Compliance Training – Team Management Process (Part 2)

Overview

In my last blog about Team Management (TM), I covered what you need to have in place/prepared to get started with TM in VTA:

• Configuration for the enterprise:
  • Developing your Rating Scale
  • Adding localizations to meet your process and multi-language needs
• Configuration for the site:
  • Primary Supervisor setup.
  • Team Management Group (TMG) data.
  • Learner option to remove or retain the Draft values when a TMG is approved.

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

TMG Fields

Language

This is a control for you to associate the various language values.

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

• Team Management Group Name
• Reference Link
• Group Instructions

To associate additional languages, 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.

Step 1 – All required fields are completed in English (the default language)

Step 2 – Use the ‘Language’ drop-down to select another value.

Step 3 – Once selected, the fields you can localize (highlighted below) will be available for your input.

Step 4 – Complete the fields for each language you want to use.

Team Management Group Name

This is the value that will be seen in VTA Learner on the Select Group drop-down and (once the grid is loaded) in the top-left corner of the student assessment grid (see image below).

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

Stage

This is a control for you to move the TMG from a developmental state… to being open/available in VTA Learner… to permanently closing it.

There are 3 Stages:

• Unpublished
• Published
• Retirement

Unpublished

In order to be able to edit values on a TMG or TMG Item record, it must be in the Unpublished Stage.

If you switch a TMG from Published to Unpublished, you will have to wait an hour to make edits (time period is configurable).

In that hour, VTA Learner will not allow new assessments to be started, but will allow assessments in-progress to be completed. It ensures you can’t make changes to someone’s assessment mid-review.

Published

In order for a TMG to be available in VTA Learner, it must be in the Published Stage (and have an open Period, which will be discussed in a future blog).

When initially set to Published, any necessary Team Assignments for non-managed/required Items will immediately be created. This handles your current students associated to the open TMG Period.

While set to Published, any necessary Team Assignments for non-managed/required Items will be created nightly. This handles your future students associated to the open TMG Period.

Retirement

To permanently close and prevent a TMG from ever being used again, set it to the Retirement Stage (from the Unpublished Stage).

Allowed Stage Changes

You can change a TMG Stage from:

• Unpublished to either Published OR to Retirement.
• Published to Unpublished, but NOT to Retirement.

You cannot change a TMG from the Retirement Stage.

Stage Change Date

This is the date/time of the last time a user changed the TMG Stage.

The field is disabled from user edit.

Reference Link

This is the file path to the document you want launched in VTA Learner for the TMG. Any type of document can be used (as long as a browser can launch it, you can use it). Get creative!

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

If a Reference Link value exists on the TMG record, users will see an icon () to the left of the TMG Name on the assessment grid (see image below). Clicking it will launch the document.

If a value does not exist on the TMG record, the icon will be hidden in VTA Learner.

Assignment Date for Required Items (for new assignments when Published)

TM is used to get people on or off compliance training Teams. Team assignments must have a Team Assignment Date to calculate Due Dates for the courses assigned to that Team.

The Assignment Date for Required Items date is the date that will be associated as the student’s Team Assignment Date when the following are true:

• The Item is set as “Supervisor Cannot Manage” (it’s a “required” Item).
• The student is not already on the Team.
  • If they are, their Team assignment will not be updated and they will retain their original Team Assignment Date.
• The date selected on the TMG record is greater than the date of the TMG approval.
  • If the date selected is less than the current date, then the date of the TMG approval will be used as the Team Assignment Date.

Group Instructions

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

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

If a Group Instructions value exists on the TMG record, users will see the tooltip icon () to the left of the TMG Name on the assessment grid (see image below), which they can use to view it.

If a value does not exist on the TMG record, the icon will be hidden in VTA Learner.

Custodian

This is an internal person (i.e., they have a student record in VTA) selected to oversee the TMG.

They are responsible for making, recommending or authorizing changes to the TMG.

Summary

Once you have the General tab completed (or at least the required fields), you are ready to add your TMG Items.

Next time, I will review the fields and options on the Team Management Group Items tab of a TMG record, including associating the Teams to them.

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.