Self Service Training Data - Training Providers

Best practice for managing data in CoSy (Accessplanit) and using the training reports

We have lots of guidance about how to access and use the reports on our help pages.  Here are some specific notes for training administrators who are using the reports.

  1. In most cases, using the Historical report will give you complete results, especially if you report on courses older than 3 months. However, when you use the Historical Report, you will likely get ‘duplicates’.
    ‘Duplicates’ are not truly duplicates. If you look at the complete rows, you will see that the people data is different. They are the same person, but the Historical Report will show you different rows for the same person if they have changed jobs or role (student to staff), moved departments etc.
    You can export the data to Excel and use pivot tables to ensure that you do not over-report delegates.
  2. Think about what data you need to report, and remember that you still use the reporting tools in CoSy if your report does not require the enhanced data set, e.g. you want to report on numbers booked on courses.
  3. Use the filters to refine the report as much as possible and only export the data you need. If you use a specific filter regularly there is a bookmark feature in Power BI.
  4. College-only staff. Their people data is not held in HRIS, so some data fields may be empty. This is not an error; we simply cannot access this data via the data warehouse.

As the data you hold on CoSy is visible to users on-demand we encourage you to continue with your good data management practices – or make any improvements necessary to ensure that the data you are responsible for is accurate.  Please read our best practice tips (below) on how to do this.

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What it means  

Usually, when a delegate books a course, they will automatically be given the status of “Booked”. As the delegate progresses through their course journey, this status needs to be changed.

  • If the delegate attends a course, you should change the delegate status to “Completed”.
  • If a delegate cancels their booking in the course Portal, their status will automatically change to “Cancelled”.
  • If the delegate contacts you to cancel their place ( e.g. by phone/email), you need to change the delegate status to “Cancelled”.

Post-course delegate status should be consistent. For example, marking delegate status as ‘failed’ or ‘partially attended’ (for session courses in which all sessions are compulsory and no pass/fail criteria is given) can make data interpretation difficult. In such cases it is better to agree with the tutor what level of attendance constitutes ‘Completed’ or ‘No attend’ status. 

Why it’s important 

Delegates can access this record in the Delegate Portal and use it to prove they have attended a course.  

Training administrators may use this to measure course attendance/no shows. 

University colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting /funding purposes and need to be able to interpret it easily.  

Statuses can trigger workflows such as sending certificates and post course surveys. 

Tip 

Use “Bulk Edit” to change the status of a group of delegates  

What it means  

When a course is open for booking, its status is “Available”. If you cancel a course, you should change the course status to “Cancelled”. Once a course is delivered, you should change the course status to “Completed”. 

Why it’s important 

Training administrators may use this to measure the number of courses that have been delivered. 

University colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting /funding purposes. 

Statuses can trigger workflows, e.g. to notify delegates if a course is cancelled. 

Tip 

Use “Bulk Edit” to change the status of a group of courses. 

What It means 

You should check your course and delegate data every week to ensure that it is up to date and correct. 

Why it’s important 

Course data is being pushed to the data warehouse every night. It is essential that the records are as correct and up to date as possible. 

Delegates can access this record in the course Portal and use it to prove they have attended a course.  

Training administrators may use this to measure course attendance/no shows. 

University colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting /funding purposes. 

Tip 

Use “Filters” in the Courses data grid to show statuses of delegates and courses, e.g. “delegate status is not complete”, to spot any delegate statuses that need to be changed.  

Changes can be made using Bulk Edit. 
 

What it means 

When University members log in to CoSy using their Oxford Single Sign-On, their details appear in CoSy automatically as part of their User record.
•    Name
•    SSO (external ID)
•    Email
•    Affiliation (dept, college)
•    Role (student, staff)
If a member of the University does not have an account in CoSy, the safest and quickest way to set up their account is to ask them to log in to CoSy with their Single Sign-On. If this is not possible, and you need to set up the account manually, you must correctly add all of the above information. Make sure you use the email address linked to their SSO. Contact cosy-support@it.ox.ac.uk if you need to find the details of someone (e.g. Single Sign-On, affiliation, role).

Please carefully search the user records before adding new ones to avoid duplicate accounts for the same person.
If you are adding an external delegate, less information is needed but make sure to add their name and email address and they should be added to the Guest company. Be careful when adding data, e.g. ensure there are no spaces before a name and that email addresses are correct. 

Do not add a member of the University as an external delegate. If they are new and do not yet have a university card or Oxford Single Sign-On, please add them as a placeholder or wait until their Single Sign-On is activated.

