This guide explains the steps to set up training and assessments on a HiringBranch portal.
You will have:
The portal address
An admin account login
A sample learner account login
A sample trainer account login
A default group containing the sample users
Courses that have been assigned to the default group
Login with a learner account to view the initial course content and get an overview of how HiringBranch works.
Then, login with an admin account to view all the courses. Click ‘Track’ on any course attempted by the sample learner to see the results of learners’ work.
Step 1: View Groups and Users
In order to get access to courses, all users must belong to a group that has been assigned a course.
View Groups
On setup, there will be a default group created with all sample trainers and learner users added to the default group and all courses (or at least one course) assigned to the default group.
You will see at least one group on the Groups page.
Click on the group to open it and view what courses have been assigned to it.
If an admin or a trainer creates a learner account but do not add that learner account to a group, or, the group the learner is part of does not have any courses assigned to it, then the learner will see an empty login page with a message saying ‘no courses assigned’.
View Users
The users page can be sorted by first and last name, role and date of last login.
Click on the user's name to open the profile and see what groups the user has been added to.
Step 2: Create a Group
From the Groups page, select Add Group.
Create a group for training
A group is typically:
a unique batch of learners, for e.g. ABC Batch 2017 or WAV4 Spring 2018
taking specific courses
for a specific period of time
When that batch is finished training, it is disabled and the next group is created.
When a Group is Disabled, the learners in the group no longer see any of the courses that were assigned to them. But the trainers can see the results in the track page and in reports.
Add users to the Group
Click Add Learner. Select the sample learner and add them to the group you created.
Create a group for recruitment assessments
A group is typically:
one time period of recruitment for e.g. ABC March 2018 or XYZ April 2 2018
assigned a specific assessment or assessments
Each day, month or time period, the group that is finished is disabled and the new group is created.
When a Group is Disabled, the applicants in the group no longer see any of the assessments that were assigned to them. But the trainers can get the results in the track page for scoring and get the results in reports.
Manually add users to the group
Click Add Learner. Select the sample learner and add them to the group you created.
The groups display on the groups page showing number of learners, number of instructors (if any), and number of courses assigned.
Visibility by default is active. When a group is disabled, it will display as disabled.
Groups can be sorted by the date they were created.
Step 3: Assign Courses
From the Groups page, select the Courses tab.
Select the course(s) to be assigned to the group.
Or, from the Courses page, select a course to open it. Select the Assign tab. Select the group the course will be assigned to.
Step 4: Login as the Learner
Always login as the sample learner you added to the group to check the courses are assigned properly.
Step 5: Disable the Group when the training or testing is completed
From the Groups page, select the group(s). Select Toggle Group(s) Visibility from the Action dropdown on the top right.
The users in the group(s) will no longer see any of the courses that were assigned to that group.
The instructors and administrators will see the group results in the Track page and in Reports.
The disabled group(s) appear in the groups page displayed as disabled.
Unassign courses from the Group.
After scoring and reporting is completed, unassign courses from disabled groups to remove them from the Track page.
From the Groups page, select the Courses tab and remove all the courses from the Group.
This can be done on a monthly or quarterly basis to clean up the track page dropdowns.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How can instructor users see all the courses?
Instructors can do everything an administrator can do, but, only for the groups that they are part of. If an instructor is not part of a group, then, they can’t add users to it or assign it.
A way to include all instructors see everything is to create a group called ‘Trainer Group’. Add all trainers to this group. Every time a new course is created, assign it to 'Trainer Group.'
The portal can function without any instructors. However, users who are administrators should be familiar with the system.
Q: How do I delete users when their training is finished?
It is not necessary to delete users or groups. Simply disable a group and the users no longer have access. In this way, the data is retained for reporting and archiving purposes.
When a training group is completed and a new group is started
Disable the group that is completed
Create a new group and assign courses and add users
Users from a disabled group can be added to new groups.
Name new groups by date to make it easy to sort.
Restricting access to training
Whitelists can be assigned to courses to restrict them to specific rooms/buildings by IP address.
Inside courses, individual lessons can be turned on or off by an instructor.
Duplicating courses
Courses can be duplicated and modified for different groups.
Make sure to create a duplicate of any course that is being modified, as a backup. From the Course page, select the course from the left side icon, then, choose Duplicate from the action dropdown.
Courses and activities
A course consists of lessons and/or assessments which can contain 3 types of activities:
Worksheets (automatically scored recordings, multiple choice, fill blanks, audio, video, text)
SocioLearner activities (recording practice with models for scenario based training. Can be commented on and scored by an instructor.)
Writing activities (chat, email writing practice for scenario based training. Can be commented on and scored by an instructor)
For more information on creating lessons and assessments, see the article Introduction to Creating Content.
Course titles can be changed from the Details tab:
Managing Users
There are 3 ways of creating users:
Manual
An instructor or administrator manually creates learner users (or instructors) and assigns them to a group.
This is useful in recruitment assessment to create logins for small batches of applicants using their real names. The group is already created with the assessment assigned to it. The username can be a real email address or a made up one.
How do learners get the portal link?
Learners are manually directed to the portal (email, face to face, shortcut on desktop)
Learners can be sent a course invite from the Group page with the link to the course or assessment
Learners can change their password after login.
CSV Import with Course Invite
An instructor or administrator imports a group of learners (or instructors) including the group.
For instructions on creating users by CSV import, see the article Creating and Managing Users with CSV Import.
This is useful in training if users are assigned email addresses.
The group can be created using the CSV file and then courses manually assigned to the new group after import.
Alternatively, groups can be pre-created with the training courses assigned. Make sure the group name on the CSV file matches exactly the group name already created.
How do learners get the portal link?
Learners are manually directed to the portal (email, face to face, shortcut)
Learners can be sent a course invite from the Group page with the link to the course or assessment
The course invite message can be edited by the instructor to add specific instructions.
Learners can change their password after login.
Self-Registration
An administrator creates a self-registration link from the left-side menu for multiple groups that will be assigned the same or different courses.
An instructor can enable/disable a self-registration link for one group, from the Groups page.
Email or post the link for the learner.
The learner clicks on the link, creates their own username and password and self-registers for a group (which has already been assigned courses).
This is useful for when learners will be registering themselves for training courses. Learners choose their own username and password.