The Ohio State University

FAQ for BuckeyeLearn as a Public Facing Learning Management System (LMS)

Can a learner who’s not an OSU employee or student register for an account on BuckeyeLearn?

Yes! Areas who would like to offer training and education to the public/community can work with the BuckeyeLearn team to set up what’s called a Self Registration Group. This new Self Registration Group would allow the area to host a variety of content and have that content be accessible to the public/community.

Can I offer training and education content for purchase?

Yes! Content on BuckeyeLearn can be available for purchase. Pricing, coupons, pay with credit card, and POs are all options.

Can learners in the community see the available training content without having to register?

Yes!  Through Anonymous Browsing, the area offering content can allow people to review the descriptions and information prior to registering and making a purchase.

Can I offer my content to the public/community and the university community?

Yes! Since BuckeyeLearn is a single system, you may choose to offer your content to whomever you wish. Data from the HR system as well as data from self-registrants is housed within the system, so populations can be easily identified and added to the Availability for the course. This also helps in preventing learners who may not be the right audience for a particular course from even seeing the course.  These settings are at the discretion of the administrator.

If a learner has a name.# or medical center ID, then they have access to BuckeyeLearn.  However, they may not have access to a particular training. Administrators and designers choose to allow various populations within BuckeyeLearn the ability to access connect. During the implementation process the details of these options and settings would be discussed in detail.

Can I upload a group of users rather than having them register individually?

Yes!  Learners can be loaded “in bulk” through what’s called a data load. The data load can save a great deal of time in creating accounts and passwords.

Can I manage my own content?

Yes! There are several administrative roles in the system for managing Event (face-to-face) class registrations, elearning/online course content, curricula/programs and discussion forums. The BuckeyeLearn team can help you to maximize your use of BuckeyeLearn through a variety of content types and solutions.  The content and the approach are up to you!

Can I have learners evaluate my content?

Yes!  Level 1, 2, and 3 evaluations are built into the system, but you can customize the questions to meet your needs. Learners can also be prompted and reminded to complete evaluations if needed.

Can I give surveys to my learners?

Yes! You can develop and assign surveys as needed.  Some designers use surveys in lieu of evaluations so that the feedback can be collected anonymously.

Can learners receive a certificate after completing a course?

Yes! Certificates can be customized to include the requisite information. For example, continuing education credit often requires very specific information in order to be accepted by a profession or accrediting organization. Certificates can be configured to contain what’s needed for the learner to receive professional credit.

If a learner loses their certificate, or needs another copy, they can reprint from their transcript. The transcript is the record for all training the learner is taking currently, or has completed.

Can learners receive email  from BuckeyeLearn?

Yes! BuckeyeLearn email can be configured and customized to meet the needs of the learner and needed communication. Typically, emails are “triggered” from the system when events occur such as when a training is assigned, when a training is due, or when new training is available if the learner subscribed to that notification. The content and links can also be configured as needed.

Can I get reports from BuckeyeLearn?

Yes! BuckeyeLearn offers a robust custom reporting development environment within the interface. In addition, the system comes with useful pre-built reports. The way you choose to develop and consume reports depends on your business need.

What kind of content can I offer?

All different kinds! Self-paced online courses, videos, images, documents, PDFs, instructor-led (face-to-face) classes, curricula (also known as programs) comprising of a variety of content, tests/assessments, surveys, and evaluations.

Typically, a designer will create the self-paced content in development tools like Adobe Captivate, Articulate, iSpring, Lectora, Raptivity, Adapt, etc. This allows flexibility to the designer to be on their desktop rather than solely developing when logged in, online to an LMS. Once learning events and content is created, the designer can combine the learning into curricula/program or have standalone learning objects. The design and level of interaction is completely in the control of the designer!

Can I make changes to my content after it’s published?

Yes!  You can add new objects to curricula, or take them away, reversion learning objects, and make adjustments as needed. Depending on the type of content you are delivering, you may choose different methods to do this. It just depends on your design choices.

Can I enroll learners into my content?

Yes! Administrators can enroll learners into content, or learners can self-select. It just depends on how you want to do it!

Can I have a wait list for my instructor-led (face-to-face) classes?

Yes!  You can setup a waitlist that will be automatically managed, or you can manually manage it. The instructor-led (face-to-face) class management can be set up many ways to allow for the registration period to open/close, include prerequisites, pre-work and post-work, as well as how many seats are available to various populations. There many options to explore!

Am I able to be granular for what learners must do to “complete” a course.

Yes!  There are many ways to be granular with what a learner must complete. Especially with adult learners, it is preferable to offer choices and allow for self-direction. For example, in a curriculum, you may offer 5 modules, but the learner must only do 3 to be “complete.” Conversely, in a compliance or continuing education course, you may want to require ALL modules to be completed, and do so at a certain score or competency level. The level of granularity is at the discretion of the designer/developer. The system is flexible to allow for different approaches.

How is the support for BuckeyeLearn structured?

There are several levels to the support structure.  For areas who are strictly offering content to Ohio State’s community, support is managed through the IT Service Desk, the Organizational Unit Administrators (high-level admins within an area/unit/VP-unit), and the BuckeyeLearn Support team. The BuckeyeLearn Support team can escalate issues to our vendor if needed.

Organizational Unit administrator (OU admin): A single person within a unit who is the primary contact for their area. This person is typically comfortable with system administration, but also with training and education design and development.

IT Service Desk: This is a wonderful service that most of us at Ohio State use on a regular basis to manage and solve a variety of university system related issues.  The IT Service Desk personnel are able to help university learners to solve basic issues (pop-up blockers, navigation, etc.) and if more complex, route the issues to the BuckeyeLearn Support team.

Vendor/Global Product Support: If issues arise that cannot be solved by the BuckeyeLearn Support team, they can reach out to the vendor through a Global Product Support (GPS). The GPS team is highly knowledgeable and skilled. They have been a wonderful resource thus far!

For the Public Facing LMS, the structure of support will be slightly different. The FIRST point of contact will be the Organizational Unit administrator, and issues will not be routed through the IT Service Desk. The Organizational Unit administrator can work with the BuckeyeLearn Support team as needed.