OVERVIEW AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

Audience

This guide has been written for the Office 365 Global Administrators to install the LMS365 App and Web Parts and create a fully working solution.

For detailed information about configuring the LMS365 please use the User Guide.

About LMS365 App

LMS365 is a collection of the tools which will enable you to create new course and training plan sites, including selected tools, in SharePoint Online. A short description of each tool is listed below.

LMS365 Course Creator & Catalog – is the main part of the LMS365 App that brings all the tools together, it allows you to create new course and training plan sites and provides a course catalog, for this to happen it requires Full Control permissions on your tenant. It also utilises other tools such as the SCORM & AICC Player, Learning Module Builder, Quiz Builder, and Assignments & Grade Book.

LMS365 SCORM & AICC Player – is the SCORM & AICC player for LMS365 and can be automatically included to the newly created course sites. SCORM content is a way to create pieces of online learning management material that can be shared and combined with other materials. 

LMS365 Learning Module Builder – is designed for organizing Documents, Videos, SCORM/AICC packages etc. into sequenced learning steps. Learners move to the next step only after they have completed previous one, ensuring progress and making it possible to see where they are in the learning process. There is no better way to expose learners to new concepts in the most efficient order―and to ensure learners are not confused or lost along the way.

LMS365 Quiz Builder – is designed for creating quizzes that can be used as intermediate or final tests in the learning process. A Quiz is a type of examination consisting of several question types such as Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, True or False, Ordering or Matching Answers, Free Text Answers, Fill Gap, Hot Spot or Short Answer. The interactivity and complexity that quizzes provide get Learners more interested and involved in the learning process.

LMS365 Assignments & Grade Book – is designed for creating, managing, tracking, and grading Assignment tasks on the course sites.

Requirements

Server software requirements

The LMS365 App has been developed to run within the Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Online environment. SharePoint is a dynamic platform that allows you to create, edit and share content for facilitating teamwork. To learn more, join SharePoint.

Best performance practices

Due to SharePoint limitations, the maximum number of separate enrollments per course is 5000 users. For more information, navigate to the SharePoint service limits for the subsites.

If you have more than 5000 users, you can use Active Directory Group to enroll them.

Our SCORM & AICC Player tool was tested with 3000 concurrent learners.

Client requirements

There are not any explicit limitations. However, use the most recent versions of the following browsers for the best experience with Office Online and LMS365. For more detailed information, read which browsers work with Office for the web.

INSTALLING THE LMS365 APP

To start working with the LMS365, please make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

1. 1. The SharePoint is installed.

2. 2. The App Catalog site is created. For detailed information on how it is done, please consult Step 1 of the following article - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/use-app-catalog.

3. 3. You have at least “Owners” permissions to the App Catalog and at least “Read” permission to the SharePoint root site collection.

Then please follow the steps below:

1. 1. Go to https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-US/product/web-apps/elearningforce.lms365_spfx and sign in under your Office 365 Global Administrator account.

2. 2. Click the ‘Get it now’ button and accept the requested permissions:

LMS365 will install classic access LMS365 App to the Course Catalog site automatically. This App is used for correct work of the LMS365 App e.g. gives permissions to manage course sites, upload documents to Learning Module, Quiz, etc.

1. 3. After that, you will be suggested to install LMS365 on your Tenant and start Tenant provisioning:

1. 4. Select necessary Region for your Tenant:

1. 5. Click the Next button. You will be presented with the following screen:

From this page you can confirm the Tenant Region or go back to select another one.

If the App Catalog has been recently created, it may take up to 20 minutes to get the App Catalog available for deploying new packages. After that, you will see the following screen. It means that the provisioning has already started.

The process of provisioning will typically take some minutes, after that you will be presented with the following screen:

1. 6. Before starting to use the LMS365 App, you will be required to activate the License:

We strongly recommend activating all licenses (at least their Trial version) before start working with the LMS365 in order not to have issues with the not working tools.

