New features summary new-features-summary

Learn about the new features and enhancements in the November 2024 release of Adobe Learning Manager.

AI-powered search in Adobe Learning Manager

Adobe Learning Manager is revamping the way learners search courses or training. It introduces an AI-powered search capability that combines lexical and semantic search. The search is now smarter, as it looks for specific terms and understands the context and intent behind them. The advanced search understands the meaning of your query and provides relevant results. It identifies the main focus of the search to give you the most complete set of results.

Refer this article Advanced Search for more information.

Webhooks

Adobe Learning Manager allows integrating with Webhooks to send real-time information, such as course enrollments, course creation and other information, to a specific URL.

A webhook in ALM allows one entity to automatically send data to another application via HTTP. It will enable an application to provide other applications with information without constantly requesting it. For example, if a user completes a learning management system (LMS) course, a webhook can automatically send that information to another platform, such as a CRM or reporting tool. Webhooks are often used in integrations to automate processes and reduce the need for manual updates between systems. Set up webhooks by providing a callback URL to which you’d send the data.

Refer this article Webhooks for more information.

Learning Tools Interoperability

Adobe Learning Manager now supports LTI to enhance interoperability between Adobe Learning Manager and other Learning Management Systems (LMS).

What is LTI?

LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) is a standard that allows third-party tools and content providers to connect with a Learning Management System (LMS). Users can access external learning content from external content providers directly within their LMS without signing in or navigating to a different LMS.

LTI as a tool provider: LTI as a tool provider allows external systems to integrate with an LMS. Adobe Learning Manager acts as an LTI Tool Provider, allowing other LMS platforms to access course, certificates, or learning paths from the Adobe Learning Manager directly within their LMS.

LTI as a tool consumer: LTI as a Tool Consumer allows LMS to integrate external tools via Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI). In this scenario, LMS is a consumer of services provided by external tools. Adobe Learning Manager acts as an LTI Tool Consumer, allowing it to integrate third-party learning tools. This allows Adobe Learning Manager learners to consume the courses, certificates, or learning paths from the third-party tools within the Adobe Learning Manager.

Refer this article Learning Tool Interoperability for more information.

Credly

Using Credly, an admin in ALM allows learners to manage and share external badges from the platform across various social media channels.

What is Credly?

Credly is a digital credentialing platform that allows learners and organizations to earn, share, and verify professional achievements, such as badges or certifications. Learners can manage and share badges through their Credly profile on social media and other places.

Integrate Credly with Adobe Learning Manager

First, add the Credly connector in Adobe Learning Manager (ALM). Next, migrate the existing badges from Credly to ensure the continuity of learner achievements. Finally, create a skill in Adobe Learning Manager to the appropriate learning path to enhance learner development and recognition.

Refer to this article Credly for more information

Compliance dashboard

In this release, admins can now share the dashboard with other admins, custom admins, and store managers, giving them instant access to the compliance dashboards. They can now set the default compliance widget on the learner’s homepage, allowing learners to track their compliance requirements. Refer to this article Compliance dashboard for more information.

Multi-Language Support

Adobe Learning Manager (ALM) now allows authors to create language-specific instances using language tagging for Classroom and Virtual Classroom modules. Learners can access CR/VC modules in their preferred language. For example, an author can create a CR/VC module with two instances: one in English and one in French. Learners can select the instances in their preferred language.

Refer to this article Add learning objects in different locales for more information.

Custom roles

Custom roles allow admins to define specific roles and responsibilities for different user groups, ensuring better management and control. With this release, ALM enhances custom roles by providing more detailed control over the following sections.

Admins can assign precise permissions based on user responsibilities, ensuring each group only has access to relevant features and content. These enhanced controls allow more granular management of key sections.

Log in as an admin and navigate to Users > Custom Roles to create and manage the Custom Roles.

Refer this article Custom roles for more information.

Completion comments

Admins can now add comments when marking learners as complete in courses, learning paths, or certifications. Admins can add comments for one or multiple learners at the same time, and the comments appear in the Learner Transcripts report.

Refer this article Completion comments for more information.

User group report

Adobe Learning Manager’s new User Group Report helps manage user groups by providing visibility into groups left unmanaged when admins left. Admins can access the reports under the Users > User Group section. It provides detailed information about each group, including:

Refer this article User group report for more information.

Waitlist report

Adobe Learning Manager’s new Waitlist Report allow admins to download waitlisted learners list for all instances of a course. Admins and instructors can access this report from the Waitlist section on the Course or Session Overview page. The waitlist report can be downloaded from the Admin and Instructor sections.

Following the columns available in the Waitlist report:

Refer this articles Waitlist report (Admin) and Waitlist report (Instructors) to download report from Admin and Instructor section.

Accessibility in learner homepage

Adobe Learning Manager now supports alt text for all mastheads to improve accessibility for learners. This allows learners with special needs to use screen readers to read the alt text and understand the image. You can select multiple languages and provide alt text for each language. Make sure to add the alt text in the respective languages. Make sure the company logo in your account also includes alt text with the company name.
Refer this article Announcement for more information.

Support for Hindi

Adobe Learning Manager now introduces Hindi as one of the platform’s interface languages and supports the platform’s growth in India. Support for native Hindi speakers ensures that all features, reports, and the overall user experience are fully accessible to the users.

To change the interface language, follow these steps:

Profanity check for social posts

Adobe Learning Manager now blocks social posts in the Learners app that contain prohibited words. This helps keep things professional and compliant, especially in sensitive fields like healthcare.

Email template optimization

Email learners when an instructor is assigned

The existing emails You have been added as an Instructor and VCProvider Session Details have been combined into one email You have been added as a UserType. The UserType will be either Instructor or Organizer, based on the user’s role. These emails were not available in the UI before. They have now been combined into a single email and added to the UI. Admins can access this template in the Email Template section. It will be enabled by default for all new and existing accounts, but admins can disable or enable it from the same section. This email will be sent whenever a session is created and an instructor is assigned, whether it’s for sessions like Zoom, Teams, Connect, or other services.

Email learners when a session is cancelled

The instructors who are removed from a session will now receive only a session cancellation email. Previously, they received both a cancellation and an update email. Instructors who remain in a session will receive a session update email along with a new invite for the session.

MS Teams completion criteria

Currently, learners are marked as attended even if they join a Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) session for just a few seconds. With this release, we’ve introduced completion criteria for Teams modules to ensure more accurate attendance. Authors can now set a minimum time that learners must spend in a VILT session for their attendance to be counted.

This is a backend feature that is disabled by default. Please contact your CSM to have it enabled.

Migration changes

The following changes are made in the migration workflow:

Changes in modules migration

When you migrate modules into ALM, they will be saved in the public folder by default. In this release, we added a new column called folder in the module_version.csv file. Admins can use this column to specify the folder name where the modules should go after migration. Admins can also place a single module into multiple folders by listing the folder names separated by commas.

The folder column uses the string data type and it is an optional column. The following are the conditions for the folder column:

Refer module_version csv spec file for more information.

Changes in modules migration - completion criteria

Admins can specify the completion criteria of the modules during module migration. In this release, we added a new columns completionCriteria, viewPercent and quizData in the module_version.csv.

Following are the conditions for the new columns:

Refer module_version csv spec file for more information.

Changes in course migration – Completion criteria

Admins can specify the completion criteria for the courses during course migration. In this release, we added a new column called completionCriteria in the course.csv.

Following are the conditions for the completionCriteria column:

Refer course csv spec and course_module csv spec file for more information.

API changes

The following are the API changes:

Changes in search API

The search API now has a new mode filter with two options: classicSearch and advanceSearch. There’s also a new loMetadata option for snippetTypes. To get the best results, include loMetadata in snippetTypes when using advanceSearch mode.

Changes in announcement API

The GET /announcements API now includes the altText attribute to provide the masthead description.

Sample request using cURL:

curl -X GET --header 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' --header 'Authorization: oauth 12345678' 'https://abcd.adobe.com/primeapi/v2/announcements/123456'

Sample response:

{
  "links": {
    "self": "https://abcd.adobe.com/primeapi/v2/announcements/123456"
  },
  "data": {
    "id": "12345",
    "type": "adminAnnouncement",
    "attributes": {
      "actionUrl": "google.com",
      "announcementType": "MASTHEAD",
      "expiryDate": "2038-01-19T03:14:07.000Z",
      "liveDate": "2024-07-31T11:11:30.000Z",
      "contentMetaData": [
        {
          "contentType": "IMAGE",
          "contentUrl": "https://abcd.adobe.com",
          "locale": "en-US",
          "altText": "Moonlight - english changed new",
          "thumbnailUrl": "https://abcd.adobe.com/"
        },      ]
    }
  }
}

Changes in instance APIs

The new locale attribute has been added to the following APIs to retrieve locale details.

Sample request using cURL:

curl --location 'http://abcd.com/primeapi/v2/learningObjects/course:1234567/instances/course:1234567_1234567' \

Sample request:

{
    "links": {
        "self": "http://abcd.com/primeapi/v2/learningObjects/course:1234567/instances/course:1234567_1234567"
    },
    "data": {
        "id": "course:1234567_1234567",
        "type": "learningObjectInstance",
        "attributes": {
            "dateCreated": "2024-02-27T09:21:25.000Z",
            "isAET": false,
            "isDefault": true,
            "isFlexible": false,
            "locale": "en-US",
            "state": "Active",
            "localizedMetadata": [
                {
                    "locale": "en-US",
                    "name": "Default instance"
                }
            ]
        },
        "relationships": {
            "learningObject": {
                "data": {
                    "id": "course:1234567",
                    "type": "learningObject"
                }
            },
            "loResources": {
                "data": [
                    {
                        "id": "course:123456_1234567_1234567_1",
                        "type": "learningObjectResource"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

Public API changes for profanity check

The following APIs have been updated to perform profanity checks for comments and replies on social posts.

If a restricted word is found in the post, the following response will be sent.

Sample response:

{
  "status": "FORBIDDEN",
  "title": "BAD_WORD_FOUND",
  "source": {
    "info": "Unacceptable word found in post"
  }
}

Changes in RPM and burst limitation

In this release, RPM (Requests Per Minute) and burst limits have been added for all APIs. The maximum RPM for each API can be checked on the Swagger page.

RPM is the number of requests you can send to the API server in one minute. The burst limit allows a higher number of requests for a short time, going beyond the usual rate limit. For example, the learningObject API allows a maximum of 15 requests per minute. If this limit is exceeded, the API will return an error message.

Changes in badge APIs

The new attribute externalProvider has been added to the following APIs to retrieve information about external badges including badge ID and provider name.

Sample request using cURL:

curl -X GET --header 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' --header 'Authorization: oauth 123456789' 'https://abcd.adobe.com/primeapi/v2/badges/44'

Sample response:

{
  "links": {
    "self": "https://abcd.adobe.com/primeapi/v2/badges/44"
  },
  "data": {
    "id": "44",
    "type": "badge",
    "attributes": {
      "imageUrl": "https://abcd.com/accountassets/1/badges/download.png",
      "name": "external badge",
      "state": "Active",
      "externalProvider": {
        "id": "1234sjd-b272-4de1-9b60-1234567",
        "provider": "credly"
      }
    }
  }
}

Download user group and custom role audit reports via job API

User can download the User Group Report and Custom Role Audit Report using the Job API.

Sample request for User Group Report download:

curl -X POST --header 'Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json;charset=UTF-8' --header 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' --header 'Authorization: oauth 12345678' -d '{ \
     "data": { \
         "type": "job", \
         "attributes": { \
             "jobType": "generateUserGroupReport" \
         } \
    } \
 }' 'https://abcd.adobe.com/primeapi/v2/jobs'

Sample request for Custom Role Audit Report download:

curl -X POST --header 'Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json;charset=UTF-8' --header 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' --header 'Authorization: oauth 1234567' -d '{
    "data": {
        "type": "job",
        "attributes": {
            "description": "description of your choice",
            "jobType": "generateCustomRoleAuditReport",
            "payload":{
                 "fromDate": "2020-01-01T18:30:00.000Z",
                 "toDate": "2024-09-31T18:30:00.000Z",
                 "locale":  "en-US"
            }
        }
   }
}

Error messaging for no request body

We have introduced specific error messages for cases where the request body is mandatory but not supplied in the API.

Sample error message:

{
    "status": "BAD_REQUEST",
    "title": "Generic Error"
}

Reporting enhancements

Admins can find these reporting changes in the Admin > Reports section.

Learning Transcripts report

The Learning Transcripts report will contain two new columns:

Session Summary report

The Session Summary report will contain three new columns:

Bugs fixed in this update

System requirements

View Adobe Learning Manager system requirements.

Previous releases of Adobe Learning Manager