This article provides details and instructions for configuring WebEx Virtual Classrooms for Instructor-Led Courses (ILCs). With this integration, your ILC Course Instructors will be able to authorize your Absorb LMS instance to create virtual meetings in your corporate WebEx account. The virtual meeting will be created with the ILC Course Instructor listed as the Host of the WebEx event. This integration will simplify the process of creating Venues in the LMS, and automatically create a meeting in your WebEx application.
To facilitate your Absorb LMS creating WebEx Meetings, we require that your organization have an account established with WebEx (Webex Virtual Classrooms). For larger organizations with multiple Administrators and/or Instructor(s), each Administrator will also need an account associated with the larger corporate account.
When connected, authorization allows Absorb LMS to do the following in your WebEx application:
- Create WebEx Meetings.
- Manage (update and delete) the WebEx Meetings created by Absorb.
- This includes updating the WebEx Meeting schedule and Hosts based on changes to the LMS Session.
No information (User information or otherwise) is collected from WebEx at any time.
- The Instructor identified for the ILC Session (using WebEx as a Venue) must exist as a User in your WebEx account. Please note that only Users with the Instructor role can be assigned to the ILC Session.
- WebEx Meetings cannot be set to a past date and must be greater than 10 minutes in duration (WebEx limitation).
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OAuth (Open Authorization) is commonly used as a way to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites without giving them passwords.
- The OAuth Refresh Token is valid for 90 days and is updated each time a WebEx Meeting is created, updated, or deleted. If the account is not active for 90 days and the token expires, the LMS Administrator will need to disable and re-enable the WebEx Meeting integration to obtain a new token.
WebEx Setup
The following instructions walk through the process of enabling the WebEx integration. These instructions begin in your Absorb LMS environment's Portal Settings on the Edit Client page under the Info Tab section.
- Access the Administrator Interface and click the Account Menu
button on the right hand side. The Account Menu will expand.
- From the expanded Account Menu click Portal Settings. You will land on the Edit Client page, with the Info Tab open by default.
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Scroll down to the WebEx Meeting section and click the Enable button. This action will redirect you to the Cisco WebEx login page.
- Log in with your WebEx credentials.
- Once you have successfully logged in, you will be redirected to the WebEx page in your Absorb LMS. You will see a success message confirming that your Virtual Meeting Tool Account (WebEx) has been successfully linked.
When scrolling down to the WebExMeeting toggle you will also see a green Access Authorized flag on the top right of the WebExMeeting description.
- After entering the relevant information into each field, save your settings on the top right.
How to Create a WebEx Venue
To create a WebEx Venue navigate to the Add Venue page and select WebEx as the Type. Alternatively when Adding or Editing an ILC Session you may select the Add Venue button. For further guidance on Venue settings and best practices, please refer to our Venues article.
How to Configure ILC Sessions for WebEx Venue
Once you have created a WebEx Venue you can use it in ILC Courses. The following instructions showcase how to add a WebEx Venue to an Instructor Led Course:
- Access the Courses Report and either Add or Edit an Instructor Led Course.
- Under the Sessions section, either Add or Edit an ILC Session.
- Under Venue is a drop-down menu. Click the drop-down menu and select the WebEx Venue you want to use for this ILC Session.
- Your unique Meeting URL will be generated when you hit Publish on the Add/Edit Instructor Led Course page. Once you are happy with the ILC Session select Save.
- When you are finished, commit the changes to the ILC by selecting the Publish button from the right hand side actions menu.
Your WebEx Meeting will appear in your WebEx account after you have published the ILC.
Your WebEx account will list all upcoming meetings that have been created for ILC Sessions in your Absorb LMS environment.
After an Instructor Led Course is published, and WebEx is the designated venue, the meeting information will be posted to your WebEx account based on your local time zone settings.
How to Disable WebEx Meeting
If you wish to disable the WebEx integration from your Absorb LMS environment, this can be adjusted in Portal Settings under the Info Tab.
Disabling the WebEx integration will impact all WebEx Meetings in any course within your organization’s Absorb LMS environment.
- Access the Administrator Interface and click the Account Menu
- From the expanded Account Menu click Portal Settings. You will land on the Edit Client page, with the Info Tab open by default.
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Scroll down to the WebEx Meeting section and click the Disable button.
Troubleshooting
When attempting to enable the WebEx integration, or create a WebEx venue you may encounter an error. The following table captures possible causes of the issues encountered:
| Error | Details |
| Authentication Fail |
WebEx Meeting authentication failed. Possible causes may include:
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| Invalid Host | The Host is not a valid virtual meeting Host to create meetings. |
| Invalid Instructor | One or more fields contain errors. - Unable to create a virtual meeting: Instructor must have an email address to add as a host to the virtual meeting. |
| Invalid meeting duration |
The meeting duration must be between 10 minutes and 24 hours. The meeting must not occur in the past. |