LMS365 GLOBAL SETTINGS

The Global Settings are intended to be the place where it is possible to create a Course Catalog, manage language files, configure LMS365 Mobile App, activate or deactivate Licenses, set LMS administrators as well as LMS configuration for the whole Tenant

By default, only Office 365 Global Administrator has permissions to access the Global Settings.

However, it is possible to assign the specific people the LMS Administrator role, which will grant them the access to the Global Settings. More details about this role please see in the LMS Administrators Management section.

Creating Course Catalogs

To create a new Course Catalog:

1. 1. Go to the Course Catalog List section of the Global Settings.

2. 2. Click the Add Course Catalog button, and then fill in necessary information in the right-side menu:

You can specify a new Site URL or use an already existing one (if there are any):

1. a. To create a new Course Catalog with the new Site URL, complete the following form:

Course Catalog Title. Specify the title of the Course Catalog that will be displayed in the Course Catalog list and on the Course Catalog page.

Site URL. Fill in a relative address for your course catalog. By default, this field is filled in with the catalog title, but can be changed manually by the user. When the URL is auto generated, all invalid characters (such as # % & * : < > ? \ / { | } ~) are excluded.

Site Language. Specify the default language for the Course Catalog.

Site Template. Specify either Communication Site or Team Site. By default, a course catalog is created as a SharePoint communication site. Please follow the link to get more information about the communication sites;

Catalog Administrators. Enter users’ names to add users to the Catalog Administrators (by default, user who creates the catalog is specified in this field).

1. b. To use an already existing Site URL, switch on the toggle. After this, it is possible to specify Course Catalog Administrators:

1. 3. Click the Save button.

After all is done, select the desired catalog, and in the open right-side menu choose the needed action:

Course Catalog Settings. View Course Catalog Title, Site URL, Site Template and add new Administrator(s) or delete already added one(s).

View Course Catalog. Choose this action to go to the Course Catalog site. You will be redirected to the Home page. However, you can navigate to the pages with already added Course Catalog and Training Dashboard web parts:

If you access the Course Catalog site for the very first time, you will be asked to Login (by clicking the Login button), and then accept the requested permissions:

If you check “Consent on behalf of your organization” this app will get access to the specified resources for all users in your organization. No one else will be prompted to review these permissions.

Manage Course Catalog. Choose this action to go to the LMS365 Admin Center where you can create courses, training plans, etc. For detailed information, please read the User Guide.

Delete Course Catalog. Choose this action to delete the course catalog.

Managing Language Files

By default, LMS365 is in English. To add translation to alternate language(s) for the LMS365, follow the steps below:

1. 1. Go to the Settings section − Language Files − and then select the needed tool:

1. 2. Select an alternate language in the “Select Language” drop-down list:

1. 3. Type your translation for each phrase in “Custom Labels” column and click “Save”:

OR

1. 1. Click the “Export” button to save the language file to your computer.

2. 2. Edit the downloaded .xlsx file locally filling in the “Custom Values” column:

1. 3. Click the “Import” button and select the edited language file from your local computer.

2. 4. Translation from “Custom Values” column will be displayed in “Your choice". Click the Save button to save the translation.

Mobile App Configuration

You can configure e.g set mobile app colors, default Course Catalog and language, etc. the LMS365 Mobile App for all Learners.

Look and Feel. Specify the Mobile App colors in this section:

Dashboard Menu. Select tabs that will be displayed to all learners by default:

Default Language. Select the default language of the app for all learners or select that it will be the device language. If you want your learners use the device language leave the selection as 'Device Language'. If the app does not support such language, it will automatically be set to English:

Default Course Catalog. Set the default Course Catalog for all learners. However, learners can choose another catalog from the app if available.

Information Page. Add an information page to show additional information in the app and decide whether to show it as a home page or not:

Help Page Link. Configure and set whether to show your own link to the Help Center or not.

Open Course in a Browser. Enable this option to allow learners to view Courses in the device browser.

Open web content in a Browser. Choose how the web content is displayed on the mobile device.

