Creating and Managing Forms

A form is a collection of items used to assess a learner, or evaluate a faculty member, event, rotation, course or anything else in your organisation. Forms can be created for specific courses, or for use across an entire organization. When building a form administrators can optionally indicate a form workflow which allows Elentra users to initiate a form on-demand (e.g. for the purposes of clinical assessment).

This help section is about creating forms without CBME templates. See here for information about creating CBME-specific forms.

One new feature in Elentra ME 1.19 is the ability to apply embargo conditions on a form to prevent the form target from viewing it until certain conditions are met. This option is available for CBME forms only and instructions are here.

If you are creating a form to be attached to a gradebook assessment please note that not all item types are supported because there is no structure to weight them on the form posted to the gradebook. When creating a form to use with a gradebook assessment it is recommended that you only use multiple choice, dropdown selector, rubric (grouped item only), and free text item. Do not use date selector, numeric, or autocomplete (multiple responses) items. Please see additional details about form behavior in gradebook in the Gradebook section.

Form Types

Elentra supports several types of forms.

  • Generic Form

    • Users can add any items to this form and it will be immediately available for us.

  • Standard Rotation Evaluation Form

    • You will require developer assistance to add this form to your organization.

    • Only use this form type if you are also using the Clinical Experience rotation scheduler and you use an identical form to evaluate all rotations within a course.

    • This form can have preset items that appear on the form each time one is created. There is no user interface to build the templated items and a developer needs to do so.

    • When a new form is made, the templated items (if any exist) will be automatically added to it. Users can then optionally add additional items. After adding items, the form must be published before it can be used.

    • Forms must be permissioned to a course to be used, and each course can only have one active form at a time. If a new form is created it will overwrite the existing form.

    • This form can be automatically distributed based on a rotation schedule (set by administrators when building rotations) OR can be made available to be accessed by learners on demand (use the on-demand workflow for this option).

  • Standard Faculty Evaluation Form

    • You will require developer assistance to add this form to your organization.

    • Only use this form type if you use an identical form to evaluate all faculty within a course.

    • This form can have preset items that appear on the form each time one is created. There is no user interface to build the templated items and a developer needs to do so.

    • When a new form is made, the templated items (if any exist) will be automatically added to it. Users can then optionally add additional items. After adding items, the form must be published before it can be used.

    • Forms must be permissioned to a course to be used, and each course can only have one active form at a time. If a new form is created it will overwrite the existing form.

    • This form can be made available for learners to initiate on demand using on-demand workflows.

Organizations with CBME enabled will see additional form types. Please see the CBME section for additional details on rubric forms, PPA forms, and form templates.

Form Permissions

Any individual given permission to a form will be able to edit it until it is used in a distribution.

You can also grant permission on a form to a course. If you do this, any user who is a course contact for that course and who also has permission to access Admin > Assessment & Evaluation, will be able to access the form and include it in a distribution if needed. If you are using on-demand workflows and/or Standard Rotation Evaluation or Standard Faculty Evaluation forms you must permission them to a course for them to work properly.

Currently, permissioning a form to an organization only allows medtech:admin users to access it. For that reason, permissioning forms to courses is more useful and is our recommendation.

How to create forms

  • Navigate to Admin>Assessment & Evaluation.

  • Click 'Forms'.

  • Click 'Add Form'.

  • Provide a form name and select a type (if applicable). See list of form types above.

  • Depending on the form type selected, you may be required to identify a course/program.

  • Click 'Add Form'.

  • Provide a form description if desired. This will display to users when the form is accessed.

  • Indicate the form workflow if your organization uses workflows (i.e. allows users to initiate specific forms on-demand). Set to None if you do not want users to access this form on-demand.

  • Set form permissions to give other users access to this form. Anyone given permission to the form will be able to edit it until it is used in a distribution.

    • Please note that forms using a workflow must be permissioned to the appropriate course.

    • Additionally, we strongly recommend permissioning forms to at least a course so that staffing changes are simplified. (If Jane Doe is the only person with access to a form and she retires, you'll need to manually reassign all her forms to a new user. If the form is permissioned to a course, any course contact with access to Assessment & Evaluation will be able to access the form.)

    • Currently, permissioning a form to an organization only allows medtech:admin users to access it. As such we recommend relying mostly on course permissions.

  • Click 'Add Item(s)' to add existing items.

    • Note that you can also add grouped items, free text (e.g., to provide instructions), or a curriculum tag set to your form. To add any of these, click on the down arrow beside 'Add Items'. If you choose to add Free Text or a Curriculum Tag Set, please note that you must save your choices within the item box using the small 'Save Required' button.

      • Note: Adding a Curriculum Tag Set is a very specific tool that supports field notes for use in family medicine. Most users should ignore this option.

  • Search for existing items and tick off the check boxes, then click 'Attach Selected' to apply your choices.

  • To create new items while creating your form, click Add Items and then click Create & Attach a New Item. When you complete your new item and save it, you will be returned to the form you in the process of building.

  • Save the form when you have added all the relevant items.

  • To preview your form, by clicking on the eye icon/Preview Form button.

  • To download a copy of the form, use the Download PDF button.

How to manage forms (delete items, rearrange items, etc.)

  • To delete items on a form, tick off the box on the item card and then click the red Delete button on the left.

  • To rearrange items on a form, click the crossed arrow icon on the item card and drag the item to where you want it to be.

  • To edit an item, click on the pencil icon on the item card. Note that an item already in use on a form that has been distributed will not be able to be edited. Instead you must copy and attach a new version of the item to edit and use it.

  • To quickly view the details of an item, click on the eye icon on the item card.

How to copy an existing form

  • Navigate to Admin>Assessment & Evaluation.

  • Click 'Forms'.

  • Use the search bar to look for the form you want to copy. Click the down arrow beside the search bar to apply filters to refine your search results.

  • Click on the name of the form you want to copy.

  • Click 'Copy Form' and provide a new name for the copied form.

  • Click 'Copy Form'.

  • Edit the form as needed (e.g., add additional items, change permission, etc.).

    • If you edit an item on a form and that item is in use on other forms, you will affect all of the associated forms. You can optionally view all forms that include the item.

      • For grouped items you can optionally copy and attach the grouped item to the form allowing you to change it as needed.

        • Create new item linkage

        • Create new items

      • For single items you can optionally copy the item to edit it. This will create a brand new item with no connection/link to the item it is copied from.

  • Click 'Save'.

How to retire an existing form

Retiring a form means it will remain available in existing distributions, and reports, but will not be available for any new distribution.

  • Navigate to Admin>Assessment & Evaluation.

  • Click 'Forms'.

  • Use the search bar to look for the form you want to retire. Click the down arrow beside the search bar to apply filters to refine your search results.

  • Tick off the box beside the form name (you can select multiple forms to retire at once), and then click the orange Retire Form button.

  • You will be prompted to confirm your action. Click 'Retire'.

  • Retired forms will display with a red highlight around them.

How to delete an existing form

Deleting a form means that all pending and in-progress tasks that used that form will not have a form associated with them and will display an error message stating that the form has been deleted when an assessor/evaluator tries to access the form.

  • Navigate to Admin>Assessment & Evaluation.

  • Click 'Forms'.

  • Use the search bar to look for the form you want to delete. Click the down arrow beside the search bar to apply filters to refine your search results.

  • Tick off the box beside the form name (you can select multiple forms to delete at once), and then click the red Delete Form button.

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