In VISION, a "project" is a set of data that is defined in the VISION Developer module. Usually a project represents a program or some other logical grouping of training information that is stored in the VISION database. Users accessing training information from VISION Developer can get data from the projects that they have security access for.
By assigning (or connecting) projects to an organization, you can enable the following capabilities in the Learning Station:
•Courses and exams contained in the assigned project(s) can now be set up in the Learning Station and assigned to any learners who are attached to the organization.
•Any learner who is attached to the organization can search for tasks or procedures contained in the project(s) and generate personalized training or performance information packages.
•Detailed layers of security can be established to control precisely the information that learners can see via the Learning Station.
•Adding Developer module programs to Learning Station organizations builds a bridge from the database to the users. This way, the information contained in the database can be delivered to learners and tracked in the Learning Station.
•For each organization you have added to the Learning Station, you can assign one or more projects. You can assign multiple projects to multiple organizations. In this way, you can allow or restrict access to projects so that each organization has access only to the content that is appropriate.
Example 1: A Project Connected to an Organization
The whole project is connected at the top of the organization, representing a simple whole-project to whole-organization bridge. You can also see that tasks contained in the project, as well as courses and course events are now connected to the organization. With this connection in place, courses and course events will be visible and available to the VLS administrator. Now they can assign them to any trainees who are connected to that organization.
In addition, learners attached to the organization will be able to go to a special area of the Learning Station and search for certain tasks. Only tasks that are contained in a connected project will be candidates of the search. This is an important feature from two standpoints:
Since tasks in a project are linked to objectives, questions, and content, trainees who find tasks in the VLS can request tests, lessons, and other forms of information that they might need in order to prepare for performing the tasks.
Detailed security settings can allow or not allow information within projects to be seen by trainees. You will learn more about these settings in other segments.
Example 2: Multiple Projects Connected to Multiple Organizations
This multiple organization-project connection picture will give you a better idea of how the organization-project connections can be made. In this example, trainees attached to the Midtown Plant organization could have access to General plant safety and Type A Operations. Trainees attached to Uptown could have access to the same General plant safety information and Type B Operations. Remember, the Learning Station administrator will have the ability to set up courses and exams, and detailed security access depending upon the links between these projects and organizations.
The Benefits of an Organization Hierarchy
Different organizations have different needs and structures. Though you must create an organization in the Learning Station, it doesn’t necessarily need an extended hierarchy of departments and job positions. This segment will explain what things you can do with the organization hierarchy, and how the hierarchy works to make those things possible. After you read this segment, you’ll be able to decide whether or not you need an extended hierarchy in your organization structure.
With an organization hierarchy, you can...
•Set up, distribute and manage a qualification program.
•Provide trainees with on-demand access to information geared specifically to assigned job tasks.
•Assign a job-specific curriculum (set of course materials) to all trainees assigned to that job.
•Generate reports that show statistics for a job group, such as: percent of workers in the job who have completed required course materials or qualifications, percent of individuals deficient in a certain task, percent or individuals qualified to perform a certain task, etc.
How the Organization Hierarchy Works
The organization hierarchy acts as a kind of “junction”. Training and qualification products in a VISION project that are connected to a job position can be assigned to all of the trainees who are assigned to that position.
In the drawing below, note that three courses in a VISION project are connected to a job position in the organization hierarchy. Now all of the trainees who are assigned to that job position are connected to those courses. In other words, the VLS can schedule all three courses for every trainee, so you don’t have to do it. It works for qualification events and other task-based products the same way.
You can see that the organization hierarchy is a vital feature if you want to set up your trainees with a program of courses, qualifications, or task-based performance support quickly. Imagine if you have 100 course events (training events comprising a course), and 50 qualification events for all of the workers assigned to a specific job. There could be hundreds of workers, and hundreds of course events. You would not be able to make or maintain that many links manually, but as long as you have an organization hierarchy in VISION, you can set them up simply by connecting things together.
You can also see how the connections to the organization hierarchy enable important reports. For example, because every trainee is connected to every qualification event assigned to his or her job position, you can get reports that show things like:
•Which trainees are qualified
•Which tasks a given trainee can perform
•In what percent of tasks has a given trainee qualified
With the organization hierarchy, you can provide trainees with access to any training or testing materials connected to tasks in that position. If you have task-based OJTs in VISION and related academic objectives and test questions, trainees assigned to that or other positions can access the materials “just in time” in order to learn on their own, or brush up just before doing a task. This is referred to as “performance support.”
As a last consideration, how long does it take to set up an organization hierarchy? It depends on how elaborate your organization hierarchy is, but generally it takes just a little longer than it takes just to type out the level names.
User Inheritance in the Organization Hierarchy
An Organization may also be configured to permit child nodes in the hierarchy to inherit the users assigned to positions above. Users who have been inherited from parent levels appear as read-only text, and must be edited on the level to which they were initially added. If you move a node's position in the hierarchy, the node will disinherit and inherit users based on the new location.
Users who have been inherited by a job position will be automatically assigned to the job position's course events and qual cards, and will, if marked "In Job", also appear on job reports for those positions.
Setting Up User Inheritance for Projects
