Training Center Manager User’s Manual
Training Center Manager
Less Stress Instructional Services
The Ultimate Software
Package for Running
Your Training Agency
SUPPORTS:
American Heart Association
National Safety Council
American Safety & Health Institute
Medic First Aid
Less Stress Instructional Services – 138 Buena Vista Ave, Hawthorne,NJ 07506
(888) 277-3671 – (973) 427-9692 – Fax: (973) 427-7776 –
DISCLAIMER: This product is an independent creation of Less Stress Instructional Services. It is not affiliated with, licensed or endorsed by the American Heart Association, the National Safety Council, the American Safety & Health Institute, or Medic First Aid.
Training Center Manager ( User’s Manual
Index
Topic Page
What is Training Center Manager? 2
Who would use Training Center Manager? 2
The Main Menu 3
Courses 4
Instructors 6
Reports 7
Certificate Printer 8
Course Configuration 11
Instructors Certificates Configuration 11
Messages 12
About 13
Registration 14
Really cool stuff you can do with TCM 15
Support and other TCM details 16
Contact Information 17
Hey – did you know? 17
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about TCM 18
TCM tutorial 20
At one time I ran training courses like many other training centers. We took registrations on a form, called people one-by-one to confirm them for the class, hand-wrote a roster, and spent far too much time punching out training certificates on a typewriter or word processor template. It was time consuming to say the least…
I no longer have this problem. I type in the info once, and automatically perform all of the above functions and more. I use Training Center Manger(…
What is Training Center Manager(?
Training Center Manager( is our response to the above problems. It is a top-of-the-line database system specifically geared towards the needs to training center coordinators. While it works for any type of training, it is specifically designed for agencies that conduct emergency care and safety training from organizations like the American Heart Association, the American Safety & Health Institute, National Safety Council and Medic First Aid. It enables the user to print certificates specific to those agencies without the use of a word processor template.
The program also allows for a number of different report and communications functions detailed later in this manual.
Who uses Training Center Manager(?
Training Center Manager( was designed for American Heart Association (AHA) Community Training Centers (CTC’s), Training Sites, and even really busy instructors. It was also designed for American Safety & Health Institute (ASHI) training centers/instructors, Medic First Aid (MFA) Trainers and also National Safety Council (NSC) Training Agencies.
Many trainers that perform functions other than emergency care also use TCM. They use it because it allows them a convenient way to schedule, confirm, track, and communicate with program participants. It can even print certificates of completion on certificate paper or regular 8½” by 11” paper. It’s a great tool for corporate trainers or training/safety officers.
The Main Menu
The Main Menu is where it all begins. It is the where most of your navigation to the other elements of the program will start. You should have a number of buttons on the screen, including:
“Go to Courses” – This button will take you to the Course Management section of the program. You will spend most of your time in this part of the program. This is where you schedule the program and enter registrations. You will also use it to confirm their attendance at the session.
“Go to Instructors” – This button will take you to the Instructor Management section of the program. From this point you can add or subtract staff for your center, maintain their personal information, and keep track of their instructorships.
“Go to Reports” – This button will take you to the Reports Section of TCM, where you can generate many reports for AHA reporting, administrative statistics, or other inquiries. It also performs very helpful functions, such as finding expired students, and reissuing certificates for students who call looking for a replacement card.
“Go to Certificate Printer” –This takes you to the TCM certificate printer engine, where most of your proof-of-training will be generated.
“Configure Course Types” – This button takes you to the Course Type Configuration section. This is where you add all of your course offerings. When you add or stop offering a program, you can change the titles from this menu.
“Configure Instructor Certs” – This button takes you to the Instructor Certification Management screen. This is where you add instructorships to your staff profiles.
“Configure Messages” – This takes you to the Message Configuration screen. From here you can change the messages you use to confirm the attendance of participants at your courses, and to remind students when they are about to expire so that they can come back and get retrained with you.
“About” – This button takes you to the About section of TCM. It tells you a little about the program and Less Stress Instructional Services, the company that created TCM. It also has links to our instructor support websites.
“Order Supplies” – This button will take you to – our site for coordinators and instructors, where you can purchase manikins, manuals, and other course supplies.
“Register” – This button will take you to the TCM Registration Screen where you can enter your training center information and punch in your registration code and unlock the program.
“Quit” – This takes you out of the program and back to Windows
The Courses Screen
This is one of the busiest screens in TCM. Much of your more routine work will happen here. If you are new to using TCM, you should see a sample course. There are a few course elements visible from this screen:
Date Program Date (ex. 09/23/00)
Type Type of Course (ex. CPR for Healthcare Providers)
Locations Where the course took place (ex. Holy Name Hospital)
Status How far along the course is (ex. Scheduled)
There are also several buttons that enable you to perform different functions:
ENTER NEW COURSE – This button will take you to a Course Profile Screen where you can schedule a program and add participants to it. Important fields about a course include:
LOCATION: Where the course took place
TYPE: The program being conducted – very important as it is often
printed on the certificate
COURSE DATE: Date of the program
EXPIRATION DATE: Date the training expires (used for searches)
COURSE TIME: Time parameter for the course – used for the confirmations
INSTRUCTORS: Staff assigned and ultimately teaching the program. TCM
supports up to five instructors for a course. We estimate that
will be enough for 99% of programs.
ON-SITE COOR.: This Yes/No toggle will dictate who gets the confirmations or
expiration notices. It is used for courses arranged for groups
(such as corporations) where the training center does not know
the individual participant names but rather plans the course
with one representative of the group. If YES is checked, all
correspondence will be sent to the on-site coordinator and not
to the students. If NO is checked, all correspondence will be
sent to the individual participants.
