Absorb Integration with LinkedIn Learning

Organizations can access LinkedIn Learning content via an integration built into the LMS. This feature allows clients to import LinkedIn course content to the LMS and track user progress and completion.

Note: The LinkedIn Learning Integration is only available in Absorb Production environments. 

Getting Started

To get started with LinkedIn Learning content to Absorb, you will first need two key things:

1. A Single Sign-On (SSO) connection, and

2. A subscription to LinkedIn Learning.

You'll need to contact LinkedIn Learning directly to get a subscription to their service, as Absorb does not sell LinkedIn Learning plans.

LinkedIn Learning Configuration

1. Enable AICC Content: This step will request AICC course content links to be included with your Course Information.  
   
   • Notes: Ensure that Enable AICC is enabled before connecting Absorb to your Corporate LinkedIn Learning account. This will ensure that content is made available to convert to courses.
     
     
2. Enable API Keys: This step allows Absorb to connect to your available content to prepare it to be converted to Courses within Absorb.
   
   
3. Authenticate LinkedIn Corporate Account in Absorb: This step connects your Corporate LinkedIn account with Absorb and steps to Convert Content to Courses.
   • To complete the configuration with Absorb, you will need the Client ID and the Client Secret from the previous step.
   • To get the LinkedIn Learning toggled on and the information added to your Portal, you will need to request this from your Onboarding Specialist or reach out to your assigned Client Success Manager to help get this set up for you.
     
     
     Please Note: All content authorized for the client by the LinkedIn-provided credentials will be returned automatically. This can't be affected by Absorb.
     
     
4. Enable SSO and User Provisioning: This step prepares your Corporate LinkedIn account to provide content access to individual LinkedIn profiles.
   • You will require a LinkedIn SAML set up with complete SSO configurations. LinkedIn Learning will come with a free single sign-on (SSO) connection specifically for LinkedIn Learning Connection. However, if you would also like to connect to other systems for which we do not offer an app or out-of-the-box integration, you will need to pay a one-time fee to add SSO to your portal. You can learn more about setting up a SAML SSO on Absorb here: Outgoing SAML 2.0 Single Sign-On.
   • Some clients have instead utilized a different identity provider to configure single sign-on directly with LinkedInLearning.

Notes

Ensure that Automatically assign licenses are enabled so connected LinkedIn Profiles will automatically gain access to your Corporate Linkedin Courses.

Issuer String or Entity ID: The Absorb Portal Route should appear here. The format should be: https://company.myabsorb.com/The slash at the end of the route is essential as the SAML assertion will pass the entity id with this slash.

• IDP Redirect End Point: The following syntax should be used for this field: https://company.myabsorb.com/account/samlrequest, where "company.myabsorb" is the Absorb Portal Route.
• Assertion Consumer Service URL: This URL is provided by LinkedIn Learning and should be confirmed with LinkedIn as this value can rotate dependent on LIL.
  • • The "authModeId" at the end of a LiL ACS URL is what allows access to LIL. Without that ACS URL, you will receive 403 errors.
    • EXAMPLE LIL ACS URL: https://www.linkedin.com/checkpoint/enterprise/saml/2206404?application=learning&appInstanceId=2246436&authModeId=1232145804582757249
• If, when setting up the LinkedIn side of the connector, no Hostname is provided as detailed in the Enable AICC Integration article from Linkedin, Clients will receive an error page from LinkedIn stating, "Oops, It's not you it's us. Give it another try, please." Adding the Portal URL (company.myabsorb.com) will correct this.
  • • Reference Article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/learning/lms-integrations/integration-docs/standard-aicc#enable-aicc-integration

Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/learning/lms-integrations/integration-docs/absorb

Learner Authentication Flow

This is the expected Learner authentication flow:

Notes

• The learner will be requested to authenticate or create their Personal LinkedIn account (if not already logged in)
• LinkedIn retains your session history – and may not require an additional login. 
• ** User Provisioning must be enabled and set up correctly on Corporate LinkedIn settings. 
• SSO Account Provisioning can be enabled via LinkedIn to allow connection between Absorb and LinkedIn Corporate Account
• Account Provision only occurs on the launch of the first course. 
• LIL requires “Automatically assign licenses” enabled to connect the Personal LinkedIn with the Corporate account to gain access to content. 
• The current authentication model was developed in consultation with the LinkedIn product team to support real-time reporting of learner outcomes. No alternate LinkedIn Learning recommendations are currently supported. 

Syncing LinkedIn Learning Content to Absorb

Once an SSO connection is established and our Support team has enabled LinkedIn Learning with the necessary fields filled out, the system will automatically start syncing your LinkedIn Learning courses with Absorb.

The library in your portal is updated nightly to ensure you always have access to the newest content. LinkedIn Learning completes an update to their Learning Library that occasionally retires a small amount of content from their site every week. If you are using a course that is removed from the library, Absorb will mark the course as inactive. If it is a multi-content course (i.e., many different lesson types with one LinkedIn lesson), then the course will be marked as Retired by Absorb. Regardless of which type the LinkedIn Learning content falls under, the progress data for these courses are retained and stamped to the learner’s profile.

Notes

• The initial sync of your courses can take a while, depending on the number of courses. However, this will run in the background to leave the page once you click Save to begin the import process.
  
  
• You must enable the LinkedIn AICC Integration settings to add courses to your LinkedIn Catalog.
• Courses must be synced with AICC launch data to successfully convert to an LMS AICC course.
• Set up a new REST API application. Reusing an existing one may result in credential issues.

Importing LinkedIn Learning Courses

After all your courses are synced to Absorb, you will be able to Import the ones you wish to start enrolling learners into. From the Courses menu, select LinkedIn Learning Library; it will bring up the list of all your synced courses. You can choose one or multiple courses from the list and then use the Import button to bring up the Import Course window. You can select whether this course will allow Self Enrollment, has Automatic Enrollment enabled, what category the course should be placed in, and who the course editors are.

It is important to note that Course Editors can only be added in bulk at this stage and will need to be edited at the individual course level after this initial selection. Hence, you want to ensure you have selected the right Editors.

Once you have finished importing the courses you wish to use, you can select the View LinkedIn Learning Courses button.

As you will notice, this page is pre-filtered only to display LinkedIn Learning Courses. From here, Administrators with course editing permissions can select a course and make edits to the settings as they would with any other Online Course, as well as add additional Lesson Objects (i.e.: assessments, tasks, etc.).

Please Note: As the course content is brought over from LinkedIn, the lesson section cannot be edited (i.e., lesson description, title, etc.). You will also find that the LinkedIn course thumbnail and tags (created from LinkedIn Learning's Taxonomy) are brought over automatically.

Admins can also make LinkedIn Learning content in reverse by creating an Online Course and then adding a Lesson Object type of LinkedIn Learning. You can search for the LinkedIn Learning course you want to add as a Lesson by clicking the eye icon to view the description as you scroll. You can add other object types into your online courses, such as SCORM, videos, or assessments, to make a mixed content course.

Important: LinkedIn Learning courses are not eligible to be sold via E-Commerce.

LinkedIn Learning in the Learner Interface

On the Learner User Interface (UI) side, you will see the LinkedIn Learning Ribbon, where up to 30 LinkedIn Learning courses appear. You will notice that these courses are branded with the LinkedIn Learning logo, as only purely LinkedIn Learning content will appear here, not mixed content courses. Courses with a variety of content will instead have the logo listed by the lesson rather than indicated for the whole course and will not appear in the ribbon.

Your Learners can then enroll in, or launch the content, and begin enjoying the benefits of your portal’s LinkedIn Learning Library.

Please note that the ribbon "LinkedIn Learning" must be enabled in Manage Template menu in order for it to appear on the Learner Dashboard. If you require further instructions on the Manage Template menu, please view our Department Templates article.