1. Overview

The Reflective Practice Exercise (RPE) is a powerful workforce management, training, and skills acquisition tool. It allows practitioners to define their professional goals relative to a formal competency model, and to then achieve those goals by identifying specific learning activities that build and demonstrate the required skills.

For an overview of the feature please see Major Concepts → Reflective Practice Exercise.

2. Configuring the RPE

Configuring the RPE entails:

1. (optional) Set the Glossary terms

2. Creating a Competency Model

3. Creating one or more Competency Requirement Models

4. Creating an Assessment to hold the data generated by the RPE

5. Adding a Reflective Practice Exercise Learning Plan Task

6. (Optional) Configuring the content of the “wizard” that orients users to the RPE process

2.1. (Optional) Set the Glossary terms

Most of the labels used in the RPE are configurable via Admin → Content → Glossary. This document uses screenshots taken from the TRAINING database which is configured as shown below. Your system may vary.

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Glossary terms used by the RPE

2.2. Creating a Competency Model

Competencies are related to Credentials and are managed in Admin → Credentials → Competency Models

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After the Competency Model is created, you will need to add some Competencies to it.

2.3. Creating Competency Requirement Models

The Competency Model itself just defines the competencies that are available. In order to use this model with the RPE, you must define one or more Competency Requirement Models that reference the Competency Model.

Each Competency Requirement Model identifies a specific subset of competencies, and the proficiency level for each, that a Practitioner must possess in order to “satisfy” the requirements.

When you click “Manage” you will be taken to the Manage Competency Requirement Models page:

Creating or editing a Competency Requirement Model displays a grid where you select the specific Competencies you want to require and the number of activities (or the count of units) that must be completed at a specified proficiency level to satisfy that requirement.

2.4. Creating an Assessment to hold the RPE data

The RPE uses the Assessment Engine to store all of the data generated by the Self Assessment and Supervisor Assessment steps. You must create the Assessment first so that you can reference it when configuring the RPE.

To do this, go to Admin → Credentials → Assessments and create a new Assessment of type “Reflective Practice Exercise”

By default, a single Assessment Form will be created and the edit form will be loaded. None of these settings are relevant to the RPE, so just click the return link in the upper-right corner to exit the edit screen.

2.5. Adding a RPE to a Learning Plan

Note - An RPE activity will only work in the legacy display mode until version 11 / 10. ?

Once at least one Competency Requirement Model has been created, you need to configure a Learning Plan to present the RPE dashboard to Practitioners.

To do this, go to Admin → Credentials → [Credential] → Learning Plans → edit. Then, click Add Task and add a task of type “Reflective Practice Exercise”.

The Edit Task form collects a lot of settings, many of which are detailed below (section 2.7). The most important piece is to select the Assessment that you just created at the bottom of the form.

Refer to Section 2.7 for more details on the configuration settings.

2.6. (Optional) Configure the onboarding tour

The very first time that a user opens the RPE it launches a “tour” that provides a process overview to orient the user to the feature and how to use it.

If desired, this tour can be customized via technical support. Please contact support for more details.

2.7. RPE Task configuration settings

The RPE Task can be configured in a few different ways:

3. Associating Activities with the Competency Model

In order to progress through the Reflective Practice model, a Practitioner must be able to demonstrate that they possess the required competencies.

Before that can happen, Administrators or Providers must enter Activities that are associated with those competencies. This task is called “classifying” the Activity against the Competency Model and is controlled by the Competency Classification Attribute.

3.1. Configuring the “Competency Classification Attribute”

The “Competency Classification Attribute” has two different input modes. To use it with the RPE, it must be set to use the GRID mode.

As a Sys Admin, go to Sys Admin → Attribute Definitions and filter the list by the name “Competency Classification”. You should see 3 results.

If any of the results are configured to use InputMode: ‘TREEVIEW', change them to use InputMode: ‘GRID’.

If the attribute is configured incorrectly, it will look like this to the end user:

If the attribute is configured correctly, it will look like this:

3.2. Workflow configuration

Once the Attribute Definition is correctly set up, you will need to add the “Competency Classification” attribute to one or more Create Activity Workflows.

After the Attribute is added to the Workflow, edit the Step-specific settings to specify which fields are required during the classification process.

For a simple configuration, hide everything except “Proficiency”.

3.3. Classifying Activities

Finally, you will need to create (or edit) one or more Activities and provide competency classification data via the Workflow popup. This is the process through which each Activity is associated with a specific set of competencies at a specific proficiency level. This data is used to determine which Activities satisfy a user’s required competencies.

4. Using the RPE as an end user

A Learning Plan containing a Reflective Practice Exercise task displays the RPE dashboard at the top of the page. All of the relevant interaction occurs within this dashboard.

4.1. Choosing the target proficiencies (“position profile”)

The very first time that a Practitioner opens a Learning Plan with a Reflective Practice task on it, they are prompted¹ to select the position, role, or credential that they want to earn. Technically this is a “Competency Requirements Model” but is often referred to as a “position profile”.

Each position profile is associated with one or more required competencies (“proficiencies”). The user demonstrates that they are qualified for that position, role, or credential by adding Activities to their Learning Plan that satisfy those competency requirements.

4.2. Reviewing total progress

Once a set of target proficiencies (the Competency Requirements Model) is selected, the RPE dashboard is displayed. The first box on the dashboard displays the percentage of required competencies that are “met” by the Activities on the Learning Plan. This shows the practitioner how close they are to meeting those requirements.

The Practitioner can choose a different set of target proficiencies at any time. No progress is ever “lost” as the RPE dashboard simply compares the selected requirements against the current Activities; users can check their progress against as many different sets of requirements as they want.

4.3. Self Assessment and Supervisor Assessment

After a position profile has been selected, the next step is for the Practitioner to perform a self assessment.

Clicking the “Assess My Proficiency” button opens a window that displays all of the competencies required by the selected position profile. The Practitioner indicates how proficient they are at each of the required competencies.

The Practitioner’s Supervisor can also perform their own assessment, which provides another source of feedback to the Practitioner.

4.4. Setting priorities

There are often a large number of required competencies, and this can result in an overwhelming experience for the Practitioner.

To alleviate this, the Practitioner is encouraged to identify a smaller number of learning priorities by selecting only a few of the required competencies at a time. The RPE dashboard can use these priorities to focus the user’s attention on the most relevant learning activities.

4.5. Add Activities that satisfy the competency requirements

The whole point of the RPE is to direct the Practitioner towards specific learning activities that will help them meet their required competency targets. The 4th box on the RPE dashboard triggers a competency-based Activity Search for those Activities that will close different types of “competency gaps”:

• All Gaps - finds activities that will close any of the established competency gaps

• “High Priority” Gaps - finds activities that will close competency gaps that are identified as especially high priorities by the selected competency model. For instance, different job profiles may have different skills that are “required” and “nice to have”

• My Priorities - finds activities that will close the competency gaps marked as personal priorities by the Practitioner

Clicking one of the search buttons will perform a normal Task Group Activity Search, with a few RPE-specific adjustments:

• The search can be filtered to Activities that are linked to specific competencies (see the Competency Classification Attribute);

• The search results table indicates the number of competency gaps that each Activity would close;

• Multiple search results can be compared to drill into the specific competencies linked to each result;

4.6. Complete the Activity workflows to report progress

Once Activities have been added to the Learning Plan, the Practitioner needs to go through the Complete Activity workflows in order to report their progress.

The RPE dashboard automatically updates to reflect progress gained by completing an Activity.

4.7. Tracking progress via dashboard indicators

The Reflective Practice model is a cyclical process. After Activities are completed, the user is encouraged to re-assess, set new priorities, and search for additional Activities. This continues until all of the competency requirements have been met, or until the Practitioner chooses a different position profile to compare progress against.

Throughout this process the dashboard widgets reflect the Practitioner’s progress towards their competency requirements.

4.8. Understanding competency progress indicators

Beneath the dashboard is a listing of all competency requirements in the selected position profile (Competency Requirements Model).

This listing summarizes progress for each level of the Competency Model.

5. Using the RPE to analyze aggregate workforce proficiency

The RPE is not just a tool for individual reflection and learning, it can also be used for workforce level assessment using “Aggregate” Competency Requirement Models.

5.1. Aggregate vs Individual Competency Requirement Models

An individual Competency Requirement Model describes a specific set of requirements for a specific credential or job. Individual Practitioners assess themselves against these models.

Aggregate Competency Requirement Models are defined the same way, but they are not evaluated against individual Practitioners. Rather, they are evaluated against a group of individual requirement models. This analysis shows how well those individual models, when layered together, meet the requirements of the aggregate model.

5.2. Creating an Aggregate Competency Requirement Model

Aggregate models are constructed exactly the same as individual models in the Admin → Credentials → [Credential] → Competency Models → Manage Requirement Models page.

5.3. Using the “Gap Analysis” tool

To use the Gap Analysis tool, first create at least one “individual” and one “aggregate” Competency Requirement Model.

Then, use the “View Gaps” link on the Admin → Credentials → [Credential] → Competency Models page to access the gap analysis tool.

In the tool itself, select the Aggregate model you wish to use as the baseline, and then select one or more Individual models to “layer together” and compare against the Aggregate model.