COURSE STATUS: The course status is an indication of how far along the program
is. The default settings are SCHEDULED, CONFIRMED,
TAUGHT, and COMPLETED. You can also add your own.
COURSE LENGTH: This is how many hours are scheduled for the program. Some
certificates (such as National Safety Council certificates) require
a number of hours to be posted on the proof-of-training. The
number you input here will be imported to the card printing
engine.
STUDENT FIELDS:
NAME: The student’s name.
ADDRESS: The student’s address.
CITY: The student’s city.
STATE: The student’s state.
ZIP: The student’s zip code.
PHONE: The student’s phone number.
EMAIL: The student’s email address.
MISC: This field is to enter the student’s Driver’s License Number when printing
National Safety Council Defensive Driving Certificates. If you do not need to
print this type of certificate, you can enter miscellaneous notes about the
student here.
STATUS: The student status. There are several default fields – PASS, FAIL-WRITTEN,
FAIL-PRACTICAL, FAIL-BOTH, and INCOMPLETE. You can also add your own
comment here.
BUTTONS IN THE ENTER COURSE SCREEN
DUPLICATE COURSE – This button makes an exact copy of the course and its participants. This is especially helpful if you do back-to-back combination courses (CPR/First Aid). Simply enter the participants for the CPR course, duplicate the course, and change the second program to First Aid and adjust the expiration date.
DELETE THIS COURSE – This button will permanently delete the program.
FIND A COURSE – Locates a course by searching for parameters you specify.
PRINT ROSTER – This button will print a program roster including program location, date, instructor(s) name, and the names, addresses, and status of the students.
PRINT CARDS – This imports student information into the CARD PRINTING screen so that you can print course completion cards. IMPORTANT: Only students marked “PASS” in the STUDENT STATUS will be imported. Students marked anything else are assumed to not have completed the course successfully.
DELETE THIS COURSE – This button will permanently delete the program.
FIND A COURSE – This button will help you look for a program in the database. It is especially useful when you have entered a lot of programs and need to find a program that is “lost”.
PRINT A COURSE LIST - This button will give you a hard copy of the currently displayed list of programs.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
The Instructor Management Screen
The Main Menu is where it all begins. It is the where most of your navigation to the other elements of the program will start. You should have a number of buttons on the screen, including:
“ENTER NEW INSTRUCTOR” – Use this button to add an instructor to your roster.
INSTRUCTOR FIELDS:
NAME: The instructor’s name.
ADDRESS: The instructor’s address.
CITY: The instructor’s city.
STATE: The instructor’s state.
ZIP: The instructor’s zip code.
PHONE: The instructor’s phone numbers (two of them).
EMAIL: The instructor’s email address.
AHA ID: This field accommodates the instructor’s AHA instructor ID number.
Generally prints on the AHA certificates.
NSC ID: This field accommodates the instructor’s NSC instructor ID number.
Generally prints on the NSC certificates.
MFA ID: This field accommodates the instructor’s MFA instructor registry number.
Generally prints on the MFA certificates.
CERTS: These are the programs this instructor is accredited to teach. New certs can
be added as necessary from the CONFIGURE INSTRUCTOR CERTS from the
MAIN MENU.
DATE/NOTE: This section can be used to make miscellaneous documentation about the
instructor, such as monitoring and updates.
“DELETE THIS INSTRUCTOR“ – Remove an instructor from your teaching roster.
“FIND INSTRUCTOR“ – Locate an instructor by inputting text into one of the fields and trying to match it to the instructor database.
“PRINT INSTRUCTORS“ – Print out your instructor database. Helpful for audits of your training center or for keeping a binder of information at your fingertips.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE REPORTS MENU
The Reports Menu generates data useful for maintaining a training center. Some of this data will be used to check instructor activity for recertification. Other data might be used to prove training center activity to an accrediting body, like in an AHA CTC audit. Other data might just be generated to satisfy your curiosity. Reports can be displayed either on the screen or sent to the printer for a hard copy by toggling the radio button on the screen. There are four buttons in the Reports Menu, with the corresponding sub-buttons:
“Class Summary” - This button will take you to a listing of courses. You can see how many students of each course type your center has trained. The summary is sorted by course type, and shows dates and locations of each course.
“Instructor Summary” – See how many students and courses each of your instructors has taught. The summary is sorted alphabetically by instructor.
“Expiration Summary” – Look to see what training is due to expire. You enter a starting and ending date and TCM produces a list of courses whose participants are due for retraining.
SUB-BUTTONS:
SEND EXPIRATION NOTICES: Sends each participant in that class a notification that their
training is about to expire.
PAPER: Sends paper notices to the students/coordinator that you can send
via postal service.
LETTER: Sends a letter on a regular piece of paper that can be folded
and placed into a window envelope.
LABELS: Creates a set of labels for the class participants in the event
you want to send them more information, such as a course
schedule or brochure. Uses AVERY 5180 layout (10 by 30).
POSTCARDS: Creates postcards on letter sized cardstock (4 postcards on
each sheet of card stock). It is very helpful for cost-conscious training centers as postcards cost much less to mail (around $0.20 per piece currently in the US).
EMAIL: Sends expiration notices to students/coordinators via email.
BOTH: Does the both above for each class. Email is very inexpensive (well,
pretty much free) but not always very reliable (email addresses
change, not everyone uses it or checks it often).
“Student Summary” – Look for a particular student name, and TCM returns the courses that match that name. Especially helpful for reprinting certificates for students who lose their proof of training and require a reissue of their certificate(s).
