Using item templates for training injects

When conducting training exercises, it is often useful to prepare a series of items such as situation reports, messages, requests and cases, and then inject them at key points in the simulation.

Crisisworks now supports this aim, by utilising global events and the copy feature.

Prepare your training injects

Step 1

When preparing for your training exercise, you can start by creating an event for that preparation to store the injects. This event will not be the event that is used for the exercise itself — it will instead store the training injects and can be re-used many times. 

As an administrator:

1. Expand the Event Selector and click "New Event"
2. Create an event that matches the positions you require for the training exercise, and set the Severity to "Test"
3. select "Configure advanced options" then press next 2 times, and remove the extra positions that you don't want to see the injects, you may keep them for only a few key positions
   1. this will ensure that no one else see the records
4. Save and go on duty to this event

Step 2

Next, you can add the messages as required, and assign them to the positions as required. Before saving, set the Is Template flag, which can be found in the Advanced section of the form.

Step 3

Finally, convert this event to a global event, to make it easier to access the templates when working within other events.

1. Click the event's name in the Event Selector to view the event summary
2. Click Edit to edit the event's details
3. Check the checkbox labelled Global Event and click Save 

Tip: This event doesn't just need to store the training injects — you can also use the Library area to store the exercise plans and other data.

Injecting a message from a template during training

Step 1

Before you start your exercise, you will begin by creating a new event, adding in the required positions. 

Step 2

When the exercise starts, log in and go on duty to the exercise event, and be sure to work within the exercise event and not "All Participating Events"

Step 3

When you wish to inject a template item, follow these steps:

1. For any register containing a template item, you will see a counter in the left-hand sidebar labelled "Templates". Click this to show your templates.
2. Next select the template you wish to inject by placing a check into the selection checkbox. You will see a button appear at the bottom of the datagrid saying "Copy".
3. Click Copy to copy the template item to a new draft item in the current event. When the copy has completed, a message will provide a link to that new item. It will also appear in the Drafts counter.
4. Edit the newly created item if needed, change the status from Draft to another status (e.g. Published, Requested — status codes vary based on the item being edited), and click Save.

Finalising the exercise

At the conclusion of your exercise you will close the exercise event. 

You can choose whether or not to keep the training templates available for other events — if you do then keep the global event open, otherwise close it. You can always re-open it later to use it for another training exercise.