The settings in a Workflow control the "flow" of the Event, the reports ultimately generated from it, and how it is used within the Evaluations Tool and by other modules in the Genesis Staff Management System.

Piece Parts

The "Modify Workflow" screen shown below contains various sections controlling different aspects of the Workflow. The illustration below highlights the sections of the Workflow. These are explained in additional sections below.

 Workflow "Components" or phases. Control what it consists of.Alternate color codingReport generation information. What is displayed where, when.Administrative & usage information (Name, Tag, etc). 

The Workflow definition controls which parts of an "Evaluation Event" are active and are included in the Evaluation Event display in the Employee Portal. The Observer's view in the portal:

Name of controlling Workflow

These elements of the Workflow definition will be described in a "bottom up" fashion beginning with the Workflow components:

Workflow "Demographics" - Identification & Control Information

Workflow Name and Usage

• Name - Name or title of the Workflow.
• Seq - Sequence # for the Workflow.  This simply controls the Workflow's position in any list of Workflows.  Workflow lists are sorted by the Sequence #.
• Enabled - Controls whether the Workflow is active and will appear in a list of Workflows.  Inactive Workflows only appear on the Workflow screen itself.
• Event Name/Categorizer:  None, Observation, ... 
  • Summative for - If "Summative" is selected as the Categorizer, then the Evaluation Category must be selected here.
  • PDP Plan Type- If this is Professional Development Plan, the plan type should be selected here.  This is generally no longer used.
• Tag - This is only used for complex, specialized Practice Score calculations.  Typically it can be ignored.
• Do NOT include observation from this workflow in practice score calculations
• Workflow Type - This is the "Type" of the Workflow.  Workflow types are not hardwired but defined in the WORKFLOW_TYPES Codes Table.
• Type of Staff

Workflow "Components"

An Evaluation "Event" can be a simple meeting, or it can be composed of a set of "components" that all, taken together, compose the single full "event", such as a teacher observation which may consist of a "pre-conference", the observation itself, followed by a "post-conference", and including possibly the teacher filling in a form ("reflection") or self-scoring the rubric ("self-assessment"), and possibly including a "document log" (where various items can be collected as documentation), a "Notes" section where real-time (or remembered) notes can be collected, and finally, including a sign-off by one or both parties.   The "Components" section of the Workflow allows choices to be made on which of these to be included and how to configure them.

Workflow "Components" are controlled by the items in the large "Components" section of the "Modify Workflow" screen:

The Component section is divided into four columns of information:

• The "Component" description itself, including, for some piece parts a checkbox determining if they should be included or not.
• A "Usage" column indicating whether to include the component and how it is supposed to take place (e.g. face to face, remotely, etc).
• A "Conference Form" selector, where appropriate.  This chooses the Conference Form to use for / during the Component.  Conference Forms are typed by usage and each drop down includes only the Conference Forms of the corresponding type.  For example, the Conference Form drop down for "Pre-Conferences" will contain only Conference Forms flagged as "Pre-Conference" Conference Forms, etc.   In addition, in the Conference Form column, there may be flags indicating how the selected form is to be displayed and submitted.
• An "Options" section which contains any additional parameters relevant to the component.

Pre-Conference

"Pre-Conference" is something that occurs before the actual "observation", "evaluation" or "meeting" itself. For teacher observations, it generally means a meeting or short conference held before an in-class observation is done on the teacher.

Observation

"Observation" is the really the wrong word for this component. It is really the "main part of the Evaluation Event".  This component specifies main phase of the Evaluation Event controlled by the Workflow. If the Evaluation Event is to produce a score (i.e. a numeric result), this is the "scoring" phase where the result will be collected or generated.  If the Workflow describes a "teacher observation", the "Observation" component describes whether a rubric will be used to evaluate the teacher's performance in the classroom. If only a form will be used, then the Observation component will specify which form is to be used (in lieu of a rubric). Or perhaps there will be both a rubric and a form.   If the Workflow controls only a simple meeting, then this section is the "meeting" (rather than the Observation).  If a rubric is to be used, the Observation section specifies which parts of the rubric are to be included and how the overall score is to be generated.
 In addition, the Observation section specifies whether "evidentiary" Notes will be captured and, if so, in what format.

