Categories, the top level of the catalog hierarchy, serve to organize and structure your catalog. With one notable exception, they do not themselves hold information, but serve as named containers to hold other learning objects. They can even hold other categories, enabling you to nest catalog items, much like the directory structure on your computer.

Categories can hold one important piece of information: learner access. Depending on your catalog structure, you can use categories to target courses to particular organizations or any defined subgroup of learners.

Define Access to Learning Objects in a Category

If the Administrator Group field is available, then select an administrator group to restrict access to the learning objects in the category to the members of the administrator group. OLM applies the restriction on the following learning objects in the category hierarchy:

• Courses

• Offerings

• Classes

• Learning Paths

• Learning Certifications

• Forums and Chats

If you leave the field blank, then OLM does not restrict administrators from accessing the category. You can select the administrator group when you create categories. You cannot change the administrator group field after you create a category. The Administrator Group field is read-only when you update the category details.

Remove the Restriction on Access to a Category to make it Available to all Administrators

If access to a category is restricted using an administrator group, then this restriction can be removed by the learning administrator, who can access that particular category.

After restrictions are placed on access to a category, there may be business requirements to make the category and content within the category available to all administrators. In such a scenario, the learning administrator can remove the restriction by selecting the Remove Administrator Group check box in the Update Category page. If the learning administrator selects the Remove Administrator Group check box and clicks Apply, a concurrent program runs in the background that removes the association between category and administrator group. The category and the content within the category then become accessible to all administrators.

Note: The Remove Administrator Group check box is displayed only for the topmost category associated with the administrator group. This check box is not displayed for categories within the topmost category.

See: Administrator Groups

Category Image

You can add a category image while creating or updating a category. You can upload an image either from your local machine's desktop or select an image that exists in the database. OLM resizes the image that an administrator uploads to 180 x 120 (height x width) size, irrespective of the size of the uploaded image. Learners can view the category image. If an image is available for a category, then categories created within the category inherit the image from that category. Administrator can either retain the image for the sub category or a select a different image.