Introduction

As part of the Extended Enterprise feature site, the Accord LMS is able to support unlimited channel portals. These can be used to provide privately branded portals for franchises, distribution channels, partners, customers or for any other possible reason. The URLs to these portals can either be full domain parent portals, or subfolder child portals. Each portal can have their own users, pages, menus, themes, etc. Depending on your needs, you can have a) a single 'master' LMS module that is shared across all other channel portals or b) an LMS module added to each portal which results in separate 'silos' of content, attempt records and reports or c) a combination of the two. The following article will focus on the master / channel configuration which provides centralized content management and utilization tracking. Please contact the Accord LMS Support Team if you would like help setting up your channel portals.
 

Host > Site Management

First select which portal will be the 'master' portal and add the LMS module. Next, add any number of channel portals from the Site Management UI.  Each site (portal) can have their own branding, features and members. LMS Learner and Reports modules can be added to the channel portals. From their Configuration settings, attach them to the master LMS module. This will allow Learners and LMS Admin to access their respective Learning and Reports from their own channel portals. Note: you may populate the LMS Admin catalog at any time - before or after you add the channel portals. 



Portal Templates
The Site Management UI provides an option to Export Site Template. The template can include logos, themes, graphics, user accounts, pages, modules and layout.



You can make as many templates as you want, perhaps one based on a channel portal that is configured for a doctor training portal and another for a dentist training portal. In the future, when you create a new channel portal with the Add New Site option, you can select from any of your templates and immediately have your new portal filled out with your basic setup.



Note: the LMS module and the eCommerce modules cannot be saved to a template due to their complexity.  However, most of the other modules such as Learner, Reports and the Registration forms are 'iPortable' and can be exported. Check with the Accord LMS Support Team if you have any questions about which modules can be exported.
 

Learning and Access Roles

All Learners must have a user account on the master portal and be assigned pertinent Learning Roles on the master portal as well.  This is straight forward if Learner A is on the same master portal as the LMS module. Things get more complicated when Learner A is a member of a channel portal with its own local roles for page / module access. We need a way to update both the user accounts and the roles on the both the master portal and any possible channel portal. This can be done manually, or by using different bulk upload spreadsheets, however a much easier way is to utilize Access Codes.
 

LMS > My Team > Team Access Codes

Access Codes can create membership and role assignments for a specific channel portal that the Learner belongs to and on the master LMS portal. This will allow the appropriate eLearning content can be presented in the Learner’s My Plan even in a channel portal. Access Codes can also grant Team membership. It is recommended that each channel portal have its own associated Team so that it's Learners can be more easily managed. 

Learner > Configuration > Access

The LMS Learner module will provide the Access Code processing. The Learner module can be placed on any page and can have all tabs hidden to maintain a low profile if desired. Select and enable the ways you'd like your Access Codes to be submitted and whether you'd like to enable redirection (see below). 
 

Access Code Submission

Once the Access Codes are created and you have a Learner module configured to process them, the Codes can be submitted in a number of different ways:

• Manager > My Team > Bulk Role Assignment
• Manager > My Team > Bulk Learner Import
• Learner > Access Code Form Submit - for submission directly from the Learner > Access tab UI
• Learner > Access Code HTTP Submit - for URL or HTTP form submission such as the Registration form or buying courseware via eCommerce

You may want to redirect your Learners to their associated channel portal after they have logged in.  For example, you may want to only allow registration and log in on the main portal. Role Based Redirection allows you to redirect a user based on their Role or Team assignments. It is configured in the master LMS module, but enabled and processed in a Learner module from the HTTP Submit UI.