Building Standards

A Learning Management System for the Building Standards Profession

January 17, 2024 by Simon Moore No Comments | Category Building Standards, Competence, Workforce

A guest blog by James Whiteford, a Director at the Building Standards Hub

Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS), with support from the Building Standards Hub (BSH) Pilot, are currently developing a Learning Management System (LMS) which supports training through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This system, grant funded by Building Standards Division (BSD), is being built on Learning Pool’s online learning platform and will deliver and support training for all local authority building standards surveyors, support staff and technicians.

The platform accommodates digital learning in varying formats, from our own in-house developed training material to interactive video presentations. It allows users to enrol on courses, track and test their progress and keep a record of what they have completed. Required training can also be set for specific roles within the building standards service.

Managers and administrators will also have the ability to track the training progress and attainment of their staff through the reporting tools that the platform can support. These reports can be set up to demonstrate learning at a regional, consortium and national level, or indeed be configured to suit other groups.

Development to date has established the configured LMS platform supporting learning categories and around 30 training programs, some of these being created as ‘test’ courses to aid development and support testing of the platform. User acceptance testing (UAT) of the platform and courses was undertaken in September and October last year, with testers providing positive feedback on the platform, its usability and the material provided. Enhancements identified through the testing process is being addressed.

The next phase of the platform development is to advance the work on the reporting tools, review the full suite of learning material available to LABSS to start populating the learning catalogue, and progress programmes 1 and 2 in the development of interactive e-learning.

In relation to the interactive video material currently being developed by LABSS and the BSH Pilot, the programmes are as follows:

Programme 1:

• Module 1 – Introduction to the Building Standards System in Scotland.
• Module 2 – The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
• Module 3 – Regulations 3 & 5 – Works to which regulations do not apply and works which do not require a building warrant.
• Module 4 – The Building (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
• Module 5 – Regulation 9 – An Introduction to the Standards.

Programme 2:

• Module 1 – What is an external wall cladding system.
• Module 2 – Understanding reaction to fire classification.
• Module 3 – The risk of fire spread on external walls.
• Module 4 – Bringing it all together.

The LMS will be vested in the permanently established BSH with funding to support the platform and enable on-going development of further training material.

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