Written exams and hands-on evaluations.
Two ways to find out whether the training took: a written exam the member sits on their own, and a hands-on evaluation an experienced member signs off in person. A course can require either, both, or neither — and where it requires them, nothing is marked complete until they're passed.
The question bank
Questions live in your organization's own bank, each worth the points you give it. Pull them into an exam, set what passing means, and attach the exam to a course. The same question can serve an initial certification and an annual refresher without being rewritten.
| Question | Type | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum square footage per person in a general population shelter | Single choice | 1 |
| Which of these require an ADA accommodation review? | Multiple choice | 2 |
| A shelter manager may release a minor to any adult who asks. | True / false | 1 |
| Name the three items recorded on every intake card. | Write-in | 3 |
| Label the controls on the shelter's handheld. | Diagram label | 5 |
An exam under construction. Illustrative questions.
Five kinds of question
- Single choice — one right answer out of several.
- Multiple choice — more than one right answer, and the member has to find all of them.
- True / false — for policy statements with one correct reading.
- Write-in — typed short answer, where a list would give it away.
- Diagram label — name the parts on your own photo or schematic.
Or start from the lesson
Point the question generator at the lessons you just wrote and it drafts questions from that material, with answers and explanations, for you to edit. Nothing reaches a member unreviewed.
Sitting the exam
Members can retake an exam as many times as they need, every attempt is on the record, and the result page goes back through what they got wrong and why. The exam is there to train a responder rather than to filter one out.
Which of these require an ADA accommodation review before a client is assigned a cot?
2 ptsTaking the exam, on a phone or a laptop.
A shelter manager may release a minor to any adult who asks.
0 / 1The result page, shown on a pass or a fail.
What's recorded
- Every attempt, with its date and score, rather than only the best one. A member who passed on the fourth try shows as that, which is what an auditor asks for and a signal that a lesson may not be landing.
- The answers themselves. Which option the member picked on each question, so a disputed result can be looked at rather than argued about.
- The passing attempt closes the requirement. If the exam was the last thing outstanding, the completion and any qualification it earns are recorded at that point.
What you configure
- What passing means. A percentage, a point total, or no threshold at all, which makes a self-check exam that scores but never blocks.
- What's worth more. Points are per-question, so the one about releasing a minor can be worth five times the one about square footage.
- What they can look at. Flag the chapters that stay open during the exam, where finding the answer in the SOP is the skill being tested.
Diagram questions on your own equipment
Upload your own photo or schematic — the radio your team carries, your apparatus panel, your shelter floor plan — drop pins on the parts that matter, and members drag the right name onto each one.
A diagram question in progress, pinned on the handset the org carries.
The same diagram can teach first
Put a labelled diagram in a lesson chapter as reference material, then ask for it unlabelled on the exam, so the member learns on the same image they're tested on.
Its own point value
A diagram question carries a point value like any other, so a five-pin panel can be worth more than a true/false about paperwork.
Skills signed off in person
Tie a knot, don the SCBA, run the net, set the shelter's registration table. A course can require a hands-on evaluation, performed in person by a member you've designated as an evaluator for that course, and recorded on the spot from their phone.
- Sets up the registration table unprompted, in the correct order
- Completes an intake card correctly, including the release-authority line
- Identifies a functional-needs client and escalates appropriately
- Briefs an incoming shift using the shelter log
The evaluation sheet, filled in at the table.
What makes the record defensible
- Only designated evaluators can sign off. You name who is qualified to evaluate each course; the evaluator list is separate from the admin role.
- The checklist belongs to the course. Every evaluator works from the same ordered criteria, so “passed” means the same thing in February as it does in September.
- Three outcomes, not two. Needs improvement covers the common field result — close, come back Saturday — without recording a failure on someone's file. Notes are required for anything that isn't a pass.
- The attempts are kept. Prior evaluations, their outcomes, their evaluators, and their notes stay on the record, so the file answers how somebody was trained and not only that they eventually passed.
An exam and an evaluation prove different things
A written exam shows somebody knows the procedure; a practical shows they can perform it under an evaluator's eye. Neither substitutes for the other, so a course can require both and passing one does not satisfy the other.
When the last requirement is met, whichever it is, the completion is recorded and any qualification it earns is awarded at the same time. See what happens next.
Bring the test you already give.
Send us an exam or a skills checklist your program uses today and we'll build it out on the call, including a diagram question on a photo of your own equipment.
Pick a time that suits you, or email us about exams & evaluations.