Can I break my learners up into separate groups? Can I organize learners by department or school?

Yes, you can! This requires some technical setup, and we recommend doing this setup before your full course launch.

👤 This article is for the main point of contact for a participating organization.

We know how important your data is to you.

Course completion and keeping track of learners is critical to a successful course program. In Reconciliation Education's LMS, you can have your learners divided into groups to ease your administrative load or make data more easily shareable with stakeholders.

Read our best practises for data success below and review some sample case studies to help you make the best decision for you.

Steps to data success

Prepare early. Splitting learners into groups after the launch is incredibly difficult and time consuming. If you project wanting learners split into groups, do this before your main launch to save you time, frustration, and effort later on.

Consider language. It may benefit you to split French learners from English learners. You are required to submit separate registration lists for each language, and this may help you with reminder or followup messaging later.

Think about your data's destination. Do you anticipate a certain department head, principal, or executive team leader requesting data on a regular basis? Do you need to submit a progress report by-school each month? Break your data up to accommodate where it needs to go.

Don't go too deep. While it may be tempting to split learners apart into very discrete groups, a large number of groups will eventually become unmanageable. Considering the critical points for your data (who, where in the organization, and what language) will help you optimize your group breakup.

Remember the registration process. When you break your learners into groups, you will need to submit a separate registration form for each group. This is the only way to ensure that your group breakups are done correctly in the LMS. Don't forget to consider your administrative load in separating these registrations into groups as you add new learners.

Example case studies

Example 1: School Division

ABC School Division has 10 schools under its supervision. Each school has about 100 staff. The principals from each school want a report every month to see how their learners are progressing, and the Division wants an overall report every quarter.

Suggested group breakup:

  • 10 groups; 1 for each school

How to accomplish the reporting goals:

  • Set up 10 groups, 1 for each school so that data can be drawn for each school
  • Set up 10 custom, scheduled reports to generate every month. Then, send them forth to the principals from your email account. Or, draw a Branches Report for each branch. You could also request each principal to be set up as a Power User, if your license allows.
  • For the quarterly report, run a Course Report for your custom course and share this with the Division from your email account.

Example 2: Corporate

Demo Drilling has purchased 500 course seats. They are managing their registration through signup forms in each department's break room. They expect to be adding new hires over the course of the year. They need to ensure every month that they have not exceeded 500 total seats.

Suggested group breakup:

  • 1 group for each department
  • New hires sorted into their respective departments when they sign up

How to accomplish the reporting goals:

  • Set up a group for each department. This means that you can send in a digital copy of each sign up form for each group to be registered.
  • Run a Course Report for your custom course to see everyone's progress in the course and check the total number of learners each month. If you use the custom reports builder, you can schedule this report to be sent to you monthly.
  • Consider having department heads set up as Power Users if your license allows.

Example 3: Multi-Site

Criteria Consulting has purchased an enterprise-wide license for their whole organization. They have offices in every capital city in Canada that houses their main staff. They also have consultants who are hired for 6-month periods to assist with large projects. Their executive requires a full-staff report on completion every month until they reach 100%.

Suggested group breakup:

  • 1 group for each capital city office
  • 1 group for each 6-month session of contractors (Contractors Q1 2024, Contractors Q3 2024, etc.)

How to accomplish the reporting goals:

  • Set up a group for each office. This way, you can report on how each site is doing and compare them.
  • By separating the consultants, you can exclude data from contractors who are no longer employed by Criteria Consulting. This ensures that the overall completion number is accurate.
  • For the completion reports, set up a custom report and schedule it to be sent to you monthly. You may want to make edits to this custom report over time to remove irrelevant contractor groups; or run a separate report just for Contractor groups.

Example 4: Cyclical

The Example Project is a volunteer-only organization providing the course to students in their Employment Readiness Program. The Program lasts 6 months, with a new session starting every 2 months. Students are expected to complete the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation during their 6-month Program.

Suggested group breakup:

  • 1 group for each Program session (Session 1-2024, Session 2-2024, etc.)
  • 1 group for Example Project staff and teachers

How to accomplish the reporting goals:

  • Run a Branches Report for each of the Program session branches. This will give completion data for each Program session to assess who is and is not complete.
  • Take advantage of the reminder email system to ensure learners are complete by their deadlines.