Absorb offers different Content packages, full of different Courses, to help you deliver standardized training to your Learners. This article explains Absorb Content functionality and how to manage your selected content library catalog.

To get started with one of our Absorb Content packages in your LMS, you will first need to contact your Account Manager to enable the Absorb Content subscription on your Portal. Learners must also have a License before they can access any converted content.

Content Licensing

When selecting the right Absorb Content package, you may choose to purchase Licenses for all or a subset of your Learners. Once enabled on your Portal, you will need to determine which of your Learners should be allowed to consume the Licenses you've purchased. Once you have assigned Licenses, you can then determine what Courses the Learners can see from the Absorb Content Report.

Contract Types

Absorb Content is available under different contract types that determine how many Licenses you have and how much of the catalog you can access. Your contract type is arranged with your Account Manager when your subscription is set up.

The number of Licenses (Limited or Unlimited) and the amount of catalog content you can access (the full library or a selected subset) are set independently. For example, a contract can provide Unlimited Licenses while still limiting you to a specific set of Courses.

One-Time License Assignment

You can view and manage licensed Learners through the Content Licensing report, available to System Admins in your LMS Portal. Here you can manually add individual Learners or groups, or create automatic licensing rules to assign Licenses to your Learners. You can also remove the assigned Licenses from Learners who have not launched any content, and review your number of available Licenses from this report.

Steps to Assigning Licenses

You can add Licenses to Learners individually, or you can create a one-time rule to immediately mass assign Licenses.

1. Navigate to the Content Licensing report.
2. Select Assign License from the Action Menu.
3. Select your Content Library package from the Contract drop-down field.
4. Toggle User Selection to Manual or Rule.
   • Manual - The Admin will search by Username or Name to find one or more specific Users to assign the License.
   • Rule - Similar to Enrollment Rules, you can select a User value to Filter and assign Licenses to only the Learners who need to see these Courses. More than one rule can be applied. This is a one-time License assignment.
   • Note: Unlike an Enrollment Rule, this Rule only runs and finds the Learners who qualify upon save. It will not continue to apply Licenses to new Users that qualify for the Rule.
5. Save your changes.

Ongoing License Management

While Assign License only applies a License to the Learners in the LMS or in that specific data set once upon save, you can also create Rules so that Learners are automatically assigned a License whenever they are created or updated in the LMS. This is similar to the way Automatic Enrollment Rules work for your LMS Courses. Only System Administrators can use the Manage License function for Users.

Steps to Managing Licenses

You can add Licenses to Learners by creating an ongoing rule to immediately mass assign Licenses and automatically update as new Learners qualify.

1. Navigate to the Content Licensing report.
2. Select Manage License from the Action Menu.
3. Select your Absorb Content package from the Contract drop-down field.
4. Choose a License Assignment Rule to identify what Learners will have access to these Courses in your LMS. Similar to Enrollment Rules, you can select a User, Department, or Group value to filter and assign Licenses to a specific set of Learners. More than one rule can be applied.
   • Only one set of Rules can be created. When you select Manage License, the current Rule setup will be available to edit, or you will have the option to select Add Rule if you would like to add to what is already set up.
5. Save your changes.

Steps to Remove Licenses

Licenses can be removed from Learners if they have not already consumed the License or enrolled into a Course. One way to check is to review the Content Licensing report and filter License Consumed to No. Follow these steps to remove the License from Learners you no longer want to have access to the Courses within your Absorb Content.

1. Navigate to the Content Licensing report.
2. Select Manage License from the Action Menu.
3. Select your Absorb Content package from the Contract drop-down field.
4. Search and find the Learner.
5. Select the Learner, and then choose the Remove License option from the Action Menu on the right side of the page.
   • Note: If there is a Yes populated in the License Consumed column of the Content Licensing report, the Remove License option will not be available.

License Assignment vs. License Consumption

Managing License assignments lets you decide which Learners should be allowed to access the content, but does not tie an individual License to a Learner until the Learner launches the content for the first time. This makes License management easier:

• License assignments can be created for any number of Learners regardless of the number of Licenses you've purchased, simplifying the decision-making process for how to allocate Licenses.
• Learners can consume Licenses on a first-come, first-served basis. Once a Learner has launched the content, their License is tied to their User and can no longer be unassigned or re-assigned to another User for the remainder of the License term.
• The total number of available Licenses is based on Licenses consumed, and will decrease as Users consume them. You can confirm how many remaining licenses are available by going to Setup > Content Licensing > Manage Licenses and filtering on License Consumed. Please engage your Absorb Account Manager if you require additional Licenses.

License terms vary by Absorb Content. Reach out to your Absorb Account Manager for more information about your Absorb Content License term.

You can find information about which of your Learners have consumed Licenses by filtering the Content Licensing report. Licenses can be unassigned at any time prior to the License being consumed or tied to that User's account.

Filter by the License Consumed column and remove Licenses prior to License consumption. Once consumed, you will be unable to remove an assigned License from Users. Absorb is not responsible for any incorrectly assigned Licenses and cannot remove an assigned License from Users on your behalf. 

Content Licensing Report

The Content Licensing Report is the source of truth for License utilization. It shows who has been assigned a content License, who has consumed a License by launching content, and how many Licenses remain available within a specific contract term. It is most commonly used for renewal conversations, adoption reviews, and troubleshooting access or licensing questions.

The Content Licensing Report includes the following fields:

Managing Courses in Absorb Content

Once an Absorb Content subscription is enabled on your Portal, you can immediately view and manage your entire catalog from the Absorb Content report in the Admin Experience. Navigate to Courses in your Admin menu, then click Absorb Content to open the Absorb Content Report page. If you have more than one library, use the filter on the Content Catalog page to switch between them.

Absorb Content Report

The Absorb Content Report will launch using the standard Card View layout, where you can:

• View the list of Courses provided in your Contract.
• View the Lesson Details of a Course.
• Convert the Course, so that Learners can begin taking it.

You can locate specific Courses in your catalog using the search bar on the Absorb Content Report page, which supports semantic search. For more information, see the Absorb Content Search article.

Be mindful that opening a Report may also bring up a favorite Saved Layout or a shared default organizational Report Layout. You can learn more about our Default Layout options in the Organization Default Layout for Reports article.

The Absorb Content Report offers two views: Card View and Table View.

Report Data

You can customize this report to provide information on any of the data points listed below.

Fields that have an asterisk (*) symbol are included in the Report's default Layout.

Actions and Mass Action Options

After generating the report, you can perform administrative actions. Commands to modify report data become available once the checkbox of a table row item is selected (checked). The menu is displayed on the right-hand frame of the page. This menu is context-sensitive. The options for Actions and Mass Actions that are available will change depending on the content you are selecting.

• An individual row selection will open the Actions menu.
• Multiple row selections will open the Mass Actions menu.

View Lesson Details

When you select View Lesson Details, a modal opens with a quick view of the content you've selected. You can view only one Course at a time.

Convert to Course

From the report, you can easily convert your Absorb Content into LMS Online Courses and choose which of your Learners should have access to this content. You can select more than one Course at a time to convert if they have the same general setup. Please see the options that will display while converting your Course.

This requires the Admin to have View and Modify capability for Online Courses in their Role.

Once you've completed Converting your Course(s), you will be directed to the Course Administration page in the LMS and will see your newly created courses. 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 if desired (for example, Assessments, Observation Checklists, and Surveys). When editing the Online Course, you'll notice that Course Thumbnail, Posters, Tags, Author, Content Tags (populated at the Course level), Content Type, Duration, and External ID are brought over automatically when they exist on the Course from Absorb Content.

The Author, Content Tags, Content Type, Duration, and External ID fields can be modified when editing the corresponding Lesson:

As Online Courses are created from the Absorb Content conversion, the Lessons themselves cannot be edited (for example, Lesson Description, Title, and so on).

You can also use the Courses Report and the Course Summary Report to display and filter for the Author, Content Tags, Content Type, Duration, and External ID fields.

Content Selected Report

If you've purchased an Absorb Content subscription that allows you to select a specific number of Courses (a Pick [X] contract), you will have the option to add individual items to your bundle selections. Use the Content Selected report filters to more easily view and manage your content selections.

Managing your bundle selections requires the Absorb Content > Modify permission enabled for your Custom Admin Role(s). This is enabled by default for Admin and System Admin Roles. If your Custom Role only has Absorb Content > View permission, they will be able to see the available content but will only be able to administrate content that has already been added to your bundle selections by other Admins.

Manage your Course Bundle selections by Filtering on the Selected Courses column.

Once you've added items to your bundle selections, you will be able to Convert to Course(s). Once you've created Online Courses with these selections, you can then make the Online Courses available to your Learners. You will be unable to change these selections for the duration of your License term.

License terms vary by Absorb Content package. Reach out to your Account Manager for more information about your Absorb Content License term.

Adding Content to New or Existing Online Courses

You can also create Online Courses that include one or more Courses from your Absorb Content, allowing you to create customized learning paths that include different Course content.

When editing a new or existing Online Course, select Add Learning Object from the Syllabus tab, and then choose the option Content Libraries. Upon selecting the Lesson Type, search and select the Courses you choose to add from your full Absorb Content catalog.

If you have more than one kind of Absorb Content available, you will be required to select which one you would like to search and find.

Add the Content Libraries Learning Object type to the Online Course syllabus.

Search for specific Courses within your Absorb Content available for your selected subscription.

If your subscription entitles you to build your own bundle from the Content Selected report (see the previous section), you will only be able to select from the items that have already been added to your bundle selections.

Accessing Content in the Learner Interface

If you've made the Course within your Absorb Content available to Learners for Self-Enrollment, or have automatically or manually enrolled a Learner in these Courses, they will be able to view this content in the Catalog and My Courses sections of the Learner Experience.

This is a view of content converted to Online Courses in the Learner Experience.

Learners can use Refine Search > Advanced Search to enter the Content Partner's name and find Online Courses designed by your Content Partner.

Once enrolled, Learners who've been assigned Licenses will be able to launch their Courses and proceed through the material in the same way they would with any other Course.

If a Learner does not have a License, they will receive a Not Available message instead of a launch button and will be unable to view the content until a License is applied to their account. This may occur in the following scenarios:

• The Course has been made available to the Learner, but they have not been assigned a License via the Content Licensing report, OR
• The Learner has been assigned a License, and other Learners have consumed all available Licenses on a first-come, first-served basis, OR
• Your Absorb Content subscription contract has lapsed; you will need to renew your subscription to allow your Learners to continue to access this content.

Unable to Launch a Lesson When a Learner Has No Available License

Reach out to your Absorb Account Manager if you're nearing the end of your contract term, or if you would like to purchase additional Licenses to provide content to more of your Learners.

Resolving Safari-Specific Issues

If you experience issues accessing a Course in Safari, your browser's privacy settings may be blocking required cookies. Safari's default security configuration can interfere with cross-site tracking, which is necessary for proper course tracking and functionality within Absorb LMS.

This section outlines the steps to adjust Safari settings and resolve common course access issues.

Enable Cross-Site Tracking in Safari

Safari may block cross-site tracking by default. Disabling this setting can restore proper course functionality.

Disable Prevent Cross-Site Tracking

Follow these steps to update your Safari privacy settings:

1. Open Safari.
2. Click Safari in the top navigation bar.
3. Select Preferences (or Settings on macOS Ventura and later).
4. Click the Privacy tab.
5. Clear the checkbox for Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.
6. Refresh the Course page.
7. Attempt to access the Course again.

Manage Website Data in Safari

If disabling cross-site tracking does not resolve the issue, clearing stored website data for the affected site may help.

Remove Website Data for the LMS

Follow these steps to remove stored data:

1. Open Safari.
2. Click Safari in the top navigation bar.
3. Select Preferences (or Settings on macOS Ventura and later).
4. Click the Privacy tab.
5. Click Manage Website Data.
6. Locate your LMS site in the list.
7. Select the site.
8. Click Remove.
9. Quit Safari.
10. Restart your device.
11. Reopen Safari and access the Course again.

Next Steps

These steps resolve most Safari-related Course access issues. If you continue to experience problems after completing this process, contact your System Administrator or Absorb Representative for further assistance.

Roles and Permissions

Below are the required Role Permissions Admins will need to Add and/or Modify Users within the LMS, and the suggested Role Permissions Admins may want to have in combination with what is required.

Please note that your environment may use customized Role(s), Permissions, or a combination of both to perform these activities. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact your local System Administrator to review your current permissions. For more information, see the Admin Roles and Permissions article.

Required Role Permissions

The following Role Permissions are required to manage Absorb Content:

Suggested Role Permissions

The following Role Permissions are recommended in addition to the required permissions: