aXcelerate's Learner Portal is available for all clients to use but for the best Student Experience, we recommend using the myriad of configurable options listed below.
Tip: There are a number of new features and settings that are able to be configured for the Learner Portal. We recommend that you read through this article and test out the portal yourself before enabling it for your students.
Access the Learner Portal
The Learner Portal can be accessed from the Staging and Admin environments from the following links: https://stg.axcelerate.com/learner and https://app.axcelerate.com/learner/. We recommend that you enrol yourself in a course before logging in to see what your students will have access to.
- Enrol yourself in a course
- Go to one of the links listed above
- Enter your Username and Password
- Click Log in
Tip: You can also create a new student user in the system and login as them to test the portal instead of enrolling your own user if you would prefer. Please refer to our User Management help article for further information.
Note: If you have Online Assessments configured in your account, you will need to test the portal in the Admin environment to see how the assessments will appear for your students.
Enable the Learner Portal
The Learner Portal can be enabled from the Learner Portal tab of the System Settings. The old Learner Portal will continue to be used unless this setting has been enabled.
- Enable Learner Portal (BETA)
- Click Save Learner Portal Settings
Tip: Once the Learner Portal is enabled in your account, the standard link to the old portal will redirect students to the new portal. This means you will not need to provide new links to existing students.
Note: We recommend that you view and test the portal before enabling it to ensure you have everything configured and displaying as you would like it to. The Learner Portal displays some information differently to the old Learner Portal and there are some new options and features now available. Please look through the other sections in this article as well as the portal itself to see exactly what your students will be seeing in the Learner Portal before enabling it.
Upload a Learner Portal Logo
This allows you to specify an image to be used as your logo in the Learner Portal.
- Click Set Light Logo or Set Dark Logo
- Select your logo PNG file
- Click Save Learner Portal Settings
Tip: The Learner Portal allows users to enable Dark Mode. You may wish to specify a dark logo which will be used when users swap to Dark Mode. If you only set one of the logos (dark or light), that logo will be used for both Light and Dark Mode.
Warning: You must ensure your logo file is in the PNG image format.
Set a Learner Portal Background Image
With this setting, you can set an image that will be used as the Background Image for your Learner Portal. You are also able to specify a dark Background Image which will be used when users swap to Dark Mode. If you only set one of the Background Images (dark or light), that Background Image will be used for both Light and Dark Mode.
- Under Learner Portal Options, you can find the Set Light Background Image and Set Dark Background Image upload buttons.
- Click one of these buttons and choose a file to upload. The file should automatically upload and be set as the new background image.
Tip: You can prevent the Background Image from appearing on Assessment and E-Learning related pages using the Disable Background Image on Assessments and Disable Background Image on E-Learning settings, respectively. These settings can be found in the Other Settings section of Learner Portal Settings.
Note: You can control the opacity of the Learner Portal background container to make your Background Image more visible. The Background Container Opacity setting can be used to set a percentage value that controls the opacity of the background container. Please be aware fading the background container may affect the legibility of certain page elements when using some Background Images.
Warning: You must upload a file in .png, .jpg or .gif format. There is a limit of a 2MB file size.
Set a Learner Portal Theme
This allows you to select a theme for your Learner Portal. There are currently 13 Themes to choose from.
Set a Learner Portal Welcome Message
A Welcome Message is able to be set in the Learner Portal that will be displayed to students the first time they log in to the portal. This can be used to show a friendly message to new students and provide guidance on how they can begin their course.
- Scroll to the Learner Portal Options
- Enable Show Welcome Message
- Enter some content into the Welcome Message text area
- Click Save Learner Portal Settings
Tip: Students can access the Welcome Message anytime from the Learner Portal help menu.
Make Resources Available in the Learner Portal
Resources that have been uploaded into the Resource Library can be made available to students to access via the Learner Portal. Resources can be available to all students or linked to specific courses. Resources available for all students can be found under the Student Resources tab on the dashboard. Course-specific resources will be displayed under the Resources tab when the student views a course they are enrolled in.
Tip: Students will be able to search for any resources that are available to them using the search-bar in the learner portal header.
Note: Please refer to our Resource Management help article for further information on Adding a File to the Resource Library and Linking Training Related Resources to Courses.
Create a Learner Portal Announcement
Announcements are able to be displayed in the Learner Portal and made available either to all students or only those in particular workshops and classes.
- Click Manage Announcements
- Click Add Announcement
- Set a Title
- Enter the Description
- Set whether the Announcement is Global or not
- Click Create Announcement
Tip: Ticking Display Name will show the name of the user who created the announcement in the Learner Portal. If this is not selected, no name will be shown next to the announcement.
Note: A Global announcement will be displayed to all students in the Learner Portal. If the announcement is not global it can be linked to particular courses after it has been created.
Link Courses to a Learner Portal Announcement
Once a non-global Announcement has been created, it can be linked to specific courses in the system. The Announcement will only show for students who are enrolled in a class or workshop that has been linked to the Announcement.
- Create or Update an Announcement.
- Click Link Courses
- Select a Qualification or Workshop Type
- Click Link Workshop/Class for each instance you want to link to the Announcement
- Click Submit
Tip: Click the Link All Workshops or Link All Classes button to link all instances of the Workshop Type or Qualification that is currently selected.
Note: Courses cannot be linked to a Global Announcement. Untick the Global option to allow courses to be linked to the Announcement.
Update a Learner Portal Announcement
- Click the Update icon next to an Announcement
- Update the details of the Announcement as required
- Click Update Announcement
Delete a Learner Portal Announcement
- Click the Delete icon next to an Announcement
- Click Submit to confirm deletion of the Announcement
Set a Qualification Learner Portal Image
Setting a Learner Portal Image will customise the icon that displays in the Learner Portal when students are selecting a Qualification to view. This image will also be shown on the Qualification overview.
Courses
Qualifications
- Select a Qualification
- Click Upload Image
- Click Upload File
- Select an Image from your file browser
- Click Submit
- Save the changes made to the Qualification
The optimal resolution for Workshop images is 300x300 pixels. The supported filetypes are .PNG and .JPG.
Set a Workshop Type Learner Portal Image
Setting a Learner Portal Image will customise the icon that displays in the Learner Portal when students are selecting a Workshop Type to view. This image will also be shown on the Workshop Type overview.
Courses
Workshop Types
- Select a Workshop Type
- Go to Workshop Image 1 and Click Add Picture
- Select an Image from the Image Library
- Click Submit
The optimal resolution for Workshop images is 300x300 pixels. The supported filetypes are .PNG and .JPG.
Note: The image must first be uploaded to the Images Library before it can be selected. Please refer to our Images Library help article for further information.
Set an Assessment Learner Portal Image
Setting an Assessment Image will customise the icon that displays in the Learner Portal when students are selecting an Assessment to undertake. This image will also be shown on the Assessment overview page.
Assessments
- Select the Drafts Tab
- Select an Assessment
- Click Open in Authoring
- Click the Settings icon
- Add a Feature Image link
- Click Save Settings
The optimal resolution for Assessment images is 500x500 pixels. The supported filetypes are .PNG, .JPG and .GIF.
Tip: To generate a link to your image, you can upload your image into the Images Library and copy the image link. Please refer to our Images Library help article for further information.
Note: The Feature Image of an Assessment can only be updated if the Assessment is Drafted. If an Assessment is published, it will need to be unpublished so that the image can be updated.
Display Modules in the Learner Portal
Units are able to be grouped into Modules and displayed in the Learner Portal. Where Units would usually be shown on the Course Overview page, Modules will instead be displayed if the units in the course have been grouped into Modules.
Tip: Grouping Units into Modules can help to organise the display of Units in the Learner Portal and help students to find Units more easily.
Note: For more information on configuring Unit Modules, please refer to our Qualification Management help article.
Learner Portal Settings
Recipient for feedback received via the Learner Portal:
When Learners submit feedback via the Help menu in the Learner Portal, their feedback will be created as a task and assigned to the selected user. Class or Workshop feedback will be assigned to the relevant Trainer unless a user is specified here.
Learner Portal SCORM viewer:
SCORM will be launched within the Learner Portal rather than a new window. SCORM 'Player Launch Type' should be set to 'Frameset' for the best learner experience.
Show Welcome Message:
The Welcome Message will appear in a window when a Learner logs into their portal for the first time, it can also be re-accessed by Learners via the Help menu.
Learners can download Certificates when available:
When enabled, Learners will be able to download any available Certificates via the Course Overview tab under a Class or Workshop.
Learners can email Trainers:
This enables learners to send an email directly to trainers through the Learner Portal.
Learners can update Address details:
Allows Learners to update their Address Info via the Profile Settings area. Includes both Residential and Postal address sections.
Learners can update Basic details:
Allows Learners to update their Basic Info via the Profile Settings area. Basic details include First Name, Last Name, Gender, Date of birth, Email, Mobile and Home phone numbers.
Learners can update the Learner Portal’s theme colour:
Allows Learners to update their selected theme colour to any available via the Profile Settings area. This does not affect other students.
Learners can update VET details:
Allows Learners to update their VET Details via the Profile Settings area.
Show Calendar:
This setting controls the display of the Calendar link/icon from the top bar.
Show VET Details:
This setting controls the display of the ‘VET Details tab‘ in the Learner Profile Settings area.
Launch Completed Learning:
This enables learners to launch learning that has already been completed
Show Announcements:
This setting controls the display of Announcements on the Dashboard as well as under Classes and Workshops.
Show Assessments:
This setting controls the display of the Assessment tabs under Classes, Units and Workshops.
Show Calendar:
This setting controls the display of the Calendar link/icon from the top bar.
Show Learning:
This setting controls the display of the Learning tabs under Classes, Units and Workshops.
Show Resources:
This setting controls the display of the Resources tabs under Classes, Units and Workshops.
Default Course Overview Tab:
This setting allows Admins to set the Default Course Overview tab view in the Learner Portal.
Show Workshops:
This setting controls the display of Workshops on the Dashboard and within any Classes.