Integrate LinkedIn Learning courses with SuccessFactors Learning (LMS)

[former_member113361]

This blog gives a detailed technical overview on how to integrate LinkedIn learning content into SuccessFactors Learning so that users can seamlessly access the LinkedIn online contents from within SF Learning page itself.

Benefits of Integrating LinkedIn Learning with SF Learning

• Allow learners to easily access LinkedIn Learning content from within SF LMS


• Track learner progress through course progress and completion data.


• Seamlessly authenticate users and provide secure access to LinkedIn Learning with LMS where it’s available.


• Automatically upload LinkedIn Learning content into your LMS.

This is how a LinkedIn course will look like in SF LMS when all the configurations are completed.



Prerequisite:

1. One have to purchase LinkedIn Learning licenses in order to import the courses ( paid courses) in SF Learning


2. SF Learning module is enabled.

The entire configuration can be categorized into 3 important steps

• Configuration of SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) between SF Learning and LinkedIn


• Configuration of SuccessFactors Open Content Network (OCN) for LinkedIn Learning


• Steps to import LinkedIn Learning content in SF Learning

Configuration of SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) between SF Learning and LinkedIn

During the initial configuration, LinkedIn Learning and SuccessFactors can be configured to establish
a SAML single sign-on (SSO) connection to ensure seamless and secure access to content. SSO
authentication reduces friction for users and administrators by eliminating the need for manual user
registration.

There are two configuration options:

 

1.Connect to your organization’s identity management solution

If your organization has a centrally managed identity management solution like Azure AD, Okta, ADFS etc, it can be configured to authenticate users into SuccessFactors and LinkedIn Learning.

Your IdP MUST be configured to send the SuccessFactors unique user identifier to LinkedIn Learning. If user IDs aren’t the same between the two systems, learner activity tracking will not work.

 

2.Connect directly to SuccessFactors BizX SAML IdP

LinkedIn Learning and SuccessFactors can be configured to establish a SAML single sign-on (SSO) connection. In this blog I’ll cover the 2nd configuration option (I have not explored the 1st option yet)

 

Connect LinkedIn directly to SuccessFactors BizX SAML IdP

To establish a connection with your SuccessFactors instance, we need to load SF identity provider (IdP) metadata into LinkedIn Learning. The metadata includes SSO configuration information such as entity ID, endpoints, and signing certificate. It has 2 steps:-

 

Step 1: Generating Identity Provider Metadata

1. In the SuccessFactors navigation menu, select Admin Tools. ( Please note: one must have Learning admin access).


2. In the Administration Tools section, select Learning then Learning Administration.


3. In the SuccessFactors navigation menu, select System Admin.


4. In left menu, select Configuration . Then select System Configuration.


5. Find the BizX option in the configuration file and select View (magnifying glass and paper icon).


6. Within the property file, scroll down to the SAML Single Sign On section.


7. Find the metadataProviders.IDP1.value entry. The value should look like the sample URL below:

https://performancemanager<numeric variable>.successfactors.<variable depending on global region>/idp/samlmetadata?company=<company_id>

System Admin->Configuration



System Configuration->BIZX



metadataProviders.IDP1.value



Step 2: Setup Assertion Consumer Service

1) In the LinkedIn Learning admin navigation menu, select Settings then Global Settings.



2) In the Global Settings section, select the Single Sign-On (SSO) drop down.



3) In the Configure your Identity provider SSO settings section, select OR Click Here to load and copy individual fields from the form .

4) To open dialog with SuccessFactors team, create a support ticket and copy & paste the SSO configuration values from the LinkedIn Learning interface into the template below.

