Registration for Online Training

The registration process for your online training is an important component of your training integration. It should be easy for learners to find and register for the courses they need. The process shouldn't require a lot of resources from your LMS admin to manage. Additionally, the registration process should support your company's unique needs. In this article, we look at four components of the registration process to consider as you plan your training strategy.

1. Public or private access

Would you like to make your courses available for anyone to register for? Or, should access be limited? These are the questions to consider as you decide whether your training site should be delivered from a public or private domain. Let's look at the following real business use cases.

• Public domain - BECU is the nation's fourth largest credit union. Their financial education team offers training to a) provide financial information to BECU members and the general community, and b) increase awareness of BECU financial services. Their goal is to enable as many customers as possible to register for courses. By using a public domain, anyone can visit their training site at training.becu.org and register for a course.
• Private domain- Gemvision is a software company that provides CAD/CAM software for designing jewelry. Their online training program is available to customers who purchase a support package with training included. Since training should be available only to customers who have purchased the training package, they use a private domain. This limits access to their training site academy.gemvision.com to customers with valid access codes.

2. Course catalog

Your course catalog is made up of all of your published courses. These two key factors will impact how trainees navigate your catalog:

• Organization - How should you organize your courses so that potential trainees can easily identify the course(s) that they need? One thing to note is the order that your courses display in on the catalog. Another feature which Skilljar offers is the ability to categorize courses. Trainees can use these categories to refine their search of your catalog. Here's an example from the training site training.skilljar.com:

• Course visibility - Course visibility is another important component of the catalog. With Skilljar, you can remove a course from the catalog if you do not wish for it to be accessed with the rest of your courses. This will prevent general visitors to your training site from being able to register. Oftentimes, companies may offer some courses publicly to any potential trainees, while offering other courses specifically to a limited group of trainees that meet a certain type of criteria, like those in a certain job role, for example. 

3. Custom registration

Depending on your company's needs, it may be important for you to gather unique details about your trainees. Skilljar enables you to customize the registration form so that you can request the information you need when a trainee signs up for a course. Utilize a free form text field for trainees to type in, or provide a picklist to specify choices for available responses, such as job title. 

4. Single Sign On

Single Sign On, also known as SSO, enables your trainees to use existing credentials from another application to sign in to your training portal. If your trainees have set up a login on your website, for example, SSO enables them to use the same login for their Skilljar training. This process may be especially important to your company if you are striving to create a seamless transition from your website to training, and remove barriers to training like creating a new account and password.

Conclusion

I hope this guide is helpful as you develop your training process. Of course, another very important aspect to consider is which options your LMS supports, as these features vary based on which platform you use.

Have any questions? We'd love to help! Just leave us a comment below.