BuckeyeLearn Standards

BuckeyeLearn is The Ohio State University’s tool for faculty, staff, and student employees – and in some situations, students – to take training related to job duties, professional development, and policy compliance.

BuckeyeLearn is governed by the BuckeyeLearn Operations Committee and the Training Governance Committee. Any changes to this document must be approved by the Operations Committee.

The BuckeyeLearn Standards:

• Define what content will and will not be managed
• Define the requirements for content to be administered
• Establish ownership of each learning object (LO) administered
• Define the responsibilities of administrators
• Define the support model in place for BuckeyeLearn

Content Standards

Should the Training Go Into BuckeyeLearn?

For training to be included in BuckeyeLearn, training must:

• Be non-academic training; non-academic training is defined as content that is not in support of academic courses
• Support professional development or university compliance training
  • Compliance training is defined as training that:
    • Addresses Ohio State’s top compliance risk areas
    • Is explicitly required by university policy using language such as must, will, shall, or require, not should or may
    • Is explicitly required by law (such as statute or regulation) or industry standard; or
    • Sponsored by the Office of University Compliance and Integrity
• Be non-duplicative of a training already offered in BuckeyeLearn
• Be a subject topic owned by the provider offering it in BuckeyeLearn
• Support clearly defined goals and strategic initiatives
• Not be a training that is hosted on another training platform, such as CarmenCanvas or ScarletCanvas
• If obtained from a vendor, prior to use, must be:
  • tested and approved the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team
  • approved by University Training Reviewers (UTR)
• Not include any restricted (S4) data or proprietary information as required by the university’s Information Security Standard

Online Course Development Standards

Before Creating an Online Course for BuckeyeLearn

Online courses are a popular way to deliver training in BuckeyeLearn. Before creating an online training, you must consider if the training is best presented in this format or if the content should be a different type of learning object. For more information, see the Should You Create an Online Course? job aid in the Administration Resource Center (ARC).

Before Obtaining Third-Party Vendor training

OU admins are responsible for testing third-party training before it is purchased or obtained to ensure that technical and accessibility requirements are met. For more information, refer to the Third-Party Vendor Training job aid.

The BuckeyeLearn Support Team may involve additional technical expertise as well as the Training Governance Committee for issues and conflicts that arise.

Accessibility

The BuckeyeLearn Support Team, the Operations Committee, and Steering Committee are not responsible for monitoring the accessibility of content delivered via BuckeyeLearn.  It is the content creator's and unit’s responsibility to ensure content published in BuckeyeLearn is accessible. Units have access to an Accessibility Coordinator for their unit for the purposes of performing random or planned accessibility evaluations.  For more information, refer to the Accessibility job aid in the ARC.

Software for Online Courses

Authoring tools for online courses include:

• Adobe Captivate
• Articulate Storyline
• Lectora

Departments that want to use software not on the list must submit a request to the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support Team to test the software before purchasing. All system-tracked content must be SCORM v1.2 or v2004 3rd Edition, or AICC v3.5 compliant.

Branding and Copyright

All training must comply with Ohio State and Ohio State Wexner Medical Center policies and procedures for branding, as well as unit branding requirements, if applicable.  Compliance includes and is not limited to logos, unit identification, editorial style, color, art and graphic images, photographs, and digital elements.

All online course developers/content owners must comply with general copyright laws and guidelines.

The BuckeyeLearn Support Team is not responsible for ensuring branding or copyright compliance.

Mobile Content

Content that is set at broad availability (Division 1 The Ohio State University or All OSU Employees) must be designed in a way that is compatible for mobile devices. See the Mobile-Friendly Online Courses Requirements and Best Practices resource.

Required Reviews and Approvals

University Training Review

Online courses being produced must follow standards established by the University Training Reviewers (UTR). The UTR is a team of content developers drawn from across the university and Wexner Medical Center. To view UTR standards, see the University e-Learning Course Review Rubric.

Any training title (built in house or obtained by a vendor) that requires completion by the university and Med Center population must be submitted to the University Training Reviewers (UTR) for review and approval. To begin the review process, the content creator must complete the Training Development Questionnaire.

COURSE RATING AND REVIEW REQUIREMENT 

Any training that is reviewed by UTR is required to add the Course Rating and Review functionality to their online course. Enabling this will allow all users who completed the training to provide a 1-5 start rating review and leave a comment. To add the functionality to a UTR reviewed course, a BuckeyeLearn administrator must add the “Course Rating and Reviewed Enabled” subject to their eLearning course. 

Learning Assignment Review

Any learning assignment that includes 3,000 or more people across university units must be approved by the Steering Committee before it is assigned. To begin the approval process, Organizational Unit admins (or other responsible party) must complete the Training Governance Assignment Questionnaire.

Administrator Standards

Organizational Unit administrators (OU admins) and BuckeyeLearn Liaisons are responsible for the day-to-day oversight and implementation of their area’s work in BuckeyeLearn. Each unit will have one OU admin or one or more BuckeyeLearn Liaisons. Additional OU admins require approval from the BuckeyeLearn Support Team and a business need.

