Distributions

An overview of Distributions and their management

New in ME 1.26!

• The option for administrative users to disable initial task creation email notifications on distributions.

• A database setting to make task expirty 23:59 for specified distribution types (assessment_tasks_expiry_end_of_day)

A distribution defines who will complete a task using what form, who or what the task is about, and when the task will be delivered and completed. Usually, administrative staff manage distributions to send tasks to learners, faculty, event participants, etc.

In most cases, when a distribution sends a task, users receive an email notification that a task has been created for them. They can also access tasks from their Assessment and Evaluation badge.

You can watch a recording about Distributions at collaborate.elentra.org (login required).

Permission to Admin > Assessment & Evaluation > Distributions

You must have one of the following permission levels to access this feature:

• Medtech:Admin

• Staff:Admin

• Staff:PCoor (assigned to a course/program)

• Faculty:Director (assigned to a course/program)

Glossary of Terms Used in Distributions

• Distribution: defines who will complete a task using what form, who/what the task is about, and when the task should be delivered and completed

• Assessor/Evaluator: The person completing a form/task

• Target: The person, course, experience or other that the form/task is about

• Distribution method: How the form/task is assigned to people (e.g. based on a date range, rotation schedule, event schedule, etc.)

• Distribution wizard: Walks users through creating any distribution.

Distribution Methods

Rotation Schedule: Use a rotation schedule distribution to send forms based on a rotation schedule. This could include assessments of learners participating in a rotation, evaluation by learners of a specific rotation site or experience, etc.

Delegation: Use a delegation to schedule a distribution to be sent to an intermediate person who will later forward the tasks to the appropriate assessor/evaluator. For example, if you want to set up distributions in September, but it is unknown who learners will work with in January because a clinic schedule hasn't been set yet, you could send the distribution to a delegator to forward once the clinic schedule is known.

Learning Event Schedule: Use a learning event schedule distribution when you want to have participants evaluate an event, when you want participants to evaluate the faculty teaching particular types of events, or when you want faculty to assess the learners participating in certain types of events.

Date Range: Use a date range to create the most generic type. You could use this for faculty or course evaluations, or for assessment of learners at any point.

Ad Hoc: Used for assessments only, allows user to trigger an assessment when needed (differs from on demand workflows in that the distribution controls some things like the potential list of assessors)

Reciprocal: Allows you to link two distributions so that one generates tasks based on the other (e.g., distribution 1 asks faculty to assess learners; once Faculty A has assessed Learner B, distribution 2 can be configured to get Learner B to evaluate Faculty A).