OpenSesame FAQs

Introducing our Updated SearchExperience

Find the courses you need with OpenSesame's updated course catalog search experience which includes the following:

Speedy results from a new, easier to use search interface

A more intelligent Typeahead to help you get to the courses you want more quickly

Improved course feature selections to help you hone in on the results you want more easily

Start typing any keyword in the Search box available next to the OpenSesame logo to view our refreshed Typeahead. The top section will immediately surface popular, recently searched for topics within our catalog in order to help guide you to relevant results. If you already know which course you need, select it from the course results below to go directly to the course page.

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Selecting one of the popular topics or pressing enter after typing your keyword will direct you to the OpenSesame Search results. The most frequently used Search filters are available, at a glance, on the left to allow you to to refine your results.

Additional filtering options are available in the collapsed 'More Filters' section, including our recently updated 'Course Feature' options, which are defined as follows

Audio Narration:The course contains audio narration throughout.

Inline Activities:The course contains activities such as knowledge checks to keep the learner engaged.

Supplemental Resources: The course contains supplemental material such as downloadable resources that the end-user can use to enhance their learning experience.

Video: The course is primarily video based.

Animated Video: The course is primarily in an animated video format.

Post Assessment: The course contains an assessment at the end of the course that measures the learner's understanding of the course material.

For more details on how to best utilize our updated Search experience, please read the in depth guide available in our community.

Engage your learners all year long with monthly courses of the month. Leveraging our experience with hundreds of companies like yours, we've put together a Monthly Training Calendar for you to plan your yearlong program as well as promotional tools for you to drive awareness of training amongst your employees.

Download the monthly course toolkit featuring pre-made text emails, HTML email files, digital ads, photos, and social media posts templates for24 different OpenSesame courses. You'll be able to brand and add contact information tothese marketing tools to promote each course.Introduce new courses, styles of elearning, and topics to your learners to increase utilization, retention, and employee engagement.

Contact yourCustomerSuccessManagertodayor [email protected] to learn more about ways to maximize the use of this toolkit.

Introducing Smart Lists

OpenSesame is now using Machine Learning to recommend the best courses for your company. Using our new Smart List feature, you can quickly build a course list to address one or more of your training topics. The Smart List feature is currently available from your List of Lists screen.

Begin building a Smart List using the “New Smart List” button on your List of Lists screen. You will be asked a few simple questions to help OpenSesame select courses for your list including the topics for training, language, preferred course length, and whether you would like the recommendations to come exclusively from the OpenSesame Plus catalog. Then let OpenSesame go to work by selecting “Create your list.”

If you would like to choose specific publishers, course features, or prefer new courses, you may further specify these filters from the advanced options screen before creating the list.

When making recommendations, OpenSesame uses publicly available information about your company (company size, etc.), as well as your company’s prior course selections, course completions, and ratings that are already in our system.

Your course recommendations will be presented in a new List with each training topic organized in a separate group with the top five courses each. For easy organization and tracking, the List title defaults to the date it was created, which you can edit, along with the description.

Smart Groups

For any List (Smart List or manually-created), you can now add courses to a list group directly from the list screen. On the title row of any list group, select the “add courses” button to bring up our Smart Groups panel.

With the Smart Groups panel, you can browse additional course recommendations for the selected group. The courses displayed are based upon the keyword (group name) and the recommendation algorithm tailored to your organization’s preferences.

You can change the keyword or set a variety of filters to further refine your results, including seat time, languages, course features, publishers, new or mobile-ready courses, and those available in the OpenSesame Plus subscription. See a course you like? Add it to the List by clicking on the Add to list icon.

If a list was created using the Smart List feature, any filters or preferences set during that process will be automatically applied to our Smart Groups panel for each group in that list.

Updates

Improved Password SecurityPasswords on your OpenSesame Account now require additional complexity in order to better secure your OpenSesame account. Current OpenSesame passwords do not need to be reset, but all new passwords must comply with this standard.

Course PreviewOur course preview feature has been revised so that you will no longer see a modal dialog before your course preview will play. Course previews are launched in a second browser tab (not replacing the OpenSesame marketplace) and should not trigger any pop-up blockers.

Bugfixes

Course Titles in Send to LMSSome customers were not seeing individual course titles listed in their Send to LMS History. This issue has been resolved.

Introducing Curated Lists

Curated Lists provide OpenSesame customers with expert course curation at their fingertips. Our expert OpenSesame curators create pre-selected, topical lists to make it even easier for our customers to quickly find the right set of courses for their learners.

A selection of curated lists is currently available from the Curated List page, highlighted on our main Courses screen.

The Curated Lists page highlights popular learning paths, trending topics, and frequently requested competencies. OpenSesame-Plus-only lists are designated with an OpenSesame Plus badge. Additional curated lists may be provided directly to you by your Salesperson or Customer Success Manager.

Curated lists are maintained over time. OpenSesame curators will add new courses and remove courses from these lists as the catalog offerings grow and evolve. To stay up to date with list changes, follow your favorite curated lists using the follow button.

Choosing to “follow” a list will add this list to your My Lists page. The List will appear in the All Lists tab, and in a filtered view displaying only curated lists.

Users do not need to be logged in to OpenSesame to view curated lists. Log-in is required if the user would like to take any action on the list (i.e., viewing course demos, sending courses to their LMS, etc.).

Customers who would like to make modifications to a public, curated list must first duplicate the list to create their own personal copy. Select Duplicate from the List settings menu (the gear icon) to create a copy of the curated list.

Duplicating the list provides customers with a recommended starting point for any given topic that can then be modified for their company’s individual needs. Note, when you duplicate a public list, your copy is no longer linked to the curated version of the list. It will not be updated when OpenSesame curators make changes.

Updates

Tooltips on InsightsNew tooltips have been added to the My Insights dashboard to help customers quickly understand their usage.

Bugfixes

Smart List AccessSome customers were unable to create new Smart Lists or access the “Add Courses” feature within existing lists. This problem has been resolved.

Updates

The course category page “New and Noteworthy” and “Most Popular” algorithms have been updated to better feature the most up to date courses from a diverse set of OpenSesame publishers so that you can more easily familiarize yourself with the OpenSesame catalog.

The CourseCloud user management export will now display a blank in the score field when a score is not reported for a learner upon course completion.

Video previews have been made more easily viewable by better positioning them on the screen.

All of the previous release notes for OpenSesame updates can be found here.

Improved analytics with the OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard

We’ve added a new dashboard and enhanced reporting for customers who have OpenSesame Plus subscriptions. The Insights Dashboard includes a new Activity Report, graphs of key data, and meaningful metrics such as your percentage of seats used, average course enrollments per learner, percentage of courses completed, most popular courses, and average course ratings.

You will receive an email an email from [email protected] entitled "Congratulations on completing your OpenSesame course" once you have completed the training.

The attached certificate will include:

The student's name

The name of the course

The publisher of the course

The date the course was completed

The duration of the course

Our preparations for Chrome 80

There are changes in the 4 February 2020 update to the Google Chrome browser that may impact elearning content viewed on Chrome. There will be no impact on other browsers, such as Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. We proactively patched our systems in October 2019 and have been working with our publishers and Learning Management System (LMS) partners to ensure a smooth transition.

Since releasing the patch, our testing has revealed no negative impact on OpenSesame content, and the OpenSesame player is performing as expected.

Changes expected in Chrome 80

What’s changing? Up until Release 80, Chrome has allowed webpages to send data immediately when a visitor closes a page or navigates away (as “synchronous XHR”). Chrome has also provided a security tool for cookies (“SameSite=Lax”), but has not been enforcing that as a default setting.

Release 80 will no longer allow pages to send such data when a visitor leaves. Google’s reasoning is that the activity harms performance and there are better alternatives. (Details here.) The release will also make “SameSite=Lax” the default for cookies, which is intended to prevent certain types of cyberattacks. ( Details.)

Potential impact on elearning

Why does this matter? If a course was designed to complete or post information to an external URL upon exit, and it was left unpatched, learners using Chrome may experience problems with progress saving or completions registering. Unpatched systems that have relied on the removed Chrome behavior may also fail to read cookies, which could impact progress and completions.

While OpenSesame courses are working as intended, and our systems were patched in October, this Chrome update may affect other elearning providers. We recommend confirming with your LMS (and any other third-party content vendors you might use) that they are also prepared.

If you are experiencing any problems with your OpenSesame courses, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Smart Lists provide you with instant, tailored recommendations by usingartificial intelligence and machine learning to suggest courses based on your preferences. The algorithm also takes into account your organization’s previous course selections, completions, and learner ratings, when available.(If you are unfamiliar with Lists and want to learn more, this post is a good place to start.)

Creating a Smart List

To make a Smart List, log in to your OpenSesame account then select "My Lists" from the dropdown menu in the top right corner:

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This will bring you to your main Lists page. Next, select the “New Smart List” button at upper right:

This will open a window asking about your preferences, such as topics, content languages, course length, and whether you only want courses that are included in the OpenSesame Plus subscription catalog:

If you wish, you can click the orange “Create your List" button as soon as you enter a topic. If you opt for the “advanced options” link below, you can also select specific publishers and course features, such as audio narration, assessments, and activities:

Once you’re satisfied with your answers, click the “Create your list” button to receive custom recommendations in the form of a new Smart List. For easy organization and tracking, a Smart List's title will default to the date and time it was created. If you prefer, you can edit that along with the description.

Smart List recommendations will be grouped by each topic you submit.Each Group starts out with a maximum of 5 courses, and you can easily add more, which we'll cover next:

As with standard Lists, you can share Smart Lists with others to collaborate, gather feedback, preview courses, orif you use a Learning Management System that is integrated with OpenSesame send courses to your LMS.

Adding recommendations with Smart Groups

If your training needs are greater than five courses per Group, or if you have a standard List to which you’d like to add recommendations, you can put the Smart Lists algorithm back to work with the “Add Courses” button to the far right of each Group:

This will open the Smart Groups panel. Here you can browse additional course recommendations for the selected Group. If you began with a Smart List, the courses that appear here will be based upon the keyword (Group name) and preferences you’d submitted earlier:

If you want to adjust your preferences, you can change the keyword and filters to refine your results. To do this, click the "Show filters" link above the top course result to reveal this panel:

These are the options you may be familiar with from our catalog. If they are new to you, there is a thorough guide to each of them .

When you see a course you like, add it to your Group by hovering your cursor over the course image and clicking the "Add to List" button that appears:

You can also quickly add multiple courses at once by clicking the "Select courses" link up top:

Once that option is clicked, choose your courses then click "Add to Group" up top. And if you have second thoughts, you can exit this view by clicking the X at top right:

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Lists are a powerful way to both organize the courses you select and collect feedback from your stakeholders.

If you are just getting started, for a step-by-step guide on how to add courses to a List and rearrange them, please check out this article. If you'd like to use our curation algorithm, driven by machine learning, for tailor-made course recommendations, there is a guide to Smart Lists and Smart Groups here.

Sharing your Lists

Sharing an OpenSesame List is quick and easy to do. Collaborators will receive an email notification and then can log in to their account and access your List.

Any Lists you create are private by default and are not publicly viewable. So if you invite someone to collaborate on a Listor if you receive such an invitationit will be necessary for collaborators to log in before they will be able to see it. (Anyone who does not yet have a free account will still receive an invitation and may register at any time.)

If you prefer videos, here is a walkthrough of what is covered on sharing Lists below:

First, select “My Lists” from the dropdown menu on the upper right side of the screen:

www.opensesame.com

Next, click on the name of the List you would like to share:

Once you have selected your List, click on the “Sharing” dropdown in the upper right-hand corner:

Click on “Add Collaborators” in this dropdown menu:

Enter the email of the collaborator you would like to add. You can set their permissions in the dropdown to the right. Once their permission level is set, click the “+” button at the far right. This will add the first collaborator to a queue underneath. You can add additional users to the queue if you want to share the List with more than one person.

Not sure what permission you should set? Here is a breakdown of what the different roles allow:

Once all of the collaborators have been queued, click "Send List" to add them and invite them via email.

As soon as "Send List" is clicked, you will see a confirmation message:

Note:If you see a red error instead, it might be that your login credentials timed out. In that case, please reload the page, or log out completely then log back in, and try again.

At this point, collaborators can now access your List multiple ways: by clicking a link in their email invitation, by logging in to and navigating to "My Lists" in the top right drop-down menu (yours will be found under their "All" and "Received" tabs), orif they are currently logged in and already on their Lists pageby simply refreshing the page. Please note that if you share a List while logged in to OpenSesame via a Learning Management System, the email invitation will notinclude a link.

Adding and collecting feedback

Again, if you prefer videos, here is a walkthrough of what is covered on adding and reviewing feedback below:

Note:To skip the recap of Part 1, jump to the 1:20 mark.

To add your feedback on a course, click on the "thumbs up, thumbs down" icon at the far right of any course on a List:

This will open a slide-out panel. Here you can add notes that will only be viewable by you and your collaborators. You can also click the orange "View details" button to visit the course's page for all its available information, or click the "Course details" tab below to review basic course information.

Simply click one of the thumbs, add your thoughts, and click the "Save" button:

Note:The feedback box has a limit of 255 characters, so if you have extensive comments, you'll need to add more than one entry.

Here's how that looks once saved:

Any new comments will appear above this initial entry, so the oldest feedback will always appear at the bottom.

Clicking back to the List shows that the black-and-white icon has updated to green:

This color change will only happen when you have added your own feedback, and it is not triggered when collaborators add theirs. Adding a "thumbs down" rating will turn it red.

Speaking of collaborators, if you are viewing the same List at the same time, you will each see an icon appear for each person online. Their icon will be a profile picture if they have uploaded one, and otherwise it will display their initials:

Any edits you make to the List will update for them in real time. If you have allowed the collaborator "Editor" permissions, any changes they make to the List's contents or organization will likewise update for you immediately. "Viewers" will not be able to reorganize a List or add courses, but they may still leave feedback.(For more details, please refer to the earlier breakdown of the three different roles.)

Here is where a collaborator's feedback will display on a course we've already reviewed:

To compare, here is a collaborator's comment on the second course in the List:

As in the earlier screenshot,this second course's"thumbs up, thumbs down" icon will remain black-and-white. This is because we have not yet added our own feedback.

Finally, if you have a team of stakeholders leaving comments on a variety of different Lists, it may be more convenient to review all their comments in one place. In that case, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to generate a report for you.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

When hunting for the right course to suit your learners’ needs, knowing how to quickly narrow down thousands of possibilities is a serious time-saver. What follows is a guide to our revamped search tools, which will help you hone in on an ideal course.

If you would prefer a video, here is a walkthrough:

Beginning your search

From either your dashboard or the login screen, click the magnifying glass icon in the upper left corner:

Smart Lists

The first thing you’ll notice is the “typeahead” feature, a drop-down box which automatically appears once the search bar is clicked:

Note that the typeahead is not currently available in Internet Explorer.

These initial recommendations are the most popular searches entered by OpenSesame users, and selecting one will bring you to relevant catalog results.

Entering any other text will update the drop-down, which suggests matches based on what you’ve begun to type. General topics appear at the top, Curated Lists at center, and specific courses at the bottom. In the below example, “management” is used:

Any of these items are clickable. In this case, hitting the Enter key to keep with “management” reaches this initial page of 4,192 results:

Viewing your results

The default view shows an illustrated card for each course, arranged in a grid. If you’d prefer a more condensed display, use the icon in the upper right corner to toggle to a list view:

Next to that icon is the first sorting tool, where you can choose the factor to prioritize. The default setting is “Relevancy,” which uses our internal algorithms to suggest good matches. You can also choose to sort by price, rating, the time a course was originally added, or the time it was last updated:

Whichever view you choose, you can click on a course title to see a slide-out profile, which allows you to see more details without leaving your search results:

Simply click the grayed-out area at left to close the slide-out and return to your results.

If you use the default sort order, “Relevancy,” you will see three recommendation panels appear at the top of your search results. The first suggests Curated Lists relevant to your topic. The next suggests popular courses, which takes things like ratings and usage into account, and the third displays new and recently updated courses. Underneath these panels you will find all other relevant results.

Another aspect of the results page is the “Load More” button at the bottom:

If you start out with thousands of results, they won’t all appear at once, which makes page loads faster. Once you scroll to the bottom of an initial batch, the “Load More” button allows you to continue browsing:

Filtering your results

Next, let’s take a look at the options for narrowing down all these results. At left is the filter bar:

When you first load the catalog, these filter categories will start out expanded, so you can see more details on the options available. By using the ^ carats at the far right of each filter, though, you can condense them:

And here’s how it looks if you click on “More Filters” at the bottom:

As you can see, there are a lot of options for granular searching! From the top:

The “OpenSesame Plus” toggle allows you to limit your results to courses included in our subscription catalog. In these examples, the toggle is off and results are not limited.

“Category” suggests common umbrellas for the topic you’re looking for-- the top two categories for “management” are “Business Skills” and “Industry Specific,” for example.

“Product Type” allows you to search for or exclude Curated Lists.

“Publishers” allows you to narrow the results to one or more course providers you know you like.

“Languages” allows you to select one or more languages you want the content to be in. If you need a course’s audio to be fully translated, uncheck the “Include subtitles” box. Depending on your results, you could also filter within languages. It is possible to filter out British English if you do not want courses with an accent, or favor Canadian French over European French. If you see a carat ^ to the right of a language, click it to see your options.

“Course Features” will use “and” logic if you choose more than one. So if you select “Inline Activities” and “Post-Assessment,” for example, you will narrow your results to only the courses that offer both.

“Seat Time,” “Rating,” and “Price” are familiar factors.

“Accreditation Organizations” is an especially useful filter if you are looking for courses that offer Continuing Education credit hours. Here are the options that appear for the “management” search:

Let's say you decide to filter for courses accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI), that are in English, that are longer than an hour, and that have a rating of four stars or higher. This brings the results from 4,192 down to 38, and here’s how that looksonce scrolled past the recommendation panels:

Each of the chosen filters appears at top left:

Clicking the “More” reveals the PMI tag:

Click the “X” on any of these filter tags to remove it and immediately update your list of courses. In this case, removing the seat-time filter increases the results to 148 potential matches:

Finally, if you would rather use our internal algorithms to generate multiple course suggestions instead of manually searching, try our popularfeature.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

OpenSesame Support is available between 6AM and 6PM Pacific time, Monday through Friday. Here are the best ways to reach us:

Email: [email protected]

Chat: "Need Help" icon in course windows or the "Help" tab on the right side of www.opensesame.com

Phone: 503-808-1268, ext 2

If you are trying to contact us outside of these times, please send an email. Someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you are using a stand-alone Learning Management System (LMS) and downloading course packages from OpenSesame, the course thumbnail images are always available on demand. These steps will walk you you through downloading them.

1. Create a List of your courses

If you do not already have your desired courses in an OpenSesame List, please make one. If you are unfamiliar with creating Lists, you can follow the guide available here.

2. Download a CSV from your List

Once you are satisfied with your List, click on the gear icon at upper right and select “Download as CSV,” which will generate a simple spreadsheet file:

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3. Locate and open the CSV

Find the newly downloaded file on your computer and double-click to open it. Here is how this example file appears on a Mac:

4. Find the “Thumbnail image URL” column in the CSV

The CSV will show a variety of details about the courses in your List. The URLs you need will appear in one of the first columns:

Note: Another column included in the CSV, called “WWW URL,” will bring you to the course’s profile page in our catalog and not to its thumbnail image.

5. Visit the first “Thumbnail image URL” link

Clicking a course’s URL should automatically open a new browser window to its thumbnail image. You can also copy the URL and paste it in the address bar, if you prefer. Here is how that looks for the first course in this List:

6. Save the image

Right-click on the thumbnail and choose “Save Image As” then choose where you want to save it on your computer. This is how that option appears on a Mac:

Once the image is saved, return to your CSV for the next URL, and repeat until you have all of the thumbnails you need.

7. Alternative option: check with your IT team about a bulk download

If you have hundreds of thumbnail images to pull and the above process would take too much time, it would be worth checking in with your IT team. Depending on your team, they may be able to take the list of image URLs from your CSV and assist witha bulk download.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

If sections of your course are cut off, please make sure your zoom is set to 100\%. You can adjust your browser’s zoom by using the proper keyboard command for your browser (Often control and +/-). You may also want to try manually resizing the browser window if you are not full screen

First, click on “My Account” in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage:

This will take you to the login page. To create an account, click on the “Don’t Have an Account? Register Now” option below the “Log In” button.

This will change the screen from “Log In” to “Register for OpenSesame”:

There are two ways to sign up for an account:

Connect your existing Google, Office, etc., account to OpenSesame and always use that to log in.

Create a new account using your email address and a password. If you choose to use your email and a password, be sure your password:

Is at least 8 characters long

Has uppercase and lowercase letters

Has numbers

Has punctuation

NOTE: Whichever option you choose, keep in mind that you will need to continue logging in this way moving forward. It is not currently possible to change login methods after your account is created.

Once you create a login you will be taken to a page asking if you are an administrator or a learner.

If you are in charge of managing the elearning content for your company, select “learning professional.”

If you are looking to take courses yourself, select “lifelong learner.”

After making a selection, click “Continue.”

Proceed through the next screens. Once you’ve answered all necessary questions you’ll see a welcome screen:

From here, you can use the gray and orange buttons to either go to your OpenSesame dashboard or browse our catalog.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Certain courses require that 3rd party and session cookies be enabled in order to run correctly. Below are the necessary steps to enable cookies in your browser.

Please be aware that, while all content hosted by OpenSesame and our publishers is safe, these changes can affect your browser security settings for other websites as well. Don't hesitate to reach out to your IT team if you have any concerns about changing these settings.

Chrome

On your computer, open Chrome.

At the top right, clickand then"Settings".

At the bottom, click "Advanced".

Under "Privacy and security," click "Site settings".

Click "Cookies".

Turn "Allow sites to save and read cookie data"on.

Turn "Block third-party cookies" off.

Internet Explorer

Select thegear in the upper-right cornerof the screen, then select “Internet Options“. If you have the Menu Bar enabled, you can select “Tools“>“Internet Options“.

Click the “Privacy” tab.

Select the “Advanced” button.

Under “First-party Cookies” and “Third-party Cookies“, select "Allow" andcheck “Always allow session cookies”. Then select “OK” when done.

Safari

Open Safari and click on the Safari menu and select "Preferences"

Click on the Privacy tab.

Make sure "Prevent cross-site tracking" is unchecked.

Make sure "Block all cookies" is unchecked.

Sometimes Internet Explorer is set to emulate an older version of the browser. This can cause problem loading OpenSesame content. To turn off Compatibility Mode in Internet Explorer, take the following steps:

Press the Alt key on your keyboard, this will make a menu bar appear

Click on the Tools menu tab

Select the Compatibility View settings option

Uncheck the"Display sites in Compatibility View" option

Please be aware that, while all content hosted by OpenSesame and our publishers is safe, these changes can affect your browser security settings for other websites as well. Don't hesitate to reach out to your IT team if you have any concerns about changing these settings.

In order to view your Lists, it will be necessary to log in first. If you’re not sure how to access your Lists, click here.

When viewing a List, click on either the name of the course or the "play" icon to the right side of the screen in the "Demo" column.

The "play" icon will start the course preview immediately.

Clicking on the name will slide out a course summary on the right side of the page. If you would like the demo the course here, just select the “Course Demo” button at the top of the page. This will allow you to preview the course!

If you run into any trouble taking these steps or viewing the demo, please click the orange “Help” button on the far right side of the page (highlighted green in the above screenshot). This will open a window to allow you to either chat with or email OpenSesame Support for assistance.

There are a few reasons why a course may not load in OpenSesame.While most courses no longer require flash of popups, the courses that do may be difficult to launch. Please be sure to:

Check that pop-up blockers are disabled.

Confirm that Flash is up to date and enabled

Clear your Cache

If you're using IE to view a course, you may also need to make sure that all of the necessary domains have been added to trusted sites. You can check with your IT team about this or, if your organization uses Chrome, try launching the course there.

If you are still having trouble, please contact us for support. During business hours, you can also click "live chat" under the orange help tab to the right of the page to message our support team instantly.

With OpenSesame Lists, it's never been easier to create and maintain tailored collections of courses for yourself or your employees. You can quickly and easily add courses to a List fromsearch results or course pages, and you can also group items within a List, such as by job role, department, employee level, or whichever description you prefer. In addition, if you'd rather use a List already created by one of our Curation specialists, Curated Lists can help save time.

Ready to start developing your learning plan within the OpenSesame platform?

Log in to www.opensesame.com and add courses to a List from the search results page :

1. If you are adding a single course, hover your cursor over the course card and click the "Add to List" button that appears:

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2. A dialogue box will come up where you can either create a new List or add your selection to an existing List. Here we create a new one:

3. Done! A green confirmation box will appear at upper right, with an option to go straight to the new List:

If you want to add more than one course at a time:

1. From the search results page, click the "Select courses" link at upper left:

2. Select the courses you want, then click the "Add to List" button at top:

Note: The "Add to library" button seen at right will only appear if your account is set up for Pay-Per-Use (PPU) licenses.

3. In the dialogue box we use the "Add to Existing List" option this time. The most recently created List will always appear at the top of your List inventory, and if you have many different Lists, you can use the search bar to find older ones:

4.Clicking the orange "Add to List" button on your target List leads to the following confirmation:

5. Done! Click the "View List" button in the confirmation message to go straight to the updated List. Note that between these two examples, the "Java for Beginners Training" course has been added twice:

Alternatively, you can add new items to a List from a course's slideout:

1. Click any course title to open a slideout from right:

2. Click the small "Add to List" icon that appears on the slideout:

3. As in the previous example, find the existing List you want and click its orange "Add to List" button:

4. Done!

If you decide to visit the course's full profile page instead:

1. Click the "View Details" button on the slideout:

2. On the course's profile page, click the "Add to List" button at top right:

3. Create a new List or add to an existing one, and you’re done!

Need to develop a learning plan for different audiences, but want to maintain it all in one List? Add groups!

