Workflow for Observer Checklists

Learn how observers get notified about observer checklist activities. Also learn what happens when learners, observers, and learning specialists do different actions throughout the life cycle of learning assignments that include observer checklists.

Checklist observers get notifications whenever either of these conditions are met:

A learner completes a self-assess checklist activity required before the observer checklist activity.
A learner enrolls in a standalone observer checklist activity.

Notification Actions and Results

Observers access these notifications using the Notification icon in the global header or in the Things to Finish section of their Me page. When there’s a pool of observers, the first observer to open the notification and then the observation checklist player claims the activity. No other observer in the pool can do any action on the activity until the claiming observer completes it or cancels it.

Here’s what happens when the observer save, saves and closes, or submits the checklist:

Save or Save and Close: Saves the checklist and the Pass or Fail status, but leaves the notification and learning assignment status unchanged.
Submit: Saves the checklist and the Pass or Fail status, approves the notification, and sets the learning assignment to complete.

What happens if an observer cancels the notification depends on whether the checklist is setup with a single or multiple observers.

Single observer: Cancel closes the notification, but leaves it assigned to the observer.
Multiple observers: Cancel negates the current observation attempt and unassigns the current observer from the observer checklist activity. It also releases the notification and activity back to the pool of observers.

Learning Assignment Actions and Result

Learning administrators can reset self-assess checklist activities from their learning assignments. Doing so resets both the self-assess checklist and the related observer checklist. It also withdraws the current observer checklist notification.

Observers can also reset observer checklist activities from the learning assignments. Doing so resets both the self-assess checklist and the related observer checklist. It also withdraws the current observer notification and sends a new observer checklist notification to all observers. And observers can change the completion status, which also withdraws the current observer notification, regardless of what status they select.

Transaction Console Actions and Results

People with the appropriate permissions can use Tools > Transaction Console to withdraw, reassign, resubmit, and approve or reject the observation checklist activity. Here’s what happens with each of those actions:

Terminate Process or Withdraw: Removes all notifications, removes any claimed observer from the learning assignment, and clears the pool of observers. Afterwards, a learning administrator needs to manually clean up the learning assignment using the Manage Activities or Withdraw action and then reassign the learning.
'Reassign: Routes the observer checklist notification to the newly assigned observer after removing the observer, if any, who already claimed the activity. If the newly assigned observer isn’t in the pool of observers and if reassignment isn’t allowed, the original observer is notified that the reassignment failed. The observer checklist activity isn’t reassigned to the new observer until they launch the activity, and they pass validations.
Resubmit: Runs the observer checklist activity notification process again. Learning administrators can resubmit only terminated or stuck observer checklist activities.
Approve or Reject: Marks the observer checklist activity notification as either approved or rejected. To update the learning assignment, the person needs to click the link in the notification. Only when the person using Transaction Console is also the assigned observer will they see these actions.