Compliance Training – Team Management Process (Part 3)

Overview

In my last blog about Team Management (TM), I covered the General tab of a Team Management Group (TMG) record:

• Its fields.
• How to use the Language option.
• How Stages work.
• How Team Assignment Dates are applied.

To continue this series on the VTA Team Management feature used to help organizations assign compliance training, let’s look at the Items tab of a complete TMG record.

TMG Items Grid

Like other VTA data grids, you control which columns appear on a TMG Items grid.

I want to point out a couple features (that I skipped in my last blog) because they are relevant to both the TMG grid and the TMG Items grid… the Valid and Reference Link columns.

Valid

VTA will not let you publish a TMG unless it is valid. How is it considered valid? It’s valid when all of its Items are valid.

How is an Item considered valid? It depends on the type of Item (I discussed Item types in my first TM blog).

Here are the two basic rules:

• If it’s a non-managed (“required”) Item, you must associate at least one Team for the default Language (i.e., one Team for “Required” in English).
  • You can add more Teams (one per Language), but it must contain at least one for your default Language.
• If it’s a manageable Item, you must associate at least one Team for the default Language for each Risk Level in your Rating Scale (i.e., one for “High”, one for “Medium” and one for “Low” in English).
  • You can add more Teams (one per Language per Risk Level), but each Risk Level must contain at least one for your default Language.

The validity status for a TMG or TMG Item can be displayed right on the grid (see the Valid column highlighted in orange on the TMG Items example grid below).

Reference Link

Reference Links are optional fields for a TMG or a TMG Item (more about them in the field description below), but if they are populated, you can display the link in the grid and launch it from there (see the Reference Link column highlighted in purple below).

Example

In the example below, you can easily tell that Items 2 and 3 are not valid just by looking at the Valid column. You will not be able to publish this TMG until the necessary Teams are associated for those Items.

You can quickly view the Reference Link documents for Items 1, 2 and 5 just by clicking on the links in the grid.

TMG Item Fields

Language

This is a control for you to associate the various language values for the TMG Item and it works just as it does on the TMG General tab.

It allows you to set values for the following fields so users will see them in VTA Learner in their language (as set in their device’s Regional Language settings):

• Item Name
• Reference Link
• Item Notes

Just as you would associate additional languages on the TMG General tab, all required fields must first be completed in your system’s default language.

You then change the Language on the drop-down and complete the fields for each language you want to include.

Item Name

This is the value that will be seen in VTA Learner in the Name column of the student assessment grid (see the Name column highlighted in orange below).

It is a required field that can be up to 60 characters.

Active

This is a control for you to keep an Item part of the TMG, but no longer make it available in VTA Learner.

Once an Item has been part of an approved student assessment, you cannot delete it, but you can inactivate it.

Supervisor Can Manage

This is the control for you to set an Item as manageable (allowing a supervisor to rate it in VTA Learner) or not (making it “required”).

• If manageable, you will have to set a Team for each Risk Level.
• If not manageable, you would only have to associate one Team and everyone associated to the TMG for the open Period will be automatically assigned to that Team.

Once an Item record has been saved, you cannot change the Supervisor Can Manage option.

Order Number

The Order Number will control how Items are initially sorted in VTA Learner on the student assessment grid

You can group Items together by subject matter, have all required Items show together at the top or bottom of the list or simply have them in alphabetical order.

Rating Scale

You must select the Rating Scale to use with the Item. I discussed Rating Scales in Part 1.

Reference Link

This is the file path to the document you want launched in VTA Learner for the TMG Item.

It is an optional field that can be up to 200 characters.

If a Reference Link value exists on the TMG Item record, users will see an icon () to the left of the TMG Item Name on the assessment grid. Clicking it will launch the document (see “Driver Safety” highlighted in orange on the grid below).

If a value does not exist on the TMG Item record, the icon will be hidden in VTA Learner (see “First Aid” in the grid below).

Item Notes

This is text you can display in a tooltip in VTA Learner for the TMG Item.

It is an optional field that can be up to 500 characters and accepts HTML.

If an Item Notes value exists on the TMG Item record, users will see the tooltip icon () to the left of the TMG Item Name on the assessment grid, which they can use to view it (see the hover tooltip for the first Item in image below).

If a value does not exist on the TMG Item record, the icon will be hidden in VTA Learner (see tooltip icon hidden for the last Item in image below).

Team Grid

At the bottom of a TMG Item record is a Team grid (highlighted in orange below).

This is where you associate the Teams to the Item.

Team Administrative Control

In order to associate a Team to a TMG Item, it must be set with an Administrative Control of “Managed”.

This lets VTA know to restrict Team Assignment updates (adding people to, or deleting people from, the Team) exclusively to the TM feature in VTA Learner.

No Team Assignment changes will be allowed in VTA Administrator once a Team is set with a “Managed” Administrative Control.

Using Existing Teams

If you are going to associate an existing Team to a TMG Item, you will first have to open the Team record and change the Administrative Control from “All” to “Managed”.

Using New Teams

If you are not planning on using existing Teams, you can add a new Team on demand on a TMG Item Team record (see the Add Team window below launched from the record).

The Team will automatically be added with the “Managed” Administrative Control.

Summary

Once you have the Team Management Group Items completed (or at least the required fields), you are ready to create a TMG Period that will open the TMG for student assessment in VTA Learner and get your compliance training assigned.

Next time, I will review the fields and options on the Team Management Group Periods tab of a TMG record, including assigning the participants.

Marc Letendre

eLearning professional with over 20 years experience positively impacting corporate productivity through skillful management of staff development programs and implementation of RISC LMS solutions. Marc attained an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Springfield College in 2005 and is reputable for working with groups to identify issues and create tools, processes or training solutions to achieve and exceed measurable objectives.