a course is not a problem. For Recertification - there is an excellent plug-in Recomplete/Recertification.
I do a very manual process, that mostly replicates how SOP revisions were done in the days of paper to manage the competencies/Learning plans, as these objects have no end-date - they are valid forever.

Even if you know SQL some of the objects and relationships are curious. The cohort object has no true start date, so finding the enrollment date (date the student is first enrolled) in a course is mostly delivered as 12/31/1969.
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