software Learning Management System R1

Transcription

1 software Learning Management System R1 Administrator's Guide September 2003

2 Disclaimer THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE EFFORTS WERE MADE TO VERIFY THE COMPLETENESS AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION, IT IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN ADDITION, THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON IBM S CURRENT PRODUCT PLANS AND STRATEGY, WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY IBM WITHOUT NOTICE. IBM SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, OR OTHERWISE RELATED TO, THIS DOCUMENTATION OR ANY OTHER DOCUMENTATION. NOTHING CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS INTENDED TO, NOR SHALL HAVE THE EFFECT OF, CREATING ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS FROM IBM (OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS), OR ALTERING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE APPLICABLE LICENSE AGREEMENT GOVERNING THE USE OF IBM SOFTWARE. Licensed Materials - Property of IBM Copyright IBM Corporation 1985, 2003 All rights reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GS ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Lotus Software IBM Software Group One Rogers Street Cambridge, MA List of Trademarks IBM, the IBM logo, AIX, AS/400, DB2, LearningSpace, LearningSpace Forum, IBM Directory Server, RS/6000, iseries, xseries, MQSeries, Cloudscape, Netfinity, OfficeVision, OS/2, OS/390, OS/400, S/390, Tivoli, WebSphere, 1-2-3, cc:mail, Domino, Domino Designer, Freelance Graphics, inotes, Lotus, Lotus Discovery Server, Lotus Enterprise Integrator, Lotus Mobile Notes, Lotus Notes, Lotus Organizer, LotusScript, Notes, QuickPlace, Sametime, SmartSuite, and Word Pro are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Crystal Reports is a registered trademark of Crystal Decisions Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

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4 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration...1 Understanding the LMS architecture... 1 The LMS components... 1 The flow of data in the LMS... 4 Who s who in the LMS?... 6 The roles in the LMS... 7 The LMS user interface and user tasks... 7 The user interface and tasks available to anonymous users... 7 The user interface and tasks available to students... 7 The user interface and tasks available to managers... 8 The user interface and tasks available to instructors... 8 The user interface and tasks available to administrators... 8 Other Administration tasks Chapter 2 Using LMS with Other IBM Products...11 Using Sametime for Chat Using Domino for Discussion Preparing the Domino server Enabling a Discussion server in LMS Creating a course s Discussion database Using Lotus Virtual Classroom for Live sessions Installing the LVC-LMS Connector tool Enabling a Lotus Virtual Classroom server in LMS Creating and editing courses that include a Live session Managing courses that include a Live session Adding Live session instructors Tips for working with Live sessions Using Discovery Server for searching company knowledge Knowledge Search LMS updates to Discovery Server profiles Enabling a Discovery Server in LMS Contents iii

5 Enabling single sign-on with multiple IBM products Single sign-on requirements Enabling single sign-on Chapter 3 Managing LMS Databases...25 Chapter 4 Managing the Learning Management System...27 Enabling LMM Server settings Enabling notifications General Enrollment Certificate Curriculum Course management Scheduling notifications Setting up announcements Display preferences Setting default display preferences System logging Setting up logging Chapter 5 Managing Users...37 How the Learning Management System tracks users Using LDAP servers Overview of working with an LDAP directory Using the Learning Management System for rostering Adding users Using the command line for rostering Rostering users from an LDIF file (rosterldif.bat or rosterldif.sh) Rostering users from a criteria file (rostercrit.bat or rostercrit.sh) Logging Rostering against large LDAP directories Segmenting users with the Rostering utilities Anonymous access iv IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

6 Matching strings Defining roles Assigning explicit roles Managing auto assignments Setting permissions Creating roles Summary of permissions Defining access control Assigning access control for locations Assigning access control for course master folders Assigning access control course offerings folders Managing profiles Creating a profile category Modifying a profile category Creating a profile Modifying a profile Deleting a profile Assigning profiles Using profiles Associating a profile with a course Updating user records Assigning roles Assigning auto-enrollment profiles Assigning user profiles De-rostering users Chapter 6 Managing Courses...65 Managing the Course Catalog Masters Course offerings Creating and managing resources Managing enrollments Enrolling individuals in a course Contents v

7 Enrolling users in a selected course Enrolling users by auto-enrollment profile Withdrawing individuals from a course Withdrawing users from a selected course Enabling users to enroll themselves in a course Enabling users to withdraw themselves from a course Enrolling users from a wait list Removing users from a wait list Viewing the users enrolled in a selected course Viewing the courses in which a user is enrolled Viewing the users on the wait list for a course Monitoring attendance for enrolled users Viewing and modifying results Offline Learning Enabling the Home_Offline permission Setting up the Offline Learning Client Enabling a course for offline use Downloading updates to the Offline Learning Client and offline courses Tracking student progress in an offline course Chapter 7 Managing Reports...83 Who runs reports? Predefined reports Report output File Format Report Locale Running reports Scheduling reports Managing Scheduled Reports Defining custom reports Creating a report Editing reports.xml Enabling the custom reports vi IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

8 Selective generation of reports using the LMS user segmentation feature Chapter 8 Using the LMS Portlets...95 What are portlets? About the LMS portlets My Course Catalog portlet My Course Calendar portlet My Courses portlet Portlet.war file details Deploying LMS portlets on the WebSphere Portal Installing the LMS portlets on the WebSphere Portal Server Configuring portlet parameters for use with LMS Security Debugging the portlets Portlets and national language support (NLS) Appendix A Troubleshooting...99 General problems LDAP issues Error messages Appendix B Sample LDIF Entry Appendix C LMS Search Rules Appendix D Learning Management System Glossary Index Contents vii

9 viii IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

10 Chapter 1 Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration The IBM Lotus Learning Management System is a scalable, flexible platform for managing both classroombased and e-learning activities, resources, curriculums, and courseware catalogs across the enterprise. The product is an end-to-end fully integrated learning solution. The Learning Management System (LMS) organizes and delivers courses, tracks and reports on student activities, and reserves instructors and resources, enabling customers to manage their entire training program from a single platform. Using a Web browser, a student can review the online course catalog and enroll in both instructor-led classroom training and e-learning offerings. Alternatively, the LMS can automatically enroll a student in particular courses based upon profiles that the course administrator creates. After enrolling in a course, the student receives a confirmation and will receive notifications of schedule changes if any occur. Instructors and training managers can reserve resources to avoid scheduling conflicts, develop curriculums for various audiences, and provide managers with reports on their employees' training activities. The LMS streamlines the overall management of an organization's training activities, increasing efficiencies and saving time and expenses. Because the LMS supports industry standards, organizations can offer a wide variety of courseware developed with third party products, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, or they can develop their own courses in-house with the LMS authoring tool. Subject matter experts can create courses on their own, with no programming skills required. The LMS runs on the IBM WebSphere Application Server platform. This chapter includes the following sections: Understanding the LMS architecture This section describes all of the components in the LMS, as well as the flow of data in the LMS. Who s who in the LMS? This section describes the people involved in running the LMS and describes their functions and roles. The LMS user interface and user tasks This section describes the tasks that users with various roles can complete from the LMS user interface. Other administration tasks This section describes additional tasks that administrators complete. Understanding the LMS architecture This section describes the components in the LMS and how they interact with each other. The LMS components The LMS includes several required components, and can also include several optional components. These include: Learning Management System Server The Learning Management Server (LMS Server) is the central functional component of the LMS. The LMS Server contains the functions and capabilities for configuring and coordinating the other components of the system. You can deploy one LMS Server, or you can create a cluster of LMS Servers to improve performance and availability. Each server in the cluster contains the same LMS files and data. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration 1

11 Administrators, instructors, and students all have access to portions of the LMS Server functionality. For administrators, the LMS Server provides the ability to manage courses, course catalogs, students, and resources, to create reports, and to manage the LMS settings and the LMS components. For instructors, the LMS Server provides the ability to select courses to run, schedule activities and resources, and track student progress. For students, the LMS Server provides the ability to browse the course catalog, enroll in courses, display and complete course activities, and observe records of their own progress. Students can also use the LMS Server to download the Offline Learning Client so that they can work on courses on their own computers without having a network connection. The LMS Server is required. Delivery Server The Delivery Server launches course content, provides course navigation features, tracks student progress, and sends tracking information to the LMS Server. You can have multiple Delivery Servers in the LMS, with different data on each Delivery Server. This lets you divide the load and take into consideration the location of the students. For example, it would be more cost-effective to have a student in Japan access a Delivery Server in Japan rather than a Delivery Server in Argentina. You can also use WebSphere to create one or more clusters of Delivery Servers. The Delivery Server is required, except for courses that take place entirely in a classroom and have no online content or sessions. Relational database management system (RDBMS) The RDBMS software can reside on the same machine as the LMS software for a small installation, but it usually resides on one or more separate machines for performance reasons. The LMS Server and the Delivery Server use relational databases to store information about users, courses, the catalog, and other settings needed to run the LMS. The LMS Server and the Delivery Server store information in separate databases. In addition, the Audit database tracks events that occur in the LMS, such as a course being removed from the course catalog or a student being registered for a course. These databases frequently reside on the same database server, but they don t have to. You use RDBMS utilities to create these databases. Then, when you install the LMS, these databases are customized for your system. When users use the LMS, the LMS Server and the Delivery Server initiate database transactions to retrieve and update information. The RDBMS is required. Authoring tool The LMS includes an authoring tool that you can use to create or modify course content and evaluations and import them into the LMS. The authoring tool saves the content as a SCORM 1.2 package, which is the required standard to use the courses in the LMS. In addition, you can use the authoring tool or the Command Line Import Utility to import courses from other sources into the LMS. If the course uses a version of SCORM prior to version 1.2 or a version of AICC, you must use the authoring tool to import the course into the LMS. The authoring tool converts the course to the SCORM 1.2 standard. If the course already uses the SCORM 1.2 standard, you can use the Command Line Import Utility to import the course into the LMS. You have the option of installing the authoring tool when you install the LMS. If you install the authoring tool, put it on a server that content creators can access, preferably an FTP server or an HTTP server. Content creators download a copy of the tool from the server and use it locally. The authoring tool is required for importing courses that are not in the SCORM 1.2 format. It is optional for creating courses and for importing courses that are in the SCORM 1.2 format. 2 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

12 Command Line Import Utility You can use the Command Line Import Utility to import courses from other sources into the LMS. These courses must use the SCORM 1.2 standard. For importing multiple courses into the LMS, it is best to use the Command Line Import Utility. If you are importing a lot of courses, you can schedule the Command Line Import Utility to run overnight or on a weekend so that it does not use resources during the busiest times of the week. As with the authoring tool, you have the option of installing the Command Line Import Utility when you install the LMS. If you install the Command Line Import Utility, put it on a server that content creators can access, preferably an FTP server or an HTTP server. Content creators download a copy of the tool from the server and use it locally. The Command Line Utility is optional. LDAP server The LMS uses your LDAP directory as a repository of authentication information and user information. The LMS communicates with the LDAP directory to verify that users are part of your organization and for other user information. Prior to adding students to the LMS ( rostering students), the students must have an entry in the LDAP directory. Administrators must also have an entry in the LDAP directory. LDAP is an industry standard for enterprise directories. Compatibility with LDAP lets LMS users employ the same user names and passwords that they employ for other applications in the enterprise. If you do not already have an LDAP server set up, you can create one using IBM Directory Server, which is included with the LMS software. An LDAP server is required. FTP server You can use an FTP server as an intermediary server between the authoring tool or the Command Line Import Utility and the LMS Server. Use the authoring tool or the Command Line Import Utility to place the courses onto the FTP server. The LMS Server imports the courses from there. Content server The Content server contains the contents of the courses after they are imported into the LMS. In most cases, the Content server is an HTTP server. You can have multiple Content servers in the LMS, and you can cluster them. In smaller organizations, you can use the same server for the Content server that you use for the Delivery Server. The Content server is required. SMTP server You need an SMTP server if you want to send notifications to users and give users access to the Help desk. The SMTP server is optional. IBM Lotus Virtual Classroom (LVC) server If your organization has both IBM Lotus Virtual Classroom R1.1 and IBM Lotus LVC-LMS Connector, you can schedule live online sessions as part of a course. These sessions let the instructor present material to everyone at once and then lead a discussion about the material. During these live sessions, you can have students break out into small groups to work on different tasks, and then have the students get back together to discuss what they did during the breakout session. You can include live sessions as part of the course content when you create a course. If you create a course that contains the course structure but no course content, you can use the LMS Server later to create live sessions for that course. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration 3

13 For information about enabling and using an LVC server, see Chapter 2, Using the LMS with Other IBM Products. The LVC server is optional. Discussion server If your organization has an IBM Lotus Domino server ( or later), you can enable that server as a Discussion server in the LMS so that students and instructors can access course-specific discussion databases to communicate with each other. For information about enabling and using a Domino server as a Discussion server, see Chapter 2, Using the LMS with Other IBM Products. A Discussion server is optional. Discovery Server If your organization has IBM Lotus Discovery Server 2.0 or later and students are using Microsoft Internet Explorer as their browser, you can use a Discovery Server with the LMS. The Discovery Server lets users search your organization s data repositories for information that is relevant to the subject matter of a particular course. For information about enabling and using a Discovery Server, see Chapter 2, Using the LMS with Other IBM Products. A Discovery Server is optional. Chat server If your organization has an IBM Lotus Sametime 3.0 server, you can enable that server as a Chat server in the LMS so that students and instructors in a course can send instant messages to each other. For information about enabling and using a Sametime server as a Chat server, see Chapter 2, Using the LMS with Other IBM Products. A Chat server is optional. Offline Learning Client The Offline Learning Client lets students download courses and work on them while they are disconnected from the server. Using the Offline Learning Client is optional. Clustering LMS components You can create a cluster of LMS Servers, Delivery Servers, or other LMS components. Clusters can provide better performance in an enterprise because multiple servers share the workload. In addition, clusters provide increased availability; if one server in a cluster stops, the other servers pick up the load. You use WebSphere Application Server (WAS) to create and manage clusters. For information, see the WAS documentation. The flow of data in the LMS This section describes the flow of information in the LMS when you create and register a course. The following figure shows the components in the LMS. Below the figure, the flow of data between the components is described. The arrows and numbers in the figure refer to the steps in the flow of data when you create and register a course. Not all of the components are involved in this particular process. 4 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

14 LVC Server LDAP Server Authoring Tool Command Line Import Utility FTP Server 3 4 LMS Server Content Server Discussion Server Database Server 8 Delivery Server Discovery Server SMTP Server Chat Server 1. The content developer uses the authoring tool or a different authoring product to create the course, or you purchase an existing course. 2. The administrator uses the authoring tool or the Command Line Import Utility to import the course to an FTP server and to notify the LMS Server of the existence of the course. 3. Based on settings set by the administrator, the LMS Server imports the course package from the FTP server. The course structure and content now reside on the LMS Server. Note If this course package contains only an update to the structure of an existing course, then only the structure is imported to the LMS Server. 4. The LMS Server creates a course master and enters information about the master into the database. This is an unregistered master. 5. The course administrator uses the LMS user interface to locate the course master in the Masters Catalog and then registers the master. 6. The course administrator or an instructor uses the LMS user interface to create offerings in the course catalog. As part of this process, the administrator specifies a Delivery Server to use. 7. The LMS Server sends the structure of the course to the Delivery Server. Note If the offering is a scheduled offering - that is, it contains a Lotus Virtual Classroom session, for example - the LVC session is transferred to the LVC Server, and a link to the session and schedule Chapter 1: Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration 5

15 information are transferred to the Delivery Server. If there are multiple scheduled offerings, each offering could use a different LVC Server and a different Delivery Server, although that is optional. 8. The Delivery Server enters information about the course structure into the relational database that the database manager created for the Delivery Server. 9. The Delivery Server sends a request to the LMS Server to send the course content to the Content server that the Delivery Server specifies. (The Delivery Server can specify multiple Content servers to receive the course content.) 10. The LMS sends the course content to the Content server. At this point, the Content server contains the course content, the Delivery Server contains the course structure, and the LMS Server contains the course catalog and the course description. Who s who in the LMS? There can be many types of users in the LMS, based on the types of interactions they usually have with the system. Not every organization has all of these types of users. Some of the primary user types are: Students -- Users who participate in learning events but do not lead them. Students enrolled in a course have access to all of the course content, including live sessions, evaluations, and test scores. Students can also attend some classes anonymously. Anonymous users can view the online content, but cannot attend live online sessions or receive evaluations. Whether or not a course is configured for anonymous users is up to the course administrator. Instructors -- Users who participate in courses as leaders. Instructors run reports to view student progress, manage Discussion Boards for classes they teach, and manage the virtual classrooms while leading live sessions. Content developers Users who develop course material using the authoring tool or a third-party product (such as Macromedia Dreamweaver). Content developers can be people in your organization or people at outside vendors. These people might be responsible for importing course content into the LMS, or they might just give the course content to someone else in your organization who imports the content into the LMS. Course administrators -- Users who perform tasks related to creating, posting, and tracking online learning events, as well as enrolling and tracking students. Course administrators may be responsible for creating offerings, adding users to the LMS ( rostering ), enrolling students in courses, and tracking student progress. A training department may assign one person to fill these functions while several instructors actually lead the courses System administrators -- Users who are responsible for installing and maintaining the LMS software and related third-party components. System administrators tend to focus on different functional areas than course administrators. While course administrators focus on course-related tasks, system administrators use the system-related features and settings in the interface. You may find some overlap between course administrator and system administrator tasks in your organization; for example, both people may be responsible for rostering users in the LMS. Masters manager - Some organizations have a person who creates and configures course masters in the Masters Catalog. Offerings manager -- Some organizations have a person who creates and configures catalog entries and course offerings in the course catalog. Registrar - Some organizations have a person to enroll students in courses. However, courses can also be configured to allow students to enroll themselves. In addition, the LMS can automatically enroll students in particular courses based upon profiles that the course administrator creates. 6 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

