CLOUD, LEAN AND COMPLETE LMS WITH AN EMPHASIS ON USABILITY AND EASY COURSE CREATION

QUICK GUIDE
Contents
Intro ................................................................................................................................ 5
Administrator ................................................................................................................ 5
Dashboard ................................................................................................................ 5
Users ........................................................................................................................... 5
User files ................................................................................................................. 6
Courses ...................................................................................................................... 7
Marketplace ......................................................................................................... 8
Categories ................................................................................................................ 9
Timeline...................................................................................................................... 9
Groups ..................................................................................................................... 10
Branches ................................................................................................................. 11
Events engine ......................................................................................................... 12
Notifications ........................................................................................................ 12
Automations........................................................................................................ 12
Reports..................................................................................................................... 13
User types ................................................................................................................ 13
Import - Export ........................................................................................................ 15
Account & Settings ................................................................................................ 15
Basic settings ....................................................................................................... 15
Custom Homepage ........................................................................................... 18
Users ..................................................................................................................... 22
Themes ................................................................................................................. 23
Certifications ....................................................................................................... 24
Gamification ....................................................................................................... 25
E-Commerce....................................................................................................... 27
Domain ................................................................................................................ 30
Subscription ......................................................................................................... 30
Instructor ..................................................................................................................... 32
Dashboard .............................................................................................................. 32
 Course screen ........................................................................................................ 33
Course Users............................................................................................................ 34
Course Files ............................................................................................................. 35
Course Rules ........................................................................................................... 36
Course Reports & Timeline .................................................................................... 36
Unit completion conditions .................................................................................. 37
Content types......................................................................................................... 39
Regular units ........................................................................................................ 39
Web content ....................................................................................................... 39
Video.................................................................................................................... 40
Audio.................................................................................................................... 40
Presentation ........................................................................................................ 40
Flash...................................................................................................................... 40
SCORM or TinCan ............................................................................................... 40
iFrame .................................................................................................................. 41
Tests .......................................................................................................................... 41
Add a question ................................................................................................... 41
Set questions order ............................................................................................. 42
Set question weight ........................................................................................... 42
Test options .......................................................................................................... 43
Surveys ..................................................................................................................... 44
Add questions ..................................................................................................... 44
Set question order .............................................................................................. 45
Survey Options .................................................................................................... 45
Assignments ............................................................................................................ 46
Instructor-Led Training Events ............................................................................... 46
Multi-day sessions ............................................................................................... 52
Discussions ............................................................................................................... 54
Conferences ........................................................................................................... 55
Calendar ................................................................................................................. 56
Learner ........................................................................................................................ 60
My courses .............................................................................................................. 60
Course view ........................................................................................................ 60
Course catalog ...................................................................................................... 61
 Progress ................................................................................................................... 62
Join group ............................................................................................................... 62
Discussions ............................................................................................................... 63
Conferences ........................................................................................................... 63
Gamification........................................................................................................... 64
Calendar ................................................................................................................. 64
Generic ....................................................................................................................... 67
Personal info ........................................................................................................... 67
My info ................................................................................................................. 67
My courses........................................................................................................... 68
My certifications ................................................................................................. 68
My progress ......................................................................................................... 68
My groups ............................................................................................................ 68
My branches ....................................................................................................... 68
My timeline .......................................................................................................... 68
Messages ................................................................................................................ 68
Intro
Welcome! This is the Quick Guide of TalentLMS: the cloud-based, lean LMS with
an emphasis on usability and easy course creation. We have crafted TalentLMS
to be super-easy and super-useful. With it you can reuse content from various
sources to tell interesting stories with measurable learning goals.

This quick system manual is organized in 3 sections in accordance with the main
system working modes: the Administrator, the Instructor and the Learner mode,
and the Generic section applicable to all modes.

Administrator

Dashboard
The Admin dashboard includes everything you need to effectively manage
your account. Within it you can add users, create courses, view reports and
manage your account. The Dashboard includes 2 main sections. The left one
(1) has an icon-based menu of the most important functions. The right one (2)
includes a timeline of recent happenings inside your account. The header is
composed of a number of tools that can help you move, add, search and edit
anything really fast.

Users
A user can be added either from an admin (1) or self-register if permission is
granted. To allow a user to self-register you need to adjust the settings in
"Account & Settings  Users" (2).
User files
As an administrator you can attach files to a user’s profile. This is useful when,
for example, you want to share files with the end-user or you want to add a
“learning evidence” to their profile. A user-related file may be visible or invisible
to the end-user.

From the Dashboard, click on “Users” and then click on the edit icon to view
user’s profile. Click on the “Files” tab (1) to view the list of already uploaded files
or add new ones. When a new file is added its status is set to hidden from user.

If you want a specific file to be visible to the user, you should click on the
respective label in the visibility column (2) and select the visibility option of
choice (user can or cannot view the file). In the operations column (3) you can
preview, download, edit or delete a file.

6
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to assign a set of courses to new users directly?

How to add files to Branch/Group members profile

Courses
A course is the basic learning entity. If you want to sell a course, you will need
to give it a price (1). If you would like to offer a certification for everyone that
completes the course you will need to setup the type and duration of the
certification. The user that creates a course becomes its owner. You can also
assign more users as instructors for the course. Each instructor has the ability to
add and modify content according to his user type but is not able to edit the
course basic information such as name, category etc.

Note that you can Clone a course and reuse it in another context. When you
clone a course its users are reset and the user that clone it become its
instructor.

7
Marketplace
The Marketplace offers a collection of professionally build courses that you can
add to your account.

You can access the Marketplace by clicking on the Marketplace link next to
Add Course in the Dashboard (1).

First, select a course you want. If it is free, you can simply click on the “Get this
course” button to add it to your domain. If it is a paid course, you need to
select the number of licenses you need, pay for them and then you are ready.

