The final piece of our kick off meeting for the day was the LMS. Yeah!!!!!! Can you see my happy dance!!!!
We didn’t go into as much detail for our piece yet as it will be the final phase of the whole over all system. The intranet will go up as the main portal to all, then the documents is a huge issue and just has to be up next, and we will tie it all together. (They promise me NOVEMBER).
One of our biggest barriers to begin with is going to be importing all our staff’s details. You would think this would be simple. The system that our HR department uses can easily make up an excel file with the name and employee number. Our issue comes from how we categorize staff. The only way we can sort staff is by pay code. The problem here is not everyone is directly paid by the manager they work under. Managers and staff relate to one another by reporting structure. For an example: Nurse Betty Smith is listed in the current system as: Smith/Betty/RN-Oncology, Nurse Sandra Jones is listed as: Jones/Sandra/Cardiac-Registered Nurse. If that doesn’t make sense…..the real issue is I can’t pull out all the nurses (they are labelled differently), I can’t pull out all the oncology staff (they aren’t always position/dept they maybe dept/position).
I recommend if you are going to get into something like this (even not, on a paper system it is still an issue) create an inputting guideline for your employees. Keep it consistent. Make it make sense.
We’re now waiting for IT/HR to figure out how we are going to get the students (staff) entered in, my dept to figure out the roles of various staff (who will be our contributors), some material to start with (sample courses)….and then we go from there.
A very scary and daunting task, but I’m extremely excited none the less. One of my next roles is to sit down with my supervisor and figure out exactly what my role in all of this will be. Any advice here is greatly appreciated as I’ll be a dept of one. Shall I concentrate mainly on the administration of the system, the creation of content and courses, or some of both.
Stay tuned for this continuing saga….
Comments 0
Hi Tracy,
Ah, the implementation of an LMS. It can be such an adventure. You’ll probably want to pull your hair out at times, but it’s worth the effort. 🙂
I know exactly where you’re coming from on the user groups/importing users issues. Figuring out the reporting structure of an organization and then trying to translate it to your LMS can be a very tricky task. You may consider talking with other managers, departments, etc., within your organization to see if/how they user this information. They may have found ways to get around the problems you are experiencing. Also, if you use a major computer system for the entire hospital, you may consider talking to the vendor or the people who helped implement it. They may have tips that could help you overcome some of the hurdles. I’m also a department of one, and I’ve found it helps to make friends across the organization and ask LOTS of questions.
I wrote a three-part series on introducing eLearning / implementing an LMS. You can check out part 1, part 2, and part 3 if you’re interested.
Good luck!!!!
Thank you so much B.J. for taking the time to look at and respond to my blog. Thank you even more for the words of encouragement and the links to your own “LMS Adventures”. I’m excited to get it all underway.
Take care,
Tracy