Curriculum Items Overview

Managing comprehensive training in an industrial organization where people have different roles and hazard exposures can become very complex. To simplify this task, Frontline offers curriculum items called training items, skillsets and jobs. By properly setting up learners' curriculums using these curriculum items, you can streamline training management.

Training items, skillsets and jobs are grouped under the system menu curriculum tab. Each division can create its own training items, skillsets and jobs. Divisions can share training items via the division, company and public libraries. Skillsets can be shared between divisions by making them public.

About Training Items

A training item is used to assign training and keep a record for any kind of training. It is the most basic of curriculum items. You must have a training item to assign training and keep a record of that training.

A training item represents title of the training (example "Cyber security awareness") being managed, and has different functionality depending on the training item type (discussed below) selected. When creating new training items, you should name or title them such that they are easily identifiable. Learners are notified and shown titles of the assigned training items on their Frontline Desktops. You should also be able to easily recognize them when you carry out your curriculum administration tasks.

About On-line and off-line training

Many training items in Frontline allow learners to complete training on-line, via the attached training content. There are other training items that allow you to manage off-line training, such as classroom training or external certification events where training content is not on-line. Any combination of these can be used to create a learner's curriculum. Training items thus allow you to address blended learning, where some learning is on-line, and some off-line. The training items discussed below are grouped by on-line and off-line types, with items in each group designed for different types of on-line content and off-line events.

In general, when you assign an on-line training item to a learner, the training completion record is automatically kept. In contrast, for an off-line training, a completion record must be manually entered.

Any training item, whether on-line or off-line, can be attached to a test to ensure that the learning is effective. Such attached tests are always on-line, and completion record is automatically entered.

About Training Item Types

Training items can be of various types, designed for different types of training content. The training item type determines the way training is viewed and completed by learners. The training item types that are designed for on-line training are:

WBT

Web-based training course. This is a very common training item type whose learning content is delivered via an attached lesson. Frontline includes an authoring module that allows you to create lessons for WBT training items. Authoring module also allows you to convert any PowerPoint presentation to a lesson. A majority of Public Library courses are of WBT type.

When a learner takes a WBT training item and no test is attached to the item, a training record with "Taken" as the result is automatically entered. A "Pass" or "Fail" record is kept if a test is attached. A "Taken" record is kept following the completion of any attached assessment. A WBT can also be attached to a survey created using survey feature of the authoring module.

DOC

Document. A DOC type training item points to learning content stored on a network share or Frontline server. Content can be Microsoft Office Word or PowerPoint file, a PDF file, a HTML file or a graphic (picture or drawing) file. Use this training item type if you already have on-line electronic documents that can be readily used for training.

A training record containing "View" as the result is automatically entered following launching of a DOC type training item, if a test is not attached. A "Pass/Fail" record is kept if a test is attached. A "Taken" record is kept following the completion of any attached assessment.

ILT

Instructor-led or classroom training. When you attach an ILT training item to a Frontline class, you can manage class registration on-line, with seamless record keeping. Complete class management functionality is available that includes offering learners class pre-work and link to an on-line class, self-enrollment with choice of class dates, enrollment approval by learner's supervisor, resolving learner, instructor and class location conflicts, managing enrollment and waiting list for filled classes, creating class sign-up sheet, choice of methods for entering attendance records, and issuing class attendance certificates. An ILT training item can also be attached to an on-line survey that can be used to measure effectiveness of the class.

A training record containing "Attended" as the result is kept following record entry. Records can be entered manually, or automatically by learners using credit key. A "Pass/Fail" record is kept if a test is attached.

CBT

Computer-based training. This on-line training item can be used to assign a 3rd party course running on a network share. The CBT training item should point to the course's own course player, usually indicated by an .exe file extension.

A training record containing "View" as the result is automatically entered following the launching of a CBT, if no test is attached. A "Pass/Fail" record is kept if a test is attached. A "Taken" record is kept following the completion of any attached assessment.

PTE

Performance test element. This training item is designed to assign only a test or an assessment, created with Frontline authoring module. This training item can be used for hands-on or experience-based learning, where a learner is asked to demonstrate knowledge through an on-line test, or an assessment observed and graded by an assessor.

A "Pass/Fail" record is automatically entered following the completion of the test. A "Taken" record is entered following the completion of the assessment.

PRC

Procedure. Similar to a DOC training item, this can also point to a Microsoft Office Word or PowerPoint, or a PDF file. The launching characteristics of both DOC and PRC training items are identical. The PRC has been specially created to allow you to distinguish operating procedures (PRC) from other learning documents (DOC).

