I need to hire programming/course design help to capture and store learner data

Nov 25, 2015

Tim Kraft
By Tim Kraft

I am not sure if I am allowed to post requests for assistance like this. If not, I apologize and understand the need to delete it. 

But let's hope it's okay because I need some help. 

My client commissioned me to develop safety training for contractors working at their facilities. They have thousands of contractors every year. Each has to be trained on safety and tested before being issued a badge granting access to their facilities.

The training solution is the Contractor Safety Manual that they download from an Articulate Presenter course. There is no actual instruction in the course. It's just the "shell" we created to house the manual as a resource.

Contractors are encouraged to review the manual. Then they return to the Presenter course to take a Quizmaker assessment. When they successfully pass (100% score), they advance to the next screen where they can download a fillable PDF certificate form. They type in their personal information (name, company and state ID number) then print the certificate and take it to my client's security department to receive their badge.

This all worked fine, but then the client added a wrinkle. They need to capture the contractors' personal information in a database of some sort that they can import into their records. In a perfect world, the captured data would also populate the certificate.

I am looking for someone to handle the programming and technical issues related to nabbing the user data, storing it in a file, and hopefully populating the form with the data. If it requires some sort of simple LMS, that would be okay. The client will pay me to host the LMS as a service and send them a file on a regular basis.

If you are interested, I will need to see an example of something you've done that's similar to this situation.

Thanks,

Tim Kraft 

(p.s. Please respond via my email, tim@wordkraft.biz, rather then clog up the forum with this.)

4 Replies
Bob S
over 8 years ago11/25/15 at 3:44 pm (UTC)

Tim,

Unless I am misunderstanding, there is no programming involved...  this is a fairly standard feature set of most LMS solutions with a Certificate function. 

Might just take a lateral shift on your part to think about pulling the certificate out of the course itself and letting the LMS issue it instead.  Personal information can be captured at time of log in/sign up in the LMS. And the "export" to the client's database can be done in a number of ways, the simplest being a standard Excel / CV report that your LMS runs for you on successful completion of the course; just include in the report wizard the data fields required such as date, score, employee number, etc.

Honestly hope this helps you and sorry if I undermined anyone's freelance opportunity.

Tim Kraft
over 8 years ago11/30/15 at 2:56 pm (UTC)

Bob,

I am a near-know-nothing when it comes to LMS's. I develop the materials and
hand them off to clients to deploy. The client has an LMS but they don't
want to clutter up their database of 3,000 employees with an additional
7,000 contractors.

The LMS would need only the most basic functionality. It could be wide open
regarding access. Anyone with the URL can take the single course available,
which consists of downloading the manual that they study before taking the
test. Following the test, they progress to the certificate. No catalog or
registration needed.

I did a quick search of LMS's and find many that say they are simple but
powerful. I don't want powerful. I just want simple. Any suggestions?

I would love to have someone simply do this for me and hand me the keys!

Thanks for your help.

Email Signature 2010 .png
Tim Kraft

WordKraft

Freelance writing for sales and marketing materials, and video/new media.

Instructional development for employee and customer training.

Training seminars to improve your employees' communication skills.

Office> 330-966-4656 Cell> 330-309-2817 Skype> 330-470-0845 /
wordkraft1

Email> tim@wordkraft.biz Site> www.wordkraft.biz

60 Willowdale Lake Ave NW - North Canton OH 44720-5369

<https://www.linkedin.com/profile/preview?vpa=pub&locale=en

Bob S
over 8 years ago11/30/15 at 3:53 pm (UTC)

Tim,

Sounds like whether you want to be or not, you are going to be in the Learner Admin business....

If I can be so bold, the reason your client doesn't want to "clutter up" their database with 7,000 contractors is because it's huge overhead to manage.... that's why they are pushing it on you.  If this was actually as simple as a piece of code/script and you're done, then fine. But experience tells me it won't be.... it never is.

Not trying to be a defeatist, but at the end of this you need an accurate accounting of who has completed certain training and what score (or threshold), and this needs to be able to imported into the client's systems of record presumably to protect themselves and satisfy any regulatory concerns.  So from what I know, there are only a couple of options....

  1. Use existing LMS... that's it's job. But then client will have to manage 7k more users
  2. Try to "code" something with the course and a hosting solution with a real-time API into the client's database.  This will require client allowing access to their systems and someone will still have to manage the exceptions, one-offs, and weirdness that happens.
  3. Host on an external LMS solution, using registration to capture info and export reports to the client in a format they specify. But again you (or someone you contract with) will have to manage this.
  4. Walk away from the particular job and stay in the content creation expert space.

Let me explain what I mean by managing users.... With 7k contractors, lots and lots of little things are going to come up. For example...

  •  Are you issuing unique company IDs to them? If not, what happens to the ones that terminate but are then rehired days or weeks later?  Do they take courses again, different username/iD  or how/who does client reference it was already taken.
  • What happens when contractor's computer doesn't allow certain communication/scripting to take place and it messes up your tracking?  Who will resolved?
  • When contractor is partway through the course, or has failed it once, but then resigns in using slightly different log in information, what happens then?  Who resolves?
  • When hosting solution is down (yours or theirs), who notifies users? Can you without valid emails?

The above are only a small small sample of the questions you are going to receive when you have 7 thousand temporary/contract type users with elevated turnover. Again, this is why your client doesn't want to manage them and is trying to shift this to you.... their system isn't going to be "clogged up", it's made for it. The real challenge is the user management\ side.

So....  Not trying to scare you, but I cannot imagine this working as a one-and-done thing. Maybe some of the other heroes can provide you more insight on that sort of scenario.  But IMHO, you have some decisions to make here. If you move forward "owning" this responsibility for 7k users, you are going to want to get educated real fast on Learner Admin and/or partner with a full-service hosting company that will provide this expertise AND ongoing user management for a fee.

Not what you wanted to hear, but genuinely hope it does help. Good luck!

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