SUB-BUTTONS:
REPRINT CARD: Imports the selected student into the card printing engine so that a
certificate can be printed.
SUB-BUTTONS:
NEW CARD: Creates a new student profile so that you can print an additional certificate
in the same session.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE CERTIFICATE PRINTER
The Certificate Printer is where you print out your proof-of-training. It is a special database engine that matches up data you’ve inputted in the COURSES screen with special templates designed for various types of certificates. You should see various data fields for each student record to be printed:
PRINT FIELDS:
COURSE DATE: Date of the course
EXPIRATION DATE: Date the training is due to expire
STUDENT NAME: The student’s name.
ADDRESS: The student’s address.
CITY: The student’s city.
STATE: The student’s state.
ZIP: The student’s zip code.
NSC ID: The instructor’s National Safety Council ID Number.
NSC HOURS: The number of hours printed on the NSC certificates.
INSTRUCTOR NAME: Name of the first instructor inputted on the COURSES screen.
ADDITIONAL: This field imports data from the MISC field of the COURSES screen.
There are also five toggle buttons on this screen: LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGHT, TOP, and BOTTOM. These are used as adjustments on your printer when doing certificates. What setting you will require is highly dependent on what printer you use.
IMPORTANT: You should spend considerable time testing your printer with TCM. Training certificates can be very expensive, and it is vital for you to make sure everything works well between TCM and your hardware. We cannot be responsible for misprinted certificates with TCM. Be sure to test TCM with your printer by printing several test courses on plain white paper and matching them up against your certificates.
NEW CARD: This adds a student record to the card printing engine. If you want to print
an additional certificate for a student who was not imported from the
program, you can create a blank profile with this button and enter the data
manually.
CERT. COMPL: Creates a Proof-of-Training certificate of completion in a landscape
orientation on a 8 ½” by 11” paper. Excellent for miscellaneous inservices
or other ‘generic’ training.
NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL CARD PRINTING:
GEN: This button will print your student profiles on to National Safety Council
certificates. Use this button to print on to NSC CPR, First Aid, AED, and
Bloodborne Pathogens certificates.
DDC: This button will print your student profiles on to National Safety Council
certificates. Use this button to print on to NSC Defensive Driving Course
certificates.
AMERICAN SAFETY & HEALTH INSTITUTE CARD PRINTING:
ASHI F: This button will print your student profiles on to American Safety & Health
Institute certificates. Use this button to print on to the FRONTS of ASHI
CPR PRO, Oxygen Therapy, Bloodborne Pathogens, AED, and Hazard
Communication certificates.
ASHI Checks: This button will print your student profiles on to American Safety & Health
Institute certificates with “checkmarks” on them. Use this button to print on
to the FRONTS ASHI First Aid and Community CPR certificates.
ASHI B: This button will print your student profiles on to American Safety & Health
Institute certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS of ASHI
Hazard Communication certificates ONLY.
ASHI 2 date: This button will print your student profiles on to American Safety & Health
Institute certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS of ASHI
CPR PRO, Community CPR, Oxygen Therapy, Bloodborne Pathogens, AED, and First Aid certificates.
MEDIC FIRST AID CARD PRINTING:
AED F: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Automated External
Defibrillation Title card certificates. Use this button to print on to the
FRONTS (part with the wall certificate).
AED B: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Automated External
Defibrillation Title card certificates. Use this button to print on to the
BACKS (part showing the student name and dates on the wallet card).
BBP F: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Bloodborne Pathogens
Title card certificates. Use this button to print on to the FRONTS (part with
the wall certificate).
BBP B: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Bloodborne Pathogens
Title card certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS (part
showing the student name and dates on the wallet card).
FA F: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Mark IV (CPR/First Aid)
Title card certificates. Use this button to print on to the FRONTS (part with
the wall certificate).
FA B: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA AED Title Mark IV
(CPR/First Aid) certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS (part
showing the student name and dates on the wallet card).
Ped F: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Pediatric Course Title
card certificates. Use this button to print on to the FRONTS (part with the
wall certificate).
Ped B: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Pediatric Course Title
card certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS (part showing
the student name and dates on the wallet card).
Sp F: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Sports Medicine Title
card certificates. Use this button to print on to the FRONTS (part with the
wall certificate).
Sp B: This button will print your student profiles on to MFA Sports Medicine Title
card certificates. Use this button to print on to the BACKS (part showing
the student name and dates on the wallet card).
OTHER BUTTONS:
DELETE ONE: Removes that student profile permanently from the printing engine. This
data will still be available under COURSES if it was imported from there.
DELETE ALL: Removes all student profiles permanently from the printing engine. This
data will still be available under COURSES if it was imported from there.
THE COURSE CONFIGURATION SCREEN
This is where you add course types to TCM. As you add programs to your training center, you can add course names in this screen. There are two main buttons:
ADD COURSE TYPE: Makes a new program type and number of hours associated with it.
DELETE COURSE TYPE: Removes the program type and number of hours associated with it.
IMPORTANT: Enter course names EXACTLY as your accrediting agency describes them because TCM will print the program name on some certificates that require it. Ex. The NSC professional CPR program is called ‘CPR for Professional Rescuers’. If you inadvertently enter ‘CPR for Healthcare Providers’ (which is the AHA version of this program) into the course configuration screen, it will print that on your NSC certificates. If you run both programs, you will need to make two course descriptions and track those number separately.
