Collecting Profile Information in Axis LMS

Having completed user profile fields gives an Axis LMS administrator a lot of flexibility in the system - from Triggers to Reports, an admin can never have too much information to leverage, and pivot off of. Just how that information is collected will probably vary from business to business; but what’s important is to know the different options the admin has at their disposal.

There are two ‘types’ of ways a user’s profile can be filled out - either by the Admin (or Manager), or by the user themselves. From an administrative standpoint, having the user fill out their information is a lot more convenient; but if the administrator already has that information, they can enter it themselves.

User Entered Data

User-Entered data is most commonly used by businesses who are selling their content, and don’t have any established records on their user-base.

On-First-Login

System > Site Design > Learning Portal Website > Settings > User Profile Settings

Probably the most seamless method of user-entered data is requiring it on the user's first login. For this method, you can designate certain fields to show / don’t show / show and require. Now, when any user logs in, the system will check that every required field is filled out; and in the event one of the fields is blank, the user will be prompted to fill them out before they're able to navigate around the Learning Portal.


From the Learning Portal Settings, expand the "User Profile Settings” section. Here, you can select which Profile fields to show and when / if they’re required. It's important to note that if you desire a certain profile field to be required, it also should be displayed in the user's profile as well.

Course Enrollment Collection

Learning > Online Courses > Page Manager > Enrollment Page

Previously the go-to method, collection on Course-Enrollment has been replaced by On-First-Login for a large majority of scenarios. However, there are still niche cases where an admin may want to use Course Enrollment pages *in addition* to the On-First-Login method. One example is when, in addition to the fields that are collected on the first login, an admin needs additional fields for a specific course (such as License, or Certification Number; which a user may not have until another course awards it).

Unlike the On-First-Login method, this method does not hound users to fill out the information. If they gain access to the course via some other method, the Enrollment Page will not be able to collect those additional details.


To dictate which profile fields the Course Enrollment page should collect, select the Custom Form from the Form dropdown, then click the Configure button.

Read more about Course Pages here

Purchase Collection

The final method of User-driven data collection comes from the shopping cart. Unlike both the previous method, data collection via the shopping cart is done automatically, and the data that is collected cannot be expanded upon. When a user is filling out their billing information for a purchase, Axis LMS will store the following information in the user’s profile:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email Address
• Phone
• Address
• City
• State
• Zip Code
• (credit card information is not stored in the system because all transactions are handled by either Authorize.Net or PayPal)

Also unlike the other methods, there is no additional setup required of the administrator to collect this data - once the shopping cart is in use, this information is automatically collected with every transaction.

Admin Entered

For companies that already have their users’ information, it may be redundant to ask the user for that same information again; and instead, may use one of the following methods.

Import

Users > Manage Users > Import

Importing users with their profile fields already filled out is without a doubt, the easiest way to have filled out Profile fields. Users imported with their data will be created with their profile fields already filled out. If you have the users’ data available from an HR system, or similar piece of software, it’s just an export to Excel, them import it into Axis LMS.

To read more about creating and importing users, check out this article.

Individually

Users > Manage Users > User Profile

While not ideal, if a user gets married, and they don’t have the option to update their last name; the admin does have the tools for the job. Accessible via Users > Manage Users, selecting a user will allow an admin to pull up all their profile information, to update it on a one-by-one scenario.

Read more about a user’s Profile here

Other

Both these methods are technically admin actions, but unlike every other method listed here, these strategies update profile fields with little to no discretion. They’re important tools, and they have their uses; but should never be the first solution an admin deploys.

En-Masse

Users > Manage Users > Edit Selected Users

This tool updates one field at a time, for all the users that have come up in a search. If, for example, an admin selected the "P” tab, this tool has the ability to update every user from that tab to be from California.


The best use case for this tool is if a typo has been made during an import (such as "atixware” instead of "Atrixware”). Do a search for "Company: atrixware”, then update every pulled up user’s company to the correct spelling.

Triggers

Learning > Online Courses > User Event Triggers

While not its primary purpose, Event Triggers are capable of updating User Profile Fields. This tool is designed more towards setting values for Tracking Variable, Enrolling / Disenrolling into Courses, and modifying a user’s Usergroup.

To read more about Event Triggers, check out this article.