Why it’s important

•    To avoid a user having multiple accounts in CoSy. Suppose a user account belonging to a University member is set up incorrectly by an administrator. At a later date, the delegate logs in with their Single Sign-On account. This will create a new account as the data does not match, and course bookings may be split across two user accounts. Delegates can access their record in the Delegate Portal and use it to prove they have attended a course. Delegates can only see one account in the course Portal.
•    Colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting /funding purposes.
•    If user records are not complete or have errors or spaces, you may not be able to find them when doing a search. 
•    Incorrect email addresses will mean that delegates will not receive communications.
•    If you do not add affiliation or role this may affect the accuracy of reports that you run in CoSy using these attributes. The delegate will be missing from the reports.

Tip

Give a university member this link https://cosy.ox.ac.uk/accessplan/LMSPortal/UI/Page/Dashboard.aspx?rb=1 to log in to Accessplanit and set up an account. All they need to do is log in with their Single Sign-On. 
If you find duplicate records, these should be merged into one - see tip five about how to merge user records if required.

What it means 

Each user should only have one User record. If you spot that a user has more than one record, you should merge them into one.

Why it’s important

•    It is essential that each user only has one account. All courses that the user books are shown in one record.
•    Delegates can access this record in the Delegate Portal and use it to prove they have attended a course, so they need to be able to see all of their course bookings.
•    Colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting/funding purposes.
•    It is easier for training admins to administer e.g. Users can be found correctly in datagrids.
•    Reporting from Accessplanit will not be correct if user information is wrong.

 

If in doubt contact the Accessplanit Helpdesk for support.

What it means 

Suppose you need to book a course on behalf of a new member of the University who does not have their Oxford account set up yet (e.g. a new staff starter). In that case, you should use the placeholder functionality rather than setting them up as an external delegate.

Why it’s important

•    It is essential that a user only has one account. All courses that the user books are shown in one record.
•    Delegates can access this record in the Delegate Portal and use it to prove they have attended a course, so they need to be able to see all of their course bookings. 
•    Colleagues (HR and departmental administrators) can access this data for reporting /funding purposes.
•    It is easier for training admins to administer, e.g. users can be found correctly in datagrids.
•    Reporting from CoSy will not be correct if user information is wrong.

If in doubt, contact the AccessPlanit Helpdesk for support.

What it means 

Accessplanit can manage face to face, web (Teams, Zoom etc) and eLearning courses. Each course type has a different course template that offers different functionality, e.g. “Web” allows you to add a Teams link, “Class” enables you to add a physical venue. 

Why it’s important

•    The course type shows in the Delegate Portal when a delegate is searching for a course.
•    Delegates can access this as part of their record and use it to prove they have attended a course. 
•    Training admins may want to compare the numbers of different courses offered by type.
•    Using the correct course type ensures that reporting is accurate.

Tip

You can add a column to your course template data grid to show the type of course, and you can set up filters to display different types of courses.

What it means 

Keep course titles no longer than 80 characters. 

Why it’s important

•    If titles are longer than this, they may spread over several lines in the Portal/web page/mobile phone. Shorter titles make it easier for people to read on-screen. 
•    Using keywords makes it easier for users to search for keywords.

Tip

Keep titles short but make the most of the characters available by including keywords that help users find your courses. Shorten the title as much as possible and use the course description summary to add extra detail.

  • Avoid starting courses titles with generic terms such as an “Introduction to”.
  • Front-load the title with the most important keywords to maximise their impact.
  • Avoid repeating keywords.
  • Avoid low-value words such as conjunctions.

What it means 

Course templates are the blueprint to set up course instances. They include essential information about the course duration, course provider, type of class, course code, title, charge, and the course description.
Course instances include the date, time and resources for a specific course.
All information must be complete, consistent and be formatted using the same HTML coding.

Why it’s important

•    Course information shows in the Delegate Portal and in the course booking links sent to delegates.
•    Many training providers at Oxford share a booking platform, so delegates need to see who the course provider is and who to contact with questions. 
•    Delegates may read course information using screen readers, so the course descriptions are complete and meet HTML accessibility standards.
•    Course template information may appear in workflow communications and documents such as course certificates.

Tip

 

  • Make sure page content is written in natural, complete sentences.
  • Use the O tool to ensure consistent HTML formatting which meets accessibility standards. 
  • Ensure that “Provided by” is included in all course descriptions.

What it means 
When course templates and instances are setup the duration of the course needs to be included.  In CoSy this can be added in minutes, hours and days.  It is important that duration is added consistently. We advise adding the duration in minutes.

Why it’s important

  • Course information shows in the Delegate Portal and in the course booking links sent to delegates.
  • Course duration information may appear in workflow communications and documents such as course certificates.
  • Training administrators may use duration to measure the number of hours of training delivered.
  • University colleagues (HR and departmental administrators can access this data for reporting/funding purposes e.g. they may want to understand the number of hours of training delivered.
     

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