Courses¶
Info
Only available if the organization uses the Courses module, and visible only to staff and admins. The individual permissions (courses, subscriptions, attendance, exams, certifications, rooms) are assigned separately.
A course in AppToMe is made of four pieces: the room where it is held, the certification it grants, the course itself and the lesson calendar.
1. Creating a room¶
From the Courses section, the gear at the top right opens the Courses settings: there, under the rooms entry, you add the rooms. They have a single field, the Name, and serve to say where each lesson is held.
2. Creating the certification¶
Certifications are managed in Registry. A certification has a Name, a Validity (months) and the Jobs provided.
Creating the certification before the course is the correct way to proceed: it is the certification that links the training to the shifts, because it grants the tasks.
3. Creating the course¶
Add the course and fill in the card.
| Field | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Name | text, required | |
| Description | long text, required | the programme, as volunteers read it |
| Place | choice | where it is held, as a rule |
| Certification | choice | the certification granted at the end of the course |
| Minimum frequency | number, required | percentage of the total duration of the lessons to attend to be in order |
| Training hours | number, required | internship hours planned. 0 if there are none |
| Training start date / Training end date | dates | the period in which the internship can take place |
| Valid turn types | multiple choice | which shifts count as internship hours |
| Max subscribers | number, required | beyond this number subscriptions are not accepted |
| End date subscriptions | date | after that date volunteers read Subscriptions closed |
| User subscription | yes/no | volunteers can subscribe themselves from the app |
| Subscription required approval | yes/no | the subscription stays pending until you confirm it |
| Public subscription | yes/no | people not yet in the organization can also subscribe |
| Necessary jobs | multiple choice | the tasks one must already have to subscribe |
| Exam necessary jobs | multiple choice | the tasks required to be admitted to the exam |
| Register presences with clocking | yes/no | whoever clocks at the place and time of the lesson is marked present by itself |
| Minutes advance tolerance | number, required | how long before the lesson a clocking still counts |
| Stamps need place check | yes/no | automatic attendance only kicks in if the clocking is close to the place |
Public subscription
With Public subscription active the course is visible and bookable also outside the organization. Use it for courses open to the public, not for internal training.
4. Creating the lesson calendar¶
In the course's Calendar tab you add the lessons.
| Field | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Lesson title | text, required | the subject, as it appears in the subscribers' dashboard |
| Date | date, required | |
| Start / End | times, required | |
| Teacher | text | who gives the lesson |
| Classroom | choice | among the rooms created |
| Place | choice | the place, if different from the course's |
| Description | long text | details on the content of the lesson |
Materials can be attached to the lessons: every attachment has the file and a Name.
The lessons appear in the subscribers' dashboard together with the shifts, so enter them as soon as the programme is defined: that is how people note them down.
Subscriptions¶
In the Subscriptions tab you see the Subscribed people and manage the requests. If the course requires approval, the subscriptions stay pending until you confirm them.
You can also add subscribers yourself, without waiting for them to subscribe from the app: for those who simply have to do the course.
Attendance¶
In the attendance tab of each lesson you mark who is there. With Register presences with clocking active part of the work is done by itself: whoever clocks during the lesson — at the right place, if the place check is required, and not before the early tolerance — is marked present automatically. Correcting by hand remains possible.
Attendance matters because it counts in hours, not in number of lessons: the minimum frequency is a percentage of the total duration of the programme. Skipping a four-hour lesson weighs twice as much as two one-hour lessons.
There is also the printing of signature sheets, for those who have to keep a paper record.
How AppToMe decides who is admitted to the exam¶
The check puts together three conditions, and all must hold:
- lesson hours attended sufficient against the minimum frequency;
- training hours reached. The internship is not recorded separately: AppToMe adds up the hours of the shifts the person did between the training start date and the training end date, and only on the valid turn types stated in the course. Partial availabilities count for their actual duration;
- exam necessary jobs, if you stated any.
Two wrong configurations explain almost every case of "does not show as eligible": the training dates left empty — with no period the training hours are worth zero — or the valid turn types not selected, so the services done are not recognised.
Exams and granting the certification¶
Where provided, the Exam is recorded.
| Field | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Person | choice, required | who sat the exam |
| Exam date | date, required | |
| Vote | number, required | the score obtained |
| Passed | yes/no | the result. This is what counts, not the mark |
On passing, the certification is assigned to the person by stating the Certification and
the Date achieved: if you leave the Expiration date empty the app
calculates it from the certification's validity, and with validity 0 the certification does
not expire (see
Registry).
From that moment the person holds the tasks provided by the certification and can be signed up for the shifts requiring them: the abilities are recalculated immediately, there is no need to touch the registry. On expiry the mechanism reverses — a daily check removes the expired tasks, and the person stops appearing among the candidates for those shifts.
Two practical warnings:
- the person stays on the future shifts they were already signed up for, even after the expiry. The calendar does not empty itself: check it when an important expiry is approaching;
- the expiry warnings have to be set on the certification (Remind the person, Remind managers: how many days before, even more than one). Without them, the expiry arrives silently.