Introduction

Observation Checklists are an easy-to-use tool in your learning platform, enabling you as a user to check your own learning progress or the progress of other users (your peers) in the platform and to monitor compliance requirements while doing a specific task. On the other hand, by using checklists, managers can observe and document the progress of their team members' training and on-the-job activities, and how they perform their activities. If configured by your admin, you can also find observation checklists to complete among the training material of a course.

This article outlines how to manage and complete observation checklists on your desktop platform. 

More information about observation checklists on the Go.Learn mobile app

As a manager, you can monitor the activity of your team members directly in your platform by managing parts of their learning experience or contacting them to investigate certain situations.

Depending on the platform settings, you may be able to build your team by sending requests to users to confirm you as their manager. Users will be added to your team only when they accept your request for the association. 

The My Team Page

If you are managing at least one user in the platform, open the Main Menu from the top left corner of your platform and click on My Team to access the My Team page that you can use to monitor and manage your team.

The My Team page is made up of the following tabs: 

• Team Members. The Team Members tab offers an overview of your team. Learn more on managing your team members.
• Skills Overview. The Skills Overview tab lists the skills available in your team and provides an overview of the available content, levels and improvements. If no user in your team has selected at least one skill, this tab will not appear. Learn more about the skills in your team.
• Checklists. The Checklist tab lists the checklists relating to your team members.
• Reports. Use the Reports tab to download reports about courses, users, learning plans, certifications and sessions involving your team members (find out more on the report tab).

Filling Out Observation Checklists as a User

If your platform administrator has created a checklist for you, you can fill it out from the My Checklists page, accessible from the main menu.

When required to fill out a checklist, you may receive the New Self Observation Checklists to Complete notification if you have to complete the checklist for yourself, and the New Peer Observation Checklists to Complete notification if you need to fill out a checklist for other users in the platform. Select the bell icon in the status bar at the top of your platform in order to read it. Open the notification, then click on the Go to My Checklists button to open the My Checklists page, where you’ll complete and manage the checklists assigned to you.

If the Task List widget is available in one of the pages composing your main menu, you may be able to check the status of your due checklists directly from the widget, if your Administrator configured it accordingly. If so, move to the Checklists tab of the widget and click on the checklist title to directly access it. This tab shows up to five checklists. If you have more than five due checklists, click on the View All button to access the My Checklists page.

On your My Checklists page, you will see all of the checklists that you have to fill out for yourself (self-observation checklist) or for your peers (peer observation of another user). In each row of the list, when you see two icons, a bigger icon and a smaller one in its corner, the big icon shows the profile avatar (user image or name initials) of the person who is observed (checked), while the small icon shows your profile avatar (user image or name initials) as the checklist observer who completes the checklist. Of course, in the case of a self-observation checklist, only one profile avatar is displayed.

In the list, under each checklist’s title, you’ll see the type of checklist (self, peer, or - for managers - manager observation) and then info about the completion or expiration date. Please note that if you didn’t fill out a checklist within its due date, your admin is informed about the delay, but you still have the possibility to complete it anyways. Then, if you need to approve one or more checklists completed by other users, in the list, under the checklist’s title, you’ll also find the name of the user who completed the checklist that you have to approve (the checklist observer) and details about the approval step. For any further information about the approval process, refer to the corresponding section at the bottom of this article.

On the right side of each checklist, you can see its status (To Do, In Progress, To Approve or Completed). In the bar at the top of the My Checklists page, you can click on the filter icon if you want to filter checklists by type (self-observation or peer observation, and also manager observation for managers), view, or status. In the View section, the option to show only checklists that currently need your action allows you to quickly identify the checklists you need to work on. The filter is activated by default, so when you enter your My Checklists page you’ll see only the checklists with To Do, In Progress or To Approve statuses. Then, you can also decide to show only the checklists that are assigned to a course. Once you make your selection, filters are applied in real-time.

When you need to find a specific checklist, use the free text search area near the filter icon in the top bar.

In order to complete your checklist, simply select it from the list and respond to the items that you find inside. If the checklist has been added by the administrator to a course as training material, you’ll see the name of the course the checklist belongs to under the checklist description, at the top of the checklist’s page.

If configured by your platform administrator, you may find an Acceptance Review section at the end of your checklist. Simply select the thumbs up if you accept the checklist responses, the thumbs down if you don’t accept them. Once finished, press Send Checklist.

Managing and Filling Out Observation Checklists as a Manager

In your platform, your administrator may assign you or your team members checklists to complete. You as their manager may be assigned a checklist to complete for your team members, your team members may be asked to complete checklists on their own or can be the object of an observation checklist completed by you or another user. In this way, you as a manager are able to monitor your team members’ compliance requirements, learning progress, or job task progress.

If you have a checklist to complete, you will receive a notification in your platform’s Notifications area. Select the bell icon in the status bar at the top of your platform in order to read it. Open the notification, then click on the Go to My Team button to open the Checklists tab of your My Team page, where you can manage the checklists relating to your team members.

Remember that you will also find your checklists on the My Checklists page, where all of your checklists are gathered. On the same page (My Checklists, that you can reach via the user menu), you will find the checklists that you as a manager need to complete for your team members (manager observations), those that you need to complete for yourself (self observations) and those that you complete for another user in the platform (peer observations).

Access your My Team page to view all of the checklists in which your team members are the object of an observation checklist (their tasks are observed/checked) - they can be self-observation checklists that your team members complete on their own, peer observations, or also manager observations that you need to complete for your team members.

In the bar at the top of the My Team page, you can click on the filter icon if you want to filter checklists by type (self-observation, peer observation, or manager observation), view, or status (To Do, In Progress, To Approve or Completed - for any info about the approval process read the following section in this article). You can also decide to show only checklists that currently need your action, allowing you to quickly identify the checklists you need to work on or show only the checklists that are assigned to a course.

To complete a checklist for your team members, select it from the list (you can be on the My Checklists page if you are focusing on the checklists that you need to complete or on the My Team page if you are concentrating on the checklists in which your team members are observed) and respond to the items that you find in your checklist.

If the checklist has been added by the administrator to a course as training material, you’ll see the name of the course the checklist belongs to under the checklist description, at the top of the checklist’s page.

If requested by the administrator, you may find an Acceptance Review section at the end of your checklist. Simply select the thumbs up if you accept the checklist responses, the thumbs down if you don’t accept them. Once finished, press Send Checklist.

Approving or Rejecting a Checklist as a User or Manager

When configuring observation checklists, your admin may require that the checklist is approved by a specific user or manager. If you happen to be the user or manager in charge of the checklist review, you’ll receive a notification in your platform’s Notifications area. In order to review the checklist, you just need to open it through the button in the notification. You’ll also find the checklists that need your approval in the list on the My Checklists or My Team pages.

Once opened the checklist, you can go through all of the responses given by the observer who completed it, and, according to their accuracy, you will then decide to approve or reject it by using the corresponding button at the bottom of the checklist’s page.

If the checklist has been added by the administrator to a course as training material, you’ll see the name of the course the checklist belongs to under the checklist description, at the top of the checklist’s page.

Before the confirmation, you can add a note to explain your choice. If you approve the checklist, the user who completed it can view the responses he/she gave and the notes that you added during the approval step. If you reject the checklist, it is still available to the user who completed it, so that he/she can correct his/her responses and read the notes you added. Once corrected, the user can submit the checklist again for your approval.

After you approve or reject a checklist, a platform notification is sent to the observer to inform him/her about it. The observer will open the checklist directly from the button in the notification and will be able to view or correct his/her responses, and also to find details and notes about the approval process in the corresponding section at the top of the checklist.

Please note that a checklist requiring the approval step will be considered as Completed only after the approval has been done.