 

SuccessFactors Support,

My organization would like to integrate with LinkedIn Learning via the Open Content Network. To

complete the single sign-on setup, a new authorized SP assertion consumer service needs to be

configured in your back-end provisioning settings. Below you will find the relevant details provided by

LinkedIn Learning for the assertion consumer service configuration:

 

Assertion Consumer Service (ACS) URL : <insert-your-linkedin-learning-acs-url>

Certificate: <insert-your-linkedin-learning-x509-certificate>



5) Once SuccessFactors support has configured a new assertion consumer service ( SF ticket will confirm that), return to the LinkedIn Learning SSO settings ( Configure the LinkedIn service provider SSO settings)

Click on “Click Here” to manually input the following values





a) Issuer String or Entity ID: (https://<SF URL>/sf/idp/SAML2/company/<CompanyID>)

e.g. https://performancemanager4.successfactors.com/sf/idp/SAML2/company/XYZ

( performancemanager4.successfactors.com = SF URL XYZ= Company id)

b) IdP redirect endpoint: (https://<SF URL>/sf/idp/SAML2/SSO/POST/company/<CompanyID>)

e.g. https://performancemanager4.successfactors.com/sf/idp/SAML2/SSO/POST/company/XYZ

(performancemanager4.successfactors.com = SF URL XYZ= Company id)

c) X.509 Public certificate: Certificate can be downloaded from SAML Metadata file, link of SAML metadata:

(https:// <SF URL>/idp/samlmetadata?company=<CompanyID> )

e.g. https://performancemanager4.successfactors.com/idp/samlmetadata?company=XYZ

(performancemanager4.successfactors.com = SF URL XYZ= Company id)

Alternatively one can navigate to this path to get specific metadata link for SF learning instance and download metadata file from  Learning Administration -> System Admin -> Configuration -> System Configuration -> BizX Configuration :

6) Select Save SSO configuration then Activate SSO configuration then I’m ready .

7) In the SAML Request Binding section, enable select HTTP-Post .

8) In the Include Assertion Consumer Service URL section, enable select Yes .

9) In the automatically assign licenses section, enable the toggle.

Once the configuration is done, follow the below steps to verify the SSO Connection:-

1) In the LinkedIn Learning navigation menu, select Settings then Global Settings.

2) In the browser address bar, copy the account ID value. In the example below the account ID is “123456” https://www.linkedin.com/enterprise/accountcenter/settings?account=123456

3) Construct a SSO URL for testing by pasting the account ID value from the last step into the URL below. https://www.linkedin.com/checkpoint/enterprise/login/<account-ID>?application=learning.

4) Copy and paste the SSO URL into your web browser and provide your SuccessFactors credentials when prompted.

5) If SSO authentication is working as expected, you will be redirected to LinkedIn Learning. If applicable, you may be prompted to login with your LinkedIn credentials before being redirected to the course page.

One should be getting the below screen ( momentarily) before going straight into SF landing page, this means SSO has kicked off.



I've explained the next part of the configuration ( mentioned below) in Integrate LinkedIn Learning courses with SuccessFactors Learning (LMS)- Part 2 blog

2)Configuration of SuccessFactors Open Content Network (OCN) for LinkedIn Learning
3)Steps to import LinkedIn Learning content in SF Learning

[Niladri_B_Nayak]

Superb blog Biplab. Keep it up !

Does it track learning history on real time in SF Learning from Linkedin Learning ?

Does it show realtime progress (say I've completed 83% of entire content of a topic) ?

It really doesn't happen with coursera from my recent experience .

I am using Linkedin Learning integrated with Saba Cloud as end user.  Learning history/progress tracked within 24 hours of completion.

 

Regards,

Niladri

[VL1]

Hi Biplab,

Very nice and informative blog. Thanks for it.

I am sure this is first of its kind explaining the OCN Implementation in detail.

Would keenly wait for the other bit of information  on this.

Regards,

Vinay.

 

[former_member113361]

Thanks Vinay for your comments , yes i could not find much stuff on OCN and really struggled to integrate SF and LinkedIn but finally it worked. I'm working on the rest part of it, will share soon.

Cheers

Biplab Das

[former_member113361]

Thanks Niladri.

Yes, i can see completion status is being reflected immediately in the learning(SF) history ans well as in LinkedIn.

 

Regards

Biplab Das

[Joe_Russo]

Great post! I have a couple questions:

• Have you posted the steps to import content? I'm not sure how to find it, if you have.


