Introduction
Civica Learning brings together the traditional capabilities of an lms, with the ability for learners to record their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) learning activities, as they develop and enhance their capabilities.
The platform supports the following CPD related capabilities for learners and administrators.
Learners can:
- Plan the CPD they need to complete to meet organisational, professional, or personal targets
- Log CPD activities, either as drafts or fully completed records, along with any evidence files (e.g. certificates). Note that evidence files are limited to a maximum file size of 10MB.
- Track their progress against their plans or specific targets (e.g. their required learning hours)
- Submit their CPD for review
- Export their CPD activities as either a PDF file or as a Zip archive file (which includes evidence attachments), so that they can use this for review purposes, or to take their CPD records with them, should they join another organisation
Administrators can:
- Configure journal periods and targets for learners
- Review CPD logged by learners
The CPD functionality can be integrated with third-party CRM systems, through the use of the Civica Public API.
The My CPD page
Learners normally access their My CPD page in the web learner portal, via the User | My CPD menu, or via a tile on their portal home page (depending on your learner portal configuration). The image below shows the default view, where the learner sees their progress against any defined targets, and a log of their CPD activities.
The My CPD page displays:
- The state of the currently selected journal - a journal is a date range over which CPD is logged and which may have associated targets in terms of CPD points, learning hours or reflections
- The selected journal period
- Indicators to show the number of points/credits, hours or reflections logged, within the selected journal period against the specified target, and the progress through the current journal period
- The CPD activities the learner has logged
- Any comments / communications between the learner and their CPD reviewer
CPD journals
A CPD journal is a logical container for a set of CPD activity records, that fall between a specified start and end date.
Each Journal period can specify a target mode, which defines what information is tracked, as the learner moves towards their CPD target. The supported target modes area as follows:
- Credits - CPD points/credits are logged with each CPD activity. The target is specified as the total number of points/credits the learner must log, across all activities within the journal period
- Hours - learning hours are logged with each activity. The target is specified as the total number of learning hours the learner must log, across all activities within the journal period
- Reflections - Reflective statements are logged with each CPD activity. The target is specified as the total number of reflections, across all activities within the journal period
Organisations use targets based on Credits, Hours or Reflections, depending on their requirements, for example, a target value might be 50 credits or 100 hours or 10 reflections.
The lms can automatically award credits or learning hours when learners complete different types of learning on the platform. The points/hours associated with an item are specified by administrators when the content items are defined in the Administration portal. Alternatively, credits, hours or reflections can be manually entered by learners, as they manually add a CPD entry.
The system includes the capability for points / credits to be automatically calculated, based on the number of learning hours the learner specifies for an activity. So generally, a rule similar to the following might be applied:
Points/credits = type multiplier x number of learning hours
CPD journal states
A CPD journal typically goes through a number of states (Not started, Pending, Submitted, Accepted, Rejected and Year Break), as the leaner progresses through their CPD cycle. For example, a journal can be submitted for review, then subsequently approved or rejected by a reviewer.
The full lifecycle for a CPD journal is shown below (the exact process may vary based on integrations with third-party CRM systems):
The process is as follows:
- Learners can submit CPD journals for review when their targets have been met (but not before the target has been met).
- When the learner submits their journal for review, the journal state changes to submitted and it’s placed into a read-only state.
- The CPD reviewer can then view the user’s CPD journal records and either accept or reject the submission
Two way communication between the learner and reviewer is supported, using comments visible on the learner’s My CPD page.
Depending on the configuration of your system, and integrations with third-party CRM systems, learners may be able to request a year break, so that any targets and journal periods associated with their accounts are suspended and placed into a read-only state.
CPD records
Learners can add CPD entries, using the Add entry option, which displays a page with all of the fields they need to complete, as defined by their organisation.
A CPD record or (activity record) represents a single learning activity, and will typically consists of:
- A title
- A type
- A date
- A number of learning hours
- A number of points or credits (computed or manually entered)
- A web link (url)
- A reflective statement
- Zero, one or more attached evidence files
Different field sets can be defined via a CPD record schema, which is configured as part of the implementation process.
A CPD record identifies the type of learning activity, for example, “Read a book”, “Watched a video”, “Attended a class”, etc. However, if required, types can be categorised and hierarchies created.
A CPD record is not considered complete until all mandatory field values have been provided. The system uses ‘deferred validation’ to enable users to part create CPD records (which remain incomplete until all data is provided). Optionally, the user can explicitly state when a record should be considered ‘complete’ vs ‘draft’.
Evidence files
Users can choose to upload one or more evidence files that support their CPD activities. These will typically be photographs of course completion, certificates, etc. An individual evidence file must be less than 10MB in size, but there is no limit to the number of evidence files per record.
The supported evidence file types are as follows:
".gif" | ".zip" | ".doc" | ".pps" |
".jpeg" | ".rar", | ".docx" | ".ppsx" |
".jpg" | ".pdf" | ".xls" | ".ppt" |
".png" | ".csv" | ".xlsx" | ".pptx" |
“.txt” |
“.rtf” |
Exporting CPD records
Learners can export their CPD records at any time, including any evidence files associated with the records. This allows the learners CPD to be reviewed externally, or where perhaps the learner may be moving to another organisation and wishes to take their CPD records with them.
The export includes all records in a selected period.
CPD plans
Optionally, as defined for your implementation, learners can create plans to define the types of CPD activities that they need to log within a CPD cycle (typically a Journal period).
The My CPD | Plans page, shown below, displays any plans that the learner has created and allows new plans to be added:
A “typical” plan consists of:
- Plan title
- Objectives
- Start date
- End date
- Competency or skill list
Different field sets can be defined via a plan schema, to meet your requirements.
Exporting CPD plans
The Export function creates a PDF version of your plan, which includes the plan details and progress against the plan.
The administrator perspective
The Administration portal allows administrators to:
- View learner’s CPD progress
- Manage learner’s CPD journal details (including all record details)
- Review and either accept or reject CPD submissions
- Run CPD journal and CPD record reports
Note that the CPD reviewer role can be used to restrict reviewing capability to specific cohorts, as defined by the CPD reviewer role’s scope.
CRM integration
The Civica CPD functionality can be integrated with third-party CRM systems to support the creation and management of users, their CPD journals, submission deadlines, year breaks, reviews and CPD submissions.
For more information on the supported workflows, please see the Explained: Civica Learning Data Flows for CRM Integration article.
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