Managing Licenses

Before you start working with the LMS365 App, you need to activate the License. LMS365 license automatically assigned to learners enrolled in courses.

Trial License

The Free App comes with the 30 days trial license included and the unlimited number of users. There is no need to obtain a license key during the trial period.

To activate the trial license

1. 1. Go to the Settings − License Information.

2. 2. Type the word trial in the fields.

3. 3. Click the Activate button.

After the successful license activation, a green check mark will appear next to the activated license.

To check the status of the license:

1. 1. On the license information page, click the Information icon next to the desired tool:

1. 2. The license information will be displayed:

Start Date. Shows the start date of the trial period.

End Date. Shows the end date of the trial period.

Current number of users. Shows current number of unique Learners across each Course. Current number of Learners is counted for all Courses of the tenant.

Current number of Training Packages (for SCORM & AICC Player). Shows current number of uploaded packages.

License Key. Displays that your license has a trial status.

Activate a License

To activate a license if you have received a license key from ELEARNINGFORCE:

1. 1. Go to the Settings − License Information.

2. 2. Enter the key in the License Key field.

3. 3. Click the Activate button.

After the successful license activation, a green check mark will appear next to the activated license.

To check the status of the license, click the Information icon next to the desired tool. You will see the following information:

Start date. Shows start date of your license.

End Date. Shows end date of your license.

Max number of users. Shows maximum number of users allowed by your license. If maximum number of users was exceeded, it is possible to delete users (delete Learner from a course) to meet the license limitations.

Current number of users. Shows current number of unique Learners across each Course. Current number of Learners is counted for all Courses of the tenant.

License key. Shows last symbols of your license key.

You will see a red cross next to the license as well as the following message in the License Information when license has expired:

A warning icon is displayed next to the license in the following cases:

• •License is expiring (depending on the Notifications settings):

• •License Start Date has not come yet:

• •The maximum number of users was exceeded. You can create a report to see which users are present in the system:

Managing Activated License

After you have activated License you can specify users that you want to unenroll from all trainings as well as create the report with the list of all users that are counted in the license.

To unenroll users from all courses and training plans:

1. 1. Navigate to the User Administration tab.

2. 2. Specify the needed user(s).

3. 3. Click the Unenroll button:

To create user license report:

1. 1. Click the Create a report button.

2. 2. The excel file will be downloaded automatically.

You can also set e-mail notification to alert selected Administrator when maximum number of users is reached, number of days when license is about to expire, number of days after license is expired:

1. 1. Navigate to the Notifications tab.

1. a. Specify number of users in % to get the notification when the number of users is reaced. You can specify several number of days separated by comma; by default, 50 and 99 % are set.

2. b. Specify number of days before license expires. You can specify several number of days separated by comma; by default, 30, 14, 7, 1 days are set.

3. c. Specify number of days after license expires (you can specify several number of days separated by comma; by default, 0, 5, 10 days are set).

1. 2. Choose user(s) who will receive notification:

1. 3. Click the Save button.

LMS Administrators Management

The LMS Administrator will have the same access to the content and management as the Office 365 Global Administrator. It means that user with such role will be able to edit or delete Course Catalogs, edit language files, manage licenses and LMS Configuration, specify the Mobile Configuration as well as add other LMS Administrators.

However, The LMS Administrator will not have permissions to manage the Course Catalogs until they are added to the Course Catalog Admins.

To add a new LMS Administrator:

1. 1. Click the Add LMS Administrator button at the top of the page:

1. 2. Select user(s) to assign the role. It is impossible to select the external users.

2. 3. Select whether to notify the user(s) about assigning the new role or not:

If any of the selected users does not have a specified email, you will see the following message:

1. 4. After adding the users, you will see a list of them with the emails, user(s) who assigned the role as well as the date and time it was assigned:

To send the message to the LMS Administrator:

1. 1. Click the desired users.

2. 2. Select the Send Email Message action:

1. 3. Enter subject and message.

2. 4. Click the Send button to send an email.

