Managing Learning Resources

This chapter provides an overview of learning resource management and discusses how to:

Define resource types.
Define learning resources.

Understanding Learning Resource Management

Most learning organizations need to manage the resources required to offer learning. Resource management addresses these business needs by enabling you to define and maintain your resources, such as materials, equipment, and facilities. It also enables you to apply costs for the use of the resources that you define.

To manage resources, first set up resource types for classification and searching purposes, and define special accommodations and holiday schedules. Next, define the specific resources that are available for use when creating and scheduling learning activities.

Define Resource Types

To define resource types use the following components: Accommodations (LM_ACMDTN_TBL), Equipment Types (LM_EQP_TYPE), Facility Contact Types (LM_CNTCT_ROLE), Instructor Types (LM_INSTR_ROLE), Material Types (LM_MTRL_TYPE), Room Types (LM_ROOM_TYPE), and Holiday Schedules (LM_HLDAY_SCHED).

This section lists the pages used to set up learning resource types, as well as accommodations, and holiday schedules.

Pages Used to Define Resource Types, Accommodations, and Holiday Schedules

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Accommodations	LM_ACMDTN_TBL	Set Up ELM, Resources, Accommodations, Accommodations	Define special accommodations, such as wheelchair access, that you can associate with a room within a facility. The accommodation definition comprises a long and short description.
Equipment Types	LM_EQP_TYPE	Set Up ELM, Resources, Equipment Types, Equipment Types	Define equipment types, such as projectors or sound systems. When you define an individual item of equipment, you include its type in the definition. The equipment type definition comprises a long and short description. When you attach equipment to a session, session template, facility, or room within a facility, you can restrict equipment searches to a certain type. On session templates and session patterns, you can specify a type of equipment rather than a specific item.
Facility Contact Types	LM_CNTCT_ROLE	Set Up ELM, Resources, Facility Contact Types, Facility Contact Types	Define types to associate with facility contacts, such as scheduling, catering, and janitorial. The type definition comprises a long and short description.
Instructor Types	LM_INSTR_ROLE	Set Up ELM, Resources, Instructor Types, Instructor Types	Define types to associate with instructors, such as primary instructor, assistant instructor, teaching assistant, or coach. The type definition comprises a long and short description. You use instructor types when you associate an instructor with a session. You also specify instructor types on session templates and session patterns.
Material Types	LM_MTRL_TYPE	Set Up ELM, Resources, Material Types, Material Types	Define material types, such as student training manual, frequently asked question document, and completion certificates. When you define an individual item of material, you include its type in the definition. The material type definition comprises a long and short description. You attach materials to an activity.
Room Types	LM_ROOM_TYPE	Set Up ELM, Resources, Room Types, Room Types	Define room types, such as classroom, auditorium, or laboratory. When you define a room, you include its type in the definition. The room type definition comprises a long and short description. When you attach rooms to a facility, you can restrict searches to a certain type.
Holiday Schedules	LM_HLDAY_SCHED	Set Up ELM, Resources, Holiday Schedules, Holiday Schedule	Group a set of blackout dates (dates for which activity sessions cannot be scheduled) together to be attached to a facility. You enter the date, identify the holiday, and add a short description. You use holiday schedules to restrict scheduling of sessions within a facility to open (non-holiday) dates only.

Defining Learning Resources

To define equipment, use the Equipment (LM_EQP_TBL) component. You can use the LM_EQP_TBL component interface to load data into the table for this component. To define materials, use the Material (LM_MTRL_TBL) component. You can use the LM_MTRL_TBL component interface to load data into the table for this component. To define facilities and room, use the Facilities (LM_FCLTY_TBL) component.

After you set up resource types for equipment, materials, instructors, and rooms, you define the specific resources that are available for the learning activities that you schedule. You also define your facilities and the rooms within those facilities.

This section provides overviews of equipment management and attachments, lists common elements, and discusses how to:

Define equipment.
Copy equipment.
Define materials.
Define facilities.
Set up facility equipment and attachments.
Set up facility rooms.
Enter facility room details.

Understanding Equipment Management

Equipment constitutes all of the individual pieces of equipment available in the system. After you define equipment types, define the individual pieces of equipment that are available as resources and attach them to facilities or rooms.

This list explains the relationship between equipment and facilities and rooms:

When equipment is attached to a facility, it indicates equipment that is available for scheduling by sessions—that is, by session pattern or directly into sessions.

Once associated with a facility, equipment is added to a library of available equipment.
You cannot add equipment to a session pattern or session until you have associated it with a facility.

