Approving & Certifying User Progress 

If you are a Direct Care User looking for information on lesson approval and certification, please take a look at the DC: Lesson Approval & Certification Help Article.

All logged-in users except Direct Care (DC) users are auto-certified and receive completion certification upon correctly answering all of the Demonstrate quiz questions in each lesson. Direct Care users require a Training & Curriculum Specialist (T&CS) or Program Manager (PM) to certify approval of each Foundational lesson and course.

Before a TCS/PM can approve or disapprove a lesson, DC users must be enrolled in the respective track and course by a TC/PM before progress is recorded; and the DC user must follow these steps:

  • Learn: Read the entire lesson and watch the videos
  • Explore & Apply: Complete the exercises marked ‘required’ for the lesson and review with the trainer, coach, or supervisor.
  • Demonstrate: Correctly answer all demonstrate quiz questions.
  • Request Review: Click the Request Review button that will be located at the bottom of the lesson or in the user’s progress details in their dashboard. Request Review only appears after completing the above requirements. Note: Some lessons do not have required activities and will be auto-certified upon correctly answering all demonstrate questions.

Once the DC user requests review of a Foundational course, the TCS/PM users at the program will receive a notification in their activity log and the approval controls will be available when viewing the DC user’s progress dashboard.

By default, all direct-care users are not enrolled in any courses when their account is first created. This allows the Training & Curriculum Specialists and Program Managers to plan and have control over when and what courses each staff member should complete. Until a staff-member is enrolled in a course, their progress will not be recorded/tracked.

By Default, all Training & Curriculum Specialists and Program Managers are auto-enrolled in all courses of their respective track, with the exception of Focused Topic courses.

  1. Navigate to your Staff Roster.
    1. Use your account drop-down menu in the top-right header and choose My Staff Roster.
  2. Click on the staff member's name you wish to enroll.
  3. Scroll down the user's dashboard and click 'View Progress Details'.
  4. Click the enroll icon in the enroll column next to the course you wish to enroll. If you wish to enroll the staff member in a Focused Topic course, click on the Focused Topics tab on the top of the Progress section.
    1. The enrollment button functions as a toggle.  Any unenrolled courses will be enrolled when you click the enroll button. Any enrolled courses will be unenrolled when you click the enroll button.
  1. Sign In.
    1. To begin, log in to the VLS site.
  2. Navigate to your Staff Roster.
    1. Click the profile icon next to your name in the top right site-header.
    2. Click “My Staff Roster” from the drop-down user-menu.
  3. Navigate to the staff member's profile.
    1. Click the “Staff Roster '+'” toggle to expand the program of the staff-member you want to review.
    2. Click your staff member's name. 
  4. Scroll down to locate the user’s Progress section. Click “View Progress Details”.
  5. Locate the items Pending Review.
    1. Scroll down to locate the in-progress course that contains the pending lesson to be approved.
    2. Click the “Lessons '+'” toggle to expand and view the course's lessons.
      1. “Details” will expand to show all the required activities for each lesson, indicating that the direct-care staff member is expected to have turned in and/or discussed each activity with his or her TC.  
  6. Approve or Disapprove.
    1. Click the checkmark to approve the lesson, or the X to disapprove it.  
      1. Once a lesson has been approved, there is no option to go back and disapprove it later. 
      2. Disapproving sets the status of the lesson back to IN-PROGRESS.  A user can submit a new approval request when he or she is ready for approval.  Typically, a TC will utilize the existing coaching relationship to work with the staff member in clarifying why a lesson was not approved and what would need to be completed in order for it to be approved. 
  1. Sign In.
    1. To begin, log in to the VLS site.
  2. Navigate to your Staff Roster.
    1. Click the profile icon next to your name in the top right site-header.
    2. Click “My Staff Roster” from the drop-down user-menu.
  3. Navigate to the staff member's profile.
    1. Click the “Staff Roster '+'” toggle to expand the program of the staff member you want to review.
    2. Click your staff member's name. 
  4. Scroll down to locate the user’s Progress section. Click “View Progress Details”.
  5. Locate the pending course that is ready to be certified.
    1. The course will show as “pending” as long as all lessons in the course were approved as “complete”.
    2. Select the “Lessons ‘+’” toggle to expand the course's lessons, assessments, and resources.
    3. Assessments will be available towards the bottom of the list with a status of “Pending”
  6. Certify Course.
    1. Select the checkmark button to begin the certification process.
    2. Select 'Approve' in the pop-up screen to finalize the course certification. 
      1. Note: There is no way to undo course certification under any circumstance.
  7. View Course Certificates.
    1. Once certified, a course certificate is issued. Users may view their certificates on their progress dashboard; TCs or PMs can also view certificates of users in their rosters.

Focused Topics courses are either VLS Assessed, with an End of Course Assessment (EOCA) containing only multiple-choice questions that are automatically evaluated by the Virtual Lab School system, TCS Assessed, with an EOCA containing a combination of multiple-choice and short answer questions that must be reviewed and certified by a direct care user’s Training & Curriculum Specialist or Program Manager, or Self-Certified. Within the Focused Topics courses, the EOCAs for Direct Care users are VLS Assessed, with the exception of the Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors course which is TCS Assessed and the Social Emotional Learning for Teachers (SELF-T) course which is Self-Certified. Training & Curriculum Specialists are required to review and approve the End of Course Assessment (EOCA) for the Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors course.

Focused Topics that are VLS Assessed are automatically certified by the VLS system if the Direct Care staff member demonstrates Mastery of the course content on the EOCA. If the Direct Care staff member does not demonstrate Mastery after 3 attempts, the program’s Training & Curriculum Specialist will have to unlock their EOCA for the Direct Care staff member to attempt the EOCA again. Prior to unlocking the EOCA, the T&CS should offer coaching support to the staff member on key concepts from the enrolled Focused Topics course. See Unlocking Focused Topic EOCA for more information.

In order to approve the submitted Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors EOCA:

  1. Navigate to your staff member’s Progress page.
  2. Select the Focused Topics tab at the top of the Progress section.
  3. Expand the Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviors course by selecting the “Lessons '+'” toggle to expand and view the course's lessons.
  4. Scroll down to the Assessments section. The status will show as “Submitted” once the Direct Care user has completed the EOCA.
  5. Expand the Assessments by selecting the “Details ‘+’” toggle.
    1. You will see a list of attempts, each with its corresponding date.
  6. Select “View Responses” to review the submitted answers for that particular attempt.
  7. Review responses to the Multiple Choice section and Short Answer section and select Approve or Disapprove accordingly at the bottom of the page.
    1. The Multiple Choice section will display the direct care user’s selected answers and whether the user answer each question correctly or not. The correct answers will be provided to the T&CS to help trainers and coaches offer individualized coaching support to staff around these concepts.
    2. The Short Answer section will display the user’s response as well as the “suggested responses” from the VLS team. Trainers should evaluate staff members’ responses as compared to the suggested answers displayed. Approving the EOCA will immediately certify a course.
    3. Disapproving an EOCA will give your staff member the chance to retake it at their own convenience.

Focused Topic courses are automatically approved by the VLS system if the Direct Care staff member demonstrates Mastery of the course content on their End of Course Assessment (EOCA). If the Direct Care staff does not demonstrate Mastery after 3 attempts, a program’s T&CS or Program Manager will have to unlock their EOCA for the Direct Care staff member to attempt the EOCA again. Prior to unlocking the EOCA, the T&CS should offer coaching support to the staff member on key concepts from the enrolled Focused Topics course.

In order to unlock a Direct Care staff member’s End of Course Assessment:

  1. Navigate to your staff member’s Progress page.
  2. Select the Focused Topics tab at the top of the Progress section.
  3. Click on the “Unlock VLS Assessed” button next to the course name. This will allow the Direct Care staff member to retake the End of Course Assessment.
    1. You may review your staff member’s responses to past EOCA attempts by selecting the “Lessons '+'” toggle to expand and view the course's lessons, and then expand the Assessments section by selecting the “Details ‘+’” toggle. The View Responses button will be available next to each past attempt on the list.

In order to enroll in a Focused Topic course as a trainer or coach, Training & Curriculum Specialist, and Program Manager staff members can go to their Focused Topics tab within their Progress page, and enroll themselves just as they would a Direct Care staff member (see above). The Focused Topic course will show as Enrolled after the enrollment button is selected. Note that Social Emotional Learning for Teachers is not an enrollable Focused Topic course.

Within the currently enrollable Focused Topics courses, the EOCAs for Training & Curriculum Specialists and Program Managers are all VLS Assessed. T&CS and Program Managers will have to demonstrate Mastery in an End of Course Assessment at the end of each Focused Topic course. Note, however, that T&CS and Program Managers have unlimited attempts at demonstrating Mastery in Focused Topics Courses in order to obtain certification.