16 The roles in the LMS The LMS lets you assign roles to users. These roles determine what the user can do in the LMS. By default, there are five roles. However, you can add or delete roles and change what can be done by each of the roles. The default roles are: Anonymous Student Manager Instructor Administrator The following section describes the default privileges for each of the roles in the LMS. The LMS user interface and user tasks The LMS user interface changes depending on the role of the user. Users have access to various tabbed pages of settings and commands. The number of tabbed pages that each user sees and what is on those tabbed pages depends on the roles that users have been assigned. In addition, rostered users have access to a menu that lets them use Help and set their user preferences, such as the time zone, their preferred language, and their calendar options. The administrator can change what the user interface displays for each type of role and the tasks users can access. This section describes the default tabs and many of the default tasks available to users with each of the five default roles. The user interface and tasks available to anonymous users Users who access the LMS anonymously without logging in see the following two tabbed pages in the user interface: Home tab From the Home tab, anonymous users can find out information about the features in the LMS. Student Catalog tab From the Student Catalog tab, anonymous users can look through the student catalog to find courses they want to take, find information about those courses, and preview a course, if the course was enabled for previewing (attending a course anonymously). The user interface and tasks available to students Users who are assigned the Student role see the following two tabbed pages in the user interface: Home tab From the Home tab, students can access their calendars to see what activities are scheduled for their courses. They can also create profiles for themselves to indicate what types of courses interest them. In addition, they can view communications that they receive from the system, such as confirmations of enrollments in courses. Students can also download the Offline Learning Client. From this tab, students can also view a list of courses in which they are enrolled and courses they have completed. They can also view curriculums and certificates they are working towards, with a list of the courses required for each curriculum and certificate. In addition, students can view progress reports for courses in which they are enrolled, as well as receive information about the LMS and assistance using the LMS. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration 7

17 Student Catalog tab From the Student Catalog tab, students can search for courses they want to take, find information about those courses, and enroll in those courses, if the courses allow self-enrollment. The user interface and tasks available to managers Typically, Manager refers to someone who manages people who might be enrolled in courses. Users who are assigned the Manager role see the following three tabbed pages in the interface. Home tab From the Home tab, managers can do the same things that students can do. Student Catalog tab From the Student Catalog tab, managers can do the same things that students can do. Reports tab From the Reports tab, managers can create reports to do such things as track student progress, view a class roster, and view activity reports. Managers can schedule reports to run automatically at specific times or create reports manually at any time. Note By default, all reports are available to managers, instructors, and administrators. As administrator, you can limit this by assigning permissions for specific reports to specific roles. The user interface and tasks available to instructors Users who are assigned the Instructor role see the following four tabbed pages in the interface: Home tab From the Home tab, instructors can do the same things that managers and students can do. They can also view information about courses they are teaching and about live sessions they are scheduled to lead. In addition, they can change the dates of live sessions they are scheduled to lead and change the materials needed for live sessions. Student Catalog tab From the Student Catalog tab, instructors can do the same things that managers and students can do. Course Management tab From the Course Management tab, instructors can view and modify the following: student progress in a course, the list of students enrolled in a course, and the information in user profiles. Reports tab From the Reports tab, instructors can create reports to do such things as track student progress, view a class roster, view the teaching schedule, and view how far a student has progressed in a specific curriculum. Instructors can schedule reports to run automatically at specific times or create reports manually at any time. Note By default, all reports are available to managers, instructors, and administrators. As administrator, you can limit this by assigning permissions for specific reports to specific roles. The user interface and tasks available to administrators Users who are assigned the Administrator role see the following eight tabbed pages in the interface. 8 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

18 Note If you have both a course administrator and a system administrator in your organization, the first seven tabs contain tasks that are usually performed by the course administrator, and the last tab (Settings) contains tasks that are usually performed by the system administrator. Home tab From the Home tab, administrators can do the same things that instructors, managers, and students can do. Student Catalog tab From the Student Catalog tab, administrators can do the same things that instructors, managers, and students can do. Users tab From the Users tab, administrators can roster and deroster users (add users to and remove users from the LMS); assign roles and profiles to users; create and modify roles; create and modify user profiles, which help to determine which courses might be appropriate for particular users; and create and modify autoenrollment profiles, which are used to enroll users automatically in specific courses. Course Catalog tab From the Course Catalog tab, administrators can create, view, modify, unregister, copy, and delete masters in the Masters Catalog. In addition, they can add, modify, and delete offerings, such as courses, certificates, and curriculums, in the Offerings Catalog. Course Management tab From the Course Management tab, administrators can enroll users in courses, view results for specific users, view results for users in a particular course, and view user results for a particular instructor. In addition, they can view and modify the enrollments, waiting list, and approvals for a specific course. Administrators can also unenroll students, and they can manage user profiles and auto-enrollment profiles. Resources tab From the Resources tab, administrators can add and edit locations that provide training rooms; add and edit specific training rooms and details about those rooms, such as type of room, seating capacity, and available equipment; add vendors and edit information about existing vendors (vendors provide resources, such as instructors); and add instructors and details about those instructors, such as whether they are internal or external to your organization, what their skills are, and which geographical location they are in. Reports tab Administrators can run all the reports in the system. These include catalog reports, such as information about courses, certifications, and course masters; enrollment reports; user progress reports; resource reports (about classrooms, locations, instructors, and vendors); and several other types of reports. Administrators can also create a badge for each student in a particular course. For information about the various types of reports, see Chapter 7, Managing Reports. Settings tab From the Settings tab, administrators can modify settings for the LMS Server, such as settings for the Help system, the Help Desk, the location of the Offline Learning Client, settings for enabling , LDAP settings, user default settings for when they access the LMS, settings for automatic notifications, and settings that control system logging. From this tab, administrators also add and delete Delivery Servers, as well as modify information about existing Delivery Servers. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Learning Management System and LMS Administration 9

19 From this tab, administrators can also add and delete Collaboration Servers, such as Chat servers, Discussion Servers, LVC Servers, and Discovery Servers. They can also modify information about existing Collaboration Servers. From this tab, administrators can also add, modify, and delete announcements that appear on a student s home page; and add, modify, and delete customization sets, which let you alter the user interface for specific users. Other Administration tasks Besides the administration tasks described in the section The interface and tasks available to administrators, administrators have other tasks to perform. In the LMS, the system administrator is responsible for servers and software. The system administrator would most likely be responsible for the following tasks that were not mentioned previously: Installing and upgrading the LMS servers For information about these topics, see the Installation Guide and the Migration Guide. Installing necessary software on server machines to be used with the LMS, such as operating systems and database management systems. In your organization, there may be one or more people whose job it is to set up machines for everyone in order to ensure standardized configurations. Those people should read about the LMS system requirements in the Release Notes to make sure your servers are installed with software supported by the LMS. Enabling Sametime for chat, Domino for discussion, Lotus Virtual Classroom for live sessions, and Discovery Server for searching company knowledge. For information about these topics, see Chapter 2, Using the LMS with Other IBM Products. Enabling Single Sign-on (also known as single logon) so that users will not be prompted for a user name and password every time they access a new component in the LMS. For information about enabling Single Sign-on, see Chapter 5, Managing Users. Deploying LMS portlets in order to use the WebSphere portal to access and display information about specific areas of the LMS. For information about deploying LMS portlets, see Chapter 8, Using LMS Portlets. Other people in your organization may be assigned to administer the database management system and enforce controlled access to corporate databases. Managing the relational databases required by the LMS - the LMS database, the Delivery databases, and the Audit database - is accomplished through scripts using tools provided by the database or operating system vendor. The people responsible for administering the database management system should read Installing and configuring database servers and schema in the Installation Guide, as well as Chapter 3, Managing LMS Databases, in this guide. 10 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

20 Chapter 2 Using LMS with Other IBM Products This chapter discusses how to administer the portions of the Learning Management System that involve capabilities being hosted by IBM Lotus Sametime 3.0, IBM Lotus Domino and higher, IBM Lotus Virtual Classroom R1.1, and IBM Lotus Discovery Server 2.0 and higher. The capabilities that these products provide to LMS users are realtime chat, discussion forums, Live virtual classroom sessions, and knowledge discovery. Because LMS is designed to work with these products, you can manage some of these products features from within LMS. Note For Microsoft Internet Explorer users, LMS Chat and Discussion require the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine and do not support the use of Sun Microsystems Java plug-in. For information on administering LMS portlets designed to work with WebSphere 5.0, see Chapter 8, Using LMS Portlets. Using Sametime for Chat LMS supports chat, or the exchange of instant messages, among the instructor and students in a given course. Course-specific chat capability can be made available for users enrolled in or teaching a course regardless of whether or not the course includes a Live session activity. In order for chat to be available in a course, all of the following requirements must be met: The company has a Sametime 3.0 server. (The term Sametime server refers to a server that includes both Domino and Sametime.) It is best if the Sametime server is dedicated to supporting Sametime services. For more information, see the IBM Lotus Sametime 3.0 Administrator s Guide in the Documentation Library at You must enable one or more Chat servers in LMS by doing the following: 1. In LMS, click the Settings tab. 2. Click the Collaboration Servers link, and then click the Chat tab. 3. Click Add. 4. Enter a name for the Chat server that can be used to identify the server when the course offering is created. For example, enter Chat1. 5. Enter a description for the server. 6. Enter the URL for the Chat server. For example, enter 7. Click Save. 8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 for each Chat server. 9. Click Done. The course developer sets the chat property for the course in the authoring tool, or the chat requirement is selected when creating the course master. A Chat server is selected when creating the course offering. For more information on creating course masters and course offerings, see Chapter 6, Managing Courses. The user is enrolled in or teaching the course. Chat is not available in courses that allow anonymous participants. Users start chat by launching the course and clicking the Chat button in the Course Tools menu, which opens a chat toolbar. The toolbar allows users to access a list of course participants currently online, to join a chat session with one or more other participants, to invite other participants to join a session, and to change their online status. Chapter 2: Using LMS with Other IBM Products 11

21 The single sign-on capability of the WebSphere application server and Sametime allows course participants to authenticate with the Sametime server transparently whenever they use chat -- they don t need to log in again to access the chat toolbar. Using Domino for Discussion If your company has a Domino server ( or later) and you enable it as the Discussion server in LMS, you can create course-specific Discussion databases from LMS that instructors and students can access from an open course activity. Preparing the Domino server You need to copy the LMS Discussion Database template and a servlet (contained in the LMS Discussion Servlet JAR file) to each Domino server that will host discussions for LMS. 1. Copy the LMS Discussion Database template (LMSDISC.NTF) to the Domino data directory. 2. Copy the LMS Discussion Servlet JAR file (LMSDISCUSSIONS.JAR) to the Domino\data\domino\servlet directory. Note If this directory does not exist on the Domino server, you must create it. 3. From the Domino Administrator, edit the Server document as follows: Click the Security tab. Under Agent Restrictions, in the Run restricted LotusScript/Java agents field, enter IBM Learning Management System/Lotus Notes Companion Products. The LMS Discussion Database template contains server-side agents that require this permission. These agents are signed with the trusted ID that you entered. For a list of restricted LotusScript and Java features and information about agents, see IBM Lotus Domino Designer Help. 4. Edit the server document to add LMSDISCUSSIONS.JAR to Domino s class path: Click the Internet Protocols Domino Web Engine tab. Under Java Servlets, in the Java servlet support field, make sure that Domino Servlet Manager is selected. In the Class path field, append the class path for the LMSDISCUSSIONS.JAR file. For example, enter domino\servlet;domino\servlet\ LMSDiscussions.jar. Note the inclusion of a semicolon (;). Save and close the Server document. 5. Assign an alias to the servlet, since Domino, for security reasons, does not allow servlet names containing periods to be used in a servlet URL: Locate the SERVLETS.PROPERTIES file in the Domino data directory. If this file does not exist, create it. Using a text editor, add the following lines to the file. The second line must be typed exactly as shown. # Properties for the Lotus Discussion database servlet servlet.lmsdisc.code=com.lotus.elearn.discussions.discussionservlet Save and close the file. 6. In the Domino console, enable the servlet by entering the following command: tell http restart 12 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

22 Enabling a Discussion server in LMS For Discussion capability to be available from within LMS, you must provide LMS with information about each Domino server in your company that is providing the service. 1. In LMS, click the Settings tab. 2. Click the Collaboration Servers link, and then click the Discussion tab. 3. Click Add. 4. Enter a name for the Discussion server that can be used to identify the server when the course offering is created. For example, enter Disc1. 5. Enter a description for the server. 6. Enter the Domino Administrator s user name and password. 7. Select Use secure transport if you require users to access the discussion database via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) using the HTTPS protocol. 8. Enter the URL for the Discussion server. For example, enter 9. Click Save. 10. Repeat steps 3 to 9 for each Discussion server. 11. Click Done. Creating a course s Discussion database To create a course s discussion database from LMS, do the following: 1. Define the Discussion server in LMS Settings as described in the preceding procedure. 2. (Optional) If you want to require a discussion database for courses created from the course master, select Requires Discussion when creating the master. 3. When creating the course offering, select Domino Discussion on the Course Details page. Note It is possible to use a service other than Domino for the Discussion by specifying the service s URL. 4. Specify the Discussion server by clicking the Select button and selecting a server from the list. 5. Enter a database title and a file name for the database. 6. Select the full-text index option if you want users to be able to search the database. For more information on creating course masters and course offerings, see Chapter 6, Managing Courses. Using Lotus Virtual Classroom for Live sessions A Live session is a scheduled online class for which all participants log in at the same time. If your company has Lotus Virtual Classroom R1.1, along with the IBM Lotus LVC-LMS Connector (the tool that makes it work with LMS), courses in LMS can include a Live session as a course activity. Users enrolled in a course that includes a Live session can join the session by going to their calendar, by launching the course, or by going to This Week s Activities. Installing the LVC-LMS Connector tool If you want to be able to include Live sessions in your LMS courses, you must install the LVC-LMS Connector. This tool provides the Web services required for using LotusVirtual Classroom with LMS. Contact IBM to obtain a copy of the LVC-LMS Connector. Chapter 2: Using LMS with Other IBM Products 13

23 You must install the LVC-LMS Connector on the Lotus Virtual Classroom Catalog. For information on installing Lotus Virtual Classroom, see the IBM Lotus Virtual Classroom R1.1 Installation Guide in the Documentation Library at To install the LVC-LMS Connector, do the following: 1. On the LVC Catalog server, stop the Domino server by entering the quit command in the Domino console window. 2. Start the LVC-LMS Connector Startup program (setup.exe) from the CD. 3. Choose Setup Language, select a language for your site, and click OK. 4. At the Software License Agreement screen, review the license agreement and click Accept. 5. At the Welcome screen, click Next. 6. At the Start-up Method screen, select the same mechanism for starting the LVC-LMS Connector as you use for starting Domino services, and click Next. At this point, the installation program copies a series of files from CD to server, displaying the Setup Complete screen when done. 7. At the Setup Complete screen, click Finish. 8. If you have not set up the Connector as a Windows server, restart the server machine now and skip the next procedure. If you have set up the Connector as a Windows service, it defaults to the Manual setting (requiring you to start it manually). Change this setting to Automatic with the following procedure: 1. Start the Services Manager. Windows 2000: Start Programs Administrative Tools Services. 2. Select IBM WebSphere Application Server V5 LVC Connector by double-clicking it. 3. Set the Startup Type to Automatic. 4. Click OK. 5. Close the Services Manager window. 6. Restart the server machine. Enabling a Lotus Virtual Classroom server in LMS For Live-session capability to be available from within LMS, you must provide LMS with information about each Lotus Virtual Classroom server in your company that is providing the service. 1. In LMS, click the Settings tab. 2. Click the Collaboration Servers link, and then click the LVC tab. 3. Click Add. 4. Enter a name for the Lotus Virtual Classroom server that can be used to identify the server when the course offering is created. For example, enter LVC1. 5. Enter a description for the server. 6. Enter your LMS user name and password. This user name should have LMS administration privileges. 7. Enter the base URL for LVC Web Services; for example: 8. Click Save. 9. Repeat steps 3 to 8 for each Lotus Virtual Classroom server. 14 IBM Lotus LMS Release 1 Administrator's Guide

24 10. Click Done. Creating and editing courses that include a Live session When course developers create course content in the LMS authoring tool, they can add materials for a Live session as one of the activities that makes up the course. This Live session activity then becomes part of the course master. When you create a course offering from the master, LMS passes the materials to Lotus Virtual Classroom so that it can deliver the Live session. Returning to the authoring tool is the only means of editing these materials -- an existing offering is updated only when the course is republished to LMS. If the course developer prefers to store Live session materials for a course in Lotus Virtual Classroom, you can use the LMS master and offering creation process to create a new course in Lotus Virtual Classroom. The resulting Lotus Virtual Classroom course includes a QuickPlace to store the course contents, and profiles of instructors so that they can access the course materials from Lotus Virtual Classroom. LMS instructors can also edit the QuickPlace course materials directly from Courses I m Teaching in LMS Home, provided they do so more than one hour before the session is scheduled to begin. Managing courses that include a Live session After you specify a Lotus Virtual Classroom server in LMS Settings, you can schedule the Live session at the same time that you create the course offering. For information on creating course offerings, see Chapter 6, Managing Courses. You can schedule a new Live session up to one hour before you want the session to begin. Since you can also only enroll students up to one hour before the session begins, allow yourself or the students enough time to enroll. The instructor for a Live session can change the session s schedule (up to one hour before the session begins) in the Courses I m Teaching section of LMS Home. You cancel or delete a Live session by editing the LMS course offering or master. Adding Live session instructors When you add a user as a course instructor in LMS for a course that includes a Live session, LMS automatically adds the instructor as a full instructor in Lotus Virtual Classroom. The instructor can then both use LMS to modify Lotus Virtual Classroom course materials for Live sessions originating in LMS, and use Lotus Virtual Classroom to create LVC-only courses and sessions. Note Removing a user from the LMS list of instructors removes only the ability for that user to edit the Lotus Virtual Classroom course materials from LMS. All Lotus Virtual Classroom instructor privileges remain unless an administrator removes them using Lotus Virtual Classroom s administrative tools. Tips for working with Live sessions Working with Live sessions can be tricky; use the following suggestions to avoid problems: Create your Live session offering at least 2 hours before you actually want to start the session. This allows time for information about the session to be communicated between the Lotus Virtual Classroom and the LMS. Attempting to start the session sooner may result in errors. After creating the Live session offering, don t touch the keyboard for a couple of minutes. Immediately after session creation, information from the keyboard may still affect your session definition and cause errors. Wait a couple minutes before proceeding to your next task. Chapter 2: Using LMS with Other IBM Products 15