If you've come here from Part 1 you'll already be in Admin > Observations. If not make sure to head there now if you're following along.
Creating your form
- From the sub-menu under Observations select Observation Forms. In the top right corner, select Create Form.
- First, you need to name your form. This is seen by users when selecting which form to use, so make sure its purpose or content is clear.
- Next, you need to decide which system fields you'd like to include or exclude and decide on the format of the content your form will have. You can override Section Scores and Comments later if you need to.
- Every form and record will by default have a Focus (title) field. This cannot be hidden and provides a universal field on all forms and records (it also acts as the entry point for the record around the system).
As you build your form you can use the Preview option at any time without publishing your form.
- Once you have made your selections and chosen your scale (if applicable) then press Save.
- Now you can use the View preview option to see your form's starting content.
- Click the form's Name to enter the section builder.
- In the top right-hand corner select Create Section.
- Here you add the section title and any description or instructional content you might need.
- When you created your form, you decided whether it would have Scores and Comments. At each section, you can override this and turn it off or on depending on your original form settings.
- Press Save when you've completed the desired fields.
- Simply repeat this process until you have built all of your form's sections. At this point, you can also head back to your forms index and preview the form and check if you need to make any amendments or position changes.
- Once there are two or more sections the position switches will appear enabling you to move sections up or down as required.
- Depending on your forms content, you can also create statements for selection, these can be linked to your scale scores or created with no score. To create these click on the relevant section and you'll find Section Statements.
- Select Create Statement in the top right-hand corner.
- Simply decide whether they are linked to a score or not, enter the statement into the text field and press Save. You can then repeat this for each score, create multiple per score or save them all with no score.
- These are commonly used to provide context when individuals are choosing a score or provide a fixed set of statements that support the score selection. You could also make two simple options such as Strength and Development Need if you want users to be able to flag certain sections for example.
Here is the form we've created so far so you can see the selection choices, format options and the difference between Sections and Statements.
Additional Form Options
There is an option when creating a form labelled Areas for Audit (Observation Areas). Whether you have a single form for multiple purposes or multiple forms, you can use Observation Areas to apply;
- Context - Appraisal, NQT, Non-Teaching Staff
- Content tags - Behaviour Management, Punctuality
- Action triggers - "Development need identified"
Then simply choose which forms will include them or not. Once areas have been created they are all visible or not, you cannot assign individual areas to individual forms.
- Select Observation Areas from the Observations sub-menu on the left.
- Select Add new observation area in the top right-hand corner.
- Type or paste your text into the name field and press Save.
- Simply repeat for any areas you wish to create.
By default, it will also supply you with a comment box for the areas should further context be required. In this example, perhaps they would specify what the development need was and signpost the individual to an upcoming CPD event or suggest working with a peer.
All done?
Now you've set up your form, reviewed it and are happy with it you need to publish it so it's visible to users. Depending on where you are you may be able to press 'Back to observation forms' however, to jump back quickly simply select Observation Forms from the expanded sub-menu on the left.
Check the box beneath Published? and that's it!
Now when an individual goes to create an observation or self-observation your form will be available to select.