Administrator responsibilities fall into three categories:

• Administration
• Managing training
• Learner and additional unit BuckeyeLearn admin support

In addition to the above responsibilities, OU admins are required to

• Participate in scheduled release testing as needed
• Participate in semiannual audits
• Test their own content before loading to BuckeyeLearn; for testing best practices, see the Testing Training job aid
• Track and enforce training requirements as needed; the BuckeyeLearn Support Team is not responsible for ensuring or enforcing training completion
• Determine if re-versioning or deactivation adheres to  university records retention schedules  or the Record Retention for the Medical Center Policy to manage records retention
• OU admins and BuckeyeLearn Liaisons must request admin roles from the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team; roles can be requested by completing the Security Role Request form
• To remain an active administrator in BuckeyeLearn, regular use of the account is required; admins who have been inactive for at least 3 months will be contacted by their OU admin or OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team to verify if the account is still needed
• Expanded system access requests or changes to default constraints will be reviewed and approved by the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support manager.

Using Another Unit's Work in BuckeyeLearn

If you will be using content that you do not own, you must first ask permission from the content owner. This includes:

• Using another unit’s training inside your curriculum
• Assigning another unit’s LO to employees within your unit

Contacting the content owner ensures that the owners understand how and where their content is being used within BuckeyeLearn, keeps all parties aware of any training updates or new versions, and prepares the content owner for a possible increase in inquiries. For additional guidance, see the Administrator Reminders job aid.

Training Titles

Because BuckeyeLearn is a system used across the university, training titles must conform to standards to deliver a seamless experience to users. Any exceptions to these standards must be reviewed and approved by the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team.

Training Titles Must Not Contain

Training Hours

All learning objects must have the length of the training in the Training Hours field.

Keywords

Include keywords in the Keywords Field that will help learners find the training. Keywords are not required if the training has no availability or if there are no keywords that would help a learner find the training.

Training Contact (ILT Only)

Events must include a training contact; because the training contact is visible to learners, the training contact must be a non-administrator account. A support email address can be used as the training contact, as long as the inbox is monitored.

Training Descriptions

Training descriptions help learners understand key information about the training. To provide users with a similar style, experience, and expected training information across providers in BuckeyeLearn, the following requirements must be followed when writing training descriptions and providing certain details about a training.

Requirements for All Learning Object Types

These requirements apply to all LO types, including ILTs and online training.

• Provide detail of the topic(s) covered
• Provide the course objectives; course objectives should be listed in either the description or the objectives section.
• Include the length of time (“In this 1 hour and 30-minute training…”)
• Include the intended audience (such as individuals with fiscal reporting roles, HRBPs, or managers), if applicable
• Use blue or red text for links and email addresses
• Format descriptions into short paragraphs; avoid walls of text; walls of text are long paragraphs that aren’t well-written, edited, or formatted

ILT-Specific Requirements

Live captioning

Webinars require Live Captioning. An accessibility statement must be included in the event description that addresses accommodations for live captioning.

In-person or webinar

ILT event descriptions must include how the training takes place: in person or via webinar (for example, “In this 2 hour in-person training…” or “In this 30-minute webinar”). This helps the learner determine where the training will be held.

Example ILT Description

In this 1 hour and 30-minute in person training, you will learn how to connect to a published data source, create charts, and build a dashboard.

This training is intended for individuals who do not have a Desktop license and have less than 6 months experience building and editing reports in Tableau Server. All attendees must have Tableau Server access to participate. If you are unsure if you have access, please IT-training@osu.edu to verify. 

This event will be presented with automated closed captions. If you wish to request traditional CART services or other accommodations, please contact IT-training@osu.edu. Requests made 7 days before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date

When you have completed this course, you will be able to

• Connect to a published data source
• Create charts
• Build a dashboard

Online Course-Specific Requirements

• An accessibility contact in the description
• A training contact (someone who can help answer questions about the course)
• Deep link to accessible version, if applicable

Example Online Course Description

The Digital Accessibility policy establishes minimum standards for the accessibility of Ohio State’s digital information and services, whether created by Ohio State or purchased for our use, as well as the reporting requirements necessary to ensure compliance with the university’s obligations under applicable state and federal laws and regulations. The policy ensures equal access to digital information and services for all university audiences, including students, prospective students, faculty, staff, student employees, guests, visitors, and program participants.

When you have completed this 40-minute course, you will be able to

• Define digital accessibility
• Describe what digital accessibility means for people in the Ohio State community
• Describe how having a permanent or temporary disability affects how you use digital information and services
• Explain how your work must comply with the Digital Accessibility Policy
• Plan and create accessible digital information and services

To complete this course, you must complete the assessment, which will test your application of the information learned in this course. You may attempt to pass the assessment before reviewing the course content. If you do not pass the assessment, review the course content, then try again.

For information on how to use this course as well as accessibility instructions and options, review How to Use Online Courses Provided by the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Enterprise Security.​ If you have a disability and experience difficulty accessing this content, take the accessible alternative version or contact IT-training@osu.edu.

