Glossary

To manage your RTO effectively, it is essential to understand the specific terminology used within the Nimbu platform. This glossary ensures that Administrators, Editors, and Trainers are all using the same definitions when discussing curriculum structure, compliance, and student outcomes.

What's Covered in This Article

This article provides clear definitions for the key terms used throughout the Nimbu ecosystem:

Structural Terms: The hierarchy of Courses, Units, Classes, and organisational components
Assessment & Activity Terms: The different ways students demonstrate competency
Learning Resource Terms: Educational materials that support student learning
Compliance Terms: Regulatory labels and reporting standards for RTO
Delivery Model Terms: Different approaches to course delivery
System Status Terms: The "life-states" of content and classes
Enrolment & Unit Status Terms: Student progress indicators at the unit level
Assessment & Observation Results: Marks assigned to individual activities
Content Activation Terms: Controls for when students can access assessments
Additional Terms: Common processes and question types in marking workflows

Structural Definitions

Course: The master "blueprint" or template that defines the overall training program, including its units and assessment rules. A course contains one or more units and defines the learning pathway for students.
Unit: The individual building blocks of a course, usually representing a specific competency or subject area. Units contain learning resources, assessments, and observations that students must complete.
Unit Section: An organisational container within a unit that groups related content together (e.g., "Learning Resources," "Assessment Tasks"). Sections help structure the learning journey and can have prerequisites applied to control when students access them.
Cluster Unit: A grouping of related units bundled together for delivery purposes, allowing trainers to teach multiple related competencies as a cohesive learning block.
Elective: Optional units within a course that students can choose from to meet course requirements, as opposed to core/mandatory units that all students must complete.
Class: A specific, live instance of a course assigned to a trainer and a group of students for a set date range. Classes are where actual teaching and learning occur.
Enrolment: The act of linking a student record to a specific Class instance to allow them to begin training. Once enrolled, students can access the units and content within that class.
Content: A general term encompassing all learning resources, assessments, and observations contained within a unit.
Unit Versioning: The system's ability to maintain draft and published versions of a unit simultaneously. Changes made to published units are saved as draft versions and only applied to new classes when republished, protecting existing student progress.

Assessment & Activity Terms

Assessment: A knowledge-based task or exam that students must complete to prove their understanding. Assessments require trainer marking and contribute to unit completion.
Observation: A practical task where a Trainer must personally witness and record a student's performance of a skill. Observations can be:
- Trainer Observation: Completed entirely by the trainer (checklist-based)
- Student Observation: Requires student submission followed by trainer review and marking
Quiz: A self-contained, auto-marked learning resource used to check knowledge and reinforce learning. Quizzes typically feature multiple-choice, true/false, or selection questions. Unlike assessments, quizzes are learning tools and may not require completion for unit progression unless specifically marked as "completion required."

Learning Resource Terms

Learning Resource: Educational materials provided to students to support their learning. These include:

PDF: Document-based resources
Video: Multimedia learning content
Podcast: Audio learning content
Article: Text-based learning materials
Canva: Interactive design-based content
SCORM: Standards-compliant e-learning packages
Quiz: Auto-marked knowledge checks
External Content: Links to LTI learning resources

Completion Required: A setting applied to learning resources indicating students must complete them before progressing. Assessments and observations are always "completion required," while other learning resources can be optionally marked as such by content editors.

RTO & Compliance Terms

Accredited: Training that adheres to rigorous national standards and leads to nationally endorsed credentials. Accredited training requires a National Code (e.g., qualification or unit codes from training.gov.au).
Non-Accredited: Tailored training for specific purposes (like workplace inductions or skill-specific workshops) that does not provide formal national accreditation. Does not require National Codes but uses internal codes instead.
AVETMISS: The national data standard (Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard) used for regulatory reporting. RTOs must submit AVETMISS-compliant data to government bodies.
National Code: Official identifiers assigned by the national training register (training.gov.au) to accredited qualifications and units of competency.
Internal Code: Organisation-specific identifiers used for non-accredited training content created by the RTO.

Delivery Model Terms

Trainer-Led: A course delivery model where a trainer actively manages and facilitates the learning experience through classes. Trainers control content activation, marking, and student progression.
Self-Serve: A course delivery model where students independently access and complete content without direct trainer supervision. Students progress at their own pace, and the system automatically handles content availability and marking where possible.
Microsite: A standalone, publicly accessible website generated for a specific course, allowing external users (non-enrolled students) to browse course information and potentially enrol.

Status & Result Terms

System Statuses

Draft: A work-in-progress state where content can be freely edited before being made live.
Published: The live state of a unit or course; structural changes are locked once published to protect data integrity.
Inactive (IA): A state where content is locked from student access until a Trainer manually activates it.

Result & Progress Terms

In Progress (IP): Indicates a student has started but not yet completed a unit or task.
Competent (C): A final result indicating a student has successfully met all requirements for a unit.
Not Yet Competent (NYC): A result indicating a student has not yet fulfilled the requirements to pass a unit.
Satisfactory (S): Used for individual assessments to show the student's work met the required standard.
Not Satisfactory (NS): Used when an assessment attempt does not meet the requirements; often triggered if a deadline passes without submission.

Enrolment & Unit Status Terms

Enrolment Status (for Units)

IA (Inactive): The unit enrolment has not yet been activated for the student. Students cannot access the unit content until a trainer activates it (applies only when Content Activation is required).
Locked: The unit is temporarily inaccessible due to content activation timing settings (e.g., waiting for a scheduled open time or read-only period to end).
IP (In Progress): The student has started but not yet completed the unit. Active work is underway.
TBM (To Be Marked): The student has submitted work that is waiting for trainer review and marking.
AR (Awaiting Result): All required completion content in the unit has been finished, and the unit is awaiting the trainer's final result decision (when manual unit result setting is required by RTO).
Awaiting Accept: The trainer has set the final unit result, and the student must formally accept/acknowledge the result (when result acceptance is required by RTO settings).
C (Competent): The student has successfully met all requirements for the unit. This is the final passing result.
NC (Not Competent): The student has not met the requirements to pass the unit. This is the final failing result.
NA (Not Applicable): The unit does not apply to this student's enrolment (e.g., an elective unit they chose not to take, or a unit excluded from their learning pathway).

Assessment & Observation Results

S (Satisfactory): Used for individual assessments and observations to indicate the student's work met the required standard. Applied by trainers during marking.
NS (Not Satisfactory): Used when an assessment or observation attempt does not meet the requirements. Set by trainer marking or triggered automatically when deadlines pass without submission (for assessments with attempt limits).

Content Activation Terms

Content Activation: A feature that allows trainers to control when students can access specific assessments or observations. When enabled, content remains locked (inaccessible) until the trainer manually activates it or the system activates it based on scheduled timing.
Trainer Activation Required: A setting applied to assessments or observations indicating that a trainer must explicitly activate the content before students can access it. Used for supervised assessments or when trainers need direct control over timing.
Read-only Time: A period during which students can view content but cannot interact with it or submit work. Used to give students preview access before an assessment opens.
Open Time: The date and time when students can begin working on and submitting an assessment or observation.
Due Date/Due Time: The deadline by which students must complete and submit their work. After this time, work may be auto-submitted depending on assessment settings.

Additional Terms

Resubmission: The process where a trainer requests a student to redo an assessment or observation, either entirely or for specific questions. Creates a new submission attempt.
Revision: The process where a trainer requests a student to improve specific answers within their current submission without creating a new attempt. Student edits existing work.
Remark: The process where a trainer reopens completed work (with S or NS final result) to correct a marking error. Requires documenting a reason for the remark.
Attempt Limit: A setting on assessments that restricts the number of times a student can attempt self-marking questions. Once the limit is reached, the assessment is automatically submitted.
Self-Marking Questions: Question types that are automatically graded by the system: Multiple Choice, True/False, and Selection questions.
Trainer-Marked Questions: Question types requiring manual trainer review and marking: Short Answer and Upload questions.

Relevant detailed articles for each term