Best practice forum (Archived)

Courses 'Not Available' in Program

Hi,

Can anyone confirm whether the following is normal behaviour or is due to a permission I may have missed? I'm using version 2.6.3.

I have a program containing 6 courses and the program is 'Available to Students'. The purpose of each course is to allow trainers to grade the contained offline assessments. Therefore, the learners do not need to access the courses or program for any reason other than to view their completion records.

The idea is for the trainer to use the program as the 'launch pad' to access each course for grading, i.e:

open the program
(Ctrl+) click on the relevant course
grade the learner
return to the program
(Ctrl+) click on the next course
grade the learner
return to the program, etc

However, unfortunately each course in the program for the trainer is inactive and the button beside each course says 'Not available'. The trainers are enrolled in each course and can access the courses directly.

Is the above normal behaviour or have I missed a permission?

Although it would be ideal to use the Program as the 'launch pad', as a workaround I've recommended the trainers use the Program Overview report for grading each attached course. This is much faster than searching for and opening each individual course via the course catalogue.

Thanks,

Michelle

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Hi Michelle,

Can you check the Program enrolment plugin for all the courses is enabled - I take it the trainers are enrolled into the courses with that role? What do you mean by (ctrl+)? Are the Trainers assigned to the program? How do the students get their work into the courses?

thanks,

George.

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Hi George,

Currently the enrolment method in each course is set to:

(1) Manual Enrolments
(2) Program

We are currently piloting this program, and if it all works out OK, 'Audience Sync' will be added as an enrolment method.

Yes, the trainer (currently only one) is enrolled in each course with the required role. We've setup our own role but have mirrored the majority of the permissions the default Trainer role has.

Regarding (Ctrl +) I'm using 'Ctrl + Click' to open a course from the Program Overview report in another tab, so once the course is graded the course tab can be closed, leaving the Program Overview report open in the original tab so you can move to the next course for grading, etc. Saves navigating backwards and forwards.

No, the Trainer isn't assigned to the program which may be the missing step. However, by assigning them to the program won't this make the program form part of their Record of Learning?

The students aren't required to get any work into the course. The courses are setup with either a single or multiple Skills Assessment (using the 'Offline Activity' as the activity type) that they are required to physically demonstrate and if demonstrated succesfully, the trainer updates the activity grade in the course to 'Completed'.

Hope this answers all your queries.

Thanks, Michelle

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Hi,

Just wondering whether anyone has had any further thoughts about the 'Not Available' status against courses within a program when accessed by trainers? The only person, aside from learners, who seems to be able to access courses within a program is the program creator.

In summary, I would like our trainers to use Programs as a launch pad to the contained courses. However, the courses are inactive and the button beside the courses state 'Not Available'.

In my previous post I queried assigning the trainer to the program and thought this may have been the missing step. I tested it this morning by assigning a test employee to a program, with no 'due date' set, but it ends up in the trainer's Record of Learning and the message notifications and alerts get sent out to the trainer and the trainer's manager. Not ideal as it sets the expectation that the trainer needs to complete the program.

I have a workaround which is using the Program Overview report as the launch pad to the contained courses, but want to clarify whether there's a permission I've overlooked or if what I'm experiencing is intended behaviour.

I welcome any ideas/suggestions.

Thanks, Michelle

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Hi Michelle,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. If you enroll the trainer into the Program then it works. But as you say it then appears as required learning. I think the problem here is you are not using the Programs functionality for what it was designed for, maybe a workaround would be to put the courses into an appropriate category.

regards,

George.

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Thanks George, but I feel I need to disagree with you regarding not using programs for what they are designed for. It's a 3 month orientation program that contains 7 courses across 2 course sets (originally it was 1 course set and now it's 2). When both course sets are complete the program is marked as complete. The notifications work perfectly, audience enrolment works perfectly, the grading of practical assessments by trainers works perfectly - the only difference I'm seeking is that the trainer can use the program as a launch pad to the contained courses, exactly as the learner can. However, unfortunately the courses are 'Not available' to the trainer in the program.

It sounds like it's behaving as expected, i.e. I haven't missed a permission, so I'll continue to use the workaround I've devised which is using the 'Program Overview' report as the launch pad to contained courses, instead of the program itself.

Thanks for your help throughout this journey George.

MIchelle

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Hi Michelle,

It boils down to the Program enrolment plugin - YOURTOTARA/admin/settings.php?section=enrolsettingstotara_program

"The Program enrolment plugin is used to provide access to courses that form part of a program".

So if the trainer isnt assigned to the Program, the plugin isnt used with the result that the courses are "unavailable".

The changes necessary to make your idea work are not simple or trivial and would need to be carefully thought through as it could completely break all sorts of enrolment/completion/reporting existing functionality.

If you would like me to file an enhancement request let me know.

cheers,

George.

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