You can, however, add to a room any item of equipment not currently assigned to a facility or room.
When equipment is attached to a room, it simply indicates that the item is permanently assigned or affixed to the room and is not available to be scheduled by anyone else, anywhere else.
When you define a room within a facility, you can set a cost for the use of the room.

You should calculate the cost, if any, of any equipment that the room has in its definition and build those costs into the room cost, because room-level equipment costs are not automatically mapped to the activity.

An alternative to building room-level equipment costs into a room cost is to apply the equipment cost manually on the Activity Costs page.

See Understanding Activity Costing.

It is also important to know what equipment comes with a room so that you don't unnecessarily reserve facility-level equipment when the room already has it. The additional item may incur additional costs, whereas the cost of the room's equipment may already be built into the room cost.

The associated cost of any facility-level equipment booked for a session is automatically mapped to the activity.

The system enables you to view the equipment that comes with the room that you have selected when scheduling an activity in a facility.

Understanding Attachments

Several of the resources management pages have fields for attachments. What you attach to a page likely depends on the page where you make the attachments. Here are some examples:

Facility: driving directions to the facility, bus routes and timetables, site map.
Equipment: electronic copy of user manual.
Rooms: fixed feature user instructions (complex lighting, screens, curtains, mechanical platforms).

To add an attachment, click the Add Attachment button. Then either enter the path to and the name of the attachment, or click the Browse button to locate the attachment, and click the Upload button. After you upload the attachment, the system displays the attachment file name in the description field. You can edit this description.

To display room attachments to learners, select the Display check box next to the attachment description.

To delete an attachment, select the check box next to the attachment description and click the Delete Attachment button.

Note. Your system configuration determines the size of the files that you can attach.

Common Elements Used in This Section

Send Email

Click to access a page for sending an ad hoc email. You might use this feature to notify someone of equipment that needs repair or materials that should be reordered.

Pages Used to Define Learning Resources

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Equipment	LM_EQP_TBL	Enterprise Learning, Learning Resources, Equipment, Equipment	Define equipment by equipment types that you have created. You can supplement the definition with attachments such as manufacturers' user manuals. You can then assign the equipment to session templates, session patterns, facilities, and rooms within facilities.
Equipment Copy	LM_EQP_COPY	Click the Copy Equipment button on the Equipment page.	Copy equipment by creating multiple new records of an equipment item that you have defined. You have some control over what attributes are copied.
Material	LM_MTRL_TBL	Enterprise Learning, Learning Resources, Material, Material	Define materials by material types that you have created. You can then assign these materials to learning activities.
Facility	LM_FCLTY_TBL	Enterprise Learning, Learning Resources, Facilities, Facility	Define a facility by associating a holiday schedule with it and setting up contact details.
Equipment and Attachments	LM_FCLTY_EQP	Enterprise Learning, Learning Resources, Facilities, Equipment and Attachments	Assign facility-wide equipment—that is, equipment not confined to a particular room in the facility—by associating items of equipment with the facility. Also add related attachments.
Rooms	LM_FCLTY_ROOM	Enterprise Learning, Learning Resources, Facilities, Rooms	Define rooms for a facility.
Room Detail	LM_ROOM_TBL	Click the room number link on the Rooms page for a room already attached to a facility. Click the Add Room button on the Rooms page when defining or attaching more rooms.	Create, view, enter and edit details of the rooms that you want to define for a facility.

Defining Equipment

Access the Equipment page.

Equipment Details

Type	Select a type from the equipment types that you have set up.
Asset Tag	Enter the asset tag. This field is for information only. The system does not use the asset tag that you enter here nor the serial number that you enter in the Serial Number field.
Cost	Enter the unit cost for the item. The cost of the item for a whole activity depends on the cost type. See Understanding Activity Costing.
Cost Type	Select the unit by which the cost is charged. Values are: Day, Fixed, Hour, Student, and Week. See Assigning Activity Costs.
Equipment Location	Displays the equipment location. This is a display-only field. When you are first setting up equipment details, the field displays Currently not assigned to a Facility or Room. Once the item is assigned to a facility or room, the details appear in this field. You attach equipment to a facility on the Equipment page and to rooms on the Room Details page that you access from the Rooms page.
Copy Equipment	Click to access the Equipment Copy page, where you can quickly add new equipment by copying this record and modifying the results.

Attachments

Use this group box to add attachments to equipment.

See Understanding Attachments.

Learning Environments

Use these fields to specify the learning environments for which this equipment is valid.

Learning Environment

For new equipment, the system displays the learning administrator's environment as the default. By adding other learning environments, you enable administrators of those environments access to this equipment.