COURSE HOURS FIELD: The course hours field will determine the number of hours printed on
a National Safety Council certificate. Enter the average number of
hours it takes to run this program, or the number of hours your
center advertises the program for. Don’t worry about being locked
into this figure, you can always change it when you import it into the
certificate printing engine.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATION CONFIGURATION SCREEN
This is where you add instructorships to TCM. This is especially helpful for centers that run different types of programs and need to track who is allowed to run each type of course.
Ex. You are a training center of an EMS department of a local hospital. Part of your duties includes teaching CPR to the facility in addition to running EMS programs such as PHTLS and BTLS. TCM can assist you in tracking your instructors and keeping their teaching certs separate so that you don’t send a BTLS instructor to go teach the residents CPR for Healthcare Providers.
ENTER NEW CERTIFICATION: Makes a new program type and number of hours
associated with it.
DELETE THIS CERTIFICATION: Removes the program type and number of hours
associated with it.
We have pre-configured TCM to do some common course types. You can feel free to delete the default certifications that don’t apply and/or add new ones.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE MESSAGE CONFIGURATION SCREEN
One the greatest features about TCM is how easily it allows you to keep in touch with your students. You can send them email or paper notices of their registration for a course. You can also send them notice that their training is about to expire, and invite them to attend retraining.
The Message Configuration Screen is where you modify the messages students receive. The messages are printed in this format:
DATE
‘BEFORE MESSAGE INFO’
COURSE INFORMATION
‘AFTER MESSAGE INFO’
TRAINING CENTER INFO
You can alter the ‘BEFORE’ and ‘AFTER’ info in this configuration screen. The ‘COURSE INFO’ is imported from the COURSES screen, and the ‘TRAINING CENTER INFO’ is imported from the REGISTER screen.
There are four fields you can change here:
CONFIRMATION - BEFORE MESSAGE INFO – What the participant will see before the course
information when they are confirmed for the
program. This is generally a greeting and quick
explanation of the course info.
CONFIRMATION – AFTER MESSAGE INFO - What the participant will see after the course
Information when they are confirmed for the
program. This is your center’s cancellation policy and/or driving directions.
EXPIRATION - BEFORE MESSAGE INFO – What the participant will see before the course
information when they are notified that their
training is about to expire. This is generally a
greeting and an urgent reminder that the
training is about to expire.
CONFIRMATION – AFTER MESSAGE INFO - What the participant will see after the course
information when they are notified that their
training is about to expire. This is a reminder
that retraining is available and that they should
contact you at the below phone number.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE ABOUT SCREEN
The ABOUT screen tells you a little about TCM and Less Stress Instructional Services. It also contains buttons that will link you in to some of Less Stress Instructional Services’ instructor support websites:
- The main agency website, featuring our training programs
- Our on-line CPR simulator! Have your students save patients
at home on their computers!
- The EMS simulator. Run amusing and
educational ambulance scenarios from the
comfort of your computer.
- Our instructor support website with lesson plans, an instructor
database, a newsletter for trainers, and a legal database.
– Our on-line store filled with instructor supplies such as
manikins, manuals, videos, and other accessories.
- Check out our sale item of the week!
This screen also contains information about our affiliate NOCservices, Inc. They molded TCM from our rough concept to the useful tool you are using today! Highly recommended for your programming/network needs.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
THE REGISTRATION SCREEN
This is where you can register your copy of TCM. The information you put into these fields also is used during roster, certificate, and notification printing, so be sure everything is correctly entered:
NAME: The name of your training center. This information will be printed on the top of your
training rosters, as well as used for generating your unlock code to use the
program permanently. It will also be sent to your students when you confirm them
of notify them of expiration. It is vital that you enter this correctly the first time.
You will not be able to alter it when you purchase the package in the future.
ADDRESS: Your center’s address.
CITY: Your center’s city.
State: Your center’s state.
Zip: Your center’s zip code.
Phone: Your center’s phone number. Make sure it is the line you want registrations to
come in on as it gets sent to participants during confirmation and expiration.
Fax: Your center’s fax number.
Email: The email address you want your students to use to reach the center. Do not use
an address that is only checked once a week as you will undoubtedly lose some
contacts and training opportunities as a result.
AHA CTC: The name of the American Heart Association CPR Training Center affiliation that the
center has, if any.
AHA REGION: The name of the American Heart Association ECC Region the center belongs to, if
any.
ASHI CENTER :On the back of American Safety & Health Institute certificates, there is a box to
NOTE enter a “Training Center Note”. This allows centers to provide some basic contact
information as students sometimes forget who to contact for retraining. We
recommend putting the name of your center here (abbreviate as necessary) and
phone number.
REG. CODE: This is where you will put your “unlock code” when you finally purchase the
program. This will change the ‘REGISTRATION STATUS’ to REGISTERED and the
‘DEMOS REMAINING’ to 0. The software can then be used without limitation.
REG. STATUS:This tells you if the program is registered or not registered.
REG. CODE: This is where you input the code that unlocks the package. You get the code when
you purchase the package from Less Stress Instructional Services.
You can purchase TCM by calling (888) 277-3671/(888) CPR-EMS1. You can also click on the blue link on the bottom of the registration screen.
REGISTER: The REGISTER button is what you hit after you input your registration code. It will
process your code and tell you whether the code is accepted or not.
The MAIN MENU button allows you to exit this screen.
REALLY COOL STUFF YOU CAN DO WITH TCM
From playing with the program and being a trainer, you’ve probably discovered a number of useful functions TCM can perform for your training center. Some obvious advantages are roster printing, certificate printing, and notifications to students.
Remember, however, that TCM is really just a specialized database. You can take advantage of this database to perform other functions that are not specifically what the program was designed for. Here are some “Off Label Uses” for TCM:
SCHEDULE MEETINGS: Do you have regular meetings with staff or other groups? Perhaps you are in charge of the company safety committee? Do you hate the hour you spend emailing or writing to everyone so that they don’t forget to show up? Just make a course called “SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING” and input all your attendees. From there, you can print a roster to that they can sign in (leave the student address field blank so that there is enough room) and you can email them confirmations with a couple of mouse clicks. For next month’s meeting, just alter the date. Very cool!
MAKE A REMINDER: Let’s say you have an important date to remember, such as John Mateus’ birthday. Make a course called “John Mateus’ Birthday” and enter the appropriate date, and mark it “taught”. If you are routinely checking expirations (as most TCM users quickly get in the habit of doing) TCM will provide you with an alert on the EXPIRATION REPORT in plenty of time to get me a present!
OTHER SAFETY STUFF: TCM can give you a way of making computerized and hard copies of other safety records. Let’s say you are the safety officer of a company and are responsible for checking the fire extinguishers monthly. You can create a course called “Fire Extinguishers”, and assign a student profile to each fire extinguisher (under name you could list “3rd floor, west wing hallway” for example, or just number the extinguishers and list them by number). From there, you could change the status of each extinguisher to PASS if they inspected well, or FAIL if they were not sufficiently charged or had some other deficiency. You could put in the name of the person doing the inspections under “Instructor”. Printing a roster gives you a hard copy of the inspection, and you can adjust the expiration date to remind you of the next time you need to perform the inspection. You can do this for any item that requires periodic inspection, such as first aid kits, SCBA, or defibrillators.
SUBMIT YOUR OWN COOL STUFF: Have you thought up a great off-label use for TCM? If so, call us with it at (888) 277-3671 or email it to jmateus@. If we use it in the TCM manual, we’ll give you a $25.00 credit towards any purchase from the on-line training store!
SUPPORT AND TCM DETAILS
BUYING TCM:
TCM retails for $149.95. This includes one year of tech support and upgrades when you purchase the package, meaning you can call the toll free number if you need assistance. We do our best to keep some knowledgeable staff on hand to assist with the program, but given the unpredictable nature of this new product we may have trouble providing tech support at times. Here are some suggestions before you call tech support:
1) Buy the product – Tech support is not available to shareware users. You must buy the program before using the toll free line for help. Sorry, but we can’t run a company on good intentions.
2) Use the email support – If your question is not critical or does not need immediate attention, use the support@ email address for support. We can provide written steps by email and we promise to have something for you in less than one business day. This really is the ideal tech support format. Of course, if you are a registered user with a critical problem (such as an angry mob besieging your office looking for their CPR cards) we would be happy to help at (888) 277-3671.
3) Read the manual – This user manual is very short (less than 25 pages) and provides very concise information about TCM and how it works. We also went to great lengths to make the program as simple as possible, with as few buttons as possible. Finally, there is an ample FAQ (frequently asked questions) in the back of this manual. We have found during our beta test that most questions referred to us were easily documented in the book.
4) Have some system info handy – TCM is a very simple program (at times), but like any software it will behave differently from system to system. It will also print slightly different from printer to printer. If you call the support line or email us for help, please have some system information available for us such as processor speed (ex. 200 MHZ), memory available (ex. 32 MG RAM), and printer type (ex. HP Officejet 1150C).
5) Play with it! – The beauty of shareware is that you get to play with the program before you buy it! Take the time to make fake courses and use all of TCM’s features before you purchase the program. Most importantly, take the time to print certificates on your printer! We cannot be held responsible for bad printer alignments. We heavily encourage you to perform a few test prints before using the real certificates in your printer. Please realize that there are ALWAYS going to be some printer-specific difficulties and that we cannot predict every variable such as worn printer rollers, old drivers, or just a wacky machine in general. Please make sure that TCM works well for you, because a) we do not reimburse centers for wasted training certificates and b) we do not refund registration costs for centers after we have given them a registration number. You have 45 boot ups to ‘test drive’ the software – make the most of it!
AFTER ONE YEAR: After one year, you will stop getting tech support and upgrades. TCM WILL STILL WORK AFTER ONE YEAR! You just will not be entitled to new versions or to toll free/email tech support. Additional years of upgrades and tech support cost $40.00 per year. While renewing your registration is not required, we highly encourage you to do invest the $40.00 as we plan on releasing new versions frequently. As the training organizations release new courses and certificates, TCM will keep up by accommodating those print layouts and necessary information. We also plan on accepting your suggestions for improvement for the next version. Email your suggestions to support@.
FILEMAKER(: TCM was made in Filermaker(, but please realize that TCM is not supported by Filemaker(, it’s supported by Less Stress Instructional Services. This means that if you call Filemaker( with your problem about printing First Aid certificates, they will have no idea of what you are talking about. Please call Less Stress Instructional Services at (888) 277-3671 for help.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
To download the program:
Sales Information (phone): (888) CPR-EMS1 (888) 277-3671
Sales Information (email): jmateus@
Shareware Registration:
REGISTERED USERS:
Tech Support(phone): (888) CPR-EMS1 or (888) 277-3671
Tech Support(email): support@
Tech Support(website):
HEY – DID YOU KNOW?
OK, OK… we’ve plugged the company generously in this product. I swear this is the last time:
Less Stress Instructional Services is a full service health and safety company that can supply training, consulting, and products for training centers worldwide?
Here are some of the services we provide:
Specialized Train-the-Trainer Courses – We can provide instructor training in CPR and First Aid, as well as specific safety and OSHA compliance training such as Bloodborne Pathogens, Hazard Communication, Forktruck/Lift truck, etc.
Products and supplies – We have a fully stocked instructor shop where you get one-stop shopping for all your instructor needs. Call us at (888) 277-3671 or visit
Instructor Support and Community – Our instructor website has ample free resources for trainers such as a newsletter, lesson plans, downloadable programs, and a legal database. Have a look at .
Simulators:
The CPR Simulator – Have your students save the patient from their home computer. It’s a great way for non-clinicians to practice CPR skills.
The EMS Simulator – The Pre-Hospital Care Simulator is an irreverent but educational tool where you play an EMS provider in a transport ambulance setting. Updated monthly, the simulator allows players to run though EMS techniques on simulated patients. When a poor answer is selected, your partner does something horrible, often killing the patient. . Started in 1996, this is one of the most popular parts of the website.
Frequently Asked Questions about TCM
Here are some common questions about Training Center Manager(. Some are technical questions about the programs, others are common pitfalls of inexperienced users, others are just plain curiosity at work.
Q. How did you guys get away with printing American Heart Association course completion cards? I have to pay for each certificate I order…
A. We didn’t. TCM does not generate the cards from scratch, it just prints onto your purchased cards when you run them through the machine. The program is good, but it’s not THAT good. Sorry.
Q. I usually hand-write rosters and training certificates. Why should I do all this data entry with TCM?
A. Consider this – how many times do you hand-write a student’s name? Once to register them by phone/mail, once on the course roster, and again on the training certificate. Plus any other additional documentation you might use. In TCM, you do this once, and print all everything from there without additional typing – confirmations, certs, and rosters. Additional benefits include the ability to look students up with a couple of mouse clicks instead of searching through file cabinets (REALLY handy for those times when a student calls and says “Uh…. I lost my card and I took the class in …. Uh…. I don’t remember but it was snowing outside!”), and the ability of sending them expiration notices when their training expires. Plus the cards look much more professional when you print them on a machine.
Q. Do I have to have internet access on the computer I use TCM on?
A. No, not necessarily. You can use TCM on any computer, but if you do not have internet access, you will not be able to use the email confirmation and expiration features. We happen to think that’s one of the coolest parts of the program. If you can live without it, you should be fine on a non-internet enabled computer.
Q. We don’t collect email addresses from students. Can TCM still be useful to us?
A. Yes. We understand not all training centers are using the internet for their training. TCM gives you the option of using letters, labels, or postcards to communicate with your students. We do however, HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you begin to ask students for email addresses. The cost of mailing a letter is currently $0.33 in the US. The cost of sending an email is $0.00 in the US (without factoring in the monthly ISP). If you train 1000 students per year and send them both a confirmation and an expiration, you just saved your center $660.00 in postage costs alone! Factor in the paper, ink, envelopes, hassle, and time, and the savings increase significantly from there.
Q. We run a very popular training class that we created ourselves. Can we use TCM to administer this program?
A. Yes. Use the program like any other program, and use the CERT COMPL button in the certificate printing engine to create an 8 ½” by 11” certificate of completion. If you’d like, you can run the certificates on commercially purchased certificate paper for a more “sophisticated” look.
Q. When I import a course to the certificate engine, I seem to lose students. I start with a class of 20 in the COURSES screen, but when I click to the PRINT CERTIFICATES screen I only have 18 students. What gives?
A. 9 out of 10 times this happens because you didn’t set some of the student status to PASS. TCM will not generate certs for students who did not pass the program (the software is very ethical). Set all the students to PASS in the COURSES screen and then click PRINT CERTIFICATES. You should now have the appropriate number of students in the printing engine.
Q. I’m not sure the software is worth $149.95…
A. This may seem like a lot of money for a shareware product, but consider the time and money the program will save your center in postage and especially time. In most areas, $149.95 is not even a day’s pay (8 hours) for the person who runs the center. We guarantee you that the program will save you MUCH more than that in your first year in time, hassle, and administrative inconvenience. Most of our test centers also reported increased activity from the expiration reminders (not every center does this, and it’s a great way to get repeat trainings). Depending on the size of your center, this may pay for itself in the first month!
Q. I don’t run CPR/First Aid courses. What can TCM do for me?
A. TCM is a specialized training database – it happens to be configured to print various CPR/First Aid certificates, but it is not exclusive to that. If you are an industrial health center that runs HAZWOPER training and Forklift courses, you can configure the course types to your own needs and even print certificates of completion on certificate paper. It works just as well.
Q. Every time I print an expiration letter, student certificate, or a roster, there are large blank fields in the print out. It looks like there should be some info in that spot. What’s wrong?
A. This is a common question. In most cases, there is a missing piece of data on the REGISTRATION page. Some users do not fully fill out the registration page because they either think that you have to pay immediately if you do, or they simply want to play with the program immediately and don’t take the time. Please realize that if you don’t input that information, TCM cannot print it on to the various forms and cards it uses. Be sure to type in all of the information in the REGISTRATION page – you get 45 trial uses regardless of how much data you put in there.
HAVE A QUESTION? CALL US AT (888) 277-3671
TCM Tutorial
This is a quick tutorial to get you started with TCM. It will allow you to perform most of the more common class functions on a trial basis without using real students or certification cards. Using this tutorial will allow you to see TCM in action before you buy it to make sure that it’s right for you.
Step 1 – Enter your data
Let us first enter all of the particulars of our training center:
- Boot up the program
- From the MAIN MENU, click on the REGISTRATION button
- Fill in all fields with the information of your center. Leave fields that are not applicable blank.
- Ignore the REGISTRATION CODE field
- Click MAIN MENU
Step 2 – Make an instructor
Next, let us create an instructor to teach the courses:
- Click on GO TO INSTRUCTORS
- Click on ENTER NEW INSTRUCTOR
- Enter the following information in the respective field:
Thomas Teacher
123 Main Street
Anytown, NJ 00000
Phone: (555) 555-5555
Pager: (555) 555-5556
Email: tteacher@
Certified AHA CPR Instructor
Certified ASHI CPR Instructor
Monitored 10/02/00
- Click on Main Menu
Step 3 – Make a course (Open to the Public)
Now we are ready to create our first course:
- Click GO TO COURSES
- Click ENTER NEW COURSE
- In the LOCATION field, enter the name of your facility
- Click on COURSE TYPE, and select CPR FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
- Click on COURSE DATE, and enter today’s date
- Click on EXPIRATION DATE, and enter today’s month and day with a year of 2002
- Click on COURSE TIME, and enter 8am – 4pm
- Click on ON-SITE COORDINATOR – Check the NO radio button
- Leave the following fields blank: COMPANY/AGENCY, EMAIL ADDRESS, and PAPER ADDRESS (4 fields for paper address).
- Click on the first INSTRUCTORS line and select Thomas Teacher
- Click on the first line of the student profile on the bottom. This field is for the name of the student (there is a legend on top of the student field that will show you where to input the text). Enter John Mateus in that field. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s telephone number. Please enter 973-427-9692. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s email address. Please enter jmateus@. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s street address. Please enter 138 Buena Vista Ave. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s city. Please enter Hawthorne. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s state. Please enter NJ. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s zip or postal code. Please enter 07506. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s miscellaneous information. Please enter M5555 55555 55555. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- Your cursor should now be in the field next to the name on the right. This is for the student’s pass/fail statud. Please select pass. Hit the TAB button on your keyboard.
- You should now be on a new blank student profile. This would be used for the second student on the roster and new fields will creep up and present themselves as you fill in additional information (actually, when you hit the TAB key). Now that you’ve got the hang of this, make three more student in this class:
STUDENT #2 – Yourself, with your own email address, paper address, and other vital data.
STUDENT #3 – A significant other or good friend who will not mind getting email or paper correspondence from you.
STUDENT #4 – A colleague who works with or near you who will not mind getting email or paper correspondence from you. We suggest someone who also runs this sort of training.
- Click SEND CONFIRMATION NOTICES. This create a few pop-up windows:
• The first window is a confirmation for the process asking you if you really want to send confirmations. Click YES.
• The second window will ask you if you want to send paper or email confirmations, or both. Click BOTH.
• The third window will ask you what kind of paper confirmation you would like. Click POSTCARD.
• You might see some windows that flash by. That is often your email utility sending the email confirmations. There is nothing you should do there - it’s perfectly normal for that to happen.
• You will eventually get a print notice on your screen (the same window you always get when you print something – it asks how many copies you want, etc). This looks a little different from machine to machine. It is based on your printer driver, and varies from printer to printer. Click OK.
• You should get an MESSAGE SENT screen at some time during this process (perhaps two if you are sending both email and paper confirmations) – click OK to remove that window.
- You should see a few postcards pop out of your printer at this point. TCM occasionally skips a space or two in the postcard format, so you might have one page printed or two depending on your printer driver. You could now take a paper cutter and slice this page into four postcards and mail them out to your students. You also might want to quit TCM and open your email utility and check your email. This will allow you to see what a student receives as a confirmation of their course registration.
- Let’s look at another confirmation mechanism – click SEND CONFIRMATION NOTICES. This will create a few pop-up windows:
• The first window is a confirmation for the process asking you if you really want to send confirmations. Click YES.
• The second window will ask you if you want to send paper or email confirmations, or both. Click PAPER.
• The third window will ask you what kind of paper confirmation you would like. Click LETTER.
• You will eventually get a print notice on your screen. Click OK.
• You should get an MESSAGE SENT screen at some time during this process – click OK to remove that window.
- You should see a few letters pop out of your printer at this point. They are specially formatted so that you can fold them and place them into a window envelope. It is a good alternative if you feel that the postcard option is too informal. You can configure the text that prints on these letters from the CONFIGURE MESSAGES screen.
- Let’s look at the last confirmation mechanism – click SEND CONFIRMATION NOTICES. This will create a few pop-up windows:
• The first window is a confirmation for the process asking you if you really want to send confirmations. Click YES.
• The second window will ask you if you want to send paper or email confirmations, or both. Click PAPER.
• The third window will ask you what kind of paper confirmation you would like. Click LABELS.
• You will eventually get a print notice on your screen. Click OK.
• You should get a MESSAGE SENT screen at some time during this process – click OK to remove that window.
- You should see a sheet with names and addresses on them. TCM is configured to print on to a sheet of labels that you could stick to correspondence. This is helpful if you are in the habit of mailing students books or other materials before the course. The supported label is AVERY 5160 and is an 8 ½” by 11” sheet of labels (3 by 10).
- Next we’ll make a program roster. Click on PRINT ROSTER. You will get a print notice on your screen. Click OK. Your computer will print a list of participants, their addresses, and their status. This roster can be sent with the instructor to the class to check attendance, and you can also print it and attach it to the student paperwork after the program for your files. We recommend (and your accrediting agency may require) that the instructor sign the bottom of the roster.
