A traditional method of delivering training involves taking students through a full accredited Qualification, such as a Certificate III in Business. If this is performed within a conventional classroom setting, the students may be required to attend scheduled face-to-face sessions in order to learn the theory component of their units, while completing assessments and practical activities in between these lessons. The arrangement is very similar to secondary schooling (highschool).
If this methodology sounds similar to how you run some of your courses, read on to see how this can be configured in aXcelerate.
Introduction
Setting up a full Qualification for delivery involves the following elements:
- A Qualification
- Trainers with competencies
- Classes
- Linked Workshops
Qualifications are effectively a set of Units that must be completed for a student to attain an outcome. They merely describe the structure of the course, and do not have a start or finish time.
A Class is a structure for the delivery of a Qualification, which sets out the sequence and timing of the Units. Ultimately a Class is what you will actually enrol students into to create cohorts/groups/intakes with specific start and end dates.
Workshops are representative of the direct engagement students have with the learning, i.e. classroom sessions or scheduled webinars. They must be associated with the Units of the Classes to define when and where the Units are being delivered.
Trainers are staff that are assigned to deliver courses, and must be set up in aXcelerate in order to be allocated to specific Classes and Workshops. Our Help category on the topic can provide more insight into how this can be achieved.
Configuring the Qualification
Before putting a course together, you will first need to ensure that you have set up its Qualification (and associated Units) within aXcelerate.
The main requirements that the Qualification will need are:
- The code/name
- The list of Units that you intend to deliver to the students
- To have the core/elective Units designated
For more information on how to set up a Qualification and its Units, please refer to our Qualification Management help article.
Tip: If any of the Units are delivered in a simultaneous manner, you can group them together using Qualification Modules to assist with some of the later steps of this process.
Creating a Class
It is not possible to enrol students into a Qualification, as it merely outlines the Units available in a course. Instead you will need to set up Classes, which are actual instances of training that have start and end dates.
Courses
After clicking the + Add New Class button at the top of the Classes page, you will need to fill in a number of fields to create the Class.
- In the Qualification dropdown, select the Qualification configured from earlier.
- Choose the appropriate radio button below the dropdown; since we are considering a full qualification in this scenario, you should select Students will complete the full qualification
- Select the appropriate Reporting State and Delivery Location; the former will depend on what kind of state funding (if any) you are accessing for the enrolments within this Class
- Enter a Class Descriptor to describe what this course or group of students is; while this can theoretically be anything, it is helpful to make your descriptor detailed, e.g. “BSB30120 - Cert III Business - 3rd Jan 2022”
- Set Delivery Mode - AVETMISS to describe how the course content will be delivered; all three can be applied if necessary
- Set the Start Date and End Date of the Class; this should refer to the entire course of study, e.g. the duration of an entire Certificate III in Business
- Set a Default Trainer to indicate which Trainer will be in overall charge of this group of students (this can be left blank if there is no single individual that fits your structure)
- If using Online Assessments, the Class Assessors determine who can access and mark assessment submissions for students enrolled into this Class
- Finally, tick the core and elective Units that the students of this Class will be studying
- Click Create Class to finalise the creation process
You should now have a Class with Units that can potentially receive enrolments. However, at this stage, the system is unaware of which dates the individual Units will be delivered on. Furthermore, by default, every Unit will commence at the beginning of the Class and finish at the end of a Class.
To adjust this, the Class must be scheduled.
Note: These are called “Classes” by default, but may be termed something else in your specific account, such as “Cohort” or “Intake”. Even if named differently, this feature will still function the same way as described here. You can read more about aliasing terms within aXcelerate in our Core Settings help article.
Scheduling a Class
After creating a Class through the steps described above, you will need to go back into the Class Update page to schedule its Units. There are two ways to get there:
- Click the edit pen next to the Class as it appears within your list of Classes
- Click into the name/descriptor of a Class as it appears within your list of Classes to get to its Matrix, and then click the Update button
You should now be back at a similar page to what you saw while originally creating the Class, except this time the Units that were previously selected will appear near the middle of the page.
The Units will be listed in alphabetical order, which may not be reflective of the sequence they are actually delivered in. To change this,
- Overwrite the number next to each Unit in the Dates/Order column
- Click the Update Class button
Once the Units are set in their correct order, you can proceed to schedule them with the following steps:
- Click the Timetable button near the top of the list of Units, close to the Dates/Order and Results labels
- Ensure you are on the Simple View tab
- Set the specific start and end date for each Unit
- Click Update Schedule to confirm the dates
After performing the above, returning to the Class Update page will show that the numbers in the Dates/Order column have been replaced with actual delivery dates. If you have made a mistake at this point, you can repeat the above steps to tweak the incorrect dates.
Tip: For Units delivered simultaneously, you can simply give them the exact same order number prior to scheduling their dates.
Tip: If your Units are delivered one after the other, you can click and double-click the clock icons next to each Unit in the Simple View area to rapidly apply a date pattern to the Unit below it. Additionally, if you have applied Modules to the Qualification of this Class, you will see that the Units are grouped together in the Simple View area.
Warning: While it is technically possible to perform the remaining processes outlined in this guide without scheduling your Class, we do not recommend setting up timetables unless you have first scheduled your Classes.
Warning: It is entirely possible to input Unit dates while scheduling that are well outside the Start/End date of the overall Class. Always double check the dates of your Units for accuracy before moving on to any timetabling steps.
Workshops
While your Class has now been scheduled, there is still nothing in place to track the individual face-to-face sessions that the students will need to attend. These are handled by Workshops.
There are two methods to create Workshops and link them up to your created Class:
- Timetabling Workshops
- Creating Workshops manually and linking them to the Class
Exactly which method to use will depend on how complex your specific course schedule is. Regardless of which method you pursue, you will need to consider setting up several elements beforehand:
Warning: It can be a time-consuming process to remove Workshops that have been mistakenly linked to a Class. If you are unsure of what the outcome of your process will be, we strongly recommend setting up a full example Class in aXcelerate’s Staging environment first.
Timetabling a Class
If the students will be attending fairly regular sessions, e.g. Monday and Tuesday every week, 9 - 3pm, then you may wish to consider timetabling your Class. This process effectively creates and links Workshops against the Units of your Class in one process, by applying a pattern to the scheduled dates of those Units. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you schedule a Class before timetabling it.
Once scheduled, you can timetable the Class with the following steps from the Class Update page:
- Click the Timetable button near the top of the list of Units, close to the Dates/Order and Results labels
- Swap over to the Timetable View tab
- Tick the Unit you wish to timetable (if two or more Units are delivered simultaneously you can tick several, otherwise it is best to tick one at a time)
- Click the Create Timetable button
- Select the name of your sessions (Workshop); this can be the name of the Unit it is linked to, the Class name, or a custom name (Other)
- Enter the days of the week the students will attend during the range between the Timetable Starts and Timetable Ends dates (this will create a weekly pattern, e.g. every Wednesday between the 1st and 28th of January)
- Enter the times that students will attend next to each weekday
- Enter the Trainer that will be running the session next to each weekday
- (Optional if no Rooms exist) Enter the Room next to each Weekday
- (Optional) Enter any allocated Equipment next to each weekday
- (Optional) Click Save this Pattern as to store your weekday/time/room combination for use again later
- Click Submit
- Verify that there are no Trainer or Room clashes on the next screen; you can click back in your browser to make adjustments to the pattern, or approve/move/remove the clashes directly on this screen
- Click Confirm All Dates (or Ignore All Clashes And Confirm All Dates if you’d like to disregard and clashes and proceed anyway)
- Repeat steps 3 - 14 until all of the Class’ Units are timetabled
Tip: As mentioned in Step 11, the combination of days/times/trainers/rooms can be saved as a pattern that can be quickly loaded in when timetabling other Units in aXcelerate
Tip: If you take attendance at two points during the day, e.g. morning and afternoon attendance, you can input the same weekday with different times. An example of this might be “Tuesday, 8:00am - 12:00pm", and "Tuesday, 1:00pm - 4:00pm”
Tip: If you have designated semester/term periods throughout the year, these can be entered under your Core Settings to assist with the timetabling process.
Note: If you choose to have the system create Workshops as per Step 5 above, it will automatically create Workshop Types according to the Unit, Class, or custom name chosen. This will also default the maximum number of participants to 99. You can create your own Workshop Types beforehand with custom names and participant limits, which will then be selectable during step 5.
Warning: Complex session structures, e.g. attending on a Tuesday every first week, and a Wednesday every second week, can not be reflected in the timetabling interface. If your sessions have more sophisticated structure that doesn’t follow a consistent week-to-week pattern, you will need to consider alternative methods for creating Workshops.
Creating Workshops
If the students will be attending an ever-changing arrangement of sessions, or an unusual pattern of delivery, it may not be possible to have the system create Workshops for you via timetabling. Instead, you will need to create the Workshops independently, and then manually link them back up to the Units of your Class.
By creating Workshops outside of the timetabling tool, you gain full flexibility to configure different dates for your Workshop.
A prerequisite to creating Workshops is to first set up Workshop Types. These will require several key fields to be completed:
Courses
- A Workshop Name used to describe the kind of sessions it is about (often it helps to create a Unit-specific Workshop Type)
- A Workshop Code mainly used internally
- A Short Description if you intend students to view information about the sessions in the Learner Portal
- The Min. Students and Max. Students
- If at all consistent, it helps to input the Default Duration and Default Start/Finish Time of the Workshop Type
- If the Trainer is usually or always the same for this Workshop Type, you can set them in the Trainer field
You can read more about actually creating Workshops from Workshop Types in our Workshop Management help article. However, when creating Workshops that will be linked to a Class as per this scenario guide, you will need to keep the following in mind:
Courses
- The Workshop coordination type should be Public Workshop
- The Location field will need to be filled in, but is free-text and can refer to a simple location to display to the student (e.g. “Main Campus)
- When setting up the Dates & Duration for the Workshop, you should always use Multi-session, even when the Workshop only lasts for a day (this will ensure that the system creates complex dates, which are necessary for attendance)
- Where possible, you should load in a room in the Venue Setup section
Tip: It is possible to duplicate Workshop Types should you need to create a large number of these.
Tip: If you have different Trainers on different days within the same Workshop, you can configure this after creating the Workshop.
Tip: If your sessions are being delivered online via conferencing software, rather than face-to-face, you can link in a Virtual Classroom to any Workshop you create.
Warning: Each Workshop should contain all the dates a student will attend for a given Unit or cluster of Units. E.g., if a student is meant to attend five different days over the next two weeks for the Unit BSBCRT311, you should create one Workshop with all five of those Multi-session/complex dates. You should not create five different Workshops, otherwise, you will run into difficulty when linking these back to your Class.
Linking pre-created Workshops to a Class
If you have created Workshops independently from your Class, without using the timetabling tool, it will be necessary to link these Workshops up to their corresponding Units. This ensures that when enrolling a student into a Class (accredited information) they will automatically be booked into the relevant Workshops (engagement & attendance information).
After creating the relevant Workshops, you will need to navigate to the Class that needs Workshops linked to it, and Update the Class. Following this, you will need to:
- Scroll down to the list of Class Units and click the + Workshop(s) button
- In the first dropdown, select the Workshop Type used when creating your Workshop instances
- In the second dropdown, select the specific Workshop you wish to link to Units
- Tick the Units of Competency that the selected Workshop should be linked to
- Since you should be linking up the Workshop prior to enrolling any students into the Class, you can simply leave the radio-button selection on No Class enrolments for any Students
- If the start/end date of the accredited Unit/s should match the start/end date of the Workshop you are linking, leave the Sync Activity Start/End dates with Workshop Start/End dates option checked
- Click Submit
- Repeat Steps 1-7 until all Units have a Workshop linked to them
Performing these steps should lead to approximately the same outcome as timetabling the Class, with each accredited Unit now having a Workshop attached to it in order to track the face-to-face engagement component of training for that Unit.
Tip: It is possible to repeat Steps 1-7 for the exact same Unit, but linking a different Workshop each time. This will provide an option of which Workshop for that Unit to book the student into when enrolling them into the Class, effectively allowing you to have two scheduled timetables running for a single group of students.
Warning: If you are unable to see your desired Workshop when on Step 3, double-check the start/end date of the Class, and the Workshop you are trying to link. If the Workshop dates lie outside those of the Class, it will not be available for selection.
Enrolling a student into the timetabled Class
After working through the above, your Class should be ready to have Contacts enrolled into it to create student enrolments. The linkage of Workshops to Units ensures that enrolling the student into the Class will see them pushed through to the relevant scheduled sessions.
After ensuring that your Class is fully timetabled, you can take the following steps to manually enrol a student:
- Navigate to the Class Matrix and click the + Enrol button
- Search for an existing Contact, or create a new one with the + New Contact button
- Click Enrol to proceed
- On the next screen, ensure that the Book on linked workshops option is checked, as this will ensure the Contact is booked into the Workshops that you’ve linked to the relevant Units
- (Optional) Ensure the Sync dates with linked workshops option is checked if the duration of each Unit should match the first and last session date of each linked Workshop
- Fill in relevant AVETMISS reporting information underneath the Unit table (Study Reason, Funding Sources, etc.)
- Click the Enrol Contact button
- Proceed through the Finance Details setup section (see this SHOT video for an outline of this area)
After working through the above steps, your Contact should now be enrolled into the Class, and have been booked into any Workshops linked to the Units they were enrolled into. You can verify this by going into the Class enrolment, scrolling down to the table of Units, and clicking the blue date/s in the Workshop column to navigate through to that specific Workshop.
Note: If you have timetabled or manually linked multiple Workshops to the same Unit in the Class, you will be presented with an extra screen after Step 7 mentioned above. Here, you will have to designate which specific Workshop the Contact will be booked into for each Unit, selected by the respective radio button. You can also select “No Workshop” to ensure that the student isn’t booked into a Workshop at all, which is useful for Units that are credit transferred and may not require any engagement or attendance on the student’s part.
Warning: This guide does not take into account any form of E-Learning or Assessment that may be required for your students. These should generally be applied before proceeding with any enrolments. See our Help category for more information about these features.
Warning: Much like with the Class, it is only possible to book the student into one linked Workshop per Unit, and linking multiple Workshops will force you to make a booking selection during the enrolment process. Remember, each Workshop should contain all the dates a student will attend for a given Unit (or cluster of Units).
Timetabling Webinar
This webinar demonstrates
- Creating a Class
- Scheduling the Units of a Class
- Timetabling a Class
- Enrolling a student into a timetabled Class