While every company has its own unique way of communicating and providing access to the LMS, Absorb would like to offer a few Best Practices to help Admins prepare for User Login questions. In this article, we will go through the different ways a user can log into the LMS and Best Practices regarding these different login methods. 

Best practices for Access Point

One question we get here at Absorb is, 'How do I access my LMS?' Users reach out to Absorb on a regular basis, due to not knowing where to access their LMS. Whether your users are accessing the LMS through a unique URL, through SSO, or from a Sales Site, it is important to provide clear communication and multiple ways for the users to access the LMS. Some clients download links to the User's Desktop or provide a link on an internal system they would use often. If you are linking to the LMS from a website where you sell your training or from Salesforce, there should be some sort of communication on how these systems connect. 

Best practices for Passwords

Probably the #1 question an Admin will receive is, ‘What is my password?’ or 'I forgot my Password'. Here are a few ways Absorb can help you manage this ongoing question.

• For the User’s initial password, give them one they may already be familiar with. Maybe an Employee Number or unique code they may already be using internally.
• From the login page, there is a Forgot Password link. When the User selects this link, they will be prompted to enter in their Username or their Email address. If the User is active and has a correct email address populated on their LMS account, they will receive an email with a link to reset their password.
  • When the User selects the link from the Password Reset email, they will be taken to a page where they will be requested to enter in their new password into 2 fields. Once they enter it, they will be asked to Login. They will need to select Login, so they can enter in their Username and new Password.
• System Admins have a way of customizing the Login page to have a Public Dashboard in Setup > Templates. The Dashboard offers ways to link to the Company’s Help Site or to a Help Document. See the Templates & Themes article for more information.
• Consider Single Sign-On (SSO) if you have the resources available. To learn more, please visit our Incoming SAML 2.0 SSO Account Provisioning article.
• Admins also could send the User a Password Reset link through email if the User requests. You could also make it best practice to send the Password Reset email to users who have not logged in for while (filter by Last Login Date in the User grid), prior to a rollout of required training. This way they will have a fresh new password and ready to log in before you roll out the new training.  
• When configuring your LMS, you will have the option to choose your password required format. This option can be updated at any time, by contacting Absorb Support or you Customer Service Manager. The 3 options are as followed. 
  • Weak: Can consist of any characters, but must be a minimum of 6 characters.
  • Medium: Must consist of at least one letter and number, and must be a minimum of 8 characters.
  • Strong: Must consist of at least one uppercase and lowercase letter, one number, one symbol, and be at least 8 characters in length.

Best practices for Single Sign-On (SSO)

As mentioned above, Single Sign-On is a great way to eliminate those pesky Password questions. We know that not all clients have the ability to set up SSO, but for those that can, here are a few things to keep in mind. 

• For details on how to set up SSO, please visit our Incoming SAML 2.0 Single Sign-On article.
• All SSO methods must use SAML 2.0 integration or Open Connect. 
• Absorb allows multiple URLs, where clients can set up more than one SSO method or have the option to allow some users to log in manually and some to login via SSO.
• Clients can SSO into other applications from their Absorb LMS. Please review the Outgoing SAML 2.0 Single Sign-On article for details on how to set this up. 
• The User can begin the SSO login process by using the LMS URL or by following the link from your identity provider.  
• Service Provider Initiated Mode is recommended over Identity Provider Initiated Mode as SP-Initiated allows LMS Deep Links to work without modification, and it also allows you to use SSO to log in to the Absorb Mobile App
  • For more about Deep Links, please click here. 
     
  • For more about the Mobile App, please click here.

Best practices for User Sign-Up

If the user does not have an account on the LMS and Sign-Up is enabled, the User can select the Sign-Up button to create a user account. This link will launch the Sign-Up page where Admins can define what fields are required and which fields are optional for the User to fill out when creating their user account. The Admin can determine these fields when they create an Enrollment Key in User > Enrollment Keys. A default Enrollment Key can be added to the Public Signup Enrollment Key field within the Setup > Templates > Login > Advanced section, so that users do not have to enter in the Name of the Enrollment Key to proceed with the Sign-Up process. 

Enrollment Keys are tied to a specific Department in the LMS. Once the User is created in the LMS, the User's Department will match the Department of the Enrollment Key. If the clients set a Default Enrollment Key, all users who create an account through Sign-Up will be assigned to the same Department. The Admin can manually manage the User's Department after they are created in User > Departments. If Users will need to have different departments within the LMS, the Admin can create more than one Enrollment Key. If there is more than one Enrollment Key, a Default Enrollment Key cannot be set up and the User will be prompted to enter in the Name of the Enrollment Key when Sign-up is selected on the Login page. 

An Enrollment Key can be set up to allow users to manually sign themselves up into the LMS and they can be created to automatically enroll users into Courses. If you are an E-Commerce Organization and would like to provide a user with a free course, for signing up into the LMS, you can attach the Course(s) to the Enrollment Key they will use to Sign-up into the LMS.