- Next we will issue the students a training certificate. Click on PRINT CARDS. A new screen should come up, with a number of small buttons on it. You should also see a number of student profiles imported from the COURSES screen. If there is a scroll bar on the right side of the screen, use it to move up and down on the student profiles. You can also try using PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN. You might want to have a look at the student profiles just to confirm that all the information is accurate.
- Since this course is CPR for Healthcare Providers, click on AHA PRO. This will print the front of the certificates (in this case you should use regular paper instead of real AHA certificates). You can use the AHA BACK button to print the back of the certificate after you have reloaded the printer with the certs positioned correctly.
- You can also print other certificates. In this tutorial, we’ll print one other example, but feel free to play with TCM’s other features if you think that you might run other training courses. Click CERT COMPL. This will open the print confirmation window. Click OK.
- The printer should now produce a generic training certificate for each participant. You can also print this on to a piece of certificate paper that makes your certificate much nicer.
- You will want to spend some time using these functions. There is an adjustment for the printer on the right hand side marked “LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT” and one marked “TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM”. This will adjust how TCM prints on to the paper. If you find that your certificates are being printed far too much to the right or left, you should adjust the setting and try again.
YOU WILL WANT TO SPEND SOME TIME USING THIS SCREEN TO MAKE SURE YOUR SETTINGS ARE PERFECTLY ADJSUTED. PLEASE MAKE SURE TCM WORKS WELL WITH YOUR PRINTER BEFORE RUNNING REAL CERTIFICATES THROUGH YOUR PRINTER.
- Click MAIN MENU
- Now that your course is completed, you can mail out the certificates to the student. If you prefer not to hand write the envelopes, simply go back to the COURSES screen and print a set of labels to place on the envelope you plan to mail their cards in.
Step 4 – Notify Expired Students
In this part of the tutorial, you can search for expired students and send them notifications so that they will (hopefully) train with you again. Begin by:
- Click GO TO REPORTS
- Click EXPIRATION SUMMARY – Make sure the radio button above says SCREEN and not PRINTER (PRINTER is used for generating hard copies of the data)
- In the first date field enter 11/20/00
- In the seconds date field enter 12/31/02
- Click FIND
- You should see a CPR for Healthcare Providers course labeled with the name of your facility. To send expiration notices to those four students, click “SEND EXPIRATION NOTICES”.
- From here, things look much like they did when you sent students confirmation notices before. Without additional coaching, try to send letter expirations and postcard expirations
- Now let’s try something a little different. Let’s pretend that this course was actually a group who arranged training with you through an individual coordinator (for example, a scout leader who arranged training for a group of girl scouts). In a case like this it may seem more appropriate to communicate with the coordinator rather that with the students individually. Here is how you can set TCM to communicate with a coordinator:
• Go to the MAIN MENU and click on COURSES
• You should see your program listed. If you do not, click on SHOW ALL. Click on the DETAILS button next to your course.
• Change the ON-SITE COORDINATOR button to YES
• In the field immediately to the right to the ON-SITE COORDINATOR buttons, enter MARY RONGO
• In the EMAIL ADDRESS field under that, enter MRONGO@
• In the two lined field enter Less Stress, then hit enter and type 138 Buena Vista Ave
• In the three PAPER ADDRESS fields under that, enter HAWTHORNE, NJ and 07506 respectively.
- When the ON-SITE COORDINATOR is enabled, TCM will now send all confirmations and expirations to this person instead of the individual participants. This allows you as the center to communicate with the person who authorizes, pays for, or otherwise books training courses. Try to send this person a course confirmation and expiration notice on your own.
Step 5 – Generate Reports
In this step, we will create various reports that will assist you in compiling data for instructor maintenance, AHA audits, or to show your superior what a fine job you are doing running the training center. TCM has the capability to generate multiple reports with only a few mouse clicks. Lets start by:
- From the MAIN MENU, click on GO TO REPORTS
- Click on CLASS SUMMARY
- This next screen allows you to define the dates that will limit your report. For AHA audits for example, you might want to use the last fiscal year. For our tutorial, enter 11/20/00 in the first date field, and 12/31/04 for the second field.
- You should see a list of courses on the screen. The report is organized by class type. You should see something that looks like the following:
1. CPR for Healthcare Providers
11/20/00 11/20/02 Your Facility 4
Thomas Teacher
- The first (bold) number is the number of courses you ran in that time period
- The CPR for Healthcare Providers is the course type – if you had inputted more courses, you would have seen more bold course types and numbers
- The first date is the date the course was held
- The second date is the date the training expires
- The facility name is the location of the program
- The 4 is the number of students in that program
- Thomas Teacher is the name of the instructor
Reports will get larger and the numbers will get bigger as your input courses into TCM.
You can also generate a report to see how much activity each one of your instructors has generated:
- From the MAIN MENU, click on GO TO REPORTS
- Click on INSTRUCTOR SUMMARY
- You should see something that looks like the following:
THOMAS TEACHER
1 CPR for Healthcare Providers
11/20/00 Your Facility 4
- Thomas Teacher is the name of the instructor
- The first (bold) number is the number of those courses the instructor ran in that time period
- The CPR for Healthcare Providers is the course type – if you had inputted more courses, you would have seen them below in more bold
- The date is the date the course was held
- The facility name is the location of the program
- The 4 is the number of students in that program
You would see a similar report for each student if you had inputted more data.
Thank you for trying the TCM Tutorial. Now go out and play with the program some more. If you like it, great! Call us, mail us, or visit our website to register the product. If you don’t like it, email us at support@ and tell us why.
Good luck with your position as a Training Coordinator!
NOTES:
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