Veracross University for Team Leaders

Overview

Veracross University (VU) is a training platform designed to teach you — key staff members — at schools how to utilize the Veracross system. This article is designed to get you up and running as a team leader on the platform (learners, click here). 

Let's get started with some Q&A covering the basics:

How do I log on?

If you would like to get login credentials, submit a ticket to our support portal. 

What is a team leader in Veracross University?

In Veracross University, each school is its own team. Each team needs at least one team leader who in turn can enroll additional users. Most teams will have at least one school point person and one Veracross employee assigned as team leaders on your team. As a team leader, you can:

• Add new people — your colleagues — to the team. This includes adding people as learners or as additional team leaders.
• Enroll people in specific learning paths and courses (though they can self-enroll in content, too). 
• View your team members' progress through curriculum.

How do I know if I'm a team leader?

When you log into Veracross University, if you see something like this, you are a team leader:

1. Access content (learning paths and courses) the people on your team, and reports. 
2. View news items.
3. Create a User: Create a person for your team.
4. View upcoming live classes ("ILT" stands for "instructor-led training").
5. Log out. Click to "switch to learner view" so that you can view the curriculum yourself.

What is a learning path? What is a course?

A learning path is a linear arrangement of courses. For example, the Intro to Veracross learning path is comprised of five courses:

• Axiom and CRM
• Building Basic Queries
• Additional Query Options
• Workspaces in Axiom
• Advanced Query Options (optional)

To complete the learning path, complete each course. The optional course does not need to be finished to achieve 100% for the learning path. You can enroll in a whole learning path or you can enroll in an individual course.  

Actions You Can Take as a Team Leader

You can do two primary things:

• Manage your team: add users, enroll them in learning paths and courses, create sub-teams, and run reports.
• Enroll yourself in learning paths and courses and complete them as a learner.

Create Sub-teams

You can create sub-teams within  your team to manage content. This is completely optional but you might find it helpful to manage content. You could create a sub-team for each major area that your team will need training for, e.g., a sub-team for Academics, Business Office, Development, etc. 

To Add a Sub-Team

1. Navigate to the "People" tab of your team. 
2. Click "Add a New Team Under This Team."
3. Supply the team name, description (optional), and consider whether to check either of the two "Automatically assign..." fields.
   • Check one or both of them to copy the content from the parent team to the new one.
   • If you leave the fields unchecked, the team will be created with no content in its course or learning path library.
4. Click "Add Team" or "Add Team and Then Add Another."

Here are the steps to adding a sub-team. 

After You Add the Sub-Team

Once you have a sub-team, you need to populate it with people and content:

• Click "Assign People to This Team" just like you normally would. 
• Head to the Learning Path Team Library and/or the Course Team Library to assign learning paths and courses as needed.

Create a New User

Click "Create a User" on the dashboard or click the "People" tab and then "Add a new person."

An example of a "new person" screen. Supply first name, last name, username, and email address. The new user will get an email when you click "Add person."

• Leave the "access level" as "Learner." See the next section for how to promote a user to team leader.
• Be sure to add an email address even if you use the email address for the username.
  • Usernames can be anything you choose. 

Promote a user to Team Leader: To promote a learner to team leader:

1. Navigate to the "People" tab of your team. 
2. Click "Promote" and select "Team Leader."

Important: Granting "team leader" access level when creating the account does not make the learner a team leader on the actual team. You must grant that access by promoting them.

Here is an animation of promoting a user. Be sure to start with the "Teams" tab:

Dashboard > Teams tab > Click Your Team > Click Promote > Select "Team Leader"

Enroll Learners in Learning Paths and Courses

Once you have added someone to your team, they can log in and they'll be automatically enrolled in the "Intro to Veracross" learning path. 

• Learners can self-enroll in additional content by clicking the "Content Library" tab at the top. Enrolling them simply means that they will see the learning path or course right on their dashboard when they log in. 
• Learners can register for upcoming live classes (called ILTs in some places in the interface). You can register people for sessions if you want to. They will get an email confirming their registration. 

You can start from the learning path and course and assign people to it. This may be quicker if you have a single learning path to assign to multiple people

The process of adding people to a learning path.

1. Click the Content tab.
2. Select the course or learning path.
3. Click the People tab.
4. Click "Assign to existing people." If the person does not yet exist on your team, create them first or (if no one is yet assigned), a big "Add a new person" button is right there.

Enroll Colleagues in Live Sessions

Live classes — sometimes referred to as instructor-led trainings (ILTs) — are live classes taught by Veracross instructors. Learners can always self-enroll, but you might want to register your colleagues for them, which means they will get a confirmation email and then reminder before the session begins. To register your colleagues on your team for an upcoming live session:

The steps to enroll colleagues in live sessions.

1. On the main dashboard, click the orange "Upcoming ILT Sessions."
2. Use the Session Start Date drop-down to toggle "today," "next 7 days," etc., as needed.
3. Click the module of the session you want to register.
4. Click the "Register" tab of the session.
5. Click Enroll Assign existing people to the course.
6. Choose the person or people. Recommended: Toggle the "send email/text notification" field so the learner is notified that they are enrolled.
7. Click Assign.

Work Through Curriculum as a Learner!

To go through the curriculum yourself, you first need to switch to the learner view. Click in the upper right hand corner to do this, and then you can engage in the curriculum as a learner. 

Switch to learner view. When you are done, use the same menu to switch back to admin view.

Possible Workflows

Ultimately, you as the school point person (and team leader in Veracross University) have a lot of latitude in how you want to run your team. We have some suggestions and recommendations. 

The "Hands Off" Path

You can simply add your colleagues to Veracross University, let them know where the resources are, and you are more or less done. This path is not the one to take if you are an implementing school since completing agreed-upon curriculum is likely part of your implementation plan. 

1. Let your colleagues know that they will be getting a sign-up email from Veracross University. Let them know:
   • They should complete the "Intro to Veracross" learning path they will see when they log in.
   • They can self-enroll in additional content via the "Content Library" tab.
   • They can register for live classes via the "Live Sessions" tab or the calendar on the landing page. 
   • Supply them this learner's guide. 
2. Add them to your team. Your colleagues can now complete their training or use VU material as reference when needed.

The "Hands On" Path

You can do more than just register your colleagues. Here is a recommendation if you want to be a bit more "hands on." This approach is especially recommended — and may be directly advised — if you are implementing Veracross or a major module. 

1. Complete the steps in the "hands off path" to add your colleagues.
2. Communicate when they should complete the Intro to Veracross learning path.
3. Enroll learners in role-appropriate learning paths. You could do this on a schedule ("in two weeks, once you have finished the Intro to Veracross learning path, you will be enrolled in the _____ learning path") or go ahead and enroll people right away.
   • Clearly communicate expectations about when learning paths should be completed. 
   • You can enroll learners in entire learning paths and also individual courses.
4. Enroll learners in upcoming live classes or send links directly to the relevant modules in Veracross University for them to self-enroll. 
5. As learners progress, you can view their progress by clicking on the "People" tab or building reports.