Teacher Reflection

The word "Teacher" is superfluous here. The "Reflection" step indicates whether the "Observee" (the staff member who is being evaluated/observed) will fill out a form as part of this "Event". "Reflection" and "Self-Assessment" are essentially similar. In "Reflection" the staff member fills out a form. In Self-Assessment, the staff member scores themself using the rubric specified in the "Observation" section above.

Self-Assessment

Will the staff member being observed/evaluated self-score themself on the rubric specified in the Observation section described above? If no rubric is specified in the Observation section, then "self-assessment" cannot take place.

Note Capture

Post Conference

Does this Observation/Event include a "post-conference" phase? Either a meeting, or a form-fill? Whether or not a post-conference phase is to be included and what it will consist of is controlled by this component.

Sign-Off

The "sign-off" section specifies how the Workflow will be finished. Is anyone required to signoff? Just the observer? Both the observer and the observed?

Document Log

The Document Log section specifies whether the Workflow includes a document log ("artifact log") and includes the interface with the Document Management system.

Summative

If this Workflow describes a "Final Year End Summative Meeting/Readout" then this section is used to specify how to generate the "Final Practice Score" for the entire school year. For example, if the Workflow applies to teachers who have been observed multiple times over the year, this will specify how to combine the multiple observation scores into a final year end score.

If the Workflow is not a "summative", then this section is ignored.

Color Scheme

  The color scheme section allows the default color for the Workflow type to be overridden with manually chosen background and text colors, and allows the description ("Observation") to be replaced with custom description.

Report Generation Information

 This section describes what the report output of the Workflow will be and what the observer and the Observee will see when they bring up the "observation" report.

There are two principal options for the 'formal' report output of a Workflow: 

• One of the built-in "observation reports"
• A PDF Form – basically a custom designed report added to the system by the local district (you).

 One or the other of these options must be selected, but not both.

Built-In Observation Reports

The Observation Report drop down contains the list of built-in "Variation" reports, along with specialized summative reports and report packages that are built-in to the system:

Most of the "Variation Reports" also have a set of options. When an Observation Report has additional options, a "Report Options" button appears:

 Clicking the button brings up a popup which lists the various options for the selected Observation Report. For example, for the "Variation 2" report, the options popup includes:

 All told, there are almost 200 different variations of the "Observation Report". There is a document describing these available on the School Fi Wiki.

Rubric Display Options

The printable PDF version of the rubric selected in the "Observation" component of the Workflow can be tailored, and can be tailored differently for the Observer and for the Observed. The Rubric Display controls are part of the 'report' section:

• The rubric itself
• Cell/row attributes that have been selected
• Cell/row attributes that were not selected
• Evidentiary Notes attached to the rubric and Commentary Notes added to the rubric
• Signatures of the observer and the observee, if these exist.

An option is also provided to allow the Observer to be given the option of printing a blank copy of the rubric.

Administrative and Usage Information

 The "Administrative and Usage Information" section of the Workflow definition

Basic Information

• Name of the Workflow
• Who it applies to ("Type of Staff")
• Where it appears in the list of Workflows ("Seq")
• "Tag" allowing Workflow to be identified to the ReportWriter and to the summative practice score calculation tools.
• Whether this Workflow described "regular" Events (i.e. observations and evaluations) or a:

• Summative, year-end readout
• Administrative Leadership evaluation (the separate NJ SMART Evaluation "leadership" score required for Administrators)
• A professional development or corrective action plan

Information Relating to the Operation of the Workflow

• Whether email should be sent
• Whether the Observation/Meeting, … is announced or unannounced
• If and when to show the Events generated from this Workflow to the staff member being observed or evaluated
• Whether to include a separate "information" screen that optionally asks for

• Subject being covered
• Grade level of students
• Name of supervisor of the person being observed or evaluated