Departments: Overview

A Department is a required feature used to organize and classify Users. Each User can only be allocated to one Department. This clear structure of one User per Department helps Administrators know what to expect when creating accessibility rules and generating reports throughout the LMS.

It’s important to note that all Users are required to belong to a Department. It’s strongly recommended to use unique names for each Department to avoid confusion.

This article goes through different elements of Departments.

Department Creation

Creating a Department is an simple process that can be accomplished by an Admin with sufficient permissions. It is important to note that all Departments are created within a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy is your root or parent Department. This is the first Department created by default and will be named after your Portal. It is not possible to have more then one root Department. All other Departments exist underneath the root Department.

To create a Department follow these steps:

1. Access the Admin Experience.
2. Open the Users menu.
   
3. Click Departments.
   
4. Click Add Department from the Actions menu on the right-hand side.
   
5. Add a Name.
   
6. Select the Parent Department for the Department you are creating.
   
7. Save.

Department vs. Group

A Department is a hierarchy based organization for Users. A User may only ever belong to one Department. In comparison a User may belong to multiple Groups.

It is possible for a User to belong to a Department and Group.

A Department is mandatory when creating a User while a Group is not.

User Management

Users in a Department can be observed by following these steps:

1. Access the Departments page.
2. Select a Department.
3. Click View Users from the right-hand side Actions menu.
   

It is also possible to Filter by Department from a variety of Reports such as the Users Report.

Department Templates

The appearance of the Portal is determined by a Department Template. It is possible to use a single Department Template so the appearance of menus and design elements is the same for all Users or make it so each User in each different Department has a different visual experience.

For more information about Department Templates reference the following article:

• Department Templates

Department Reports

Multiple different reports allow for Department to be used as a Filter. There is also a Department specific reports known as Department Progress. This report allows you to determine how many Users in a Department have completed a specific Course.

For more information about Department Reports reference the following article:

• Department Progress Report

Locked Departments

At the Portal Settings level, it is possible for a System Administrator to toggle Locked Departments at the Course level.

If this option is turned ON, under the Enrollment Rules section of the Add/Edit Course page you will find the Locked Department setting.

When a Locked Department is selected, Course Availability and Administrator Visibility are restricted to that Department only.

For more information about Locked Departments reference the following article:

• Locked Department

More Information

You can find additional information about Departments in the following articles:

• Department Creation & Management
• Department Administrative Report
• Multi-Department Course Visibility