Training Assessment

A training assessment is the test paper for a course: the questions, what each is worth, the options and the right answer. It is the paper a trainer prints and marks, which is why the options sit in columns on the question line rather than in a separate list.

Where: Training Management › Training Assessment
Who uses it: The training manager or the course owner, once per paper
When: After the course exists, before the first session is run
Needs first: Training Course

What it is for

Attendance proves a man was in the room. An assessment is the only thing that says he understood it, and it is the gap every training audit asks about.

Be clear with the client about what this screen is and is not. It holds the paper: the questions, the marks and the answers, so that the same test is used every time the course is run and the paper is not rewritten from memory by whoever happens to run it. It is not an online exam. Nobody sits it in PeopleNest, and no mark comes out of it by itself. The trainer prints it, the participant writes on it, the trainer marks it, and the mark is then typed onto that man's nominee line on the Training Schedule. That typed score is what Training Attendance compares against the pass mark.

The one thing the screen is strict about is arithmetic. The marks on the questions must come to exactly the total marks. If they do not, it tells you what the questions actually come to and refuses the save, because every percentage worked out from a paper that does not add up is wrong.

Every field, in plain words

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Assessment	The short code for the paper.	FLS-TEST-01	Required. Must be unique.
Assessment Name	What the paper is called.	Forklift Safety Written Test	Required.
Assessment Type	What kind of test this is.	WRITTEN	Required. No list is offered, so you type it. Agree the words with the client and use the same ones every time, for example WRITTEN, PRACTICAL and ORAL.
Active	Whether this paper is the one currently in use.	Tick it	Untick it instead of deleting when you replace a paper, so the old one stays on file.
Course	Which course the paper belongs to.	Forklift Operation and Safety	Required.
Course Name	The course name.	Fills itself from the course. Leave it.
Total Marks	What the whole paper is worth.	50	Required. The question marks must add up to exactly this.
Passing Marks	The mark needed to pass the paper.	30	Required. Cannot be more than Total Marks.
Duration (Minutes)	How long the participant gets.	45	Printed on the paper for the trainer. Nothing times anybody.
Allowed Attempts	How many times a man may sit this paper.	2	Must be at least 1. Recorded here for the trainer to apply.
Remarks	Anything about the paper.	Open book for the regulations section.

Questions

One line per question.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
No	The question number as it appears on the paper.	1
Question	The question itself.	What is the maximum safe load for the yard forklift?	Required on every line.
Question Type	What kind of question it is.	MCQ	Required. No list is offered, so you type it. Only two values are checked by the system, and they are the two below.
Marks	What this question is worth.	5	Required, and must be more than zero. All the question marks together must equal Total Marks.
Option A	The first choice.	1,500 kg	Required for a multiple choice question.
Option B	The second choice.	2,000 kg	Required for a multiple choice question.
Option C	The third choice.	2,500 kg	Required if C is the correct answer.
Option D	The fourth choice.	3,000 kg	Required if D is the correct answer.
Correct Answer	The right answer.	B	For a multiple choice question it must be A, B, C or D. For a true or false question it must be T or F.
Remarks	A note for the marker.	Regulation reference 4.2.

The two question types the system checks:

MCQ Multiple choice. The paper must carry at least options A and B, the correct answer must be one of A, B, C or D, and the option you name as the answer cannot be empty.
TF True or false. The correct answer must be T or F.

You can type something else in Question Type, for example a short written answer, and the paper will save. Nothing checks those lines, so the trainer marks them entirely on his own judgement. An assessment needs at least one question before it will save.

How to configure it

Create the course on Training Course first, and tick Assessment Required on it so a session of that course actually wants a score.
Open Training Assessment. Code FLS-TEST-01, Name Forklift Safety Written Test, Type WRITTEN, Course Forklift Operation and Safety, Active ticked.
Set Total Marks 50, Passing Marks 30, Duration 45 minutes, Allowed Attempts 2.
Add the questions. Ten questions of five marks each comes to 50, which is what Total Marks says.
For each multiple choice question fill at least options A and B and name the correct answer as a letter.
Save. If it complains about the marks, it tells you what the questions come to. Either fix a question or change Total Marks to match.
Print the paper for the trainer. After the course, type each man's mark onto his nominee line on the Training Schedule, then take the attendance.

Scenarios

We want the forklift test to be the same paper every time

That is exactly what this screen is for. Build the paper once, tick Active, and have the trainer print it for every session. When a question has to change, change it here so the next session uses the new wording and the old results stay comparable.

A man failed and the client allows one retake

Set Allowed Attempts to 2 so the rule is written down. The retake itself is handled outside this screen: the trainer re-tests him, you put the new mark on his nominee line, and you save the Training Attendance document again, which recalculates his result from the new score. If the client would rather the retake was visible as a separate event, put him on a new session instead and let the old failed result stand.

The practical yard test is pass or fail, there are no marks

Create a second assessment for the same course, Type PRACTICAL, with one true or false question worth the full marks, Total Marks 1 and Passing Marks 1. It is a blunt use of the screen but it keeps the paper and the rule in the system. Decide with the client which of the two papers produces the score that goes on the nominee line, because only one number can.

What it is connected to

Training Course must exist, and its Assessment Required tick is what makes a session want a score at all.
The score from this paper is typed onto the nominee line of the Training Schedule.
Training Attendance reads that score against the course's pass mark to decide pass or fail.

If something looks wrong

"It says the questions come to 45 and the total says 50" - the marks must add up exactly. Either a question is worth less than you meant or Total Marks is wrong.
"It says the passing marks cannot exceed total marks" - the two are the wrong way round.
"It says a multiple choice question needs at least two options" - options A and B are both required on an MCQ line.
"It says option C is the answer and is empty" - you named C as the answer without filling option C in.
"It says allowed attempts must be at least 1" - the field is zero or blank. One is the minimum.
"The assessment exists but nobody has a score" - nothing marks the paper. The mark is typed onto the nominee line on the session.

What it is for​

Every field, in plain words​

Header​

Questions​

How to configure it​

Scenarios​

We want the forklift test to be the same paper every time​

A man failed and the client allows one retake​

The practical yard test is pass or fail, there are no marks​

What it is connected to​

If something looks wrong​