A training record containing "View" as the result is automatically entered following launching of a PRC type training item, if a test is not attached. A "Pass/Fail" record is kept if a test is attached.

AICC-WBT

AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee) web-based training course. AICC is an international association of technology-based training professionals who have created standards for WBT courses that can communicate with an AICC compliant LMS (Learning Management System). Frontline complies with these standards, allowing you to use any 3rd party AICC-conformant courses via the training item type AICC-WBT. The 3rd party courses can reside on vendor's servers, allowing the vendor to update the courses when necessary. The AICC communication files reside on Frontline servers.

Once set up and tested, you can assign AICC training items from Frontline and learners can launch them just like Frontline's WBT courses. Upon course completion, results are transmitted automatically from the course to Frontline.

SCORM

SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), was initiated in 1999 as a way to facilitate the integration and interoperability of web-based learning content with an LMS. Similar to AICC-WBT discussed above, a SCORM-conformant training module can be designated as training item type SCORM. It can then be assigned to learners just like any other training item and be launched by learners, seamlessly exchanging data such as learner result, score and bookmark with Frontline.

Many 3rd party content providers create content in SCORM format and provide it as a compressed .zip package. Frontline allows you to upload such package via SCORM training item type. Many 3rd party authoring tools also produce content as a SCORM package. The SCORM is the newer, interactive format of many Public Library courses.

HTML-WBT

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) web-based training course. HTML is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information that can be displayed in a web browser. These are typically custom courses created using HTML authoring tools, and unlike AICC-WBT, these use non-standard method of communication with an LMS. All communication with the course (typically hosted on vendor's servers) has to be custom-programmed.

Once set up and tested, you can assign HTML-WBT training items from Frontline and learners can launch these courses just like Frontline's WBT courses. Upon course completion, results are transmitted automatically from the course to Frontline.

MOC

Management of Change (MOC) notification training. This item type is created automatically to notify selected learners about a change managed via the integrated MOC application. The content for this training is created automatically by linking this training item type to a comprehensive MOC summary page generated by the MOC application.

A training record containing "View" as the result is automatically entered when the assigned learner clicks "Sign-off" at the bottom of the MOC summary page.

ACT

Action Tracking (ACT) notification training. This item type is created automatically to notify selected learners about an action tracking event (such as an incident, near-miss or results from an audit or an Inspection) from the integrated ACT application. The content for this training is also created automatically by linking this training item type to a comprehensive ACT summary page generated by the ACT application.

A training record containing "View" as the result is automatically entered when the assigned learner clicks "Sign-off" at the bottom of the ACT summary page.

The following four training item types are designed to categorize and manage off-line training:

For all such training items, as the learning content is not on-line, you should use the Special Instructions field of the training item to communicate to learners source of the learning content (e.g. an off-site training seminar), and how to sign-up for the seminar. You also have to manually enter completion records for any of these training item types after learners provide evidence of training completion, such as a certificate from the training provider. Alternately, you can attach such training items to a one-question test that verifies training completion. This automates record keeping via the test's "Pass/Fail" record.

A/V

Audio/Visual training. You can use this training item to refer to content on audio/video/DVD media.

CERT

Certification. You can use this training item for any curriculums (jobs) that require a certificate, a degree or a diploma as qualification.

EVT

Event. You can use this training item to designate an off-site training event, such as a seminar or classroom training where class is not managed within Frontline.

MED

Medical Record. This training item can be used for requirements such as a hearing test or physical examination.

Training Item Characteristics

Any training item discussed above, whether on-line or off-line, has following characteristics built-in:

• Can be assigned to learners via their curriculums
• Depending on the due date in curriculum, it shows up on learners' Frontline Desktops
• E-mail notifications remind learners about overdue, currently due, or due in future training items
• You can designate the recurring frequency at which learners will train on any training item
• Any training item can be designated as mandatory or optional in a learner's curriculum
• Any training item can be attached to a test
• Any training item can be attached to competencies
• Any training item can be placed in libraries
• You can manually enter records for any training item, even if it is on-line with automatic record keeping
• Any training item can be set up with another training item as its prerequisite or an alternate
• You can create revisions for any training item; this information is carried over to the training records

Training Content for On-line Training Items Examples

Some commonly used on-line training item types (discussed above) and the content each is attached to is summarized in the table below.

 

When a training item is launched by a learner, the training launcher looks for the attached content to play. For example, for a WBT, the training launcher plays the attached lesson. For an ILT, the training launcher displays classes created for the ILT. For a DOC or PRC, the training launcher displays the document that is linked via the URL.

