There are times you may want to restrict where your students can view their training. In Schoox you can do this as an Academy Admin, Training Manager or if you are a Manager with the "Limit Access" permission enabled, and you can restrict your employees per course for each defined unit in your academy.
You, as an Admin, can restrict access by IP address or physical address. Students may get into the academy, but if they try to access a lecture from anywhere other than the IP or physical address you have set up, a notification will appear explaining to them why they cannot.
Please note that only Admins can set up the IP/Physical Addresses; Managers will be then able to select the Units (but not set their addresses up).
What Limit Access does/doesn’t do
DOES block access to specified Schoox courses (reimbursable training activities) based on geofencing or corporate network connections
DOES NOT block Schoox logins or access to non-reimbursable activities in Schoox, like Social, Gamification, Performance modules, etc.
Steps to Limit Access
Step 1: Determine what IP addresses and/or physical addresses are allowed from each restricted unit.
In the left navigation, make sure you are in the Academy Workspace.
When in the Academy Workspace, select Academy Admin for all Academy Administration options.
Select Organization and then Set Up Organization.
Here, select the Units tab.
Find the unit you need restricted access for, click edit under each name, and type in the appropriate IP address and/or physical address in the appropriate fields. One of the other is needed, but not both.
The IP Address is always going to be the most reliable of these two choices, and Schoox will always check if this option is available before using the physical address.
A street address and zip code are all that is needed – Schoox will fill in the rest.
Click Save when finished.
Tip! If your academy uses an sFTP integration to manage the hierarchy, adding IP/Physical address details to your units can be automated, provided you can include these details in a distinct field on your provisioning file.
Please read also: What checks are performed in the case of Location Restriction?
Step 2: Tell Schoox to which students these restrictions apply.
When in the Academy Workspace, select Academy Admin for all Academy Administration options.
Select Organization and then Manage Team Members.
Make sure you are on the Employees tab.
In the Hourly Worker column, check the boxes next to all the appropriate students - saving after each.
Tip! If your academy uses an sFTP integration to provision users in Schoox, identifying hourly workers can also be automated, provided you can either:
A) specify members that should be hourly workers based on Jobs in your file, or
B) include a distinct field that specifies that a given user should be an Hourly Worker (e.g. include a value like TRUE or YES in the indicated column)
Step 3: Select to which specific Units and students you want to restrict access in each course.
You will need to have the Limit Access permission in order to limit access.
When in the Academy Workspace, select Training Admin for all Training Administration options.
Select Settings and then select Access Limits.
Select the course you need to restrict access to. Please note that
Admins can see all Academy Courses, as they do under the Courses Listing page.
Managers with the “Limit Access” permission permission will be able to see the courses that are in categories where they have read permissions (including "Without Category") and are public.
Instructors will also be able to see their private, uncategorized courses there.
Then Managers, based on the Limit Access Setting, defined for the academy they may be able to see also the:
- Uncategorized Private Courses
- Categorized Private Courses
- Courses they have created that are now in categories where they don’t have access anymore.
For more information on the Academy setting please check also: Learning Management Academy Settings
Next, you'll find all the Units associated with this course; the ones that should be limited based on the IP address or the physical addresses that are active in the list, and you can then check the box next to each unit you’d like to have this restricted access.
Please note that Admin will be able to see all org nodes while a Manager will be able to see all org nodes under their org structure.
Don't forget to click Save when finished!
Now, employees whose names are checked as Hourly Workers will only be able to access courses associated with the restricted units from the specified IP and/or physical address.
Limit Access to Mobile Devices
You, as an Admin, have the option to determine who should have access to courses when it comes to users accessing courses via a cellular connection on the mobile app. You have also the option to disable access to all users via a cellular connection.
When in the Academy Workspace, select Training Admin for all Training Administration options.
Select Settings and then select Control Panel.
In the Mobile Access section switch the toggle to No. Save when finished.
If you decide to enable the cellular connection partially, toggle the option to Yes, and limit access as you see fit to any of the three categories. Save when finished.
FAQs
Question 1: If a course is set with geofencing and a user downloads content for offline access, what happens when they leave the geofenced area, can they still see that content on mobile?
Answer 1: If a course has a limit access rule, and if an hourly worker belongs to this rule, then this user cannot download content for offline access, even from the permitted location. The download button is hidden for this user.
Question 2: What happens if they were logged into an active session before the Geofence was put in place and somehow stayed logged in long enough to complete the training away from the address/IP designated in the Geofence?
Answer 2: Users are redirected to the course card when they complete a lecture. Each time the course card is opened, we check the user's location. So even if the user stays logged in, if they change their location, their access will be restricted. But! If there is, for example, a 2-hour video lecture and a user opens it in the permitted location and stays inside this lecture and then changes their location, then they will be able to complete this lecture. But this is something that can be done via a laptop, as well.