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Hello - We have been trying to use the Observation Checklist function for sometime now… Sadly, the functionality seems to be very limited. Two things:

  • If you use it, how do you use it? 
  • If you dont, what do you do instead to achieve similar results?

Thank you for your help in advance! 

@DRamirez I use it for remote supervisors (at vendor sites) to request enrollments of specific courses. The checklist requests PII information on the learner, and then offers a list of available courses they can select from. The checklist then comes to me and I do the enrollments.

We use it to gather information from course designers and users, as well as for peer coaching. It does need a few tweaks but works OK for now...if you plan to use it, make sure you look at the options as you can add one to a course but when you do, you cannot schedule it or re-use it. If you want something that can be used on a schedule, you must assign it outside a course. Also make sure to turn on your notifications otherwise users and approvers may not know that something is pending...and then you can also add the Checklist page to your menus so they can access. Last, there are not reports for OC so it’s all onscreen only and not downloadable, sadly.

@DRamirez You can also use the Task widget to display checklists on a page, as an alternative to notifications.

We tried. Full stop. We hope they keep investing into it.

Simplest challenge? Follow this scenario:

  • Manager fills out the OC during an observation as part of a sales ride-along.
    • In this usecase, no feedback from the employee is necessary as part of the workflow
  • We did put it into a course for the learner/manager as a learning object for ease of deployment and “some” transparency into process.
  • Unfortunately, the employee does not get the checklist in a queue (with the OC page) or a receipt or pretty much? Anywhere as far as we can tell with this approach. 🙄
    • An alternative route is to have the manager send a copy of the checklist over to the employee
      • but watchout, the print CSS is not optimized for checklists meaning that trying to print will yield very different results based on browser and setup.

Good luck. I hear there is a PM established for OCs. But that is about it.

@DRamirez we have used Observation Checklists in some of our internal sales enablement programs, in which sellers had to first learn something and then submit the checklist with their observations, their own recording of a short product presentation, or writeup. Then managers evaluated those submissions and provided feedback. 

@DRamirezI use it for remote supervisors (at vendor sites) to request enrollments of specific courses. The checklist requests PII information on the learner, and then offers a list of available courses they can select from. The checklist then comes to me and I do the enrollments.

Thank you! This is very helpful!

We use it to gather information from course designers and users, as well as for peer coaching. It does need a few tweaks but works OK for now...if you plan to use it, make sure you look at the options as you can add one to a course but when you do, you cannot schedule it or re-use it. If you want something that can be used on a schedule, you must assign it outside a course. Also make sure to turn on your notifications otherwise users and approvers may not know that something is pending...and then you can also add the Checklist page to your menus so they can access. Last, there are not reports for OC so it’s all onscreen only and not downloadable, sadly.

I saw your comments frequently on the topic as I was researching so I was very happy to see your reply as it is obvious you have really tried to make this a functional feature. Thank you!

@DRamirezYou can also use the Task widget to display checklists on a page, as an alternative to notifications.

Perfect, thank you!

We tried. Full stop. We hope they keep investing into it.

Simplest challenge? Follow this scenario:

  • Manager fills out the OC during an observation as part of a sales ride-along.
    • In this usecase, no feedback from the employee is necessary as part of the workflow
  • We did put it into a course for the learner/manager as a learning object for ease of deployment and “some” transparency into process.
  • Unfortunately, the employee does not get the checklist in a queue (with the OC page) or a receipt or pretty much? Anywhere as far as we can tell with this approach. 🙄
    • An alternative route is to have the manager send a copy of the checklist over to the employee
      • but watchout, the print CSS is not optimized for checklists meaning that trying to print will yield very different results based on browser and setup.

Good luck. I hear there is a PM established for OCs. But that is about it.

Wow, this is great! Thank you so much!!

@DRamirez we have used Observation Checklists in some of our internal sales enablement programs, in which sellers had to first learn something and then submit the checklist with their observations, their own recording of a short product presentation, or writeup. Then managers evaluated those submissions and provided feedback. 

Thank you for your response. How do you have your managers provide feedback since the system diesnt allow for two-way conversation?

We tried. Full stop. We hope they keep investing into it.

Simplest challenge? Follow this scenario:

  • Manager fills out the OC during an observation as part of a sales ride-along.
    • In this usecase, no feedback from the employee is necessary as part of the workflow
  • We did put it into a course for the learner/manager as a learning object for ease of deployment and “some” transparency into process.
  • Unfortunately, the employee does not get the checklist in a queue (with the OC page) or a receipt or pretty much? Anywhere as far as we can tell with this approach. 🙄
    • An alternative route is to have the manager send a copy of the checklist over to the employee
      • but watchout, the print CSS is not optimized for checklists meaning that trying to print will yield very different results based on browser and setup.

Good luck. I hear there is a PM established for OCs. But that is about it.

Since you aren’t using the Oberservation Checklist feature because it doesnt work like it should, how are you capturing/encouraging interaction and accountability between mangers and learners? 

We use it to gather information from course designers and users, as well as for peer coaching. It does need a few tweaks but works OK for now...if you plan to use it, make sure you look at the options as you can add one to a course but when you do, you cannot schedule it or re-use it. If you want something that can be used on a schedule, you must assign it outside a course. Also make sure to turn on your notifications otherwise users and approvers may not know that something is pending...and then you can also add the Checklist page to your menus so they can access. Last, there are not reports for OC so it’s all onscreen only and not downloadable, sadly.

Are you using the feature? And if not, how are you capturing/encouraging interaction and accountability between mangers and learners? 

We tried. Full stop. We hope they keep investing into it.

Simplest challenge? Follow this scenario:

  • Manager fills out the OC during an observation as part of a sales ride-along.
    • In this usecase, no feedback from the employee is necessary as part of the workflow
  • We did put it into a course for the learner/manager as a learning object for ease of deployment and “some” transparency into process.
  • Unfortunately, the employee does not get the checklist in a queue (with the OC page) or a receipt or pretty much? Anywhere as far as we can tell with this approach. 🙄
    • An alternative route is to have the manager send a copy of the checklist over to the employee
      • but watchout, the print CSS is not optimized for checklists meaning that trying to print will yield very different results based on browser and setup.

Good luck. I hear there is a PM established for OCs. But that is about it.

Since you aren’t using the Oberservation Checklist feature because it doesnt work like it should, how are you capturing/encouraging interaction and accountability between mangers and learners? 

Staying outside of the system for this use case. Support good old non-cloud based digital copies of observation PDFs. I know it may seem archaic, but it works. 

@dklinger  - 😂You make me laugh! I totally see why you have gone away from it and to be honest, we have discussed taking the same route. It’s turning out to be way more complicated trying to integrate the feature in a way that makes it worth it. Thank you again for your time, you have been very helpful!😁

We use it to gather information from course designers and users, as well as for peer coaching. It does need a few tweaks but works OK for now...if you plan to use it, make sure you look at the options as you can add one to a course but when you do, you cannot schedule it or re-use it. If you want something that can be used on a schedule, you must assign it outside a course. Also make sure to turn on your notifications otherwise users and approvers may not know that something is pending...and then you can also add the Checklist page to your menus so they can access. Last, there are not reports for OC so it’s all onscreen only and not downloadable, sadly.

Are you using the feature? And if not, how are you capturing/encouraging interaction and accountability between mangers and learners? 

Hi @DRamirez yes we are...as mentioned above, we use it I n different ways...some for proper peer coaching and review and others using it as a type of request form. There is no right or wrong way; as long as it does what you need it to do and you can work within the limits of the app you should be good to go.

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