• Do you know of any similar posts for people who currently are integrated to Lynda.com and are migrating to LinkedIn Learning? We are facing a migration in about 6 months, and LinkedIn cannot answer any questions about how it will impact our LMS.

Thank you!

Joe Russo

[former_member51009]

Very Interesting!  Thanks for putting up the details on the configuration.  I am waiting for the step 2) and Step 3) so that I can work on my instance.

Thanks again!

[former_member113361]

Hi Joe,

Thanks, I've not posted yet the steps to import content. It's in draft, will publish all steps shortly.

As far i know, LinkedIn has acquired Lynda.com in 2015 and all the content of Lynda.com are now available in LinkedIn Learning. I think all existing Lynda.com user need to migrate to LinkedIn Learning. So from content perspective, it should be fine, however "probably" you need to do the integration/configuration again for LinkedIn Learning. I think you should ask LinkedIn team if a re-configuration is required or there clearly defined migration path developed by LinkedIn?

Regards

Biplab Das

[former_member113361]

Thanks Terry. I'm working on step 2 ) and 3) - will publish as soon as i can.

[former_member113361]

here is the next part

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/04/01/integrate-linkedin-learning-courses-with-successfactors-learning-lm...

[PetekW]

Great source of Information. Thank you Biplab! I believe accessing the content with SF-Mobile application will be still problematic. Do you have any experience on that?

[CharlesGirdwood]

Hi Biplab,

Thanks for this very useful blog.

We´ve done an intergration with HMM, and it was not a breeze. I'm shure your post will help many people.

Regards,

Charles

[opoilliot]

Hello Biplab,

thanks a lot for this blog!! I have nonetheless a question: how is it then possible to have 2 (Staging and Prod) SF instances or more (some customers have 3) "connected" to one LinkedIn Learning environment. I explain why:

• use Learning staging to "test" new published courses before officially rolling out courses for users in PROD

Kind Regards,

Olivier

[former_member113361]

Hi Petek,

Thanks.

I have not used the mobile app to access the learning content, so not sure. When i get a chance, i will check and let you know.

 

Regards

Biplab Das

[former_member113361]

Hi Olivia,

 

You can connect N- number of system with LinkedIn Learning, There should not be any problem. However, configuration need to be done in each LMS system and also SSO need to be configured in LL.

P.S - I tried first in test system and once we were sure it was working fine, we then connected to Prod

//BR

Biplab Das

[former_member113361]

Thanks Charles.

[former_member22434]

Hello,

User has completed his linkedin course but the course completion is not showing in his learning history. Could you please help?

 

Regards,

Bharath Edibilli

[former_member113361]

Hi Bharat,

I've recently faced this problem, in our case, it was a problem with user registering incorrectly in LinkedIn learning ( they registered with only SF id, but no email or names). Because of this LL wasn't syncing the user learning data correctly with SF. Once such users account updated, the problem got fixed.

[former_member55862]

Hi! Biplab,

Many thanks for excellent and informative blog. I have a query regarding the step to set up “assertion consumer service”.

We have to create SAP support ticket because this set up is done in the provisioning of SF LMS and not in the SF LMS Administration.

Please clarify

Also it is not clear under Step-2.3, you have mentioned below, are you referring to any hyperlink here?

select OR Click Here to load and copy individual fields from the form .

Regards,

AQIB

[Emad]

Thanks Biplab for the great post

Now after completing all steps the contents are synced from LinkedIn to SuccessFactors and admin can create for example items and assign content to item

The question asked by customer can all LinkedIn contents be available for employees without the admin manually create items and associate contents to, or is there a method to mass create items with association to contents

Thanks

[former_member70603]

Thank you for the great post! would you be able to answer one questio: do you know if there are any costs related to the integration? I know one needs to have LinkedIn Learning licensed, but are ther costs for integrating it?

[mayuriseth]

Hi Biplab,

Good day !

Could you please mention if it is possible to set-up Reporting API between LinkedIn Learning and LMS , when we have client secret from LinkedIn Rest API Application.