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Best practice forum (Archived)
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
I agree that this is an issue for some folks. It seems that limiting record of learning to learner role or some configurable set of roles might be prudent.
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
This is also an issue for us and draws numerous complaints from our trainers. We would very much appreciate a resolution to this too.
In the meantime Amir, here's how we handle it. For our admins and more frequent trainers the only work around we've been able to find is to create multiple accounts, eg: our admins will have an administration account and a learner account. The only hiccup here is that each email address can only be used once so you need your IT team to create dummy email addresses such as systemadmin1@organisationname.com and put those dummy email addresses on autoforward to the user's real email address. Fiddly but the only thing we can find at present.
Regards
Fiona
Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Well this definitely seems to be an issue for many of you so I've filed an enhancement request, though a big change like this will probably be held for a future version.
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Thanks everyone for the feedback.
There is actually another issue with record of learning which has caused some confusion and so I'm thinking it might make sense to fix both issues in 2.6.
The other problem with using role assignments is that if a user is unenrolled from a course, their role assignment is removed, which means the course disappears from their record of learning (if it's not also in one of their learning plans).
My proposed solution is to switch from using the role assignment record to using the course completion record. This should solve the trainer issue as only students would have completion records in the course.
If "Completion begins on enrollment" is enabled (the default) then students will be unaffected, except that the record will persist after they are unenrolled.
On the other hand if "Completion begins on enrollment" and "Mark as in progress on first view" are both disabled then students won't see a record in the record of learning until they have met the first completion criteria within the course.
Keen to hear if people think that sounds like a suitable solution.
Simon
Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Simon: I think that solution is on the right track. I always thought it was odd, and limiting, to require users to be enrolled in a course in order for a course to show up in the record of learning. How would the historical course completions import utility be affected? Would it even be necessary to enroll users to a course during the import process?
Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
historical completion imports would turn up in the record of learning (because it creates records in the course_completions table. You are right that it would no longer be necessary to enrol users in the course (perhaps we could make that an option).
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Hi Amir,
I think you are right that the purpose of the record of learning is key. In my view the name "Record of learning" implies a record of courses taken, rather than a convenient way of accessing courses. That has always been the intent.
If you or your clients are using the record of learning for "quick access for the users to the courses and resources they're enrolled to" that implies there isn't any other good way of achieving that aim. It doesn't necessarily mean that's what the record of learning should do.
Part of the confusion is that there are actually quite a few ways to access courses, and the purpose of each is not necessarily clear. Here is a quick summary of the ones I know about:
TOTARA SPECIFIC
Record of Learning (Courses tab)
[User profile] > Record of Learning
My Team > [User] > Records
My Learning > Record of Learning
As discussed this currently shows courses where the user has ANY role assignment PLUS any course assigned to any of their learning plans. The purpose of the Record of Learning is to display a complete historical record of the user's participation in courses on the site.
My Course Completions / Course Progress 'block'
Site Admin > Front Page > Front Page settings > Course Progress to enable
If enabled appears in centre column on Home page.
The "Course Progress" block is not a 'proper' block, although it does look a bit like one. It currently displays the course completion records for a user along with some other information from the course completions table such as status and dates. The purpose of this block is a bit unclear at the moment (it exists for historical reasons).
Find Courses
Home > Find Courses
The main course catalog. This should allow the user to see any course in the site that they have access to. The purpose is to provide a user a way of browsing and searching all available courses.
Learning Plans
Home > My Learning > Learning Plans > Plan > Courses
Displays courses assigned to each specific plan. One purpose of learning plans is to allow the user to keep a curated list of courses that interest them. This may include courses they've done, are working on now or just things they are interested in. Of course it also supports a lot more like commenting, and approval, but it could potentially be used as a place to locate courses of interest.
MOODLE AND TOTARA
Available Courses / List of courses 'block'
Site Admin > Front Page > Front Page settings > Choose 'List of courses' in Frontpage or Frontpage when logged in setting.
If enabled appears in centre column on Home page.
This is not a 'proper' block. It just displays a list of courses on the site that the user is allowed to see. I suppose the purpose is to let the user quickly see some courses that they might want to take without browsing the catalog.
Courses Block
Add a block > Courses to add to page
This is the blocks/course_list/ block. Displays a list of courses. Seems to only show courses the user is enrolled in, although as admin I seem to see all courses.
Course Overview Block
Home > My Learning > Course overview
This is the blocks/course_overview/ block. Displays a list of courses and associated overview information. Seems to only show courses the user is enrolled in.
Navigation Block
Navigation > My Courses
When expanded this list shows courses the user is enrolled on.
In my view the best solution is to clarify the purpose of each area and then focus on making it do that job well. Personally I think this should be done as follows:
Record of Learning: Long-term, historic record of learning achieved (including stuff being worked on now but filterable via the all/active/completed).
Course progress block: Easily accessed, quick summary of the users current courses, with some additional information such as completion status.
To achieve this we'd need the following changes:
Record of Learning: Follow my proposal above and switch this from showing courses with role assignments to courses with course completions.
Course progress block: Change block title from "My course completions" to "My current courses". Change logic to display courses the user is currently enrolled in instead of courses with a course completion record. Still display completion status when data is available.
How does that sound?
Simon
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Hope this isn't muddying the waters, but it's probably related to this discussion and may be an interesting train of thought.
We are discussing building a new users' dashboard for a client who just want a really simplified learner experience. Their point is that the end-user doesn't care if they are required to complete a Course, a Program, a Certification or whatever; the terminology is unimportant, it's more important to highlight what needs to be done first.
Learners just need a list of links to required learning content; with soon-to-expire enrolments and certifications at the top; with progress indicators; and with the date of completion or certificate expiry as appropriate. Whether the learning content is in the form of a Certification, Program or a single Course it needs to appear in the same list with similar progress bar etc. If they are enrolled in a course because it's part of a program, then they don't need to have a separate link to it - this is a frequent source of confusion.
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
Unfortunately we didn't have time to implement this feature in time for 2.6 (the feature freeze date has now passed). I will collate all the feedback from this thread and hopefully we'll be able to implement something for 2.7.
Simon
Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
There is a Suggest Features forum topic here for further discussion of this functionality if needed.
This request, ttracked under request ID TL-4484, has been deemed medium priority and is not currently planned for development by Totara core.
If you wish to pursue this functionality further your options are
- custom development - If you are considering contributing the completed customization back to Totara core, please refer to our guide to contributing code to Totara LMS here and contact Simon Coggins, our Chief Technology Officer.
OR
- provide funding for development by Totara core - If you are considering providing funding for development by Totara core, please contact your Totara Channel Partner Manager to discuss further.
Development priorities are reviewed regularly. If you wish to escalate your market need for this functionality, please contact your Totara Channel Partner Manager.
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Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
+1 for this requirement. Editing trainers, trainers should not have completions tracked in Totara reporting. We have many complaints globally about inaccurate reporting. We also have requirements where a trainer may also be required to complete the course but not always. If a person is all allocated as a learner they are tracked, if they are assigned as a trainer they should not be, however if it is a combination of the two then they should be.
Re: Trainers get courses listed in Record of Training
I +1 this for resolution.