Formats are used to describe the type of delivery, number of days and times the delivery starts and finishes eg: “Facilitated 3 day workshop 9-5 each day” or “Blended learning; 20 hours pre course and 1 day teaching with exam”.

Formats are also where you can include Topics, linked to Course Modules. For those training organisations that are RTOs (government Registered Training Organisations) the Course Module is where Units of Competency (UoC) details are recorded for AVETMISS reporting. Additionally if you include topic descriptions this is where you can provide learning content via the student portal. Every UoC needs to be on a Format to be reported on.

The schedule of the work to be done during a course is included here. This means the Trainer’s details, time and day are included at the Course Module level.

Formats can have optional descriptions and even more detailed topics. Start basic: we suggest a format description is all you need.

1. Navigate to Publish>Format

2. Add a Name used for managing the formats eg. “Microsoft standard 3 day workshop”

3. Add a Title which is used for displaying in emails or online: “Facilitated 3 day workshop 9-5 each day” or “Blended learning; 20 hours pre course and 1 day teaching with exam”

4. Add other information if this is a format for one Course category or Location or Provider.

5. Add Topics if you have them.

Notes; if you make the format specific to ‘Microsoft’ rather than ‘Microsoft Word’ courses then it will be available to select when setting up ‘Microsoft Excel’ course masters as well.

Varying the delivery mode of the course (when reporting AVETMISS): E-learning, Face to face or distance learning courses

For those topics that effectively don’t have set contact hours, eg e-learning that are learner led and don’t really have a schedule we recommend offering a suggested learning schedule to assist students. This gives learners an idea of how much time they might have to schedule for the course. You could suggest the same timetable that is used for a classroom environment. Then learners can modify their own schedule to fit their own availability.

If you are an RTO (Registered Training Organisation) you will need to create unique Course Modules for the same Units of Competency to cater for the AVETMISS Field ‘Delivery Mode Identifier’ read more about when to create a new Course Module below.

When to create a new Course Module (for AVETMISS reporting)

If you are reporting on AVETMISS you will need to associate the following fields (found in the AVETMISS 7.0 Subject Sub Form):

• AVETMISS 7.0 Subject Identifier

• AVETMISS 7.0 Internal Lookup of Option Qualifications

• AVETMISS 7.0 Subject Field of Education Identifier

• AVETMISS 7.0 Associated Course Identifier

• AVETMISS 7.0 Nominal Hours

• AVETMISS 7.0 Scheduled Hours

• AVETMISS 7.0 Delivery Mode Identifier

• AVETMISS 7.0 Subject Flag

• AVETMISS 7.0 VET Flag

So if any of the values in these fields differ from those Course Modules already created you will need to create a new one.

• Example one You deliver to courses for Certificate IV in Government (Investigation): face to face and a e-learning. You will need to duplicate the Course Modules for each of these as they have a different value for the field ‘AVETMISS 7.0 Delivery Mode Identifier’.

• Example two You have a Unit of Competency that is delivered in two different qualifications. You deliver the same content for the same Nominal Hours, just the qualification is different. In this case each will have a different value for the field ‘AVETMISS 7.0 Internal Lookup of Option Qualifications’, so therefore require different Course Modules.

• Example three You deliver two different qualifications, each delivered as either face to face or e-learning, or a blend of the two. Assuming everything else stays the same, ie Nominal Hours, VET Flag etc. other than the AVETMISS 7.0 Internal Lookup of Option Qualifications and AVETMISS 7.0 Delivery Mode Identifier each Course Module that is in both qualification will need to be set up FOUR times (see below for a list of these along with the suggested naming strategy).

How do you distinguish between these Course Modules?

We recommend you use a naming structure and stick with it. If you plan to have different Topic Descriptions we suggest you follow the same naming structure.

For example, where Variant could be ‘Electronic’, ‘Classroom’ etc: <Qualification Code> <UoC Code> <UoC Name> (<Variant>)

eg: PSP41412 PUAOPE002B Operate communications systems and equipment (online)

How should you create Course Modules and Formats?

If creating a Format manually we recommend you use the ‘Copy based on this Format’ button using the most similar existing format that exists. If you are planning on using the Selenium Scripts that glean information from training.gov.au then you will need to make modifications after the initial import. If you are using the Selenium Scripts that use a csv list of values then you may wish to plan out all the Modules, Formats and associated Topic information before the import.

Weekends and elapsed days in Formats

Keep in mind when setting up formats that the ‘Day’ is the elapsed days from the day the course starts, this means that if you have a 10 contact-day course but don’t deliver on a Saturday nor Sunday it is a 12 elapsed day course (excluding the weekend days). When specifying the day for the topics you need to skip over day 6 and 7 (representing Saturday and Sunday respectively).

What to do with Course Modules/UoC content that is actually embedded into the general content, and does not have a specific time allocated?

You have two options with dealing with these topics covered broadly across multiple days rather than at any one time:

• Include the UoC at the end of the day, perhaps for the last 10 minutes, the trainer has the option to recap that the UoC subject matter has been covered as an overview, or will be covered as appropriate.

• Include a ‘wrap up’ at the end of the course, including each of these UoC in a small portion of the last day, again the trainer has the option to do a ‘wrap up’ to outline that all the topics have been covered.

What to do with Course Modules/UoC covered on two (or more) days?

Create a new topic with the appropriate days and times, link it to the same Course Module, and BINGO you are ready to roll…You might want to add something on the Topic title like - continuation - or - part 2 - so that students know what topic is being covered.