Configure the course catalog page

Introduction

When a course catalog is created, a site collection is generated with three pages:

• A home page, which is the default page of the SharePoint site of the course catalog.
• A page that features My Training Dashboard.
• A home page for the course catalog.

These pages are created with LMS365 web parts that feature LMS365 content.

For the course catalog home page, the course catalog web part settings feature the selection of courses and training plans of this course catalog, as well as filters that help users to search for courses and training plans.

This article covers the course catalog web part settings and how these settings determine the presentation of courses and training plans in the course catalog.

 

Overview of the catalog web part settings

Required role: catalog admin.

 

 

To configure the course catalog web part:

1. On the course catalog home page, select the Web part settings icon. This is located below the banner image, in the top right-hand corner of the course catalog home page. The Course Catalog Settings configuration panel opens. 

 

 

2. On the Course Catalog Settings configuration panel, review the web part settings and make any relevant changes. Web part settings are displayed in two blocks:

• Catalog Content Editor. Features the display settings for the course catalog, and its courses and training plans.
  
  
• Filters. Features the search and filtering options for courses and training plans of the course catalog.

   

  

 

3. Save to apply the changes to the course catalog home page. The course catalog home page is automatically refreshed.

 

Catalog Content Editor

The Catalog Content Editor block enables you to configure the view and behavior of courses and training plans:

• Title. Add or change the title of the web part. The title is placed above the list of courses and training plans in the course catalog. To remove the title, clear the field and Save.

   

  
  
  

• Description. Add or change the course catalog description using the rich text editor. The description is placed below the title (if a title is specified) and above the list of courses and training plans in the course catalog. To remove the description, clear the field and Save.

   

  
  
  

• Training Sort Order. Configure the default display order for courses and training plans. The options are Newest Training First, Oldest Training First, Alphabetically (A-Z), Alphabetically (Z-A), and Highest Ranked Training First.

  The Arrange by filter can be used by users to define a sort order for courses and training plans, but this setting is applied only to the current view. The next time the user visits the course catalog home page, the view defaults to the Training Sort Order setting.

   

  
  
  

• Selector Switch. Toggle Selector Switch to determine whether you want users to be able to switch between the card and list views for courses and training plans. If this toggle is Off, courses and training plans are displayed in the view selected in the Card/List View option. If the toggle is On, users can select what view to use.
  Moreover, the calendar view becomes available for users when the toggle is On. Calendar view provides an overview of when course sessions are scheduled and helps users to plan their training attendance. Find more information about the calendar view in this article.

   

  
  
  

• Card/List View. Select the default view for courses and training plans in the course catalog. This is the view users will see if the Selector Switch toggle is set to Off. Calendar view can't be selected here as the default view.
  
  

• Detailed View. Toggle Detailed View to On to display the details panel when users select a course or training plan. If this option is set to Off, users are redirected to the training home page instead.
  
  

• Number of Training. Set the number of courses and training plans (in the range one to 50) you want to display in the All Courses block. The default value is 18. Users can select Show more and Show less to change this.
  
  

• Highest Ranked Training. Toggle Highest Ranked Training to On to display the highest ranked courses and training plans (based on their ratings) at the top of the course catalog home page. If this option is set to Off, courses and training plans are displayed in the order selected in the Training Sort Order option, and the Highest Ranked Training block won't be displayed.
  
  

• Number of Ranked Training. Set the number of courses and training plans (in the range one to 50) you want to display in the Highest Ranked Training block. The default value is six.

 

Filters

The Filters block enables you to configure the view and behavior of the filters that are used to search for courses and training plans:

• Show Filters. Toggle Show Filters to On to display the filters in the left-side menu by default. Additionally, users will be able to change the filtering logic of the Categories filter by selecting the filter icon and setting it to Match any (the filtered results will display courses and training plans that match any of the selected categories) or Match all (the filtered results will display courses and training plans that match all of the selected categories). These settings will be applied to the browse button as well, if the Category Options (Browse Buttons) option is enabled by the catalog admin in web part settings. For more information on how users search and filter courses on the course home page, see this article.

   

  
  
  

  If this option is toggled Off, users can still use filters by selecting the Filters icon in the top right-hand side of the list of courses and training plans. This opens the filters in the left-side menu.

   

  
  
  

• Display Count. Toggle Display Count to show or hide the number of courses or training plans that match each filter parameter, for example (3).
  
  

• Categories. Edit the settings in the Categories panel to configure the default category settings.
  Configure whether categories are shown as filtering options using the Display Categories toggle.

Category settings are shown in three blocks:

• Category Options (Left Navigation). Select up to five categories you want to show in the category filter in the left-side navigation of the catalog page. All other categories are available under Show more.
  Selecting 0 from the drop-down menu displays all categories of the catalog. Selecting any other number from the drop-down menu requires you to set the corresponding number of categories or subcategories to show in the category filter.
  
  

• Category Options (Course List). Group courses and training plans by category in the list of courses and training plans on the catalog page. You can set up to five categories you want to show initially, with other categories available under Show more. Courses and training plans with multiple categories are displayed under each relevant category group.

  Selecting 0 from the drop-down menu results in courses and training plans being displayed using the selected sorting method but they won't be grouped by category.
  
  

• Category Options (Browse Buttons). Feature up to six categories for which you want to assign filter buttons. Buttons are displayed above the list of courses and training plans on the catalog page and provide users with quick access to training that have those categories and their subcategories assigned. Using this feature, the Browse by Category block displays only the category names.

  The browse buttons filtering logic repeats the set by users category filtering logic of the Categories filter: Match any or Match all. Users can then select one or more buttons to show only the relevant courses and training plans. For more information on how users search and filter courses on the course home page, see this article.

   

  
  
  

• Training Type. Configure the types of training to which users can apply filters and set the order of the training types displayed in the left-side menu on the course catalog home page.

  By default, all training types are enabled and ordered in the following way: e-Learning, Instructor-Led Training, then Training Plan. By toggling these options On, you can show each training type and allow filtering on them. If training type filters are toggled Off, the Training Type filter isn't visible to users in the left-side menu.

  Drag training types to rearrange the order in which they are displayed in filters.

   

  
  
  

• Course Session Dates. Toggle Course Session Dates to On to enable users to filter courses that have sessions held within a specific date range. If this option is set to Off, the Course Session Dates filter isn't visible to users.
  
  

• Course Session Type. Toggle Course Session Type to On to enable users to filter courses that have active sessions of specific types: Onsite and Virtual. If this option is set to Off, the Course Session Type filter isn't visible to users.
  
  

• Course Session Instructors. When the toggle if Off, no filter by session instructors is displayed. Toggle Course Session Instructors to On to enable users to filter instructor-led training by the instructors assigned for any course sessions (published, ended, scheduled). After instructors are selected, only these courses are displayed that have these instructors assigned for the sessions.
  

  The Course Session Instructors filter lists all the session instructors of past and active course sessions for all instructor-led training in the catalog. By default, the number in brackets means the number of courses (not sessions) for which this user is an instructor of one or more sessions. 

  If there are more than five instructors, the list will have the Show more option, which is used to show all the session instructors in the catalog. Find more details about this filter here. 

   

  
  
  

• Skills. Toggle Skills to On to enable users to filter courses and training plans based on the skills granted to users upon completion. If this option is set to Off, the Skills filter isn't visible to users.