Course Administration (Backend) Backend Course Administration features: subscriptions, courses, categories, catalogs, coursepaths, etc. Course Management Overview Course management is located under: Admin > Elearning > Courses > Courses The course management page is split in two main parts, as for the user management.  Categories: a tree-like structure for content categories.  Course list: a flat list of all the courses assigned to the selected category What is a Category  A category is a container for courses, generally used to group courses by topics. Categories will be shared among catalogs and other parts of the platform. NOTE: If you need a way to assign groups of courses to specific users, check the catalog feature What is a course A course is a logical container, you can manage administrative features from this backend section: Description and categorization Subscription modes and user enrollment Course scheduling Certificate assignment Training features will be managed from the platform frontend instead: Learning Materials Course features Training stats Categories You can: Create  an unlimited number of categories and nested categories Move  a category under another category: click on its name and drag'n'drop the folder Delete a category only if it is empty Filter and Search Courses Options that apply to the course list below: Classroom : show only courses of type “classroom” Show also children content : list also courses from the child categories Waiting users : show only courses with users waiting to be approved Courses This list shows courses from the selected category, ordered by code, name or type. Here, you can control and manage the following features for each course: Students Simply shows the number of users enrolled to this course with level “student” Waiting Number of user subscriptions to be approved when “moderated” registration is active. Click on the number to manage the waiting users: Subscriptions Number of users subscribed to the course. Check the “subscription management” page of this guide for details Editions Number of editions available for a “classroom” or “elearning editions” course. Check the “editions management” page of this guide for details Certificates Assign Assign a certificate template to this course Certificate Release Check the list of available and released certificate for this course Competences Click this icon to set the competences assigned by the course. Each course can assign one or more competences, click on the icon to: Select  the competences assigned by the course Edit the competence score assigned to the user when the course is completed Manage Competences Check the  Competences Guide to learn how to create and manage competences in Forma LMS. Menu Assign a different menu template to this course Copy Duplicate this course. You will be able to select which elements of the course to copy: Edit Edit the selected course information and settings Delete Delete the course. Caution! This operation can't be undone! Creating and editing a course Here you can see all the configuration settings available for a course. This same configuration page is used for both creating a new course and editing an existing one. Most of them are self-explaining, we will provide descriptions and details where needed: Main course information Selected Category : shows the selected category for the course. Can be changed upon course edit. Code : enter an alphanumeric code that will help you identify different versions or releases of courses with similar titles, or to integrate course features with other applications. Course Type : Select the course type: Elearning: standard elearning course Classroom: course with editions and classroom management Elearning with editions: course with edition management Since Forma LMS 4.1.42 is not possible anymore to change the course type if users are already enrolled to the course. This and other conditions (subscriptions via API or import) led to some inconsistencies in previous versions, with "ghost" subscribed users on master courses converted from elearning to classroom or vice versa. Also, An automatic realignment algorithm ensures consistency between master course enrollments and classroom session enrollments by removing users enrolled only in the master course and adding those enrolled only in sessions. It operates on one or all classroom courses, respects overbooking rules, and safely handles repeated executions without side effects. It is also applied during upgrades to fix legacy inconsistencies. See the release article for details .  Course Status : Select the status for this course: Under Construction: the course is only accessible to the users responsible for preparing its content (normally teachers, tutors, mentors and/or administrators); Confirmed/ Available: the course is accessible to the users. Confirmed is meant to be used for classroom courses, available is meant for elearning courses Concluded: the course is finished and only those users who have concluded it have access; Cancelled: the course is no longer accessible, and registration from the course catalog is no longer possible. Directly play the first object : when clicking on the course “enter” button, the first LO will be automatically opened. Don't use this option if you have more than one LO, because it would be impossible to play the following LO's Course Box Description : enter the text to be displayed in the “my Courses” boxes. You can also insert a link, provided you write it with the appropriate HTML Code The description will then be displayed on the My Courses page and in the Catalog Description : full description that can be shown in the “course info” module, or inserted in certificate templates with a tag. Details Assign the menu : choose the menu template to be used in this course. If you don't select any different menu, the default one (i.e., the first in alphabetical order) will be used. Course Language : Define the language used for course materials. This option will be useful to filter or select courses by language in catalogs, enrollment policies, administrator assignments Difficulty : label to describe course difficulty level Credits : credits assigned by this course, to be shown in reports and calculated through the “time period” option Labels : assign a label to group courses with the “label” feature Course Subscription Free:  the course will be displayed on the “catalog” page, and the user will have the possibility of self-enrolling On approval:  the course will be displayed on the “catalog” page, and the user will have the possibility of self-enrolling. The request will have to be approved by a manager (an admin) Only admin:  the course will be displayed on the “catalog” page, but only admins will have the possibility of enrolling users. It might make sense to describe those options in the course description, for instance, writing “ask your manager to enroll you”. Code for automatic subscription : lets users self register to this course, entering this code upon registration or through the code field in the userpanel Sell course : enable this course for ecommerce features Display mode options The following options will let you define some aspects related to course visualization and layout elements: Show Course To : The above section describes the course visibility options. Any course can be displayed or not to users who are not yet enrolled. Please also see the reference guide on  Catalogs to learn how you can use catalogs, combining them with the displaying options. Show on Course interface : choose elements to display or hide inside the course Users Online in this course [Deprecated] : choose whether and how to display  the instant messenger. Deprecated : the IM has been removed since version 4.1, and the options has been removed in forma 4.2 Users to show on Course Information module : you can choose by level wich users to display in the course info module inside a course Deny Access to this course : Block access to the course for users in a specific status Time options In this section, you can configure options related to course scheduling and duration Days of validity :  course will be available to user only for the number of days defined in these fields. Time is calculated based on the date of user first access to the course. Note : When “days of validity”is set,  the course closing date shown in the course boxes on the “My Courses” page will be dynamically calculated based on each user's first access date . If closing date is set and is prior than the user calculated end date, it will be displayed instead. Average time for course: Estimated time for course fruition. It doesn't affect the user's stats, but can be used in course info and in reports. Decimal values are supported using a comma as the decimal separator (e.g., 1,50 to indicate 1 hour and 30 minutes). Special Options Max number of subscriptions : once the limit is reached, course subscriptions by users will be blocked Allow overbooking : once the max-subscription limit is reached, users will still be able to enroll to the course and put in a waiting list Documents Upload Banners are only shown in specific settings (i.e., with one of our plugins).  The course logo should be 400 × 140 pixels. Demo material can be anything you want, and it will be displayed in the My Courses page as well as in the Catalog, like this When you click on the three dots, you will see a clickable link allowing you to download whatever demo material you have uploaded. Editions Overview In Forma, the idea behind editions is to have many separate issues of the same master course, with different start/end date and subscription groups. All the editions of a course will inherit and share some features from the Master course: Course Menu Course Materials Logo and general configuration Certificates To create a course with editions, you can select the desired course type upon course creation. IMPORTANT:  Do not convert an existing elearning course to editions: it won't be possible to manage the original subscribers that weren't associated to any edition Add and Manage Editions Click on the “editions” column in course management to add and configure your editions A list of the available editions will be displayed: Elearning Editions You can use Elearning Editions to manage recurrent elearning or assessment courses requiring a start/end date and separate subscription All the editions will share the same course materials, configuration, and certificate template. Classroom Courses Classroom courses extend the elearning courses with the ability so define for each edition: Different dates and classroom schedule locations attendance Dates Settings First, in the edition configuration, select one or multiple dates for the classroom lessons: Then in following page you will be asked to set for each date: Lesson hours Classroom Location Attendance Use the “attendance” feature to flag the student that were actually present at each lesson day: Subscription management You can access subscriptions management from the course management page: Standard Subscription Management Fast Subscribing of a Single user Use the “fast subscribe” field to easily add a single user to the course.  Select the “Send Alert” checkbox if you want the user to be notified for the subscription Subscribing multiple users Click on the “Add” button if you want to add multiple users at once: 1. Select users : the system will open the user selection page, letting you select either: Multiple single users Massive select all users from some org-chart nodes Massive select all users in a group  Massive select all users by company role On the same page, you can select whether to notify the selected users for the subscription 2. Select users' role in course : User Roles Users can be enrolled to a course with 7 different roles, that can give different privileges in course frontend access and management depending on the course menu settings. Available roles are: Administrator : usually a god admin with full permissions on all the course management feature Instructor : usually used for teacher, can upload learning materials and access course stats, but not configuration features (i.e., menu management, intro page edit, etc.) Mentor Tutor Student Guest Ghost : doesn't appear in some stats Other Options Edit/Delete selected Import from course: let you import all the users subscribed to another course Import: import subscriptions as a CSV file containing a list of existing usernames Copy: copy the list of users subscribed to another course, leaving them subscribed also to this one Move: move subscriptions from this course to another one, removing them from the present one. Subscribed users list features The list of subscribed users lets you: Sort by username, full name, or set any desired field in the dynamic column Level : set the role for each user in the course, just click on the role to change it Status : change the user status in the course: Subscribed In Progress Completed Suspended Overbooking Subscription to confirm Waiting user Active from/to : set a range of dates for the course to be available to this user. Before and after these dates the user won't be able to enter the course. Remove the above validity dates Delete subscription Multiple Subscriptions With this feature, you will be able to: 1. Select users  to be enrolled: Single or multiple single users Massive select all users from some org-chart nodes Massive select all users in a group  Massive select all users by company role 2. Select one or more courses  to enroll the selected users to 3.  Set the role for all the selected users on all the selected courses Catalogs Global Catalog By default, the catalog module will display a frontend list of all the available courses, and users will be able to self-subscribe or buy courses, depending on each course status and settings. Activate the catalog You can activate the catalog view by enabling the “Course Catalog” label in: Admin > Settings > Elearning Configuration > User Area LMS Catalog Settings The behavior of the catalog module can be configured in  Admin > Settings > System Configuration> Settings > Elearning Frontend View Multiple Catalogs Management Multiple catalogs Management features are located under: Admin > Elearning > Courses > Catalogs Add Courses Use this feature to assign courses to this catalog Assign users Use this feature to assign users that will be able to view this catalog. You can select: Multiple individual users Orgchart nodes Company roles Subscribe users Select users to be automatically assigned to all the courses in the selected catalog Frontend View If you use multiple catalogs, each assigned to a node or branch, each user will be displayed the catalog related to the node he is assigned to. Certificates Certificate Management The general certificate management features are available under: Elearning > Certificates Management > Certificates Here you can create certificate templates and manage and release certificates for all the courses Certificate Template It is possible to create an unlimited number of templates, each of those can be assigned to multiple courses. Certificate content can be easily created with a text editor, using placeholder “tags” where dynamic content should appear based on user and course information. It is recommended to place the text inside a table: this will help you correctly place your text, your images, and your text in the correct positions. Tags - dynamic fields The certificate can include dynamic fields. The list of available tags can be found under the text editor: every field has its own description on the right.  If you have added additional user fields, they will be listed as [userfield_1] etc. , always with the description on the right.  Using the tags, the system will be able to dynamically add the user's name, the course name, the completion date and any other dynamic field you might want to add.    Multipage Certificates You can create multipage certificates by adding a page break, when you want the certificate to be split. In the editor menu click on Insert > PageBreak The background image will be repeated on each page. Background image The background image should be an A4. In pixels, it can be 595 × 842 with a low image resolution, or up to 2480 px * 3508 px with a 300 dpi resolution. Preview Click this icon for a preview of your template Release Click this icon for a list of all the courses using this certificate: Click on the course title for a list of the users and their release status in each course: Available options: Field visibility : add other columns to the table  Advanced Search : add advanced search filters to table header Generate all  the selected certificates, to make them available for download Download all  the selected certificates in a single zip file Delete a certificate and generate it again Direct Course Access: Please note this same user list is available from the course management for easier consultation(see below) Administrator View: This users list is automatically filtered on administrator assignements: each administrator will see only its assigned users Edit Change the name, code, and description of the template Course Certificate Management From the course management area, you can: Assign  one or more certificates to a course Check and manage released certificates Administrators: you can assign to an administrator profile both features, or just the certificate release management. Check the administrator guide page for details Assign Certificate to a course Click this icon to assign a certificate template to a course You can assign different certificate templates for different user status. Click on the “number of released certificates” to see the list of subscribed users and their status: Release Click on this icon to see a list of the users and their release status in each course. (See above: Certificate Management > Release) Enrolment Rules Overview With the enroll rules feature, it is possible to create automatic subscription rules based on different criteria. You can set the enroll rules from: Admin > Elearning > Enroll Rules Adding Rules When you add a new rule, you can set: Title : a name for the rule Language : the rule will apply only for users with the same language set for their profile, or for all users Type :  set the main criteria for selecting the users to apply this rule to. It won't be possible to change the rule type once it is saved. You can select users based on their: Orgchart Node Group Company Role Managing Rules Click on this icon to manage the rule:  Selecting Users You will be able to select the nodes, groups, or company roles to apply this rule to, based on the type of rule chosen upon creation. When the rule is active, all the users added to the selected node, group, or role will be automatically subscribed to some course.  Note: Rules will automatically apply automatically only to users added to the selected nodes/groups/roles after its creation. To apply the rule also to users already within the selected criteria, see the "apply rule" button below  Selecting Courses Here, you can select the courses to automatically enroll users. You can set different courses for each of the nodes, groups, or roles you selected Applying the Rule Click this button to automatically enroll all the existing users based on the selected criteria. Logs In this page you will see a list of all the applied rules. It will be possible to: Check a list of all the users subscribed through the rule Rollback the subscription, in case the rule was applied by mistake Reservations The reservation module allows the creation of subscription events (i.e., in presence seminars, meetings, exams, etc.), where users can subscribe from within a course. Events can be created and managed in two ways: by course administrators having the edit permission set for their subscription level (I. Teacher, tutor, etc.). The “Reservation” item must be added to the course menu by platform administrators, from the forma admin section Administration > Elearning > Reservation Management Event Categories Administration > Elearning > Reservation Management > Category A category is a general classification for events, like “Exams”, “Seminars”, “Meetings”, etc. Categories can be created only from the administration panel, and will be available for all events in any course on the same platform. For each category, you can set: Name : the name of the category Max event for category: limit the number of events a user can subscribe to in this category Events Administration > Elearning > Reservation Management > Events This section will let platform administrators add and manage events for all courses