Subjects

All training in BuckeyeLearn is categorized into groups by subject. Subjects are used by users to search for and identify training based on their interests. For subject definitions, review the Subject Definitions job aid.

OU admins may submit a request for new subjects to the Operations Committee. The BuckeyeLearn Support Team will implement the subjects if approved.

• Each LO must be attached to at least one subject
• LOs can have multiple subjects.
• Compliance subjects and child subjects can only be used by the Office of Compliance; all compliance LOs must have the Compliance subject; any unit who wants to use the Compliance subject must receive approval from the Office of University Compliance and Integrity.

Videos

For video content hosted in YouTube, the following is required:

• Training videos must be marked Unlisted so the video is available only to those who have the link
• All content must have subtitles to allow use of closed captioning
• Content owners must keep their department’s YouTube credentials available in case an updated YouTube video link is needed

Electronic Training Completion Signature and Acknowledgments

The electronic signatures and acknowledgments feature in BuckeyeLearn must only be used when eSignature (through DocuSign) or Workday is not more appropriate. Signatures should not be used instead of an assessment if measuring actual learning would be more effective. For additional requirements, please refer to the Electronic Training Completion Signature and Acknowledgements job aid.

Retiring a Training

When training will no longer be active in BuckeyeLearn, it must be retired. Retired content must follow the Retire Training documented process.

Reversioning a Training

Reversioning content may affect reporting and what learners will see on their transcripts.

• The OU admin/Learning Admin is responsible for testing the reversion approach in Pilot
• The OU admin/Learning Admin is responsible for informing the BuckeyeLearn Support Team and BuckeyeLearn Operations Committee prior to reversioning if it will affect learners outside of their division for compliance-related content; a best practice is to inform the Operations Committee of any reversioning before performing it in case there are unintended consequences

Reporting

OU admins can create and share reports in Reporting 2.0. All shared reports must have a description. OU admins must not share reports to individuals outside of their Division. In situations where an OU admin receives a report request from someone outside of their Division, they should be redirected to their area’s OU admin or the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team.

The OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team creates and shares official compliance reports for common training titles. These reports are updated as needed and include options that allow the report consumer to report on targeted populations. If an OU admin receives a request for a compliance report owned by the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team, the OU admin should request the official compliance report be shared by the OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support team.

Learner Transcript Changes

OU admins and BuckeyeLearn Liaisons can make changes to a learner’s transcript if the learner is employed by their Division.

• Removing a training: An admin must never remove training for a learner’s transcript that was assigned by another area or administrator without permission granted by the training owner
• Marking a training complete: An admin must never mark a training on a learner’s transcript as complete without permission granted by the training owner.

If an admin is granted permission to remove or mark a training, the admin must include the following information in the removal or mark complete comments:

• Who requested the removal or mark complete
• Date request was received
• Ticket number, if applicable
• Date permission for marking complete was received and the name of the training owner who granted approval, if applicable

Roster Submission

Rosters for ILT must be submitted promptly, preferably within 3 days of the session end date.

Support Processes

The BuckeyeLearn Support Process combines well-known, existing university processes with a distributed administration model. 

IT Service Desk (ITSD) and Wexner Medical Center (WMC) Service Desks

The ITSD and WMC service desk provide Tier I support to end users of BuckeyeLearn, such as basic application questions, triage issues and gather information from users, and escalate issues to the BuckeyeLearn Support Team.

Example of Tier I Question

A learner is unable to log into BuckeyeLearn.  The Service Desk will determine if the learner is using the correct URL to access BuckeyeLearn.  If the learner is using an incorrect URL, the Service Desk will direct them to the correct URL.

Organizational Unit Administrators, BuckeyeLearn Liaisons, Learning and ILT Administrators

Each unit represented in BuckeyeLearn must identify at least one Organizational Unit System Administrator or BuckeyeLearn Liaison, a critical role in supporting the application for a given Organizational Unit.

In a support capacity, the OU admin or BuckeyeLearn Liaison should field Tier II support questions.  While most Tier I questions will go to the Service Desks referenced above, some will come directly to this group from users familiar with the administrator(s). 

Example of Tier II Question

A learner communicates that they are unable to proceed to the next slide in an eLearning. This is a content question that, regardless of where it is received, will be directed to the owner of the content and/or the Organizational Unit Administrator.

Change Management Administrators (OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support Team) and Cornerstone Support

Change Management Administrators (OTDI BuckeyeLearn Support Team) serve as the highest level of escalation for issues that cannot be resolved by the Service Desks or BuckeyeLearn administrators.  These admins have additional access within the application that allows for cross-organizational troubleshooting, as well as a direct connection to the Cornerstone Client Success Center and Support personnel should an issue require a technical resolution from the vendor.

Example of Tier III Issue

Single Sign On is not working, so users are unable to sign-in into BuckeyeLearn. Change Management Administrators (BuckeyeLearn Support Team) will work with University Technical Administrators/Service Owners to resolve.