Subscription Programs


< Back to support page


Subscription programs are a collection of courses made available only to specific organizations (i.e clients, franchises, stores) within your LMS. Once you create and assign a Subscription, users within the subscribed organization have at-a-glance access to this specific coursework under the “Available Subscription Courses”' section of the Classic Home page (shown in the first image below) or on the new workflow Navigation page under the Subscription Courses  icon (shown in the second image.)




This document explains how Portal Administrators can employ the Subscription Management feature to create a training program, manage courses associated with it, and then assign the program to an organization. It also covers the course, organization, and subscription settings that can be used to forgo enrollment requirements for tuition payment or manager approval.

Create a Subscription

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Course Support > Add Subscription.
  2. Complete the Add Subscription form by entering a unique Subscription Code, Name and Start Date. The End Date field is optional and will terminate the program on the date entered.


  3. Click Submit to save changes.

Manage Subscription Coursework

There are two ways to manage subscription courses:

  • Add or delete multiple courses at a time by editing the Subscription
    Changes made to subscription Start Date, End Date, and Course lists from the Add/Edit Subscription pages apply globally.
  • Update individual Courses with subscription information
    Course catalogs are tied to the Business Unit (BU) organizational level. Some course attributes are BU-specific, including Subscriptions. This means that changes made to subscription information from a course will only apply to the BU associated with the portal administrator's currently active profile. In a multiple BU LMS, the portal administrator would need to switch profiles to a location in the other BUs and edit the course-based subscription data separately for each relevant BU.

A course can only belong to one subscription in each catalog.

Edit a Subscription

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Course Support > Search Subscriptions.
  2. Enter criteria, if desired, and click Search.
  3. Select the linked Code or Name of the target Subscription.
  4. General Information: Use this page to edit the Code, Name, or Subscription Start Date and End Date.
  5. Subscription Courses: Use this page to manage the list of courses related to the subscription.
    • Click Add courses to search for and select one or more courses to include in the subscription.
    • Select the Delete checkbox next to a course to identify it for removal.


  6. Click Submit to save any of the changes made.

Note: On the Subscription Courses tab, for each course listed, the "Organizations" column lists the Business Units in which the course belongs to the subscription. In this context, "ALL" does not mean that the course is being shared with every BU in your LMS. "ALL" means that of all the course catalogs that the course belongs to, the subscription tied to that course is fully set up for all of them. Anything other than "ALL" indicates that one or more BUs have access to the course, but not to the Subscription for it.

If you have BU-specific subscription course lists, we recommend making all changes to that subscription at the course level. The Add/Edit Subscription pages apply updates universally, so that every time you click "Submit" for Subscription Courses, all courses in the list will once again be added to ALL relevant BUs.


Add/Edit a Course with Subscription Information

Courses can also be added or removed from subscriptions on an individual basis during both the Add Course and Edit Course processes. A course can only belong to one subscription in each BU/catalog. Course enrollment and approval options change dynamically based on the subscription information provided.

Add a Course with Subscription (Universal Settings):
When adding a new course to the LMS, you can define subscription behavior that applies to the course in all catalogs.

  1. Review all course configuration settings in this document: Add a New Course to the LMS.
  2. Use the Subscription Program field to select an existing subscription from the drop down menu.
  3. If you are adding a new course and want to create a new subscription for it, you can click Add new subscription program to access the Add Subscription form. Once you provide subscription information, new enrollment options become available.
  4. When you have finalized your settings, click Add Course.


Note: Sharing an existing course with another organization will create that course in the selected catalog as it is currently configured. This means that once a course has been added to a subscription program, the "Subscription", "Non-Subscribers Can Enroll", and "Approval Required" settings will be standard across Business Units.

Add subscription information to an Existing course (Specific to Business Unit):
All updates made to the Course General Information page apply only to the Subscription Course list for the BU associated with the Portal Administrator's current active profile. Because course subscription settings can be configured differently for each Business Unit, once a course is added, any subscription changes made at the Course level for BU "A" will not apply to the same course shared to the BU "B" catalog.

To make catalog-specific changes to subscriptions outside of your Default Organization,you must switch profiles between the various Business Units. Follow these instructions for information on switching profiles: Navigate Between Two or More Active Profiles.

To update the Course's subscription information:

  1. From the left navigation menu, select Courses > Search Courses to find and open the target course.
  2. Select the General tab and expand the Additional Information section.
  3. Use the Subscription Program field to select an existing subscription from the drop down menu.
  4. Once subscription information is entered, new enrollment options will appear on the page.
    Note: These settings are also configured separately per catalog (Business Unit).
  5. When you have finalized your settings, click Save Course.


Update a Location with Subscription Information

Once you have created a Subscription with the desired bundle of coursework, you need to assign the subscription program to one or more Locations within your LMS organization structure. With this final step, the program goes live, adding the “Available Subscription Courses”' section to the Classic Home page or Navigation page Subscription Courses  for all users with profiles tied to the targeted Locations.

Note: Any course approval or tuition requirements do not apply to subscribing students.

Deploy a Subscription at a Targeted Location

To assign a subscription program to a location:

  1. Search for and edit the location to which the subscription will be added.
  2. On the location's General Information tab, scroll to the bottom and find the Subscriptions section.
  3. Existing Subscriptions tied to the location, if any, are displayed. Edit information for those, as needed. To add a new subscription, expand the Add a Subscription section.


  4. Select the Subscription from the drop-down list.
  5. Select the Enroll Date.
    Note    : From the “Subscriptions” section, you can modify any existing subscriptions with an Enroll Date and/or Cancel Date to control the time frame in which the Location is actively subscribed. Update the Credits Allowed field as necessary for subscriptions that include tuition-based courses.

Credits Allowed Restriction

Students within a subscribed organization can enroll in all subscription courses without paying tuition, when applicable. LMS administrators can dictate who this applies to:

  • Leave the Credits Allowed field blank to allow a tuition exemption for all subscribed students.
  • Enter credits to have specific organizations (i.e clients, franchises, stores) pre-pay the tuition for subscription courses, allowing their students to enroll for “free” by leveraging their bank of purchased course credit.

Administrators who have created subscription programs that include tuition-based courses can use the Course Credits Allowed field to indicate the number of pre-paid subscription credits per organization. This parameter will not block course enrollment once the credit limit has been met, but instead will re-establish course tuition and/or approval requirements, as subsequent enrollments will be considered "non-subscribers".

The Course Credits Used field displays the total number of enrollments (multiplied by the number of credits per course) for each subscribing organization. Subscription credits are only counted when the Course Credits Allowed field has been populated. Credits are considered "used" upon successful enrollment, regardless of cancellation, course completion, and other enrollment scenarios.

Note: The subscription credit restriction works only when related courses have the “Credit” field populated.

Subscription Rules and Functionality

Rule 1: A course can only belong to one subscription in each Course Catalog. If you attempt to add a course to more than one subscription, you will receive an error message.
Rule 2: A subscription can be assigned to one or more locations, and locations can host more than one subscription at a time. Therefore, you should never need to create subscriptions with overlapping courses. Assign multiple subscriptions to the desired location instead.
Rule 3: If you have limited course enrollment to subscribing students only, all learners that share the same Course Catalog will still be able to search for the subscription course and view the Course Details page. However, non-subscribers will see the “Enroll” button grayed out, and will receive the following error message should they try to click on it:


Rule 4: When a subscription has been restricted by the Course Credits Allowed field, students at that organization will be considered "subscribers" until the enrollment limit is met. Once the allotted credits have been used, students enrolling in subscription courses from the same organization will be considered "non-subscribers", which may invoke course tuition and/or approval requirements.

The Subscribed Student Experience

Student-users within the subscribed organization have at-a-glance access to program coursework under the “Available Subscription Courses”' section of their home page. From there, students can click the View Details button and enroll in courses without their manager’s approval or paying tuition, if applicable.

However, once a student enrolls in a subscription course, the course moves out of the "Available Subscription Courses" section of his or her homepage, and depending on the type of course, into the "Self Studies" (Assessment, e-Learning, Self Study) or “Live Courses” (Classroom, Virtual Classroom) section. Note that the student-view of subscription titles changes dynamically based on their enrollment status in each course.