What it is for
The Administrator Guide is the companion document for the people who run the ALiF Self-Assessment Questionnaire and use its results. Respondents complete the separate Respondent Form. The guide covers everything that happens around the form: administration, scoring, interpretation and debriefing.
Each respondent receives two profiles: a core competency profile across the five ALiF components, and a role-specific profile for each professional role they selected. Together these drive personalized program recommendations.
Administration
Before. Coordinators confirm the context with participants: whether completion is voluntary or required, who will see the results (the respondent and coordinators only, or also managers), and whether responses will be used for research, which needs separate informed consent. Participants are briefed on the rating scale and told that honest ratings give useful recommendations, while inflated ratings do not. Starting at Foundation level is expected, not a deficiency to hide.
During. Allow 20 to 30 minutes, or up to 40 minutes for several role modules. Coordinators do not give examples or coaching on specific items, since this biases responses. Group administration in a classroom or workshop is acceptable, but collaborative completion is not.
After. Results are collected from paper forms or exported from the ALiF Nexus Platform, scored within 48 hours where possible, and discussed in a debrief before participants lose context. Paper scores are checked carefully, because an arithmetic error propagates to every recommendation.
From scores to levels
Scores are averaged by sub-competency, then by component, then across the core. The averages are placed on the three ALiF levels, with Foundation split into a beginning and an advanced band. Each band links to a program recommendation, for example completing a full foundational course, testing out of some modules, or moving directly to role-specific and specialist content. The guide holds the scoring procedures and placement bands; they are not published on this site.
Debriefing
The guide asks coordinators not to read a profile from a single number. The debrief works from the lowest-scoring component, then the weakest sub-competency within it, and flags foundational gaps before specialist content. It compares the role-specific profile with the core profile: a low role score beside a high core score suggests competence that has not yet transferred to the professional setting, while the reverse suggests practical skill without a strong foundation. A simple probe helps: ask the respondent to describe a recent, concrete example of the activity they rated highly.
When a profile does not match the coordinator’s judgment, it is treated as the start of a conversation, not a verdict.
Limitations the guide makes explicit
- The SAQ measures perceived competence, not performance. Novices tend to overestimate and experts sometimes underestimate.
- Some sub-competencies rest on one or two items. These scores are indicative only and should carry less weight.
- The instrument was developed and piloted in health care and higher education in one country. Use elsewhere calls for caution and documentation of context.
- It is designed for diagnosis and learning, not for credentialing, and it should not be the sole basis for decisions about deployment readiness or supervision.
The guide is provided to coordinators by the ALiF core team.