Introduction
Observation checklists are an easy-to-use tool integrated in your learning platform, enabling you to observe and document how your learners and team members perform their tasks in a quick-to-configure checklist format. You can create observation checklists in multiple formats (for example, single choice, multiple choice, dropdown, and other response types) for users to complete for themselves or for other users in the platform or for managers to complete for their team members.
Furthermore, you can also add observation checklists as training material into a course, by importing into a course (of any course type) the checklists already created on the Observation checklists management page. This article outlines how to import a checklist into a course as training material.
Remember that the same checklist can be both (and simultaneously) scheduled using the Observation checklists management page and also be added as training material in a course from the Courses page, as explained in the following sections of this article.
Use case scenarios
Observation checklists open various opportunities, such as:
- Monitoring and ensuring that users work in compliance with requirements or processes.
- Quickly checking on how users perform specific work tasks.
- Monitoring the status of user progress related to certain tasks inside or outside of the learning platform.
- Ensuring that your learners are following what they’ve learned beyond formal training.
By including observation checklists in your courses, you will be able to fully monitor the learners’ progress via checklists completed by an observer who can also be another person and not the learner enrolled in the course, and tie it to the completion of a specific course.
Importing observation checklists as training material
In order to add an observation checklist as training material for your course, log in to the platform and access the Navigation menu. In the Content and delivery (folder icon), select the Courses item. Look for the course for which you would like to import the observation checklist as training material and click on its description, then move to the Training material tab. From here, select the Add training material button, then select Observation checklist from the dropdown menu.
Please note! You can import the checklists already created by you or by a Power User using the Observation checklists management page, but you cannot create new checklists from the Courses page. If you want to create or manage your checklist, reach the Observation checklists page from the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon).
The Import checklist right panel will open. Start by choosing one of the available checklists (that are the ones created on the checklists management page), then press Next and set who will be the checklist observers (the users who will fill out the checklist), the checklist approval, and the completion options.
Please note! When configuring the checklist that you are importing as training material, you’ll go through the observer and the approval sections, that are the same as the ones you found in the second step - Observation and Approval - of the checklist configuration when scheduling your checklist on the Observation Checklists management page. For any further information on how to configure these two sections, please refer to the Second step: Set the checklist observers and the checklist approval chapter of the checklists management article.
Also note that when importing a checklist, you will not need to configure again which users will be checked (first step of the configuration on the Observation checklists management page), because they are the learners enrolled in the course you are adding the checklist as training material.
Once configured the checklist observers and decided if the checklist needs to be approved by another person, set the completion options, that is the completion criteria of the checklist training material inside of the course.
If you choose the Upon conclusion option, the checklist training material is marked as complete when the checklist reaches the Completed status (the observers have finished responding to the items in the checklist and pressed the Send checklist button). Remember that, if the checklist requires the approval step, it will be considered as Completed only after the approval has been done.
If you choose the Upon sending option, the checklist training material is marked as complete when the checklist is sent to the observers to be filled out. Set this option if you want to allow the learner to continue with the course, especially when the observer is another person, because the learner does not need to wait for the observers to complete the checklist to be able to continue with the course.
When you have finished configuring the completion options, press Import.
You can now change the checklist’s title by typing a new one in the corresponding field. In fact, the checklist training material title can be different from the title of the checklist itself. Below, you can also add a description of the checklist training material. Then, move to the Additional info tab to add a short description, tags, and a thumbnail.
Adding tags to your training material improves its searchability in your platform’s global search. If the auto-tagging feature is enabled in your platform, some tags may be automatically generated based on the content of your material, as understood by your platform using artificial intelligence. Auto-tagging relies on the platform’s ability to extract text or generate a transcript. See the complete list of supported content types for text extraction and transcript generation. You can edit or remove tags at any time, with a limit of 15 tags per training material and of 32 characters per tag.
Then, set a thumbnail. You can choose from a selection of pre-loaded thumbnails, or upload your own.
Once you have finished, press Save changes to create the training material, which now appears in the list of training materials on the course’s Training material tab. You can switch to learner view by using the Learner view button in the action bar at the top of the Training material tab. In the learner's view, you can see how your new training material appears to your users.
Checklist assignment and review process
The checklist training material is assigned to one or more observers (the users responsible for completing it) only when the learner accesses the checklist within the course or clicks on the checklist entry in the course syllabus. This means that if the checklist is set to be completed by another user (such as a manager), the learner must either click on the checklist item in the syllabus or access the checklist in the course player to notify that user that the checklist is ready to be completed.
This logic is implemented to prevent managers from being overwhelmed with a large number of checklists that are not yet ready for completion.
The date when the learner accesses the checklist training material is set as the creation date on the checklists preview page.
Notes on checklist assignments
- Learners may report that when they reach the checklist training material in a course, a message in the player states that the material cannot be created and the checklist is unavailable. This occurs because the checklist review involves a user (possibly a manager) responsible for observation or approval who has been removed from the platform after the checklist was configured. If this is the case, edit the checklist settings from the course page, as outlined in the Managing the settings of checklist training material chapter of this article, and replace the deleted user with an existing one.
- Make sure you are not assigning the checklist or the approval of the checklist to a deactivated user, as the platform will not prevent you from doing so.
Managing the settings of checklist training material
Once the training material has been added to the course, you can manage the additional settings. Press the menu icon at the right end of the training material’s row, then select Settings.
In the pop-up box, decide if the training material is visible or hidden, the publishing time frame, and if it is an end object marker. More information on the training material settings and prerequisites.
Please note! If you hide the checklist training material or set a publication time frame that does not include current or future dates, and the checklist has not yet been assigned to any users, the checklist will not be assigned to users (observers) for completion and hence it will not be counted towards course completion. However, if the checklist has already been assigned to one or more users (the observers already received the notification informing them that they need to complete the checklist), even if you hide the checklist, or set a publication time frame not including current or future dates, the user still needs to complete the checklist, which will be counted towards course completion.
When finished, press Save changes.
Once you import a checklist as training material in a course, if you update the checklist title, description, tags, or thumbnail from the Observation checklist menu, the changes will not be reflected in the imported training material. To update them, press the menu icon at the right end of the training material’s row, then select Edit.
If you edit the checklist questions or structure from the Observation checklist menu, or the checklist settings (observers, approval, and completion options) using the Checklist settings option (from the menu icon at the right end of the training material’s row) the changes will only apply to learners who have not yet started the course. Learners who have already begun the course will continue to see the original checklist.
If you need to edit the settings (observers, approval, and completion options) for the checklist you imported as a course’s training material, press the menu icon at the right end of the training material’s row, then select Checklist settings. Please note that checklists already assigned to users will not be affected by a change in settings.
Power Users' limitations in managing checklists
Power Users with granted permissions can create and manage their own checklists and manage the checklists assigned to the users managed by them, but they are not able to manage and edit checklists involving users that they do not manage.
For example, if an observation checklist involves a user (as checklist observer, or as the user in charge of approving the checklist) that a Power User does not have the permissions to manage, the Power User is not allowed to manage any of the options and settings of that checklist.
Following the same logic, if a Power User manages a course where a checklist training material has been added, but the checklist is assigned to a user not managed by the Power User, the Power User cannot duplicate the checklist when duplicating the course.