Best Practices for Using Catalogs

Catalogs provide an easy way to organize all of your course offerings in one place.

Instead of inviting trainees to individual courses, catalogs allow trainees to browse available training and enroll in the courses that interest them.

Administrators can make a catalog available in two ways:

• Display the catalog within the trainee dashboard.
• Share the catalog URL, allowing trainees to access the catalog from an external page.

To learn more about using catalogs effectively, watch our webinar: Create an eLearning Library to Level Up Your Employees.

Why Use a Catalog?

Using catalogs can significantly reduce the administrative effort required to invite trainees to individual modules or courses.

Rather than manually assigning optional training, administrators can provide a catalog where trainees can browse available learning opportunities and enroll themselves.

Common Use Cases

External Customer Training

Organizations that provide training for customers, partners, or resellers often need a simple way to showcase available learning opportunities.

Many of these courses are optional and are intended to be taken as needed rather than assigned individually.

Creating a catalog allows external learners to:

• Browse available courses.
• Choose the training that is relevant to them.
• Enroll independently without administrator assistance.

Many organizations offering external customer training choose to make their catalog public, allowing anyone with access to the catalog to create an account and enroll.

For more information, see Public Catalog Page Access Levels.

Internal Employee Training

Internal training programs often include a combination of:

• Required training assigned by administrators.
• Optional training employees can take based on their interests or professional development goals.

Administrators typically invite employees to required courses while leaving optional learning available through a catalog. This helps keep trainee dashboards focused on required training while still encouraging self-directed learning.

When a catalog is made available within the trainee dashboard, employees can:

• Open the Course Catalog.
• Browse available courses.
• Enroll in optional training that interests them.

This approach gives employees greater control over their learning experience while reducing the need for administrators to manage individual course invitations.

For more information, see Catalog Access on the Trainee Dashboard.

Benefits of Using Catalogs

Using catalogs can help your organization:

• Reduce manual course invitations.
• Make optional training easier to discover.
• Encourage self-directed learning.
• Organize multiple course offerings in a single location.
• Simplify training for external customers, partners, and employees.