I am very new to this and need help please. I apologize for the long description.

Our company is planning to develop a database that would contain all our training material/tests/reading material/etc. and I need advice how to develop this.

Our company works in the healthcare field and we accredit hospitals, etc. We do a number of training sessions, mostly for our clients. The contracts and the types of presentations vary.

The core message that we convey to clients is the improvement of the quality in hospitals, etc. For this, we train clients how to do a self-evaluation using our assessment instrument. This training involves orientation of our product to members at healthcare facilities and training on actual self-assessments of their facilities. We also give lectures on quality improvement, how to develop policies, auditing, etc.

Every client obviously has different needs, but this is what we normally do if we train staff at a facility:

• Provide pre-training reading material
• Sometimes a pre-test
• Training for 3-5 days, which will include a PowerPoint presentation, case studies and mock surveys where the trainees actually do physical scoring in a hospital.
• Post-training test
• Post-training feedback to be filled in by the trainees
• Analysis of the results.

For instance- For every presentation, one will need an attendance list, icebreakers, the PP slides, the "mock survey" documents, feedback, tests, etc. So it would be nice to have the ability to set up all the training for a session and then link a specific PP lecture, a specific test, etc to that training session.

So the main goal is to set up a database that will include all these components. I was contemplating if I should arrange a folder per type of facility/contract and then include the above mentioned information in it, or should I group all the presentations together, all the tests together, etc.? Or is the best to have a “master index” with links to these sub-divisions?

An example:
At this stage, I have numerous folders under "Professional Development" and need to sort them out as a first step.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...9-19134256.jpg


You will see there are folders for Presentations; Feedback after training, Tests; etc.
If I open "Powerpoint presentations", then this is what I find:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...19134523-1.jpg

Any ideas/examples from anyone? I do not know Access, so I suppose that can be a possibility. Any other programmes or suggestions?
Thanks!

I would lean towards something like Sharepoint. Why do you need a database, exactly? Logically grouping files together doesn't require much more than a folder to put them in. "collaboration" platforms like Sharepoint give you some additional options for how content is grouped and exposed. Even that might be way more than you need...

What do you expect your database to do for you that you can't do right now?

Apologies for only replying now.
This is what I had in mind, but I am open for any suggestions/any other structure that might help:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii62/avz10/1-6.jpg
These are the different categories/departments that provide training, except for “Generic documents” that would include blank forms e.g. attendance registers, customer feedback forms, etc. So there must be some sort of link between all the other categories/departments and “generic documents”
Per category/department this will sub-headings as seen e.g. pre-training reading material, participants, curricula, etc.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...StdInterpr.jpg
In Powerpoint presentations, these will be different groupings e.g. Standard Interpretation training which will include different trainees/contracts
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...ntgroups-1.jpg
And under “General” there will be some examples of presentations.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...dergeneral.jpg
This is my suggestion. So my request is
Any other format/outlay
With what programme will I be able to present the initial framework with the ability to link between a department and the generic documents.
Thanks for any advice!!

Sharepoint can do that, plus security and workflows around who can do what, when.

Will get going this weekend- thanks!

(I will need to study Sharepoint- as we are growing relatively fast, will it be able to accommodate a much bigger load. And it is clear that you recommend Sharepoint above Access, which I also do not know)

I have started in vigor- reading about SharePoint, YouTube videos, etc; BUT when I open my SharePoint 2010, the images that I see in the tutorials are just not the same.
We have MS SharePoint Workspace installed on our computers, so it does not look if I can create the central "server" or portal from my laptop. Is this correct?
If so, what MS software should I need?