The course will then be on your course list. You are able to edit the description,
change the avatar and add content. You cannot clone it though for security
reasons.

If it is a paid course, you will see a Licenses indication next to it (1). This
indicated the number of times you can assign the course to Learners. There are
no restrictions for Instructors.

A license is “Reserved” when you assign the course to a user but it is

“Consumed” only when the user completes the course. If, for some reason, the
learner abandons the course without completing it, you can reuse that license.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How sorting works for Courses?

How to support Compliance training with TalentLMS?
Course time limits & expired courses
How does Marketplace works?
How to add users to courses
How to massively un-assign users from courses
How to enable course ranking

8
 How to copy courses between portals

Categories
Use the Categories to organize your courses. Categories can form nested
hierarchies (1).

Timeline
View the latest activity in your learning portal through the Timeline.

The administrator has access to an extended timeline (1), showing all users'
activities and can filter the results using a specific date interval (2), event (3),
user (4), or course (5).

Through the timeline, you also have the option to permanently delete a user or
course as well to restore a user or course in case you deleted them by mistake.
You can achieve these operations by clicking on the “Undo delete” or
“Permanently delete” buttons next to a delete event.

9
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to restore a deleted User/Course

How to permanently delete a User/Course

Groups
Groups organize users into logical entities. With Groups you can communicate
with its users directly or assign them to a set of courses. Groups come with Mass
actions (1) to synchronize its users with its courses.

Groups can belong to branches. In order for groups to belong to branches you
should create them directly through the branch URL otherwise you will need to
define this through the group’s settings (1). In order for a group to work properly
in a branch, its courses need to be assigned to the branch first. Each group has
a unique identifier (2). You can share this identifier with end-users.

They can then use it to become members of that particular group and gain
access to its assigned courses. In the Redemptions field (3) you can define how
many times the group key can be used. Lastly, you have the option to set a
price to the group (4) or can offer its courses as a bundle to the users. In this
case, the group will show up under the Bundles section in the course catalog.

10
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to work with Groups

What is the difference between Groups and Branches

Branches
Branches are separate entities with their own courses, theme, users and
domain.

Each branch has its own URL. For example, if you own a domain
mydomain.talentlms.com and create a branch b1, then its own URL is b1-
mydomain.talentlms.com.

Only members of this branch can login from that specific URL. Users that self-
register through that branch become its members directly.

The user that initially created a domain is by default a SuperAdmin (full

privileges) on the branches as well. A regular branch admin has a limited
number of admin tools on branches (namely access to Users, Courses and
Reports).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to work with Branches

Branch naming restrictions
How to use Branches for multi-purpose training
What is the difference between Groups and Branches
How to add files to Branch/Group members profile
How to clone a branch within your portal
How to set up a default User type per Branch
How to set up a limit to the number of Branch users

11
Events engine

Notifications
Through the Notifications you can customize the communication emails that
are sent automatically from the system for specific events. For example you
can setup a mail to be sent to each user when their assignment is graded by
the instructor.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to work with Notifications

How to set up an Instant Course Completion Notification

Automations
Through the Automations you are able to automate course assignment and
user management. You can select an action that will be performed by the
system automatically, when a certain event occurs. For example you can
automatically reset and assign courses to users a few hours before certification
expiration.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to set up Automations

12
 How to assign courses based on the score a learner gets on a course

Reports
There is a variety of reports that are integrated with the system. When you first
enter the Reports screen, you can see an overview of "happenings" for the
current day. You can also adjust the reference period.

In TalentLMS you will find reports about Users, Courses, Branches, Groups,
Assignments, SCORM, Tests and Surveys. TinCan report is integrated to the
Timeline. There is also a Custom Reports generator (1) for better granular control
on the type of reports.

Note that course reports do include any interaction from Instructors.

Apart from these reports, you have the option to view and export your training
infographic (2).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to build custom reports

How to view the portal's infographic
How to view the user's infographic

User types
Each user belongs to only one user-type. From this option you can add or
customize the user-types according to your needs.

13
Each user-type may select characteristics from a predefined set of roles and
with different permissions for each role (1). The 3 available roles are: the Admin,
the Instructor and the Learner (2).

When you first create your domain, you will have 4 default user-types. One of
these is the SuperAdmin, which cannot be changed and is assigned to the
initial account owner, an Admin-type that has all available roles, an Instructor-
type that has the role of Instructor and a Learner type. By default an Instructor
shares the Learner characteristics so he can see what the course looks-like for
the learner.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to prevent users from self-registering to courses?

How to turn a Learner to Instructor and vice versa?
How to prevent an end-user from sending messages to other end-users?

14
Import - Export
You can import/export the following objects: Users, Courses, Branches, Groups,
Categories, Custom User Fields, and Custom Course Fields. You can also import
additional objects’ relations such as User to Course, User to Group, User to
Branch, Course to Group, and Course to Branch.

TalentLMS uses a simple textual format to describe imported or exported data.

You may import or export data in EXCEL format as well. Refer to the Samples (1)
for a detailed description of the data format that the system understands.
When you import data, TalentLMS will provide a detailed report on any error
found (2).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to import historic data of courses completion

Account & Settings

Use this function to setup your system. There is a variety of things you can
control including the appearance of your portal, the way that new users
register, your certification templates and your subscription.

Basic settings
This screen includes a number of generic options for customizing your portal.
Through this screen you can:

Modify your site identity by changing your site name, description and picture
(1) and by defining the default language, time zone, date format and currency
(2). You can also define a custom homepage for your portal instead of the
simple login page (*). Refer to the section "Custom Homepage", bellow.

15
Post an announcement that will be visible to any user entering your site (3).

Enable the TalentLMS API and Tincan API so that you can bridge TalentLMS with
other systems. Only SuperAdmins can activate API support and get the API key.

TalentLMS API

The TalentLMS API (4) is organized around Representational State Transfer

(REST). The API is designed to use built-in HTTP features, like HTTP authentication
and HTTP response codes. Regarding the responses, JSON is returned in all
responses from the API, including errors.

If your TalentLMS domain is called "samples", then the API endpoint for your
domain is: https://samples.talentlms.com/api.

Download API documentation

Download PHP library

TinCan API

TalentLMS has integrated a TinCan Learning Record Store (LRS) so that you can
record all your learning experiences, even those happening outside the space
of TalentLMS. Using JSON formatted statements you can post to your domain's

16
LRS and keep track of any kind of learning activities. Assuming your domain is
called "samples", your LRS endpoint is at https://samples1.talentlms.com/tcapi/
(5)

Download TinCan API documentation

In the same Security section, you can enable external course catalog (6).

Enforce SSL on login screen (6).

Lock the system in case of an upgrade for example. Only an admin will be able
to login while your portal is locked. (6)

In the Course settings section you can enable course summary upon entering a
course (7).

In the Conferences sections you may select one of the available online
conference integrations. Available options are the in premises deployment Big
Blue Button, and the well known solutions GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar,
GoToTraining, and Zoom (8).

In the Custom Fields section, you can create custom course and custom user
fields, set their visibility on reports, and their availability on main domain,
branches or both. Custom fields may be text fields, checkboxes, dropdown
fields or date fields. You can also define if a field is mandatory or not (9).

17
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to show the course catalog to non-registered users?

How to enable the course summary page
How to integrate TalentLMS with Big Blue Button
How to integrate my TalentLMS domain with GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and
GoToTraining
How to integrate my TalentLMS domain with Zoom
How to add custom fields to a user's profile
How to add custom fields to courses

Custom Homepage
The Custom homepage option lets you build a simple promotional website for
your learning portal. Navigate to the Basic settings and select “Custom
Homepage” in the Homepage field and then click on the edit icon to the right.

In the pop-up you will be able to view the list of menu entries of your
homepage (1). There are two special pages Home and Course catalog that
cannot be removed. However both of them can be deactivated.

Click on the top menu to add a simple page, consisting of text and image, or
add a menu entry pointing to an external URL. You can reorder the menu
entries by clicking on the Reorder button, or view how you homepage will look
like, by clicking on the Preview button (2).

Click on the Home menu to view the home edit screen. Home is divided in two
sections. The top one (1) consists of headline, a sub-headline and an artwork
welcoming your visitors. Artwork must be at least 1170 px wide. You can upload
an image with the option to crop them to the desirable dimensions.

In the bottom section (2) you can choose to show a list of up to 12 featured
courses on your homepage. Choose which one to show by clicking on their title

18
in the Featured courses field.

Click on any page from the list of menu entries or click on Add Page from the
top menu to view the page edit screen. Page title is the menu entry title. You
can define a headline and a sub-headline for your page as well as the URL
path relative to your portal’s domain name (1).

Type the content of your page with the WYSIWYG editor and optionally add an
image if required. Images must be at least 500px wide. You can upload larger
images and then crop them to desirable dimensions (2). If you choose to
include an image, then it will cover the right half of the page.

19
You can add menu entries that point to external websites by clicking on the
Add URL button from the top menu. The Page title is the menu entry title. Both
the page and url menu entries can be defined as external, internal or both.
Based on this option, the menu entry will be available before or after the user
login, or even both.

Bellow you can view how your custom homepage will look like by hitting on the
Preview button from the top menu.

20
Bellow you can view how a sample page will look like.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to add custom internal pages while keeping the Simple login page

21
Users
Through this tab you can define several options regarding users. First of all you
have to define how users will be able to sign up to your site (1). If you want to
automate the procedure you can select the direct mode or captcha mode
where the users simply fill in their information and are able to access the site.

The sign up with email verification option sends an email to the new user to
verify his account and then he is able to access the system while the sign up
with admin activation will let the user access the system when the admin
activates user’s account. Finally the manually option requires the addition of a
user to be done only by an admin.

Some other things that you can define are: the default user-type that will be
the user-type of new users (2); the default group meaning that every new user
that signups will automatically become a member of this group and will be
automatically assigned the group's courses (3); the password settings where
you can enforce users to use strong passwords to protect your system, enforce
password change after a number of days or on first login, and lock user’s
account after a number of failed attempts for a number of minutes (4); the
Terms of Service that will appear the first time a new user logs in, informing him
for example of the terms and policy and which needs to be accepted by the
user (5); you can define the way users will be visible throughout TalentLMS, for
example as “F. Last name”, or as “First name Last name” or as “Username” (6);
in the Social options section you can enable social media integration by
allowing signups and interaction with social media in course catalog, allow
sharing certifications on linked in and enable course rating (7).

TalentLMS provides Single Sign-On (SSO) services, allowing your users to

authenticate against an external Identity Provider. SSO is currently available on
Basic, Plus and Premium subscription plans and you can select among SAML2.0
and LDAP server types (8). Additionally, through SAML2.0 TalentLMS can provide

22
SSO services for ADFS2.0, OneLogin and RM Unify. When you finish setting-up the
SSO service, you can test your configuration and locate errors (9).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to assign a set of courses to new users directly

Available password related settings
How to enable course ranking
Integrating Single Sign-On with your Cloud LMS
How to configure SSO with an LDAP identity provider?
How to configure SSO with a SAML 2.0 identity provider?
How to configure SSO with Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services 2.0
(ADFS 2.0) Identity Provider?
How to configure SSO with OneLogin?
How to configure SSO with Okta?
How to access TalentLMS from RM Unify?
How to achieve two-factor authentication?
How to configure SSO with Azure Active Directory?
How to configure SSO with Google Apps?
How to configure user provisioning with the SCIM v2 API?

Themes
From this option you can change the look-and-feel of your portal. You can also
create additional themes for use on your branches. The process is really simple
and comes with a convenient live preview. In case you destroy your theme you
can always revert to the default settings (1).

23
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to modify the CSS of your domain theme?

What CSS to use to modify the default font on units?
How to discover the CSS element for a specific page object?
How to add Javascript to your theme

Certifications
This is the place where you can create new certification templates. You may
use these templates with any course. You can edit the certification text and
add a number of fields, like organization name, expiration date etc. You can
also upload a new background for your certifications. Note that you are not
allowed to delete the default templates.

24
MORE TO EXPLORE

How can I add my logo inside a certification?

How To work with certifications
How to select between landscape and portrait certifications
How to update the issued certificates
How to allow users to share their Certifications to LinkedIn

Gamification
Gamification takes the data-driven techniques that game designers use to
engage players, and applies them to non-game experiences to motivate
actions that add value to your business like participation, engagement, and
loyalty. TalentLMS includes the following Gamification characteristics – Points,
Badges, Levels, Leaderboards & Rewards.

Gamification Engine

The Gamification engine lets you customize the Gamification experience to

your specific needs. As an example you may turn off certain gamification
characteristics or boost others.

Points

Points can be collected on a number of occasions like a test or course

completions. Points can be transformed to Rewards according to rules you set.

Badges

Badges are visual stamps unlocked on certain achievements. TalentLMS offers

badges that are compatible with Mozilla’s Badges Initiative (Backpack); this
means that a user will be able to synchronize his badges with the Mozilla’s
backend.

TalentLMS offers badges in a symmetrical and predictable manner. It is easy to

start getting badges by completing simple things like a few logins or one course
completion, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to get additional badges.
We use 8 categories of badges, with each category consisting of 8 badges. All
together we have 64 badges that a user can unlock. Badges can be

25
customized by changing their name or even their image (1). A domain admin
may select to work with a subset of badge categories if he wants to.

Levels

Levels unlock Courses. One will be able to upgrade levels by collecting Points
or Badges. By default, users start on Level 1. When levels are turned-on, the
course editing screen will have a new Level option. This sets the minimum
needed level for unlocking that course. On course catalog, courses that
cannot be obtained from a user due to Level restrictions will be appropriately
labeled.

Rewards

Rewards turn points or badges to discounts. The status of rewards is accessible

directly from the Gamification Widget.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards offer a visual depiction of one’s Position under various metrics

(e.g., Total Points) compared to fellow learners. The Leaderboards always
mention the best on their category and a few people around the reference
user. This way the learner has a grand overview of his position compared to
others. Leaderboards are accessible directly from the Gamification Widget.

26
MORE TO EXPLORE

What Gamification characteristics are supported?

How to customize the Gamification experience?
How to synchronize Badges with Mozilla's Backpack?
How to see the Gamification Reports
How to customize Badges
How to reset the Gamification statistics for specific Groups/Branches
How to reset the Gamification statistics for a User
How to customize the points awarded per course
How to manually modify the gamification points of a user

E-Commerce
TalentLMS supports collecting payments for courses either through PayPal or
Stripe (1). Note that if you do not enter a payment gateway end-users will be
allowed to get courses with prices without paying for them.

You can define monthly subscriptions (2), discounts (3) and issue invoices for
your customers (4). In the Coupons section, you can define discount coupons
for a given period of time (5). The “E-commerce timeline” option (6) gives you
access to the history of purchases.

27
Subscription vs one-time purchase

Subscription (2), is a new way to offer your paid course in TalentLMS, which
allow your end-users to have access to all paid courses by paying a monthly
fee, as opposed to the per-course, one-time purchase.

Currently, subscriptions can be configured only with the Stripe payment

processor. Bare in mind that when subscription is enabled, discount for all paid
courses, categories, and groups is not applicable. End-users may now subscribe
to any course by clicking on the subscribe button next to a paid course (1), fill-
in their credit card number and will immediately have access to any paid
course. In the example bellow, by subscribing to “History of Cinema”, will
immediately have access to both paid courses (“History of Cinema” and
“History of Information”) by paying the subscription fee (10$) once.

28
End-users have access to their payments and can control their subscription by
clicking on the “My payments” option from the horizontal menu. If at any time,
they decide to cancel their subscription, by clicking the “Cancel your
subscription” button (1), their access to all paid courses will also be canceled.
Bellow, they can view their payment history and download their invoices.

Subscription settings can be defined per branch (1). For example you may wish
to enable subscription for all paid courses in a branch, while allow the per-
course purchase in another branch. The subscription settings are defined on
the “Edit branch” page along with the rest settings (name, description, theme,
language etc.). Have in mind that a course may be provided as one-time
purchase though a branch and as part of a subscription in another.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to setup Paypal payments for courses?

How to setup Stripe payments for courses?

29
 How to work with Discounts?
My course has a price but it still shows as Free on Catalog?
How to work with Coupons

Domain
From this screen you can rename your TalentLMS domain (e.g, rename it from
domain1.talentlms.com to domain2.talentlms.com) (1) or map an external
domain to it (e.g, map lms.mysite.com to domain1.talentlms.com) (2). You can
also configure emails to be send from your custom domain (3).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to map a domain with TalentLMS?

Custom Domains and SSL

Subscription
This tab gives you access to your subscription and current usage statistics. You
can upgrade (1) or downgrade (2) your subscription at any time. Simply select
the plan that interests you and initiate your subscription using your credit card.

30
Please note that you cannot downgrade to a plan if your active users are more
than the related plan's limit. Note that TalentLMS will inform you when your
account has reached 80% user capacity via an email.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How paid plans work and what are their limits?

How to calculate monthly fees when Upgrading or Downgrading mid month?
What happens if I cancel my subscription mid month?
Where can I get the Invoice for my Subscription payments?
How can I delete my account?
How to edit my Invoice information/recipient

31
Instructor

Dashboard
Your instructor dashboard includes all the courses you own as Instructor. Note
that you may also have courses assigned to you as a Learner. Those won't be
shown on this screen (1). However, if you switch to Learner mode you will see all
your courses, even those assigned to you as an Instructor (2). In the Learner
mode, a special instructor label is used to distinguish between the courses you
are subscribed to as a Learner and those as an Instructor.

This behavior allows you to experience how your courses feel like when
accessed from Learners. Note that your progress on the courses you own as
Instructor will not be part of the course reports.

This screen also has options to add new courses, user groups, conferences and
discussions (3). When you add a course you become its owner by default. Even
if you stop being an Instructor for a course you can still manage the courses
you created.

32
MORE TO EXPLORE

How sorting works for Courses?

How to support Compliance training with TalentLMS?
Course time limits & expired courses

Course screen
The course screen includes a variety of tools to create and manage your
courses.

TalentLMS supports a number of different content types including Videos,

Presentations, Tests, Assignments, Instructor-Led Training events and Surveys.
When you select a Video or Presentation, TalentLMS lets you search on
YouTube or Slideshare. You may upload and use your own Videos and
Documents as well. When you select Web-content you can embed content
from a variety of tools including Wikipedia and Scribd. When we are unable to
find a multimedia object in a given URL we treat it as text content. TalentLMS
analyzes the page content to find its main part and re-bundles it to be more
user-friendly.

From the Course screen you can also set the order of units or communicate
with the course users by sending a message, creating a calendar event, or
checking each unit’s mobile app compatibility. Finally, you can also toggle the
Share status of a course. A shared course has a unique URL that you can give
to anyone you want to follow the course without registering. If you allow users
to self-register, they can register directly when they complete a shared course.

33
MORE TO EXPLORE

How can I share courses with end-users?

Why courses may have the indication "Try it for free"
How to create a new unit by drag and drop

Course Users
Through this option you can view the progress of the users enrolled to the
course. You can also reset their progress on course or preview any certification
that has been given to them. When you reset the progress of someone that has
gain a certification for that course, you will be asked whether you want the
certification revoked as well. You can add new users to this course from the
additional “All users” tab (1).

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to reset the status of a user in a course (or set as completed)?

How to massively un-assign users from courses

34
Course Files
Each course includes a File Library. From the File Library you can upload files
and use them when creating Units. You can also share files with Learners. All
shared files are shown to Learners as available downloadable items when
traversing content. Depending on the uploaded file type we apply some
transformations to make it a better fit for your learning environment. These
transformations are:

 All images are reduced to a maximum of 900 pixels

width.
 All videos are re-encoded as MP4 so they can be used
on modern browsers and mobile devices. Similarly, audio is re-encoded
as MP3.
 For free accounts you can upload files up to 20MB/file.
Small plan has a limit of 100MB/file. For bigger accounts you can upload
files up to 300MB/file. Note that this limit is per file. There is no maximum
uploaded limit.

MORE TO EXPLORE

What are the upload limits?

How to share files with users?
How to upload files from Dropbox to TalentLMS
How to upload files from Google Drive to your courses

35
Course Rules
Three types of rules allow you to organize how material is presented to end-
users.

The traversal rules define whether the learners must see and complete the units
sequentially or not.

The completion rules allow you to define when a course is set as completed.

Finally, you can add prerequisites between your courses, using the availability
rules. A course can have any number of courses as prerequisites.

Note that all courses are shown in an alphabetical order except if they have
prerequisites (where we order them based in the way they should be
completed).

Course Reports & Timeline

The course report shows an overview of users' interaction with the course
through time. Note that reports do not include any interaction with course from
Instructors.

36
The course's timeline shows all recent activity of users of the course. Click on
labels to filter related activities.

MORE TO EXPLORE

Tracking User Progress in a Course

Unit completion conditions

When adding a new unit (1) you have to define how the unit will be completed
by the learner.

37
There are three available options (2):

 With a checkbox: The learner has to click on the complete button at the
end of the unit.
 With a question: The learner has to answer a question. You can select or
create a question directly for this interface.
 After a period of time: The learner needs to spend a predetermined
amount of time on the unit.

38
MORE TO EXPLORE

How updating Units work while people have the related Course?

Content types

Regular units
By selecting Add content you are able to create a simple unit using the
available editor. Type your text, modify it using the visual editor and add
images directly in the unit.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to efficiently copy content from Word to TalentLMS Editor

Web content
Use this option to create a unit using content from YouTube, Vimeo, Wikipedia,
Slideshare, Scribd, Prezi or Flickr. All you have to do is paste the URL of the

39
webpage that includes the object you want to embed and save it. Note that
you can use wikipedia.com instead of wikipedia.org to include the full
wikipedia article and not only the introduction part. Although this tool has been
optimized for use with the above services you can literally use it with any web-
page on the internet; it will work with a good portion of them.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to embed Prezi, Vimeo or Wikipedia content

Video
TalentLMS allows you to use your own videos as the content of units. You can
also search for videos on Youtube. If you upload your own videos they will be
re-encoded as MP4 files so they can be viewed on all modern browsers and
mobile devices.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to synchronize the Unit timer with the video

Audio
TalentLMS lets you use your own audio files as the content of units. All audio files
are re-encoded as MP3 files so they can be viewed on all modern browsers
and mobile devices.

Presentation
TalentLMS allows you to use your own presentations as the content of units. You
can also search for presentations on Slideshare.

You can also upload your own docs or pdfs. TalentLMS makes use of Google
Viewer to render and show your documents.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to preserve audio and animation on Presentations

Flash
You can use Flash (.swf) files as content of units. Note that this type of content
will not be playable on IPad or IPhone devices.

SCORM or TinCan
TalentLMS has internal support for SCORM 1.2. You can replay a SCORM file as
an embedded page object or in a popup.

40
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to fix an invalid SCORM file

iFrame
You can define the width, height and the web address of an iFrame as content
of units.

Tests

Add a question
In order to create a Test, you first need to add Questions. For your own
convenience you can view and reuse questions from any other course that you
own. At some point you will have to add new questions though. Six main types
of questions are available (1):

 Multiple choice questions: type the question text, add the multiple
choices and define the correct one(s). You can add feedback which
will be shown to the learner after submitting his answer.
 Match questions: type the question text and use brackets [..] for the
possible answers. When you use | to offer multiple answers the first
should be the correct one. You can add feedback which will be shown
to the learner after submitting his answer.
 Ordering questions: type the question text and add the possible answers
in the correct order. We will mix the answers for the end-user. You can
add feedback which will be shown to the learner after submitting his
answer.
 Drag and drop questions: type the question text and add the possible
couples in the correct order. We will mix the answers in each side for the
end-user. You can add feedback which will be shown to the learner
after submitting his answer.
 Free text question: type the question and allow free text answers. The
answer is considered correct if the accumulated points exceed a
specific threshold. You can define how many points are earned or lost
based on the appearance of specific keywords in the answer. You can
add feedback which will be shown to the learner after submitting his
answer
 Randomized question: type the question name and select the questions
that will be part of this randomized pool.

You can also import question using the GIFT/AIKEN format.

41
Use the "Add" button in front of any question (2) to make it part of the test.

Set questions order

If you prefer precise control you can set your questions order from this option.

Set question weight

If you prefer you can set the weight of each question (1).

42
Test options
In Test options you can control a number of parameters for your test; these
include the following:

 Test duration: A test is auto-submitted when its duration is exceeded.

Leave this option empty if you do not want a duration for your test (1).
 Pass score: An end user needs to get this minimum to pass the Test (2).
 Repetitions: Allow the end use to repeat the test (3).
 Randomizations: There is a plethora of randomization options like the
question order or the answers order. Make each Test unique (4).
 Completion: This option offers an overview of how the end-user did in the
test compared with its peers (5).
 Behavior: In this option you can define the behavior of your test in each
question. For example you can allow movement on previous and next
questions, do not allow to continue until the correct answer is chosen, or
abandon immediately whenever cannot pass the question (6).
 Security: You may require learner snapshot to start the test (7).
 Description and messages: In this option you can define a short
description of the test as well as the messages that will be shown when
the test is passed or failed (8).

43
MORE TO EXPLORE

How question weights work?

How to add audio to test questions?
How to prevent copy/paste on "free text" questions?
How to disable copying of questions text?
How to import questions using GIFT/AIKEN format

Surveys

Add questions
In order to create a Survey you first need to add Questions. For you
convenience you can view and reuse survey questions from any other course
you own. Whenever you want, you can add new questions. Two main types of
questions are available (1):

 Multiple choice questions: type the question text, add the multiple
choices and decide if only one answer can be selected.
 Free text questions: just type the question text.

44
Use the "Add" button in front of any question to make it part of the survey (2).

Set question order

If you prefer precise control you can set your questions order from this option.

Survey Options
 Show answers after completion: The submitted answers will be shown to
the learner after completing the survey.
 Do not continue until an answer is chosen
 Description: A survey description that will be shown to the learner before
starting the survey.

45
Assignments
Assignments provide your users the ability to upload a file as a reply to
complete a unit. As an Instructor you can give a name for the assignment and
define how it can be considered as completed. The available options are:

 When instructor accepts the answer

 When uploading an answer

Your users can either upload a document or type their assignment in a text box.
Then you can see each assignment and the time completed, set its status
(passed, not passed or pending), set your comments and give it a grade.

Assignments open up the possibility of using TalentLMS in extended learning

scenarios. They come with their own dedicated Reports, Notifications and
Timeline integration.

Instructor-Led Training Events

Instructor-Led training, or ILT, is one of the traditional training modes where the
instructor is generally leading the class in a classroom-type environment. This
type of training may be held in a room, office, conference room or on a virtual
location (video conference or better known as webinar).

From the course screen click on “Add” button and then select “Instructor-Led
Training” (1) to create a new ILT event.

46
On the main ILT screen define the “Unit name” (1) and then click on a specific
day on the calendar below to create a new session (2). Alternatively, you can
view current sessions and create new ones from the sessions’ grid view by
clicking on the respective button (3). Common session operations available
from both calendar and grid views are edit, clone, delete and view session’s
registered users.

On the top-right is the “Users” (4) button where you can manage registered
and unregister users by adding or removing them from a session.

47
Click on the “Add session” button to create a new session. Define the required
fields: name, date and start time (1). Capacity is optional. Leave it blank for no
restrictions. Select the instructor that will be in charge of this session and define
the session type (2).

Sessions may be either of classroom-type or webinar-type. Classroom sessions

are held in a physical place. You can write in the textbox on the right, a few
details about the physical location. Webinars on the other hand are held on a
virtual location. Defining a session as a webinar gives you the option to take
advantage of the TalentLMS’s integrated video-conference solution based on
BigBlueButton, by checking the “Create a new webinar” checkbox (3).
Creating an integrated video-conference webinar raises some limitation on
Start time, Capacity, and Duration. Also have in mind that once an ILT session is
defined as an integrated webinar, you cannot change its type, capacity and
duration and you cannot clone it. The “Join webinar” link will be available to
the instructor in charge of the session and all registered users from the course
view page, the conferences page, and the calendar page.

Alternatively you may leave this check box unchecked and use your video-
conferencing service of choice.

Define duration and description and click on the “Add session” button to save
the session (4).

48
Below you can view the info pop-up that rises when clicking on a session in the
calendar view for classroom-type (1) and webinar-type (2) sessions. The same
pop-up is available to the learners on the calendar page, where the actions
buttons (edit, users, clone) are replaced with the export button.

49
On the course view page, learners can view a list of available ILT sessions to
register. Availability is primarily defined by time and capacity. Past as well as full
sessions are not available for registering.

The learner then selects a session by clicking on the “Register” button. The
selected session becomes part of their calendar. Users are free to register or
unregister from available sessions.

When the time comes and based on the session type (classroom or webinar)
user should attend the session by either joining the classroom or by clicking on
the “Join webinar” link in case the session takes advantage of the TalentLMS’s
integrated video-conferencing service.

The ILT unit is considered completed when the instructor changes learner’s
status from “pending” to “passed” or “not passed” and optionally by defining a
grade.

Once a user has been registered to a past session, and/or has completed the
ILT unit he/she cannot unregister from that session.

50
Course instructors can manage ILT event’s users from the “Users” page. On the
first tab “Session user”, you can view the registered users of the session selected
(1). You can also set the status and grade of each user, notify them through
email and remove them from the session (2). With the “Mass grade users”
button you can set status and grade for all users at once (3).

On the second tab “All users” you can view all course’s users regardless of
whether they have registered or not to a session. You can select a different
session on the Session select box (1) of a respective user to move the user to
another session, or select “Remove from session”.

51
Multi-day sessions
Multi-day sessions are a new way to define sessions for an ILT event. With multi-
day sessions you can link sessions together to act as a single session. To create
a multi-day session you should already have created at least one session to link
with. All sessions that are part of a multi-day session are linked to the same
session forming a multi-day group. Below (1), sessions “Day1”, “Day2”, and
“Exams” form a multi-day sessions, by linking “Day2” and “Exams” sessions to
the “Day1” session.

To link sessions together click on the “Edit” button of a session and then click on
the “Multi session” link at the bottom of the form. Two new options will become
available (1): the list of the sessions available for linking, and the new name of
the multi-day session. Select a session, type the multi session name and click on
the Update session button to form a multi-day session.

52
Multi day sessions are grouped together in the list view. All sessions forming a
multi-day session, share the same group of registered users, a centralized multi-
session name, capacity, and color. Certain limitations may apply for example in
capacity if at least one of the linked sessions is of type webinar using the
TalentLMS integrated video-conference solution.

Multi-day sessions are presented to the learner as a group of sessions as you

can see below.

53
MORE TO EXPLORE

How to mass grade your ILT sessions

Discussions
Discussions is a simplified form of a Forum.

Discussions can be created by instructors (or even learners according to the

privileges of their user-type). To create a new discussion, click on the “Add
discussion” link on the right hand side bar (1) as Instructor.

In the pop-up, fill the topic title and its description and check the “Private”
option if you wish to make this topic available only to users that know its URL.
Then click on the Post button to create the topic.

If the topic is not private, it will be shown in the list of discussions that are
currently active. Anyone can reply to a specific comment to create the visual

54
feel of a conversation (1), or can reply to the original post creating a new
comment (2).

MORE TO EXPLORE

Discussions overview
How to work with Discussions
Discussions as Units content

Conferences
TalentLMS offers an integrated video-conference solution based on
BigBlueButton. Additionally TalentLMS provides GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar,
GoToTraining, and Zoom.US video-conferencing solutions.

As an instructor, click on the “Add conference” link on the right hand side bar
(1).

Type the name of your conference and set the starting date and time (1). You
can type a welcome message (2) if you wish and set the duration using the
duration bar (3).

55
After adding the new conference you will be transferred to the ‘Users’ tab
where you can see all the users that attend your courses and you can add
them to the conference by selecting them. You are able to filter the users per
course.

After selecting users you can then send them an invitation by clicking on the
Notify Users button. Users will get the invitation message in their mailbox as well
as in their TalentLMS inbox (Messages).

When the conference start time is close the instructor may begin by clicking on
the Open Conference button which can be found in the Join column (1).

Note that nobody is able to enter the conference until the moderator
(instructor) starts it.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to integrate TalentLMS with Big Blue Button

How to integrate my TalentLMS domain with GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and
GoToTraining
How to integrate my TalentLMS domain with Zoom

Calendar
TalentLMS offers a calendar for creating and sharing events. As an instructor,
click on the “Calendar” link on the right hand side bar (1). Alternatively, you
can click on the “Add event” link to begin configuring a new event.

56
As an Instructor you can view two events types: conference (1), ILT, and
generic events (2). As a learner you can additionally view course expiration
events.

You are able to create generic events, which are either recurring (daily (3) or
weekly (4)) or one-time event (2) and you can also specify the audience of
each event. If you don’t define an audience, the event is considered private
(3). Click on a day cell and then on “Add event” button to create a new event
(5).

On the top of the calendar there are the “next” and “previous” month/week
buttons, the “today” button to get back to the current view and the “month”
“week” view buttons. Additionally you can click on the “Export” button to get
all calendar events on iCalendar format file (.ics) and import them to your
favorite calendar application or get the private calendar address that can be
used almost real-time importing/updating of events to your favorite calendar
application.

57
On the week view you can see the events placed on each day based on their
start/end time. On both views (week/month), you can click on an event and a
popover will appear with a brief description (1). As an instructor, click on the
“Edit” button (2) to edit the event. Export functionality is also available per
event. Click on the “Add event to your calendar” (3) and you have the option
to export the event to Google calendar, iCalendar (.ics) file, Outlook.com and
Yahoo! calendar.

Finally if you just want to change the date/time of the event, you are allowed
to move the event. Click and drag the event on a specific day cell in month
view and the starting date of the event will change accordingly. Click and
drag the event on a specific day/time cell on the week view and the date as
well as the starting time of the event will change accordingly. Have in mind
that you are not allow to move an event on a past date/time.

When creating or editing an event you must type the name of the event and
set the starting date, time and the duration using the duration bar (1).

On the “Audience” (2) field you can select who can view your event. You can
select course users, group users or both, set this event to be available to
everyone. If you want to keep this event private until publication, select “This is
a private event”. Event's audience is not updated automatically when users
are joining/leaving a group or a course. In such cases you can update event's
audience by editing the event and just clicking on update button.

On the “Description” field (3) type a brief description up to 500 characters.

If this is a recurring event (4), click on the check box and additional options will
appear to setup the event. Drag the first bar to set the periodicity of the event
and click on the respective button if you want this event to repeat every N
days or every N weeks (N is configured by dragging the bar). Bellow you can

58
set the number of the event occurrences, or else after how many occurrences
the event will stop appearing.

For example consider that you want to create 5 events that will occur every
two weeks on Friday. Click on first Friday day cell on the month or week view
and then on the “Add event” button. Fill all the required fields, and on the
“Repeat every” bar set 2 and click on the week button. Then on the “Ends
after” bar set 5.

MORE TO EXPLORE

How to access your calendar from other applications

59
Learner

My courses
The dashboard of Learner includes an overview of his or her courses. Each
course has a few labels (1); click on a label to view only similar courses (e.g.,
only non-completed courses). Click the Info label to view information about the
course (e.g., number of units, completion criteria). Click on the name of the
course to start or resume it.

Course view
When you select a course you will go directly to the course view mode and
resume from the last seen unit. On the page header there are handles to go to
next or previous unit as well as options to view your course progress and
generic course info (1).

You need to complete units via various actions; these actions include a button,
a question or a minimum elapsed time (2). Depending on traversal rules you
might need to complete units in a serial order. Each course has a course
completion rule (e.g., complete a specific test or complete all units). When you
complete a course a popup will appear with next step options. These options
may include an option to go to next course or download a certification.

60
Course catalog
You can see all available system courses through the Course catalog. From
here you can search for desired courses or view them through hierarchical
categories. You can register directly to courses or get more information on any
of them. In case a course has a price you need to pay for accessing it.

61
Progress
Through the Progress link you can see an overview of your learning progress. A
visit to the Courses tab shows the courses to which you are registered and your
completion status. Finally, the Timeline tab shows all the actions you have
made in the portal (e.g., when you registered or when you completed a
course). If you have been awarded Certifications, they will be visible here as
well.

Join group
This option allows you join a group and get its courses. You will need a group
key to perform this action. Such a key can be obtained from an Instructor or
Administrator.

62
Discussions
Discussions is a simplified form of Forums.

Anyone can reply to a specific comment to create the visual feel of a

conversation (1), or can reply to the original post creating a new comment (2).

Conferences
Whenever your Instructor invites you to a conference you will see a new
Conference option on your dashboard (1). If there is no future conferences you
won’t see the Conference option at all.

The Conferences option will reveal a list of upcoming conferences. The option
to join a conference (1) is activated only when its designated time has arrived.

63
Gamification
The Gamification widget (1) can be accessed through the header of the
Learner’s interface (2). One may use it throughout the system without changing
context. The Gamification Widget depicts a wide range of gamification info
including the user’s current status, different leaderboards across the system, info
on how one can get more points or rewards and ones badges collection.

Calendar
TalentLMS offers a calendar for viewing events that you may be interested of.
Click on the “Calendar” link on the right hand side bar (1).

64
You can view course expiration events (1) generic events (2) and conference
events (3).

Generic events are targeted to course or group members, so if you such events
you are a member of course or group defined in the event. Generic events
can also recur daily or weekly (4).

On the top of the calendar there are the “next” and “previous” month/week
buttons, the “today” button to get back to the current view and the “month”,
“week” view buttons. Additionally you can click on the “Export” button to get
all calendar events on iCalendar format file (.ics) and import them to your
favorite calendar application.

On the week view you can see the events placed on each day based on their
start/end time. On both views (week/month), you can click on an event and a
popover will appear with a brief description (1). Export functionality is also
available per event. Click on the “Add event to your calendar” (2) and you
have the option to export the event to Google calendar, iCalendar (.ics) file,
Outlook.com and Yahoo! calendar.

65
66
Generic

Personal info
From the header you have direct access to your account and the status of
your learning. Depending on the type of your account you may also have the
option to switch between different user modes; this can include the
Administrator, the Instructor and the Learner (1).

My info
View and update your personal information through this tab.

67
My courses
This tab shows the list of all courses to which you are registered together with
additional options that depends on your account type.

My certifications
View all the certifications you have gained from your courses collectively
gathered in this tab.

You can see the date that each certificate was issued, the date which it
expires (if there is an expiration date set by the Instructor) and preview or
download it for further use.

My progress
This link gives you access to your learning progress and related graphs.

My groups
In case you are member of groups, you can see them in this tab.

My branches
Review the branch(es) to which you belong through the My branches tab.

My timeline
Review your latest activity inside the system through your personal timeline. You
can filter the results using the available tags. For example, click on the Login
tag to see your logins to the system through time.

Messages
You can send private messages to other users using the Messages function. The
recipients can be specific users or users involved to specific courses, groups or

68
branches. The administrator can communicate with every group and branch of
the system, while a simple user can communicate only with users which share
common groups, branches, courses etc. This behavior is controllable from the
user-types (available only to admins). For example you can disallow messages
throughout the system or allow Learners to communicate only with their
Instructors. All messages are sent both as internal messages and regular emails.

69