If you have a set of courses in your List you’d like to group together, you can:

1. Select the courses you want to group by using the checkboxes at left:

2. Once your courses are selected, click the “New Group” button at upper right:

3. Enter a name for your group and click the small checkmark next to the name to save it:

4. Your courses are now categorized! Note that adding an initial group to a List will put any remaining courses into an "Ungrouped Courses" section underneath:

Need to rearrange courses already in your List?

Drag and drop courses between groups or rearrange their places within a List by clicking and holding the “drag” icon at the end of any row:

Looking for your Lists?

When logged in, find your Lists by hovering the cursor over your account name at upper right and selecting "My Lists" from the drop-down that appears:

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Individual courses in the OpenSesame Plus subscription catalog are labeled with an orange "PLUS" sash in search results:

[email protected]

If your search term lines up with a Curated List, that will appear at the top of your results. If all of the courses in a Curated List are included in the OpenSesame Plus catalog, you will see the orange sash:

You can also filter your searches so you only see courses in the subscription catalog. To do this,use the "OpenSesame Plus" toggle on the lefthand side of the search page:

As a shortcut, this link will bring you straight to our catalog, pre-filtered to what's included in the OpenSesame Plus subscription. And if you'd like to learn more about our catalog's search tools, you can find a thorough guide here.

Not sure which courses you need?If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Curated Lists in Search

In this release, customers will now have the ability to search and discover Curated Lists in the Catalog directly alongside Courses. Whether searching for specific topics or filtering to get more precise results, Curated Lists react directly to your search activity.

In addition, the Product Type filter has been moved up to the top of the filter menu and there is now a specific option for sorting by Lists to make it easier to see all available Curated Lists. Please note that the Curated Lists page previously available from within the Catalog has been completely removed from the product.

OpenSesame is also excited to announce that in addition to the product changes being introduced in this release, six new Curated Lists have also been released. This is part of an overall strategy to continue to grow the Curated Lists offering and users should continue to see new Curated Lists each week as the feature continues to grow.

Our catalog's search tools are intended to help you navigate thousands of courses and find the best available match as quickly and easily as possible. The first tool you'll notice is the recommendations panel that appears at the top of your results.

If you enter a term in the “Search courses” bar at top left, you will see three recommendation areas appear"Curated Lists for You," "Popular Courses for You," and "New Courses for You":

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If there are any Curated Lists relevant to your topic, the first panel will show them. These Lists provide pre-made learning paths built by our Curation specialists. The next panel suggests popular courses. Our algorithm takes factors like ratings and usage into account when determining popularity. The third panel displays new and recently updated courses. Underneath these, you will find all other relevant results.

Please note that the catalog’s "Sort By" menu at upper right must use the default, “Relevancy,” to generate these recommendations.

For a comprehensive guide to all of our search tools, refer to, and if you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Our development team regularly expands the versatility of Lists and how you can use them, whether you're organizing collections of courses tailored for your learners or gathering files for your Learning Management System (LMS).

Curated Lists are a collaboration with the content experts who manage, maintain, and update our catalog every day. These premade Lists highlight popular learning paths, trending topics, and frequently requested competencies, saving you time by setting out a clear route forward for high-demand subjects. Curated Lists are also maintained over time, as our Curation experts add and remove courses alongside our evolving catalog.

Curated Lists are public, so it’s not necessary to log in to view them. (Log-in is required if you want to take any action on a Curated Listsuch as following it, viewing course previews, sending courses to your Learning Management System, or copying a Curated List to make your own edits.)

To see all of our available Curated Lists, visit www.opensesame.com and navigate to our catalog. You can access the catalog by clicking the "My Account" button from the homepage:

[email protected]

Next,click the "Catalog" link up top:

Once in the catalog, the first panel of recommendations will show a handful of Curated Lists along the top:

To view all available Curated Lists, use the "Product Type" filter at left:

An orange "Plus" sash in the top left corner of a Curated List's card means that all of its courses are included in the OpenSesame Plus subscription catalog.Clicking on a card will open its full details.

When you find a Curated List you like, you can add it to your “My Lists” dashboard by clicking the “Follow” button. By following a Curated List, you’ll know that the version seen in your dashboard is the most up-to-date one available.

Note that it is necessary to log in or create an account to follow a Curated List. If you are not logged in when you click the "Follow" button, you will see a prompt to do so.

Once you’ve followed a Curated List, you can find it in your dashboard by logging in and selecting “My Lists” from the drop-down menu at upper right. You’ll see the Curated List under both the “All” tab and the “Following” tab, and it will have an orange globe icon next to it:

Want to tweak a Curated List? Make a copy by selecting “Duplicate” from its settings menu:

Next, you can edit the title and description as you wish, then click the “Duplicate List” button. You can now add, remove, and reorganize courses as needed on your own copy of the Curated List.

Note that any copied versions of a Curated List will no longer receive updates from our Curation team. In addition, your personal copies are not public, so if you share them with others, the recipients will need to log in to view them.

Finally, if you are interested incustom recommendations based on your unique requirements, our Smart Lists feature uses machine learning to instantly generate a List of courses based on the specific criteria you select.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Yes! OpenSesame is an online marketplace connecting eLearning courses to any learning management system (LMS).

Testing for a successful launch

A course not playing properly can be frustrating for your learners and lower their perceived value of your LMS and courses. Spending the time to properly test your new OpenSesame courses before launch greatly reduces the support your learners will need.

Creating a plan for testing

OpenSesame recommends creating a plan for testing that aligns with your organization’s needs, timeline and resources. Some tasks for this plan for testing may include:

Writing your testing objectives and project background

Having a written statement on the vendor relationship between your organization and OpenSesame can help get new internal stakeholders up to speed quickly. This may include information such as target launch date, launch population (who will need to access OpenSesame courses), and system(s) being used to deploy the courses.

Identify your testing resources

In addition to the individual(s) who will be doing testing, you should identify additional resources before testing begins, such as:

IT and security resource (for whitelisting, system or hardware questions)

Learning Management System (LMS) administrator(s)

Your LMS implementation or support team

Define your feedback collection

If more than one person will be doing testing at your organization, centralize the results of your testing so all information is collected from your testers and can be easily reviewed with your OpenSesame Account Executive or Customer Success Manager.

Begin testing

Now that you have a plan, it’s time to get started! During testing of these courses, OpenSesame recommends organizations consider the following best practices:

Test in representative environments:

You should identify and complete testing in the most common environments of your learners. When identifying what those environments are, we recommend working with your IT resource and answer questions, such as:

What browsers are your learners using to access the LMS and/or courses?

Do your learners use a VPN?

