Prerequisites: This block may need to be enabled on your site. If it is not visible in the Add a Block list simply contact the Support Team and ask for it to be enabled.
Summary:The Appraisal Report Card Block requires the Appraisal Report Card enhancements to be installed. Click here to read more. Any Appraisals referenced by the functions of this Appraisal Report Card Block should have a report card defined in its appraisal settings.
As the name implies, the Appraisal Report Card block is designed to allow for aggregations of appraisal report cards produced by the Appraisal Report Card enhancement. The block allows a site manager to create one or more templates. Indicating which report card (defined within appraisals) will be displayed for each, and then adding in additional text, images etc. as desired.
The target audience for this block will be users who have direct and indirect reports. The “manager" will be presented with a list of users that report to him/her (both direct and indirect reports), and then the manager can select which report card template will be used to generate PDF Appraisal Report Cards that can be sent out via email.
Specifying an Auditor
The Appraisal Report Card Block has the ability to automatically send all generated Appraisal Report Cards to a specific email address. This will need to be configured for you by Learning Pool Support. If this hasn't been configured yet, please contact support@learningpool.com.
Configuring the block
Once you've added the block to a dashboard, click Configure Appraisal report card block to access the configuration page.
Custom block settings section
The main function of the Appraisal Report Card Block is to send one or more Appraisal Report Cards out via email. You can configure those emails here:
- Subject for Report Card emails: Enter the desired subject line for the email.
- Email text: Enter the desired text that will be included in the body of the email.
- Copy sending User: Select “Yes” if the manager sending the Appraisal Report Card report should also receive a copy of the email that is generated.
- Copy manager of the learner: Select “Yes” if the manager(s) of the selected learners should also receive a copy of the email that is generated.
The settings in the example above would result in an email that looks like this:
Extra fields on block section
The Appraisal Report Card Block offers a manager a list of all users who report to them. There may be times when additional profile information will help a manager in determining who should be selected to be included when generating/sending the Appraisal Report Card email. Additional User Profiles can be enabled to appear in the Appraisal Report Card direct/indirect report table.
There are six User Profile field-x settings options. Each has a drop-down that offers all of the User Profile fields that are available for inclusion in the Appraisal Report Card Block direct/indirect report table. Note that a profile field should appear here if it is a text-based field. As such, both standard and custom text-based profile fields should be eligible for selection.
For example, the configuration shown above would be reflected in the Appraisal Report Card Block as follows:
Managing report card templates
Before managers can utilize the Appraisal Report Card Block, a Site Manager must create one or more “report card templates” that the managers can select as the format that will be applied to the report card report(s) that will be sent out.
To do so, the site manager should navigate to the Dashboard on which the Appraisal Report Card Block is located and select the Manage report cards link. This will open the Manage Report Cards page.
The Mange Report Cards page will display a table of the Appraisal Report Card report templates that have been created. Each of which will have an associated Edit () and Delete (
) action icon.
To modify an existing Report Card template, either select the name of the template or it’s associated Edit () action icon. Or to create a new Report Card template, select Create Report Card. In either case, the available fields for the Report Card template are as follows:
- Report card name: The text entered here will be the name/label of the template and will appear in the drop-down list of available Report Card templates that a manager will choose from when using the Appraisal Report Card Block.
- Report card text: This is where the template itself is defined. This field is a standard HTML text editor field, and as such, text can be formatted/styled as desired and images and hyperlinks can be included.
The Report card text field also accepts a number of placeholders that can pull relevant information into the Report Card when generated and sent out. This allows templates to be created that have a high level of personalization for the recipient. See the following examples for the format:
| Placeholder | Description |
| {{user_firstname}} | First name of the user |
| {{user_lastname}} | The last name of the user |
| {{user_city}} | The user's city |
| {{user_standardprofilefieldshortname}} | Most standard user profile fields are available to be included using this format |
| {{user_custom_shortname}} | Custom profile fields can be included by using this format |
In addition, there are report specific placeholders that can be utilized.
| Placeholder | Description |
| {{report_pagebreak}} | A page break would be inserted here - this only displays on the pdf version |
| {{report_date}} | The current date that the report is being run |
| {{appraisal_reportcard_appraisalname}} | This will insert the report card from the appraisalname in this spot. This is required for the report card data to appear in the report. |
So an example of a Report Card template could be:
Using the above configuration, an example of the PDF Report Card report would look like this:
The remainder of the document (From “Well done Johnny…” and below) would be the Report Card as designed in the Appraisal itself.
Using the appraisal report card block
Once one or more report card templates have been created by a Site Manager, then users who have direct/indirect reports (henceforth referred to as “managers”) should be able see a table of those direct/indirect reports when accessing a Dashboard or page containing the Appraisal Report Card Block.
The steps for generating and sending out the Appraisal Report Card are as follows:
- The manager should activate the checkbox next to any direct/indirect report that should have their Appraisal Report Card generated and sent to them
- Next, use the Select the report card drop-down to choose the desired template/format to use
- Next, use the Report card actions drop-down to select one of the following options:
- “Email report cards to students”
- “Students” in this case are the direct/indirect reports themselves.
- “Email report cards to the manager”
- “Manager” in this case is the manager using the Appraisal Report Card Block. Meaning the manager is asking that the reports be sent to him/her.
- “Email report cards to third party”
- Selecting this option enables the Email field so that the third party’s email address can be specified.
- “View the report cards on the screen”
- “Email report cards to students”
- Once the desired operation is configured, select Generate report cards to execute the process. This will produce a page indicating what has just taken place.
Based on the configuration above, we would expect that the Appraisal Report Cards for both direct/indirect reports would be sent to the third party email address specified. The example shown to the right is how it would then be received by that third party.
A log record is created for each email sent by the Appraisal Report Card Block, and will appear as follows: