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Monetize LMS with eCommerce

Latitude has made it easy for portal administrators to monetize their Learning Management System with several eCommerce options. Once eCommerce is enabled and properly configured for your portal, you can offer clients, partners or distributors the ability to purchase courses and other training-related activities within the LMS. Thanks to Latitude’s partnership with PayPal, administrators can choose whether they want to accept payments via Credit Card, Direct Bill, or both.

Feature Overview and Requirements

All credit card payments are processed through PayPal’s Secure Payment platform, requiring you to integrate your PayPal Business account to use this option. Direct billing is not processed through the LMS, so payment invoices must be generated and tracked from your organization’s preferred billing platform.

Learners who enroll in tuition-based courses can use their Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or debit cards to make online payments, or they can agree to be invoiced for the cost of tuition through direct billing. Managers can also make tuition payments on their employees’ behalf when approving enrollment requests or enrolling others in coursework.

The LMS provides payment history reports based on payment type: Credit Card or Direct Bill. Use these tools for financial reporting or for auditing your billing records.

Shortcuts

  • Feature Overview and Requirements
  • Step-by-Step and Field Descriptions
  • Use Cases and Examples
  • FAQs

Video

Useful Links

Step-by-Step Procedures and Field Descriptions

The first step in monetizing your LMS is to log into your portal and select Site Management > LMS Information. This page allows you to verify that eCommerce has been enabled and, if so, configure portal-wide payment methods. 

Tuition Payment Options and PayPal API Information

  1. From the Left Navigation Menu, select Site Management > LMS Information.
  2. Scroll to the “Payment Information” section at the bottom of the page. Check the box next to the Direct Billing or Credit Card (via PayPal) field to add your desired payment options.
  3. If you choose to accept Credit Card payments, you must enter PayPal account credentials into the PayPal PayPal Client ID and PayPal Secret Key fields. If you are unsure of how to acquire this information, please visit PayPal Support or chat with a PayPal Support representative. See the Appendix of this document or watch our Add PayPal to Your LMS video to learn more.
  4. In the PayPal Environment field, select “live” from the drop-down list, but only after you have everything set up and tested using the Sandbox.
  5. Click Submit to save changes.

Make Payment Methods Location-Specific

Portal-wide payment settings will automatically cascade to all LMS Locations. However, because the LMS allows for Organizational Branding, you can further define which payment methods should be offered at each individual Location.

To modify payment options at the Location level:

  1. Search for the desired Location and open its General Information tab.
  2. Under the section labeled “Payment Methods”, select or deselect either option — Credit Card and Direct Bill — for users assigned training at that organization. At least one option must be selected in order for location students to be enrolled in tuition-based courses.
  3. Click the Submit button to save changes.

Note: In order for students at this organization to enroll in tuition-based courses, at least one payment method must be configured at the portal and location levels. 

Configure Courses to Require Tuition

Once an LMS has been configured to accept Credit Card and/or Direct Billing payments, administrators can begin adding tuition requirements to select courses. 

  1. Open the desired course and select the General tab.
  2. In the Tuition field, enter the total cost of tuition in USD (United States dollar).
  3. Click Save Course to apply changes.

All users will see the cost of tuition displayed as part of the course information. Students or their enrolling supervisors must pay the full cost of tuition to complete the enrollment process for this course. 

Paying Tuition for Course Enrollment

Students can purchase LMS courses and other training-related activities through Direct Bill or Credit Card. For more information on the student experience, please review this document: Paying Course Tuition in the LMS. 

Enrolling Others in Tuition-Based Courses

LMS portal administrators or managers who Enroll Others or Approve Pending Enrollments for tuition-based courses must pay the full cost of enrollment on the student’s behalf to complete the process. The available payment methods are Direct Bill, Credit Card, or Both, depending on which have been enabled at the Location.

Students will receive enrollment confirmation messages as usual and will not be charged for launching or attending such courses. 

Direct Billing

When enrolling students from Locations where Direct Billing has been enabled, administrators can fill out the tuition payment form as described below, then click Complete Purchase to finalize their enrollments. 
  • Payment Method: Direct Billing
  • Purchase Order / Reference Number: Enter the purchase/reference numbers you want including with your payment information
  • Billing Agreement (required field): Administrators must agree to the billing statement to enroll others in a tuition-based course

Note: Because invoices for this payment type are not processed through the LMS, Portal Administrators will rely on the standard financial report to collect and process billing information. If this is your preferred payment method, we highly suggest including a Purchase Order / Reference Number with every enrollment, as this field pulls into the Direct Bill report by default and can help with payment processing later. 

Credit Card

To pay course tuition with a credit or debit card, complete the fields on the payment form described below, then click Complete Purchase to finalize student enrollment. 
  • Payment Method: Credit Card. Click to launch PayPal or Debit or Credit Card to process payment and follow the instructions on those pages.

Note: Tuition payments are hosted within the LMS, but are actually processed through PayPal as a third party vendor. This means that all payment issues, tax analysis, tuition refunds, and other payment-related information is subject to PayPal policy and procedure. 

eCommerce Reporting

The LMS comes standard with tuition payment activity reports, one for each payment method. Use these tools for financial reporting or for generating and auditing payment records.

From the Left Navigation menu, click Reports. In the pop-up window, select from the “Course Reports” section either of these two options to start collecting data:

  1. Course Payment By Credit Card Report
  2. Course Payment By Direct Bill Report

Appendix: Details on Setting Up PayPal Integration

These are the current steps to setup/add PayPal credentials.

Select Apps & Credentials.
 
  • Under Apps & Credentials, if you have not already created your App, select Create App. Create an App Name (we use LMS as an example). 
  • Then click Create App. 
  • You will see the App under REST API Apps. Note the Copy icon next to the Client ID and PayPal Secret key. Copy and save these credentials for the next steps.

You should be in Sandbox mode. 

Enter the credentials in the LMS Information page and make sure Sandbox is selected.  
  • Test transactions using the sandbox mode. Enroll in a tuition-based course and purchase it. On the payment page, use PayPal as the option to complete the purchase. 
    After sufficient testing, you are ready to go live with PayPal in the LMS.
     
  • Set both the LMS and PayPal to the Live Mode.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why didn't my SCORM package load?

Please review the requirements in this section to ensure your file is LMS-compliant.

Why are students having problems completing a course?

If your course launches correctly in the LMS, but all or some users are having difficulty getting a successful completion, these are common issues:

  • The LMS window and the course content “launch” window/tab must be open concurrently. If a student closes the LMS window, the SCORM engine cannot properly update score and status.
  • Any interruption in network connectivity while a student is taking the course can interrupt or disconnect communication of status between the LMS and the course.
  • Course configuration in the authoring tool may be problematic:
    • Success/completion factors are not being fully met by the student. Making them aware of the success factors or helping create navigation and workflows that guide them toward full completion can help.
    • The student does not navigate or exit the course in a way that triggers submission of final status or score to the LMS. For instance, if a final “Finish” button submits scores to the LMS but the user simply closes the course window.
    • Publishing settings such as “Report status to LMS as” can cause issues with the LMS and may need to be altered if initial attempts fail. These are the settings that tell the system to report as “Passed/Incomplete”, “Passed/Failed”, “Complete/Incomplete”, etc. Using “Passed/Incomplete” is usually successful.