To unassign the LMS Administrator:

1. 1. Click the desired users.

2. 2. Select the Unassign action and confirm your action

LMS Configuration

Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator can manage the training targeting in the Course Catalog(s), arrange the view of the Learner Lists, specify the currency which will be used to register internal cost for the Sessions, configure the Line Managers’ access and availabilities in the system as well as generate or revoke API key:

Course Targeting. There is a possibility for the Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator to define the audience for the Courses and Training Plans in the Course Catalog(s).

By default, the Course Targeting option is disabled in the Global Settings, it means that all users with the access to the Course Catalog will see all training in it, however, the access to the training site will still depend on the Target Audience specified for the training (if there is any; if no – everyone from the Course Catalog could access the training site and enroll into it).

If the Course Targeting option is switched on in the Global Settings, it means that the users will only see Courses or Training Plans in the Course Catalog that are targeted to them. Courses or Training Plans targeting can be managed during their creation process. Please note that enabling Course Targeting will reduce the performance of the catalog slightly as all courses will be filtered based on the user’s permissions.

Learner List Columns. The Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator has an ability to change the view of the Learner List (for example: to add new columns as well as manage the LMS365 System ones).

To add the new column on edit view columns panel, click the Add a Column button, and complete the required fields in the opened form:

Title. Enter the name for the column.

Type. Choose the preferred data type from the drop-down list. The default type is string. Please note that you will not be able to change the column type.

Description. Specify the column definition.

Visible on Learner List. Define the ability for the column to be either shown on or hidden from the edit view columns panel. When disabled, the column will be hidden from the list of the columns that can be displayed on the Learner List.

To edit the column, select the required one and click the Edit Column button on the actions panel. According to the way the column was created, you will have the different options on the actions panel:

For the LMS365 System columns you can enable/disable Visible on Learner List option as well as overwrite the data (except the Username, User is in Course Catalog and Manager columns) by enabling Custom Synchronization. Once Custom Synchronization is enabled, the LMS365 will no longer synchronize the data from Microsoft Azure AD and you can populate the column from your own data source via API. For more information about how to add custom data to the Learner List please visit our Help Center.

For the new created columns, you can change the title, description as well as the ability to be shown on the Learner List.

To delete the column, select the required column and click the Delete Column button on the actions panel. The information the column contains will be deleted from the database as well as from the Learner List.

Internal Cost Currency. The Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator can configure the currency that will be used to register the internal cost of the session-based learning.

To specify or change the currency, select the desired currency from the drop-down list:

You can find the summary information for the internal cost using the LMS365 API.

To view the internal cost per learner as well as per session via the LMS365 API, use the endpoint get/reports/courseSessions/learnerIndividualCost.

• •For the internal cost per learner, navigate to the desired User – Cost:

"Cost": 100,

"Currency": "USD"

• •For the total cost per session, navigate to the desired Course Session – Cost, e.g.

"Cost": 1000

To build up the reports, you can use the Microsoft power BI following these steps.

Line Management Settings. The Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator can modify the Line Managers’ availabilities in the LMS365:

The Show Line Manager Dashboard option gives an ability to turn off the navigation to the Line Manager Dashboard for the whole tenant. If this option is disabled, the users will not see any link to the Line Manager Dashboard on the My Training Dashboard page. If you deselect this option, the next two will be unavailable for you.

The Manage Enrollments and Training Records option gives an ability to unable/disable enrollment, unenrollment of Learners as well as import the external Training functionality from the Line Manager Dashboard.

The Include Classic Team View option gives an ability to show both the buttons to the Line Manager Dashboard and to the Classic Team View on the My Training Dashboard page.

API Key Management. The Office 365 Global Administrator or LMS Administrator can generate or revoke the API key themselves. This key provides you with the direct access to all your LMS365 data:

To generate or revoke the API key:

1. 1. Click the Generate or Revoke button:

The key will be either generated or revoked.

1. 2. Click the Save button and confirm this changing: