The Administrator's Interface - Genius CE & Enterprise

Introduction

This article offers a comprehensive overview of the user interface that you encounter upon logging into Genius CE or Enterprise. We will also discuss the process of switching from the Administrator role to other roles assigned to your user account. This feature allows you to experience the platform from various perspectives, including that of a learner, instructor, or manager within your organization's learning initiative.

Logging into Genius CE & Enterprise as an Administrator

To log in to Genius CE & Enterprise as an Administrator, enter the URL specific to your organization's instance of Genius CE or Enterprise in your web browser. Typically, this address follows the format <myorganization.geniussis.com>.  Upon entering this URL, you will be directed to a login screen that resembles the following:

You can log in using your username and password, or alternatively, you may use Single Sign-On (SSO) if your organization has this feature configured.

When you first log into Genius CE or Enterprise

Upon your initial login to Genius CE or Enterprise as an Administrator, you will encounter a screen featuring tabs, a sidebar, a main content area, and a top bar. The top bar contains a search box and a dropdown menu that indicates the current role under which you are logged in.

In this instance, when you log in as an Administrator, you will see a dashboard that can be customized by any administrator. Initially, the Dashboard may appear empty, but you have the option to add various graphs or charts that are available within the platform.

Tabs

The tabs in the Genius CE & Enterprise Admin UI serve as navigational tools, allowing you to access different functionalities within the system. The structure of Genius CE & Enterprise is designed to enable you to efficiently execute the tasks necessary for managing your learning initiative.

The available tabs include:

• Home - This is the initial page you encounter upon logging into Genius CE or Enterprise, featuring the dashboards and visualizations mentioned earlier.
• Message Center - This section allows you to view and send communications through your Genius CE or Enterprise instance.
• Learners - This tab is dedicated to operations related to your learners. It also facilitates communication with learners through the Automated Notifications features integrated within Genius CE & Enterprise.
• Financials - This tab provides detailed ledger items that describe the financial data tracked by learners and their affiliations within your instance.
• Enrollments - This tab enables you to quickly locate users who are currently engaged in or have previously completed a section of your learning initiative.
• Affiliations - This section allows you to create new affiliations and access tools for modifying the basic information of an affiliation, as well as viewing lists and reports focused on specific affiliations.
• Learning Paths - Here, you can create learning paths and view all current and archived learning paths available in your organization's learning initiative.
• Courses - This tab is utilized for performing various operations related to courses, including both manual and bulk creation.
• Sections - After creating courses, you will need to make offerings of those courses that learners can enroll in. These offerings are referred to as sections, and while configurations may vary per offering, the underlying template and materials remain consistent.
• Instructors - This tab allows you to manage your instructors by adding new instructors, editing existing information, and searching for instructors within your learning initiative.
• Coaches - This feature offers additional support for users, enabling the assignment of a 'tutor' to specific groups of learners.
• Reports - This section provides access to all built-in reports available with Genius CE and Enterprise, along with the powerful Report Builder and SQL Query Builder, which offer extensive flexibility for creating reports within the system.
• Administration - In this tab, you can associate users with instructors or affiliations, modify access permissions for specific roles, and carry out general configuration tasks for Genius CE & Enterprise.

By selecting a tab, you can transition from one aspect of your learning initiative to another. For instance, by clicking on the Learners tab, you can locate a learner, update their information, and subsequently enroll them in a section. In the same way, you can navigate to the Sections tab to create a new section for an existing course.

The Sidebar

The content displayed in the Sidebar will change depending on the tab you select. Below, we provide screenshots showcasing the Sidebar for both the Learners tab and the Administration tab. You can compare the number of menu items in the Sidebar for each of these tabs:

The Sidebar is where you will find the various operations you can perform within each tab. For example, the Learners tab includes menu items for adding or editing learners, while the Courses tab features options for creating or modifying courses.

Therefore, when you need to operate within Genius CE & Enterprise, always check the sidebars first. 

Clicking on the topmost item in the Sidebar will always navigate you back to the main page of that specific Sidebar tab. The main page in the Sidebar is the first screen you see when you click on the tabs in the Genius CE & Enterprise Administrator interface.

Main Content 

To the right of the Sidebar, you will find the Main Content section. The content displayed in this area will vary based on the tab you are currently using and the operation you are performing. Two noteworthy tabs in this section are the Home tab and the Management tab. Clicking on the Home tab will present you with the Dashboard you initially encountered upon logging into the platform:

Conversely, selecting the Management tab will direct you to a different Dashboard designed for managing your learning initiative.

It's essential to note that the Management tab does not include a sidebar, as this screen is designed solely to display data on progress, performance, and engagement across your entire learning initiative through interactive visualizations.

The Top Bar

The 'top bar' refers to the section of the Admin Knowledge Base where you can see the username under which you are logged in, a Search Box, and the option to switch roles at any time while logged into Genius CE or Enterprise. Below, we will provide additional details regarding each of these components:

Search Box

Genius CE & Enterprise features a Search Box that empowers Administrators to execute operations quickly. For instance, you can type a learner's name into the search box, and Genius CE & Enterprise will generate a list of all learners who share that name:

The Search Box is designed to locate 'input' items within Genius CE and Enterprise, and does not search through the solution's user interface. This means you can search for courses, sections, learners, instructors, managers, and fellow administrators—all concrete data objects that you, as an Administrator, have created while utilizing Genius CE & Enterprise. This functionality significantly reduces the time and number of clicks required to navigate through various tabs to find the information you need.

Genius CE & Enterprise will present you with a clickable results list showcasing all the items that match your search term, along with a table indicating the nature of the results (for example, identifying whether they are courses, sections, or learners).

This feature helps you quickly find the objects you'd like to work on. For example, you can soon find a learner and then proceed to enroll them in a section, all without needing to click on the Learners or Enrollments tabs initially.

Switching to a different role 

As an Administrator, you may encounter situations where a single user holds multiple roles within your learning initiative. For example, instructors in an organizational learning environment may also be learners in specific courses. At the same time, managers may oversee a group of users under an Affiliation and simultaneously be learners themselves.

You can easily identify the current role you are logged in under through the Current Role dropdown menu located in the top right corner of Genius CE or Enterprise. By clicking on this menu, you can switch between all the roles assigned to you as a user.

We strongly recommend that you, as an Administrator, configure your user account to include all roles available within your system. This approach allows you to quickly switch to different roles and experience the solution from the perspective of each role available in your learning initiative.

The Home Tab

The Home tab is the first interface users encounter upon logging in. It serves as a portal or Dashboard tailored explicitly to the user's role in Genius CE or Enterprise. This Dashboard can be customized with reports that are most pertinent to the individual user. Furthermore, the data in these reports can be automatically filtered based on the user's affiliation, ensuring that they only see information relevant to users within their own affiliation.

Default dashboards can be established for each role through the Administration menu under Customize Dashboard. You have the authority to determine which reports appear on the Dashboard for each role, as well as whether users can personalize their default role-based dashboards.