How to get started with Catapult

Are you a new or existing RTO interested in leveraging the expansive Catapult catalogue of resources? Do you want an intuitive and aesthetic LMS for your learners and assessors to use? This article is intended to be a one-stop-shop for everything you need to consider when signing up with Catapult, from the very beginning of your interest through to your first learner enrolments.

You may prefer to watch our video on this, which can be found at the link below, but for those who prefer reading an article, let's begin!

<webinar link goes here>

Step One: Request Access to Catapult LMS

Before you create an account with us, you may want to see a demonstration of the Catapult LMS in action. If you'd like a guided tour by one of our Sales Team, please feel free to submit a request using the website link below. The Sales Team will reach out to you to arrange an online demonstration of the Catapult LMS, and address any queries you may have.

https://catapultlearning.com.au/demo-request/

Following that (or skipping it entirely if you don't need a demo), you will need to submit an account application using the website link below. You'll be asked to provide details about your business and provide some contact information.

https://catapultlearning.com.au/account-application/

Once submitted, the Accounts Team will process your order and authorise a free Catapult LMS account to be created for you. This usually happens within a couple of business hours, after which the Support Team will reach out to you with details on how to proceed.

If you're planning on integrating your Catapult LMS with an external system (like Moodle, Vasto, Canvas, aXcelerate, etc) then please indicate this in the Notes panel of the account application. Note that Student Management Systems in particular are key to the running and management of an RTO and so we definitely recommend investigating whether your Student Management System of choice can integrate with Catapult via API. Allowing your Student Management System to directly manage enrolments in Catapult and extract completion reports will greatly reduce the amount of manual administration needing to be performed by your team.

Step Two: Finalise your Catapult LMS Setup

When your account has been created, you will receive an automated email that will help you to confirm your username, set a password, and then log in to the Catapult LMS. The automated email will look similar to the below screenshot;

Separately, the Support Team will send you an email recommending that you implement Sender Authentication if you're using a custom sender address for system notifications. Also, if you've indicated interest in any integration options (LTI and/or API) then they'll provide the relevant agreement documents, to be signed and returned via email. The Support Team will then provide you with the integration keys and all of the necessary documentation and assistance to finalise the integration(s).

We also recommend logging into your system and reviewing your organisation's Branding Settings. To do this, click Administration > Organisation settings on the top menu bar, followed by the edit icon on the following page...

... followed by the Branding option on the side navigation menu;

This page will allow you to upload logos and login page images, choose a system style, and further tweak the appearance of your Catapult LMS.

Step Three: Create user profiles for your staff

Now that you've finalised the initial Catapult LMS setup, it's time to start allocating access to your users. But before you do so, it's important to consider what level of access they'll need.

There are three default levels of access in Catapult LMS (also knows as "user types" or "roles"). These are, in order of descending importance/system access;

1. Administrators. These users are responsible for creating and enrolling users, running reports, reviewing custom resources, and assorted other tasks. They can see all users in your system and they have the ability to log in as other users.
2. Trainers. These users are responsible for assessing the submissions of learners. They can only see learners and enrolments they are specifically assigned.
3. Learners. These users are allocated enrolments by Admin users and submit assessments to their assigned trainer(s). They cannot see any other learners, and can only see trainers assigned to their enrolments.

So, the first thing to consider is who among your staff require what levels of access. For example, assessors may not necessarily need Admin-level access - for example, this will allow them to see the financial records associated with your system. Similarly, there's no need to assign trainer-level access to your admin staff if they're not ever going to actually mark learners.

We recommend starting by creating whoever needs Admin access as an Admin user. Click Users > Admins on the top menu bar, followed by the Add new user button. You'll need to provide their first name, last name, and email address. You'll also need to specify a username for them - this can be the same as their email address, or something different if you'd like.

Next, do the same for allocating Trainer access. You can create new Trainer users by clicking Users > Trainers as shown before. If you want to allocate Trainer access to someone who you've already made as an Admin, you'll need to edit their existing Profile and then tick on the Trainer option inside the Roles panel.

Lastly, if there's anyone in particular who needs to be able to review units from the learner's point of view, use this method to also allocate Learner access to them. We recommend allocating Learner access to at least one Admin user in your system.

Now, you may want to perform a test enrolment, to see how enrolling learners works in Catapult. You can do this by navigating to the Enrolments page, and then clicking the Add new enrolment sheet button. You can use this functionality to reference whoever has Learner access, and also specify what unit(s) you'd like to enrol them into. Note that we have a number of "Example" units that are free to enrol into for this purpose.

At this point, we'd recommend updating your external documentation to reference Catapult processes. For example, if you have a self-service knowledge base, you may want to provide directions for learners on how to activate their Catapult logins, or give Admin users tips on how to enrol learners, etc. This is especially relevant if you're integrating Catapult with an external system - your administrators and support staff will thank you!

Step Four: Reviewing the Catapult resources

You are now ready to begin reviewing the Catapult resources in depth. You can access our Catalogue via the top menu bar to see an up-to-date list on all of the training resources we have available. This list can also be viewed on our website. In the event that you cannot find a specific unit, feel free to reach out to the Support team, they'll check whether it is on our development schedule.

In preparation for your training plan and internal documentation needs, perform "test" enrolments into each of the units you're planning on using. This article provides details on the process, but it's basically the same as the "Example" enrolment you did earlier. Once the enrolments have been completed, you can view the entire content of each unit by clicking on the corresponding unit code.

When you're done reviewing each unit, we recommend that you delete the unit by clicking the More button under the Action column followed by the Delete option. If you do this within seven days of creating the enrolment, you'll automatically get a credit for the cost of the enrolment (provided that no answers have been saved into the assessment tools via the Learner Portal).

Note that if you prefer to review our resources in hard copy, you are welcome to purchase printed resources from us. We print to order and then arrange shipping to your location. You can place hard copy orders via our website, or by emailing orders@learntgroup.com.au. Note that we recommend purchasing Trainer Guides when reviewing units.

Step Five: Consider contextualisation

Following your reviews, if you have determined that some changes need to be made, there are a couple of options for doing so;

1. We can make those specific changes on your behalf by leveraging our customisation service. Simply provide detail of the exact changes that you want made to our Support Team and we'll arrange for a no obligation quote to be provided.
2. Our Edify product allows editors to directly contextualise the assessment portions of our resources via an online editing platform. Reach out to our Sales Team for any queries relating to the use of Edify - they'll discuss what's involved and arrange for training separately.

Regardless of which method you go with, your customised resources will end up in the Library, under the Administration tab. This is where you'll go to review resources that are pending your approval, and can peruse them after publishing. Customised resources will be used in place of standard Catalogue versions where available, and if a custom version has been used for an enrolment a Library icon will be shown to the side of the unit's code to denote this. 

Step Six: Finalise system configuration

Consider customising the automated notification templates that Catapult uses to email users - the complete list of all editable notification templates can be found in a Word document attached to this article. One specific example we can recommend is that you may want to edit the "Student Welcome/Activation" template to include our Learner How-To Video Guides. Simply make whatever changes you'd like to the Word document and then send it to the Support Team to implement on your behalf.

Also give some thought to optional workflows you may want to use on an ongoing basis, such as applying Due Dates to enrolments or using Start Dates to prevent enrolments from appearing until a certain date.

Lastly, we recommend that you review the contents of the Optional System Features section of our Knowledge Base, to see if any of these offerings will support your workflows.

Once done, save a link to your Catapult LMS and our Knowledge Base in your internet browser. Also, note down our contact methods (see below) and ensure your staff have access to these as well.

• Support Team phone line: (08) 8275 9333
• Support Team email address: support@catapult-elearning.com
• Hard copy orders and enquiries: orders@learntgroup.com.au
• Finance and invoice enquiries: finance@learntgroup.com.au

Step Seven: Start enrolling learners

When you are ready, perform your first learner enrolments! You've already done some example and review enrolments, this is exactly the same but with real learners. We recommend using the New Enrolment Sheet, as this method allows you to easily create learners and enrol them at the same time. When you finalise an enrolment process for a learner, they'll be automatically emailed with all of the details necessary to begin their learning.

Note that there are no up-front payments needed to make use of Catapult LMS. We send monthly invoices to the finance contact address listed on your account application form, so individual Admin users do not need to provide credit card details or anything similar. You can review all financial transactions in your system by clicking Administration > Reports.