Learning and Development key terms

Activities

An activity is geared towards a resource's personal or professional development. A standard example of an activity is an instructor-taught course, but the concept of an activity encompasses many more types of development than just classroom learning. Other types can be mentoring, shadowing, on-the job learning, pursuing an experience-based degree, taking an educational trip, Competency Inventory, which is a formal assessment of an individual resource’s competencies, and so on.

The types of activities that your organization must track may also depend on local legal requirements.

Formal activities become the basis of a catalog of activities for which resources can register. Not all activities must be displayed in a catalog.

Each activity is associated with a topic, which represents the subject matter of the activity (for example, the topic can be SPANISH, the activity can be SPANISH 1).

An activity can be associated with multiple sessions. For example SPANISH 1 can have a session for each quarter of the year. Resources are registered for specific sessions.

Activities, individual development plans, and goals

A resource's individual development plan consists of the resource's current and historical goals, personal activities, activities, and checklists.

Activities are always displayed to learning managers. These are activities that are displayed on the resource's record and can result in the resource being awarded a competency, skill, or credential. Resource activities are usually based on catalog activities (although the learning manager may define activities that are not displayed in the catalog, but can still be assigned to resources).

Personal activities are activities defined for the resource outside the catalog. For example "Complete performance reviews by the end of September." Either the resource, the resource manager, or the resource's mentor can create personal activities for the resource. Personal activities are not displayed to learning managers.

Both activities and personal activities can be associated with goals.

Activity topics

Activity topics are used as an organizer for the catalog of activities. They represent the subject matters of the activities. Users can search the catalog by keyword, or they can browse through the topics.

Activities can be associated with multiple topics. For example, you may find "English for Business" under the topic "English" or under the topic "Languages."

An activity does not require a topic. You can create an activity without a topic and add a topic at the time that you are organizing the catalog.

Catalogs

Catalogs contain a list of the activities a resource can pursue, searcheable by keyword or by topic. The catalog is created and maintained by the learning manager.

Resources and resource managers can view available activities and suggest new activities for the catalog. They can print the entire catalog or individual topics.

Activities are not required to have a topic, so browsing through topics may not provide a complete list.

The catalog may not contain all of the activities defined for the organization. Only the learning manager can register resources for activities that are not included in the catalog.

Only resources can register or request an activity directly from the catalog. Managers and mentors can assign an activity to their resources only from the resources' development plan.

Classes

A class is a specific day during a session. Organizations can use classes to track daily attendance.

Sessions

A session is a single instance of an activity. Resources are registered for a specific session, not for an activity. For classroom-type activities, sessions include the dates, times, and locations.

Evaluations

Evaluations are a series of questions that resources can answer in order to evaluate the activity.

Notifications

Notifications are emails that are sent to resources based on activity changes or triggers.

Approvals

Activities may require an instructor approval to enroll. When enabled, a request is sent to an instructor when a resource elects to enroll in an activity.