How to Enable 'Public' and 'Private' Catalog Pages for Courses, Tests, Products, and Live Classes, Including Exclusive 'Invite-Only' Content

Catalog pages, designed to encapsulate courses, bundles, tests, online store, and live classes, serve as an effective tool for structuring your diverse educational materials. They function as a centralized hub where all your course offerings coalesce, thereby providing a one-stop destination for all your educational resources.

The brilliance of BrainCert's catalog feature lies in its dual functionality. It not only simplifies the process for learners to find and navigate through your diverse offerings in the LMS but also creates a public marketplace setup that's optimized for search engine indexing. This powerful combination aids in increasing your online visibility, ensuring your courses, assessments, and live classes reach a broader audience. Further, guest users are offered the ability to peruse through your course offerings before committing to a sign-up, offering a preview that facilitates informed decision-making for potential learners.

Optimizing Catalog Visibility for Guest Users

​

Whenever you initiate the creation of a course, an assessment, a product, or a live class, BrainCert presents you with the opportunity to include it in the catalog. The inclusion of at least one item activates the respective top-level link. For instance, during course creation, an option titled 'List in Course Catalog' will be available, enabling you to add the course to the public catalog.

Once you have done so, launching your LMS site via a private or incognito browser window will display the 'Courses' top-level menu, now active and showcasing your listed course. This not only enhances the discoverability of your courses by enabling search engines to index them, but it also allows you to share your courses on social media platforms for increased traction.

For learners, they will be required to create an account on your LMS to gain access to 'free' courses. To access paid courses, learners will need to complete the purchase process, hence driving the conversion from a guest user to a registered one. Utilize these tools effectively to maximize your course visibility and reach.

Keep in mind that any physical products created using the Online Store are automatically listed in the public catalog and you'll not see the 'List in catalog' option similar to the course example above.

Optimizing Catalog Accessibility for Registered Users

BrainCert provides you with the ability to enable catalog visibility for users who are logged in. This powerful feature empowers learners to conveniently browse through and discover the full range of courses, assessments, live classes, and products offered on your LMS domain. Furthermore, it allows them the autonomy to self-enroll in their preferred educational resources.

Access to the various contents is contingent on successful payment for 'paid' content, ensuring a secure transaction process before course accessibility is granted. For 'free' content, learners can gain immediate access, thereby providing an efficient and frictionless learning journey. This feature enhances the user experience by offering a seamless, self-guided exploration of the educational materials available to them.

To activate the catalog for Courses, Assessments, Live Classes (Virtual Classroom), and Online Store products, first navigate to the 'Global Settings'. From there, proceed to the 'Catalog Settings'. Here, you can enable the catalog feature for the 'Logged in users'.

At times, you might wish to keep a course exclusive, not listed in the public or private catalog for a more focused distribution. BrainCert caters to this need by offering functionalities such as 'Enroll Individual Students' and 'Assign User Group'. These features allow you to selectively grant access to specific learners for a course, test, or live class. You can envision this as providing a unique access key, tailored to unlock the specific course for the assigned learner. Once the learner logs in, the course unveils itself, creating a customized and exclusive learning experience.

Enrollment for the learner depends on the course type. If it's a paid course, the learner can enroll following a successful payment. Conversely, if it's a free course, the learner can access it immediately.

Keep in mind that sharing the course link with other users might not grant them access if the course isn't listed in a public or private catalog. This is because access is controlled based on the backend enrollment managed by the instructor or the admin, ensuring the exclusivity and restricted availability of your course content.