Feature Overview and Requirements

LatitudeLearning® offers several ways to highlight important training opportunities for students, such as developing a “Featured Courses” list per Location, which then displays on a user’s homepage. However, if you want to make LMS coursework a centerpiece item to a broader population of learners, consider placing a link to it on your organization’s web site, or incorporating direct links within your What’s New or Home page message.

You can accomplish these setups by using a course’s Uniform Resource Locator (URL) as a deep link from the desired web page directly to the course. When users click on the deep link, if they are not already logged in to the LMS, they will be directed to the login page where they can enter their credentials. After logging in, they are taken directly to the Course Details page where they can read a course description, enroll in the course, and launch content.

Using embedded links bypasses the users’ Home page experience and eliminates the need to search for a course. 

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

Capture the Course URL

Before you can link to the course from a website, you must first capture the unique URL for the course.

1. From the left navigation menu, select Courses > Search Courses.
2. Search for and select the course by clicking on the course title in the search results.
3. While you are on the Course Details page, select and copy the URL from the browser window to your clipboard. Be sure to select the entire URL by pressing [CTRL+A] on your keyboard, then copy it by pressing [CTRL+C]. It is now ready to use as a link on your web page, or on the Home page “Welcome” message in your LMS portal.

Insert the Course URL into Website Content

If you choose to make a direct link to the course from your website, the actual procedure will vary depending on the tools you use to edit your site. Most web development applications allow you to add links using an Insert Link or Insert Hyperlink icon in the Rich Text editor or by directly editing the HTML code. The ability to do this is not controlled by the LMS, but by your organization’s access restrictions to the web authoring environment.

In general, it will require you to:

1. Log in to your web authoring tool.
2. Open the Rich Text or HTML editor for the particular page or page location on which you wish to display the link.
3. Insert the link and its display text or image as required by the web authoring application. If the URL is still copied to your Clipboard, press [CTRL+V] to paste it.
4. Save the change.
5. Test the link on the site to make sure it successfully directs to the correct course.

Add the Course Link to an LMS Page

Portal Administrators can use the Site Management tool to deep link a course directly from other HTML areas in the LMS.

To add the course link to another page:

1. From the left navigation menu, select Site Management > Edit HTML.
2. In the HTML Content File field, select the desired page from the drop down list.

3. In the Content area, add or modify text and graphics as desired.
4. Use your mouse to select the text or image you want to link out to the course.
5. In the Rich Text Editor toolbar, click the Link icon.
6. In the Link pop-up window, paste the course URL into the URL field. If it is still copied to your Clipboard, press [CTRL+V] to paste it. Change the Protocol (e.g. http://, https://) if necessary, then click OK. Normally the act of pasting the link will change the protocol to the correct one.

7. Upon returning to the Edit HTML Content page, complete content updates and click Submit to apply your changes.
8. Navigate to the LMS page you updated to review the changes and test the course link. Repeat this process as needed until the course link and related texts appear as desired.