You can also easily detach and reattach content to a training item without affecting its curriculum functionality. This allows learners to see new content, without requiring you to change learners' curriculums.

About Competencies

Many HR management or information systems (HRMS or HRIS) these days evaluate people and job or position requirements using competencies. A competency is a set of knowledge, skills, behaviors, attitudes and characteristics that distinguish one person from another. For any job or position, it is possible to identify the personal, functional and business competencies required for superior performance. You may also designate level of competence required for different levels of performance within a given work function. For example, a plant supervisor is required to achieve a higher proficiency level of the same "Safety awareness" competency than a plant operator. Once identified, such competencies and proficiency levels can be used for tracking, selection or development of employees. For ease in tracking, competencies are generally categorized as follows:

• Core Competencies- The core competencies includes very general/generic competencies that all employees must possess to enable the organization to achieve its mandate and vision (e.g., teamwork). These competencies describe in behavioral terms the key values of the organization and represent those competencies that are core to the organization’s principal mandate.
• Job Family Competencies - Job family competencies are those competencies that are common to a group of jobs. They often include general job competencies that tend to be required in a number of job families (e.g., safety awareness), as well as job specific competencies that apply to certain job families more than others (e.g., EPA regulations). These tend to be related more to knowledge or skill required for certain types of jobs (e.g., DOT regulations for jobs involving loading and shipping product).
• Technical / Professional Competencies - The technical/professional competencies tend to be specific to roles or jobs within the job family, and include the specific skills and knowledge (know-how) to perform effectively (e.g. ability to use particular software; knowledge in particular professional areas such as finance, biochemistry; etc.). These competencies could be generic to a job family as a whole, or be specific to roles, levels or jobs within the family.
• Leadership Competencies - These are the key competencies for roles in an organization that involve managing, supervising or influencing the work of others in some way. Some organizations view leadership to be a part of every job of the organization in that employees are expected to contribute and offer new or better ways of working regardless of their level or role in the organization. Leadership is required in teams, project management, as well as at the managerial, executive and board levels.

Frontline allows you to create competencies, competency categories and proficiency levels, and attach these to training items.

About Skillsets

A skillset is a logical grouping of training items. You can create many skillsets with different learning objectives, and use them to create learners' curriculums.

Training items that make up a skillset are called Skillset Components. A skillset can be created with one or more different types of training items. For example, a skillset "Fire fighting" can contain a WBT "Fire extinguisher", an ILT "Flammable liquids", and a PTE "Using fire monitors". All annual mandatory training can be grouped as a skillset "Annual training" and can contain any number and combination of training item types. Another example of skillset is "New employee orientation", whose components are various training items that a new employee must complete.

A skillset allows you to add a number of training items simultaneously to a learner's curriculum. It also reduces curriculum maintenance efforts by not requiring you to edit each learner's curriculum individually when training requirements change. When you change a skillset, the curriculum changes for all learners who are assigned that skillset. For example, if OSHA regulations require you to assign a new annual mandatory training item, you simply add the training item to the skillset "Annual OSHA training". All learners whose curriculums contain "Annual OSHA training" skillset are assigned the new training item automatically.

Skillsets also allow you to stagger training, using Period Due from Assignment on the skillset component form. The period due from assignment is the number of months after the curriculum due date when the training item is due. For example, you can create a "New employee training" skillset with 12 training items, with period due from assignment from 1 to 12. You can then assign this skillset to new employees with due dates that match their employment start dates. Each employee will be assigned training items in this skillset with due dates from 1 to 12 months from their skillset due date or the employment start date.

If you want to control the order in which a learner takes training, you can set up prerequisites and make them part of a skillset. For example, you can make "Beginner Excel" a prerequisite for "Intermediate Excel". In this case, a learner is not allowed to take "Intermediate Excel" without completing "Beginner Excel" first.

Another benefit of using skillsets is that you can use the same training item with different retest periods (explained below) in different skillsets. For example, a training item "Emergency medical response" can have a 12-month retest period for the "Ambulance attendant" skillset; but the same training item can have a 36-month retest period for the "Plant operator" skillset.

Any component of a skillset can be designated as Mandatory or Optional. Mandatory and optional training is assigned separately on learners' desktops, and can have different e-mail notification frequency.

Frontline allows each division administrator to create as many skillsets as necessary to efficiently manage curriculums of learners within their divisions. Skillsets can be shared between divisions by making them Public. Skillsets do not need to contain components in order to assign them to learners. For example, you can create a skillset "All employee safety incident notifications" without any components currently and add them to the curriculums of all learners in your division. Then as the incidents occur, simply add each as a component to the skillset with appropriate due date in the skillset component form.

Skillsets are thus basic building blocks of learners' curriculums. It is highly recommended that you create skillsets to manage your learners' curriculums and avail of all features that Frontline offers via skillsets.

About Jobs

When your learners' curriculums contain many skillsets, you may wish to create a job to further simplify curriculum administration. A job is a grouping of skillsets and training items. Skillsets and training items that are grouped in a job are called Job Components.

A job identifies the learning requirements of a certain role or a position in your organization. The training requirements of all jobs in your company can be broken down into requirements that could either be one-time training (such as a degree, a certificate or a diploma) or recurring, refresher, position-related training or knowledge. All such requirements can be grouped into logical skillsets (skills or competencies) that can be added to jobs.

Using skillsets as direct components of a job is preferable to using training items directly within a job. Place training items in skillsets, which in turn are placed in jobs. Using skillsets as container of training items simplifies curriculum and due date management and offers many benefits.

For example, a job "Butanol plant reactor operator" can contain skillsets "New employee orientation", "Annual site OSHA safety training", "Reaction chemistry", "Annual Butanol plant refresher training", "Butanol reactor normal operating procedures", and "Butanol reactor emergency procedures". By adding this job to the curriculums of operators in Butanol plant, you will be assigning all training to the learners needing to be proficient in this role.

Important: Correctly identifying the requirements of jobs in your company and organizing them into skillsets will simplify your administration tasks, since people are assigned training because their job requires it.

About Learner's Curriculum

A person's curriculum defines the learning goal of a person (refereed to as learner) in your organization. When you place a person in a certain job, that job's training requirements become the person's curriculum. A job's training requirements are identified using skillsets (preferred) and training items. A learner's curriculum can thus be built using jobs (most preferred), skillsets and training items (least preferred).

A learner's curriculum may also contain several jobs: a primary job (e.g. "Butanol plant reactor operator") and one or more secondary jobs (e.g. "Ambulance attendant", "Emergency response team member", etc.). Each learner in your organization should be assigned at least a primary job.

After you have set up curriculums for all learners in your organization using job and skillsets, on-going maintenance is greatly simplified. When there is a change, such as adding or deleting training or changing refresher frequency, simply edit the appropriate skillset. Skillsets are the basic building blocks of learners' curriculums and can be modified as necessary to change many learners' curriculums.

About Due Dates and Retest Periods

You must enter a due date when you assign a curriculum item (job, skillset or training item) to a learner. For example, when you place a learner in a job, you have to indicate the date when you want the learner to start training on the requirements for that job. This date is called the Curriculum Date. A default value of 30 days in the future is used every time a curriculum item is added to a learner's curriculum, and can be changed if necessary. A learner's curriculum may consist of multiple jobs and skillsets, with different curriculum dates.

You can stagger the assigned training items' due dates by using the Period Due from Assignment. This allows you not to overwhelm a learner with too much training assigned simultaneously via jobs and skillsets.

A job may also have training items that require refresher or periodic retraining. These are identified by the Retest Period. The retest period is when a training expires and a learner has to be retested. A learner's training record will have an expiration date if he has taken a training that has a retest period.

About Assignments

Assignments are individual training items that show up on a learner's Frontline Desktop. Frontline creates learners' assignments automatically from their curriculum by breaking down jobs and skillsets, checking for pre-requisites, eliminating duplicate training items (items which could be in multiple jobs or skillsets) and giving credit for completed (but unexpired) training.

All assignments have a due date (Assignment Due Date) that is calculated automatically for every training item in a learner's curriculum. For example, you assign a job to a learner using curriculum date of 30 days from today (default value). Frontline breaks the job into training items and compares each item against the learner's training history. If it finds a record in the learner's history that has not expired as of the curriculum due date, his assignment due date for this training item will be same as the expiration date rather than the curriculum date. Assignments also keep up with all recurring training in a learner's curriculum and automatically reassign the training item upon expiration. Assignments also take into account training items that have a Period Due from Assignment, and stagger them appropriately.

Assignments automate the entire process of managing a learner's training. Assignments take into account the learner's training history, training expiration dates, component due dates, retest periods and period due from assignment.

About Optional Training

Any assignment can be designated as mandatory or optional in a learner's curriculum. Mandatory check boxes (checked by default) are provided in job components, skillset components or a directly-assigned training item. A training item not checked as mandatory is considered optional, and can be tracked as such.

Upcoming and overdue optional training items are listed under the optional tab on the learner’s Frontline desktop.