Will you be including OpenSesame courses on your Learning Management System’s mobile app? (if your LMS has a mobile app)

Are there bandwidth restrictions in certain locations?

Test for completion

Test at least one course from each publisher that you intend to include in your launch.

A complete test should include launching the course in your representative environment(s), using the course navigation and menus, passing of quiz (where applicable) and checking for a completion message from the course as well as in your Learning Management System.

Some courses have additional features that should be included in testing, such as:

Bookmarking

Downloadable job-aids or resources

Accessibility features such as 508-compliance

Global language options within the course

Additional Testing Resources for OpenSesame Plus

If you are using OpenSesame Plus, begin by reviewing the OpenSesame Plus System Requirements and Testing Guide to ensure your environment is properly equipped. In this guide you will find:

System requirements

Complete list of system and hardware requirements needed for all OpenSesame courses.

Course publisher details:

This section provides an overview of each of the publishers within the OpenSesame Plus subscription. This detailed information will help you as you evaluate publishers and test courses.

Testing details

OpenSesame provides a complete testing package, including:

One sample course file per publisher listed in the Systems Requirements guide

Course metadata for all provided course files

Testing pass/fail requirements

Course answer keys (where applicable)

Questions? We are here to help

OpenSesame is here to help you every step of the way. If you have questions along the way, please contact your OpenSesame Account Executive or Customer Success Manager.

Get the downloadable version of this document here

Detailed descriptions available here

If you are new to OpenSesame or your training requirements are changing, we offer a variety of course license options to best suit your needs. (If your organization has more than 75 learners, please fill out this form and we will be in touch shortly!)

In brief, there is a subscription option ( OpenSesame Plus ), an “ la carte” option (Volume Purchase), and an upfront-deposit option (Pay Per Use).

Subscribing to OpenSesame Plus on a monthly or annual basis allows a learner to launch as many courses in the Plus catalog as they wish. The collection currently has more than 5,250 courses. If your organization uses a Learning Management System, there are also Plus 25 and Plus 100 options, which allow access to a small selection of those courses at a reduced rate.

Volume Purchase is our standard non-subscription license, which lasts 12 months from the date of purchase. You select individual courses and the number of seats you need for each, and you receive a discount for purchasing more seats at once.

Pay Per Use is generally used by Enterprise customers, who make a deposit upfront. As learners launch courses, the charge for each seat is deducted from the deposit.

If you have more than 75 learners, simply answer a few questions here to get the conversation started!

Viewing Lists on OpenSesame is easy! First, make sure you are logged in to your OpenSesame account. You can confirm this by making sure your username is in the upper right-hand corner of your screen:

send courses to your LMS

Next, hover over your username. A drop-down menu will appear with a number of different options. Click on “My Lists”:

This will take you to a page where you can see the Lists that have been shared with you and that you have created. Click on the List name you would like to view (not its check box) to see the courses it includes. For this example I will be viewing “Starting List”:

Once you click on the name of the List you would like to view, you’ll be taken to a page that shows all of the courses it includes:

From here you can demo courses, download packages, or (only available if you're accessing your account through an integration).

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Please make sure that you are set to a screen resolution of at least 1024x768 or larger.

If you don’t access OpenSesame through an integration on your LMS, you’ll need to visit www.opensesame.com to access your account. Once you get to this page, click on “My Account” in the upper right-hand corner of the OpenSesame homepage.

This will take you to a login page.

Make sure to log in using the method you initially used to sign up. If you’ve previously used an email and password to log in, you’ll need to keep using these. If you have signed in via Google, Office, etc., you will need to continue logging in that way.

Once you’ve successfully logged in, you will see your username in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and you will land on your main dashboard page.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

New List Data Download

In this release, we are introducing the ability for customers to download any List’s metadata as a standard CSV file from within the List’s settings. This allows customers to review all of the details of the courses in a List outside of OpenSesame.

Fields included in the download are:

WWW URL (to Course Details page)

Thumbnail image URL (course card image URL)

Publisher Description

OS Course Description

Primary Competency

Content Language

Subtitles

Subjects

Course Features

Accreditation

Course Level

Enhanced Typeahead

In this release, we are introducing multiple enhancements to the typeahead functionality in the search bar.

When you click into the "Search courses" box, you will see the most popular searches within the application. Selecting a popular search will take the you directly to the Catalog with both search results and recommendations filtered based on your selection.

Additionally, as you begin typing in the "Search courses" box, relevant Curated Lists now appear within the results. Clicking a suggested List will take you to the details page of that specific List. With the introduction of Lists in the typeahead, labels have also been added to each section to better identify which type of result you are viewing.

Lists are an easy way to download groups of SCORM files to then upload to your LMS. First, click on the List you would like to download.

This will take you to the page showing all of the courses included in this List. Select any course(s) you would like to download, or click on the box at the top left of the table to select all of them.

Next you can click on the “Options” menu and select “Download course packages”:

Keep in mind that, in order to download these packages, you must:

Have an active license for every course you would like to download

Have your delivery preference set to “LMS” on your main OpenSesame dashboard

After you select this the download will start. It will only take a few moments to download these packages.

When the progress bar is complete you will see a zip folder downloaded to your computer.

NOTE: You cannot upload this zip directly to your LMS. You must unzip it first to access the individual zip file of each course.

Once you unzip this download you will find the course files (identified by GUID), a metadata report, and a text file with some general instructions about uploading this content to your LMS. Do not unzip the individual course zips, as they must remain individually zipped in order to work.

Absolutely! OpenSesame Plus is available for individuals for $21.99 per month. Access any or all of the 5,000+ courses in the Plus catalog throughout your subscription. Please see http://www.opensesame.com/plus for more information!

OpenSesame is committed to enterprise-grade security and performance. We no longer support Internet Explorer 9 to access our course catalog because Microsoft ended support for it in 2016. Furthermore, as of 01 July 2018, our courses no longer play using IE9.

Why?

Microsoft has not released security updates for IE9 since January of 2016. Based on our data, a very small percentage of our customers are still using IE9, so we decided it was time to end support for it.

What does this mean for me?

As of 01 July 2018, you will no longer be able to play courses using IE9. Further, our Support team is unable to troubleshoot issues that arise from using OpenSesame on unsupported browsers.

What is the benefit from switching away from Internet Explorer 9?

Accessing OpenSesame with supported browsers means improved security, since these browsers are up-to-date and protected from the latest security threats. You will also be able to take full advantage of the latest and greatest OpenSesame features and enhancements, fully tested and supported on these browsers.

What do I need to do?

Use supported browsers to access OpenSesame. They include:

The latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox (PC and Mac)

Safari (Mac)

For Safari, get the latest version through the Updates section of the App Store. You can also click the Apple icon at top left, select "About This Mac," and click the "Software Update" button in the Overview tab.

Some organizations have formal processes for updating browsers. If this is the case at your company, reach out to your manager and/or IT department before updating.

Questions?

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

If your OpenSesame course is coming up as a blank screen, it may be trying to open in a popup. Below are the steps to allow popups on your browser.

Please be aware that, while all content hosted by OpenSesame and our publishers is safe, these changes can affect your browser security settings for other websites as well. Don't hesitate to reach out to your IT team if you have any concerns about changing these settings.

Chrome

At the top right, click theicon and thenSettings.

At the bottom, clickAdvanced.

Under "Privacy and security," clickContent settings.

ClickPopups.

At the top, turn the setting toAllowed

IE

Select theToolsbutton

Next, selectInternet options.

Click on thePrivacytab

Under Pop-up Blocker, make sureTurn on Pop-up Blockeris unchecked

SelectOK.

Safari

In the top left of the window, clickSafari.

ClickPreferencesin the drop-down menu.

Click theSecuritytab found on the top row.

UnderWeb content, uncheckBlock pop-up windows.

Firefox

Click on the drop down menu on the top left corner of the Firefox browser, and select Options

The Options window will open.

Click on the Content tab.

Uncheck Block pop-up windows

click the OK button.

While we strive to avoid unexpected downtime, sometimes it does happen. You can see if we’re currently experiencing any technical difficulties on our status page here. Be sure to click “Subscribe to updates” to be notified of any system changes!

OpenSesame is committed to protecting its customer data. As a general practice, we collect the bare minimum personal identifying information possibly, called Personal Data under the US-EU Privacy Shield Program to which OpenSesame is a registrant. For Administrators who need access directly to the OpenSesame platform, we collect First Name, Last Name and Email Address. For employees who are taking training through our customer's learning management system, we collect the data that is provided by that LMS. Generally, this is Student Name and Student ID. Customers can choose to not pass us this information but that limits our ability to provide end user support and provide completion certificates.

OpenSesame transfers Personal Data to a small number of 3rd parties to assist in the processing of data for the purposes of delivering our services.

Any EU resident who has a question about their rights to access, portability, and erasure of Personal Data that they believe may be processed by OpenSesame should contact their employer, but may also contact us directly at [email protected].

At OpenSesame, we take your privacy seriously. We will never sell, or otherwise share, your information with third parties without your express permission. Some of the courses offered through OpenSesame are tied to third party certifications or credentials. In the case where your information needs to be shared externally for the purpose of obtaining a certification or credential, we will first obtain your permission.

The OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard was created to make tracking and evaluating your training programs faster and easier. The dashboard will update as your learners take and rate their courses, providing you with quick visual takeaways of key metrics.

Please note that the OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard is only available to customers with more than one OpenSesame Plus learner seat. Keep an eye out for additional features in future releases.

To access the Insights dashboard, log in to the account from which you access your company's licenses. This will either be via an embedded catalog integration within your learning management system or via www.opensesame.com. Hover your cursor over your account’s name in the upper right corner and choose “My Insights” from the drop-down menu that appears. Your Insights dashboard will automatically open on a tab labeled "OpenSesame Plus."

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Our Customer Success and Curation teams recommend monitoring the following key areas to gauge your training program’s performance:

Seat usage

Enrollment trends

Learner satisfaction

Using the filter that appears in the upper left corner, enter the time span you are interested in and then click the “Run” button at right. This will generate a report underneath, starting with the average number of course enrollments per learner, the percentage of enrollments that are complete, and the overall average of your learners’ course ratings. Below those numbers is a bar graph showing the number of enrollments compared to the number of available seats over the selected time period. (An “enrollment” is defined as one launch per learner per course for the selected time period. Be aware that if a learner is invited to take a course via a learning management system, OpenSesame will not create a record for them in that course until they launch it.)

Directly underneath the first bar graph are two more graphs showing enrollments and completions over time and average course ratings over time.

Below these key visuals are five tables, showing Most Used Courses, Highest Rated Courses, Least Used Courses, Lowest Rated Courses, and Most Active Learners. You can sort each of these sections by any of the four column headers at the right, in ascending or descending order: Enrolled Count, Completed Count, Average Rating, or Ratings Count. (A course must receive at least five ratings from your learners before its Ratings details will appear.)

Next to the OpenSesame Plus tab in the Insights dashboard is the Activity Report tab. As with the OpenSesame Plus tab, open the Filters section at the top left and choose the time span you’re interested in. You can also narrow your results by course title and/or learner name. Once you’ve identified the type of information you want, click the Run button on the right and the updated Activity Report will appear below.

Similar to the OpenSesame Plus tab, you can sort these table results by whichever column you prefer. (Depending on the length of time chosen and the number of learners in your account, it may take a moment for the data to refresh.) If you want to download the report, hover your cursor over the top right corner (“Duration Tracked” column header) to see the familiar “...” icon and choose your preferred file type from there.

If you are a veteran dashboard user, you will be familiar with the original Activity Report tab from the main dashboard page (“My Courses”). If you have a large learner population with high course usage, keep in mind that you may notice minor discrepancies between the numbers in your main dashboard and those in the OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard. There is a modest delay of approximately 12 hours between when data first registers to your dashboard and when it appears in the OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard.

With the OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard, you’ll be able to easily identify areas of improvement for your training program. Our Curation and Customer Success teams are here to help you curate courses your learners will love. As always, our Support team is also here to assist you via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

If you experience any trouble loading your OpenSesame Plus Insights Dashboard, may help you.

CourseCloud makes elearning work for companies who don’t have a Learning Management System (LMS) and need a simple, instant way to distribute courses to small groups.

CourseCloud delivery lets you purchase, take, and distribute courses with just a web browser. Use CourseCloud to invite your employees to take courses with a simple emailyou can also see on your dashboard whether they have started, completed, or passed the course.

OpenSesame’s CourseCloud enables businesses to:

Send simple email invitations to take training on www.opensesame.com

Instantly connect employees to training courses

Deliver and track courses without using a Learning Management System

To start using CourseCloud, log in to www.opensesame.com and go to your Dashboard. You can get there by hovering your cursor over the account name in the upper right corner and selecting "My Courses" from the drop-down that appears:

[email protected]

You will automatically land on the "Purchased Courses" tab. Next, select “Delivery Preference” at upper right and set it to “CourseCloud”:

Next, click the “Invite Team” button:

You will be taken to a new screen where you can enter the names and email addresses of the employees who need to take the course. Click “Send Invites” to distribute invitations. For a thorough guide to sending invitations to standalone courses or the OpenSesame Plus subscription, check out this article.

Once you send the invitations, track your employees' progress by clicking “Manage.” You can also resend an invitation, disable an employee’s course, orif they have not yet starteddelete it.

For small businesses who don’t have a Learning Management System, CourseCloud provides simple, free tracking and course delivery.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

After you log in and navigate to the OpenSesame dashboard you can set your Delivery Preference in the upper right-hand corner.

[email protected]

Different features will be available depending on which Delivery Preference you choose:

On OpenSesame will allow you to start courses directly from your dashboard

CourseCloud will allow you to assign content to other learners, as well as view completion information through the Activity Report

LMS will allow you to download a SCORM or AICC package for purchased content that can be uploaded to an LMS

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

A Learning Management System, commonly known as an LMS, is a software program used to administer, document, track, report, and deliver eLearning content and training plans. While OpenSesame is not an LMS, we do provide quality content for use in Learning Management Systems.

The American Society of Training and Development (ATD, formerly ASTD) states in their Field Guide :

While there are several definitions of a learning management system (LMS), the basic description is a software application that automates the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events. However, it’s not that simple. A robust LMS should be able to do the following:

Centralize and automate administration

Use self-service and self-guided services

Assemble and deliver learning content rapidly

Consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform

Support portability and standards

Personalize content and enable knowledge reuse.

More important, an LMS should integrate with other enterprise application solutions used by HR and accounting, enabling management to measure the impact, effectiveness, and over all [sic] cost of training initiatives.

Check out our blog posts for more information on Learning Management Systems:

LMS vs LCMS vs CMS

4 Steps to Choosing an LMS

Need to find an LMS for your company? Our list is a good place to start! If your company is very small and does not have an LMS, there is limited course administration available on our site through CourseCloud.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

OpenSesame works with or without a Learning Management System (LMS):

With an LMS: If your company uses an LMS, we’ll provide SCORM packages for any course you purchase from the OpenSesame catalog. Simply add the SCORM files to your LMS to connect your learners with courses. We can help with bulk imports to get it done fast.

Without an LMS: No LMS? No problem! Your users can take any of our courses directly on OpenSesame’s CourseCloud. Send learners invitations to specific courses or to the entire catalog. Learners can log in to their OpenSesame dashboard to track their progress and download completion certificates.

Not sure which is the best option for your team? If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at [email protected] or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

CourseCloud is a great way to invite learners to training if your company is small and does not have a Learning Management System (LMS).

After purchasing a course, hover your cursor over the account name in the upper right-hand corner and then select “My Courses” in the drop-down menu that appears. This will take you to your dashboard. Once on the dashboard, make sure your delivery preference is set to “CourseCloud”:

[email protected]

Once the delivery preference is set to “CourseCloud,” the option to “Invite Team” will be visible next to any purchased courses:

Invite Individual Users

Click on "Invite Team" next to the purchased course. There, you’ll see the option to add learners by entering their names and email addresses. Once you “Add” all of the names you need by using the small button at right, click the orange “Send Invites" button. This will email out the invitations to the course!

Bulk Invite Users

If you have a lot of learners to invite, you can also paste a list of users by using the “Paste email list” tab to invite users in bulk:

Just enter one email address per line in the following format:

"Full Name" < [email protected] >

Once all the learners are added to your list, click “Send Invites” and the invitations will be sent.

But be careful! Quotation marks with rich formatting (curved "smart quotes") will cause CourseCloud to format users incorrectly. Make sure to always use clear formatting (uncurved "straight quotes") to prevent this from happening!

Once you send out these invites, you can track your employees' progress by clicking “Manage.” You can also resend any invites, disable an employee’s course, orif they have not yet starteddelete their entry.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Did you find an OpenSesame course and purchase it online for yourself?

If you purchased a course online with OpenSesame, you can start viewing your course immediately afterward. You can also return to the website to watch the course at a later date or pause halfway through to resume later. Let’s walk through how easy it is to access your course after you have purchased it.

First, make sure you are logged in to your OpenSesame account. From the www.opensesame.com homepage, click the "My Account" button at upper right:

[email protected]

This will bring you to the log-in page :

Once logged in, you will see your account name in the top right corner of the browser window. Hover your cursor over that name to reveal a drop-down menu, then select "My Courses" to find the course(s) you have purchased:

Once in the dashboard,be sure that the Delivery Preference is set to “On OpenSesame” in the upper right corner. This allows you to take the course on the OpenSesame website (as opposed to taking the course through a Learning Management System). If it is not set to "On OpenSesame," simply click on the current setting to update it.

Once your delivery preference is set, click on the "Purchased Courses" tab. Then, click the “Begin Course” button to start your course:

If you need to take a break from the course, use the course-provided Exit button and the system will remember your progress when you resume the course later. (Not all courses include an Exit button, and if your course does not have one, closing the course should trigger a save.)

Tip:Turn off your pop-up blocker and enableFlash. This will ensure seamless delivery of the course on the OpenSesame website.

Now you are well on your way to learning! Once you complete the course, your completion certificate should also be available in your dashboard.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Downloading course packages for use in your Learning Management System (LMS) is easy! After purchasing the courses you need, please make sure you are logged in to www.opensesame.com. Next, go to your dashboard by selecting "My Courses" from the drop-down at upper right:

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On this page, confirm that your delivery preference is set to "LMS." If it is not, click on your current delivery preference to update it:

If you are with a small company that does not have an LMS, you can distribute courses to your learners via CourseCloud.

When the delivery preference is set to LMS, you will see a package download button appear next to the course:

Our SCORM 1.2 packages will work in any standards-compliant LMS, and an individual course package will download as a .zip file, which must remain zipped in order to work. Simply upload the .zip to your LMS. (Refer to your LMS's documentation if you are unfamiliar with its course-upload process.)

If your LMS uses the AICC file format instead of SCORM, you can update your package preference in the Edit Profile page. Open it by returning to the drop-down menu at upper right:

You'll arrive on this page:

Scroll down to "LMS Package Type," which appears near the bottom. Update your preferred file type and click "Save Profile":

You will see a green confirmation box and return to your main dashboard, where the download button will have updated to "AICC Package":

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.

Storing a credit card for future purchases on OpenSesame is safe and easy. Simply log into your OpenSesame account and go to the "Edit Profile" page:

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From here, click on the "Stored cards" tab:

Next, click the "Add a card" button at left:

Finally,enter your card information and save:

When entering your card information, be sure to select "Use as default card." If you have multiple cards and a recurring order on your account (such as an OpenSesame Plus subscription), this will ensure the correct card is charged.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help via email at or via live chat and phone. Feel free to reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2.