Creating observation checklists

Introduction

Monitoring task performance can be challenging for both learners and managers. Observation checklists are a simple, built-in, and quick-to-configure tool that allows you to observe and document how learners and team members perform their tasks. It gives an at-a-glance view of users’ progress, whether inside or outside the platform, over a defined period. It also helps monitor compliance with on-the-job requirements. Checklists can be completed by users for themselves or others, or by managers for their team members.

Checklists can be triggered by specific events (such as course completion) or scheduled manually. You can also add observation checklists as training material in any course type by importing existing checklists from the Observation checklists management page. The same checklist can be used both ways at the same time.

You can include different response types in your observation checklists such as single choice, multiple choice, dropdown, and others. 

Observation checklists are flexible and can adapt to various use cases. Hence, you can take advantage of Docebo’s Localization tool to customize the labels used in your checklists to better match your organization’s needs. For more information, see the Observation checklist language in the Localization tool section in this article. 

Use case scenarios

Observation checklists open a range of opportunities, such as:

• Monitoring and ensuring that users work in compliance with requirements or processes.
• Quickly checking how users perform specific work tasks.
• Tracking user progress on tasks inside or outside the learning platform
• Ensuring that learners apply what they have learned beyond formal training

Example: New hire onboarding

If your company enrolls new hires in a learning plan that teaches them how to use, maintain, and service company products, it is important to verify that they can apply this knowledge in practice.

To achieve this, managers and employees complete observation checklists, which are tracked in the platform. When a manager completes an onboarding checklist for a new hire, the platform records it for compliance purposes and confirms that the employee has reached the required competency level.

To configure this checklist:

1. Create a new checklist or edit an existing one as detailed in the following chapters
2. Configure the checklist as detailed in the article Managing checklists
3. Click Schedule checklist  in the top right corner
4. In the first step, select User assigned to a group and choose the New hires group
5. In the second step, set Observers to Direct Manager
6. In the third step, Make the checklist available upon course completion and enter the name of the last course in the learning plan as a trigger
    

When the final course is completed, the checklist becomes available to the manager. A notification for the event New manager observation checklists to complete is triggered and sent to the manager, informing them that the new hire is ready for evaluation.

Superadmins can view all the completed checklists from the Observation checklists dashboard.

Creating an observation checklist

To create an observation checklist, follow these steps: 

1. From the Navigation menu, find the Content and delivery (folder icon)
2. Select Observation checklists
3. Click the New checklist plus button 
4. Fill in the required details
5. Set the checklist’s options

• Add an area for free notes at the end of each item
• Allow file and video upload for each item
• Add an acceptance review to the checklist: the observer can close and send the checklist only after reviewing its responses. They must select the thumbs up icon if they accept the checklist responses, or the thumbs down icon if they reject them. The checklist is considered completed in either case

6. Click Create and edit

The checklist is created and displayed in the table of the Observation checklists main page. To edit, duplicate or delete a checklist, click the ellipsis menu on the right side of the checklist, and select the corresponding option.

Editing a checklist

Configure and schedule the checklist as detailed in the article Managing observation checklists. 

Duplicating checklists

When you duplicate a checklist, a new one is created with the same items, item groups, and configuration as the original. The duplicated checklist does not include any schedules, so the Schedules column on the Observation checklists page is empty.

Edit and schedule the duplicated checklist according to your needs. (You can also duplicate a duplicated checklist.)

Deleting a checklist

When you delete a checklist, it will disappear from the checklist table and you will not be able to recover it. 

Notes on Power Users

• Power Users with Manage checklists permissions can create, configure, and schedule checklists for users, groups, and branches that are assigned to them as resources . They can access them on the Observation checklists page in the Content and delivery menu. For more information, see the related section of the Power user permissions article.
• You can assign checklists to Power Users as resources, either all checklists or a custom selection. Assigned checklists appear alongside the ones they created.
   

Observation checklist language in the Localization tool

Take advantage of Docebo’s Localization tool to customize the labels used in your checklists to better match your organization’s needs.

For example, your checklist is originally composed of items, but you may  want to label them as questions. You can easily adjust these labels through localization settings.

The following table lists the keys that can be modified: