Unleash the Power of e-learning

Transcription

1 Unleash the Power of e-learning Version 1.1 July 2011 Edition ICS Learning Group 1

2 Disclaimer ICS Learning Group makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this manual, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. ICS Learning Group reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its content at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes. Further, ICS Learning Group makes no representations or warranties with respect to any ICS Learning Group product, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. ICS Learning Group reserves the right to make changes to any and all parts of ICS Learning Group products at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes. Trademarks Inquisiq, Inquisiq Studio, Intelligent Streaming Video (ISV), and ICS Learning Group are registered trademarks of Interactive Communications Solutions Group, Inc. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Product Support If you have purchased a support package and have any questions during the use of Inquisiq R3 that are not addressed in this guide, please visit our support site at: Or contact us at: ICS Learning Group 8221 Ritchie Highway Suite 303 Pasadena, MD

3 Inquisiq R3 Control Panel Overview... 4 Accessing the Inquisiq R3 Control Panel... 5 Your Inquisiq R3 License Information... 6 Creating and Managing LMS Accounts in your Inquisiq R3 Installation... 6 Monitoring the Current User Activity... 8 Setting up Your Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Statement... 9 Configuring your SSL Certificate... 9 Setting up System Alerts Verifying Setup

4 Inquisiq R3 Server Control Panel Overview The Inquisiq R3 server control panel is used by system administrators to manage your installed Inquisiq application. It is only relevant to licensees that have their own Inquisiq R3 Installed Solution and are responsible for the installation and setup of the Inquisiq software. After your Inquisiq R3 application has been installed on your server, the next step is to access your control panel to create individual LMS accounts and establish system-wide settings that span those LMS accounts. The control panel is NOT relevant, or accessible, to clients that have SaaS accounts or are simply LMS users/administrators. The control panel allows you to perform the following tasks: View your Inquisiq R3 License information and enter an activation code Create/configure new individual LMS accounts (remember that Inquisiq is capable of hosting many simultaneous LMS accounts *aka instances +) View a list of all users that are currently logged into any of your LMS accounts Establish your Terms of Use Policy that is available to all your users through the footer of your LMS accounts Establish your Privacy Policy that is available to all your users through the footer of your LMS accounts Setup your system SSL Certificate, as needed Create and broadcast System Alerts (that go to all users that are currently logged into any of your LMS accounts) Verify your system is working correctly 4

5 Accessing the Inquisiq R3 Server Control Panel To access the Inquisiq R3 server control panel you must first login. The Inquisiq server login page will be located at the following URL: where lmsaccountname can be anything and basedomain is the domain you have established for your Inquisiq R3 installation. You will be prompted to enter admin password that was setup during the installation process. Once logged in you will see the Inquisiq R3 Server Control Panel main screen (as shown in the image below). On the left side of the main screen you will see general information about your installation such as software version, build, and activation status. In the upper-right side of the screen you will see some statistical information about your installation such as the total number of sites (LMS accounts), total number of users in all of your sites, the number of users currently logged in, and the total amount of content storage space that is in use. You will also see a list of eight icons that will allow you to perform specific functions as described in more detail in subsequent sections of this manual. 5

6 License: Your Inquisiq R3 License Information Basic information about your Inquisiq license can be viewed by clicking the License icon from the Control Panel main menu. This screen will show you information such as your license number, base domain name, license expiration date, and status. This is also where you obtain your activation request and enter your activation code. To activate your Inquisiq installation you will first need to send your Activation Request code to ICS technical support. This request code is lengthy so it is best to copy and paste it into an or support ticket when sending it to ICS support. Once received, ICS support will then send back an activation code for you to enter in the related field. To enter the activation code simply copy and paste it into the open dialog box and click the activate button. Note that once the system has been properly activated the status will change to Activated. Accounts: Creating and Managing LMS Accounts in your Inquisiq Installation To view a list of existing LMS accounts, or create a new one, click the Accounts icon located on the Control Panel main screen. This list shows all LMS accounts that are currently in your system and displays the following information for each account: Account name Account hostname (determines the URL of the LMS) Status (possible states are online, offline, expired, and pending activation) Number of user accounts in the LMS account Expiration date (if set) Disk Usage (amount of content disk storage space that is currently being used by the account) 6

7 From this list of LMS accounts you can also perform the following functions: Create a new Account To create a new LMS account, click the New Account icon located in the upper-right section of the Accounts screen. You are then prompted to enter the information about the account on the Properties and Setting tabs. Note that required information is indicated with a red asterisk. Click Save Changes to submit the information and create the new account. Some of the options in those tabs are self-explanatory or have included explanations. Regarding some of the others on the Properties tab: Account Name - What you enter here is the subdomain the customer will use to access their LMS. You can see the LMS URL: section auto-complete as you type an entry into this field. This is listed on the Account page in the Hostname column. Parent Account - If you are creating an account for a customer who already has an account, you can select that existing account here. This associates the accounts in the database but, as of this version of the manual, it is simply a notation or more a cosmetic option as there is no associated report functionality at this time. Application Name - This sets the title of the site in the user s browser title bar and will be the default title for any bookmarks users set while on your LMS site. This value appears under the Account column on the Accounts page. Company Name - This does not appear on the Accounts page but is required and where you would track the customer s company (reference only). Regarding some of the options in the Settings tab: Expiration Date - set a date for the LMS account to expire here, or select the Unlimited checkbox for no expiration. If an LMS account expires, all visitors to that page will be greeted with a message that the *Application Name+ s LMS is expired. No other access to the LMS account is possible until the expiration date is changed in the Control Panel. Status - an LMS account may be set to Online or Offline here. Similar to the Expiration Date, if an LMS account is set to Offline, all visitors to that LMS URL will be greeted with a message that the *Application Name+ s LMS is offline. This setting could be one way to manage billing and payment issues. Content Mode - This setting defaults to Simple. Set the Content Mode to Advanced to allow account Administrators more control over setting up lessons and courses. In Simple mode, SCORM Packages are uploaded through the Course option in the account Administrator Menu and automatically imported and published to a course per the imsmanifest settings. No further manipulation of the lessons or courses is possible. See the Content Tutorial for more on Simple vs. Advanced modes. Enabled Features - Enable or disable optional account features here. See the R3 Admin - System & Interface Configuration Manual for more information on these features. 7

8 Once an account has been established, additional options appear at the top-right of the account s properties page: Advanced Parameters - you can set a variety of LMS account options and features here, essentially a shortcut to many of the items being enabled or setup in the account s Administrator Menu (and many which the Administrator does not have access too). However, improper settings can cause the account to become non-functional. Recovery of your LMS functionality due to improper or incorrect settings in this section may not be covered by your Inquisiq Support and Maintenance Contract. Jump In - (see the Jump into an Existing Account below) Jump into an Existing Account If you want to quickly jump into (log in) to one of your LMS accounts, you can click the Jump icon associated with the LMS you want to enter. This will automatically log you into that LMS as the Administrator. Note that logging out of the LMS will take you to the home screen of the LMS, not return you to the control panel. View and modify account information To view or change any of the properties for an LMS account, click the View icon for that LMS. This will bring up the properties and settings screens for that account (the same as when the account was created, with the additional Options at the top-right. After making your edits, click the Save Changes button. Current User Activity: To view a running log of all user activity across all accounts in your LMS, click the Current User Activity icon. The resulting screen will display a list of all users with active sessions in all accounts within your Inquisiq R3 installation. Click the Refresh button as needed to get a sense of the traffic your server is handling at any given moment (or how popular a given instance/site may be). 8

9 Terms of Use To establish the Terms of Use for your LMS install, click the Terms of Use icon. While this screen offers some text formatting tools, it may be easier to author and/or edit your ToU document in a word processor (i.e. Word) then paste it here using the supplied tools on this page to adjust the formatting as needed. The terms you save (click Save Changes!) in this section are referenced by the Terms of Use link in each Inquisiq R3 account s footer (bottom-left of the screen). This is an important legal item to include in your LMS installation. Do not neglect it. Privacy Policy To establish the Privacy Policy for your LMS install, click the Privacy Policy icon. While this screen offers some text formatting tools, it may be easier to author and/or edit your Privacy Policy document in a word processor (i.e. Word Perfect) then paste it here using the supplied tools on this page to adjust the formatting as needed. The policy you save (click Save Changes!) in this section is referenced by the Privacy Policy link in each Inquisiq R3 account s footer (bottom-left of the screen). This is an important legal item to include in your LMS installation. Do not neglect it. SSL Certificate: Purpose and Configuration If you plan on accepting online payments for course registration in your LMS, you must have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. Likewise, if you want or need your LMS installation to run under https for any reason, you need an SSL certificate You can obtain an SSL certificate on your own or ICS can obtain one for you. Once you have obtained your SSL certificate, click the SSL Certificate option to set it up. The instructions provided on that screen should guide you. Be sure you have located your Seal Code, provided by your SSL certificate provider, in order to completely setup the SSL certificate on your LMS installation and be sure to click Save Changes when done. 9

10 System Alerts You can create System Alerts for any general activity you d like with your Installed Solution, whether they are LMS-specific or not. Of course, the intention is to alert users to scheduled items such as a system upgrade or reboot. As the description mentions, System alerts are displayed on every site on the server. When a user visits a site, the alert will appear just below the LMS main menu for all user-facing pages (i.e Home, Course Catalog, My Account, etc). The overall color of the alert is dictated by the icon Type you select. Click the System Alert icon in the Control Panel to view the existing alerts (if any). To delete an existing alert, select the checkbox for the alert and click Delete Selected at the bottom of the list. To create an alert, click the New System Alert icon in the upper-right of the screen. Set the Title, Type, Lifespan, and Announcement the last three being required fields. Note in the body of the alert (the Announcement area), you can use the formatting tools below the text field to add styles and even custom HTML if so desired. Be sure to Save Changes when your Alert is setup. Verify Setup There is nothing to setup in this section. Clicking Verify Setup simply generates an to the default recipient setup for your Inquisiq R3 installation, through the mail server that has also been setup for the installed LMS. The address and server which this test verification references are those setup in the config file; the address is the same one you used to when applying the license registration for your Inquisiq R3 installation. 10

11 When you click the Verify Setup icon, you ll receive an alert like this: If you click OK, the LMS will send a test to the primary account. If successful, a message like this will result (and be sure to actually check the noted account to ensure the has arrived): If unsuccessful, the above message will reflect that negative result. Inquisiq R3 cannot manage your server s settings or functionalities. Setting up your web server and IIS to properly route is outside the scope of this document. If you need assistance setting up your web server s functionality, please contact ICS Technical Support (a billable project may need to be setup to assist you with this setup, depending on the situation). 11