Frontline Education

Understanding the PLM Solution

This article provides the "big picture" of a PG Super User's Professional Learning Management (PLM) solution. These high-level topics include activity and form flow management, basic user types, and administrative roles.

How It Works: Professional Learning Management (PLM) provides specialized training for teachers, administrators, and other educational professionals.

Tracking and Managing Professional Learning

PLM is a highly configurable system that allows organizations to track and manage professional learning in different ways and to grow and change over time.

Generally speaking, most learning is managed via activities, forms, or a combination of the two. This level of flexibility allows the system to support the needs of your organization.

Understanding Activities 

Activities are added to the catalog by a Catalog Administrator. Once added, they are available to learners and follow a life cycle, starting with registration.

As PLM is highly configurable, you have numerous options when it comes to managing activities. These options allow the experience to align with your organization’s needs.

This is a fairly typical example of an activity life cycle:

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Each action within the life cycle will be completed by the following user types:

Action   User Type
Registration Process Learner, Instructor, Catalog Admin
Learning Process Learner
Evaluation Completion Learner
Mark Attendance Instructor, Activity Owner
Credit/Hours Granted Catalog Admin, Activity Owner
Activity Archived Catalog Admin

Understanding Forms

Forms shape a user's experience, and you have a number of different forms that can be put into action.

Form types include:

  • Fill-in Forms: Used to manage and track learning (e.g. out of a district conference request or a graduate credit form where users can request permission to participate in and receive credit/hours for completing external learning).
  • Log Forms: Used to track learning within an organization (e.g. coaching or activity mentorships).
 

There are also other form types that can track learning within an organization. These alternatives include forms that work in conjunction with activities (e.g. registration forms to get approval to register in an activity within the district catalog or mark-complete forms, which allow the learner to provide more information once the learning is complete.

These forms can be configured to capture the information your organization needs in accordance with the rules and routings that align with your approval process.

Roles, Actions, & Visibility

Your system configuration determines the visibility and actions for each user type, and it also determines how you can use the system to track and manage learning in your organization.

The Actions and Visibility sections below remain highly configurable.

  Learner

Includes educators, teachers, or anyone using the system to track and manage their professional learning. Learners may search and register for activities, or they can submit requests to participate in external learning opportunities.

 

  Instructor

Includes those with additional permissions who support learners with activities. When assigned to activities, instructors can view and print rosters, communicate with participants, and take attendance.

 

  Approver

May receive approval requests and are responsible for reviewing and responding to these requests in a timely manner. (Note that these requests are organized within an Approvals section in the application.)

 

  Catalog Admin

Responsible for adding and managing activities in the district catalog. It is important for Catalog Admins to remain familiar with how their organization uses the system and to understand what options are available when setting up activities. This ensures a smooth experience and enables the desired reporting.

 

  PG Super User or Organization Admin

PG Super Users and Organization Admins are responsible for managing all or part of the system. Their options and visibility are ultimately determined by their system permissions.

Responsibilities can include:

  • Managing users: add/edit/remove, understanding roles and rights
  • Managing organization information: buildings, goals, purposes
  • Catalog Admin: adding and managing activities
  • Maintaining rules and routing: keep approvals flowing to the correct approvers
  • Orienting and Supporting Users: training/support, setting clear expectations
  • Reporting: formulating questions, making connections to system data