Important! If you are creating equipment, be sure that your learning environment is listed here. If it's not, you will lose the ability to access this equipment after you leave this component.

Primary

This object must be associated with at least one learning environment. In this field, select the primary environment with which this object is associated. You cannot remove the primary learning environment from this page without first selecting another environment as the primary. You can change the primary learning environment on this page at any time.

Copying Equipment

Access the Equipment Copy page.

If you have a number of items of a particular type, you can set up one item and then copy that item, specifying the number of copies. When the system has generated the copies, you can edit the attributes, such as serial number.

Select the equipment attributes that you want copied and specify the number of copies that you want. Descriptions and learning environments are always copied, so these options are preselected and cannot be cleared.

When you click the Copy button, the system produces new records, each with a new ID. To view the copies immediately—so that you can apply unique attributes such as serial number and asset tag—select the Review Copy Results check box. The system presents you with a grid containing all the copies it has made. In the grid, you can modify the attributes to make each item unique.

Defining Materials

Access the Material page.

Material

Material Type

Select from the material types that you have set up.

Cost

Enter the unit cost of the material item. When the system calculates activity costs, it multiplies this amount by the quantity of the item that you specify through the Material tab within the learning activities Materials/Attachments page.

See Setting Up Activity Materials and Attachments.

See Understanding Activity Costing.

ISBN

Enter the ISBN if the material is a publication that has an ISBN.

Learning Environments

Use these fields to specify the learning environments for which this material is valid.

Learning Environment

For new material, the system displays the learning administrator's environment as the default. By adding other learning environments, you enable administrators of those environments access to this material.

Important! If you are creating material, be sure that your learning environment is listed here. If it's not, you will lose the ability to access this material after you leave this component.

Primary

Defining Facilities

Access the Facility page.

When you schedule sessions for an activity, you specify the facility in which the activity's sessions take place.

Defining a facility has three parts. You need to define:

Basic facility-wide data, such as address, contact, and attachments.
The facility's rooms, specifying their location by building and floor and the equipment that comes with each room.
The facility's equipment inventory from which items can be allocated for a scheduled activity.

Holiday Schedule ID	If you have defined holiday schedules, you can identify the schedule applicable to this facility. Then, when this facility is used for a scheduled activity, the system can ensure that if a holiday occurs within the time span of the activity, and if holidays are to be observed, sessions are not created for those days.
Vendor	If the facility is not one of your own, enter the name of the vendor supplying—that is, selling the use of—the facility. This is for informational purposes only.
Customer	If you are using a customer's facility, identify the customer here. This is for informational purposes only.
Learning Environment	For a new facility, the system displays the learning administrator's environment as the default. By adding other learning environments, you enable administrators of those environments access to this facility. Important! If you are creating a facility, be sure that your learning environment is listed here. If it's not, you will lose the ability to access this facility after you leave this component.
Primary	This object must be associated with at least one learning environment. In this field, select the primary environment with which this object is associated. You cannot remove the primary learning environment from this page without first selecting another environment as the primary. You can change the primary learning environment on this page at any time.

Setting Up Facility Equipment and Attachments

Access the Equipment and Attachments page.

Only equipment that you assign to a facility here is available for attachment to a session pattern, session template, or session.

Setting Up Facility Rooms

Access the Rooms page.

To edit the details of a room, click the Room Number link to access the Room Details page.

To add a room, click the Add Room button to access the Room Details page.

Entering Facility Room Details

Access the Room Detail page.

Enter details of the room, such as type, number, and name, and identify the building the room is in and the floor it is on. Enter the maximum occupancy allowed. Also, enter the cost of using the room per cost type unit. Note that this is the room cost only; if costs are associated with the equipment that comes with the room, you can build that cost into the room cost. Alternatively, you can add the equipment cost manually on the Activity Costs page.

See Understanding Activity Costing.

Equipment, Accommodations, and Attachments

You can assign equipment, accommodations, and attachments to a room by clicking the search or add buttons to find previously defined equipment, accommodations, and stored attachments. After you attach a room to a session, you can click the Details link on the Session Details page to view the rooms details on the Room Detail page (LM_ROOM_ADMIN_DTL), which are the same details that you see in the Room Detail setup page (LM_ROOM_TBL).

See Understanding Attachments.

Learning Environments

Specify the learning environments for which this room is valid. For new rooms, the system displays the learning administrator's environment as the default. By adding other learning environments, you enable administrators of those environments access to this room.

Important! If you are adding new rooms, be sure that your learning environment is listed here. If it's not, you will lose the ability to access this room after you leave this component.