Understanding academies

⚠️ Prerequisite: an account organised into departments (the hierarchy option). An academy is not a separate option: it is a setting on an existing department.

An academy gives a department an existence on the learner side: a content universe the learner enters and leaves. This page sets out the concept; the department and group mechanisms themselves are described in Understanding structure and permissions.

What an academy is

An academy is not a separate object. It is a department whose content distribution is walled off. In the back-office, the department form carries the toggle This department is an academy, under Advanced options.

Nothing else changes: the department keeps its groups, its administrators and its place in the org chart.

Academy, department, group

The three structures separate different things:

• Department: administration, meaning who manages which content, groups and analytics.
• Group: distribution, meaning who receives which content.
• Academy: the learner experience, meaning which content universe the learner is in.

Of the three, the academy is the only one the learner sees. A plain department is invisible to them: they receive their content without knowing which perimeter it came from. A group decides what they receive, with no action on their part. An academy is something they enter, and they switch whenever they want.

What the learner sees

As soon as a learner belongs to a group attached to at least one academy, a selector appears at the top of their home page. It lists each academy by name, plus a Root account entry that returns to the overall view. The logo of the academy currently selected is displayed next to the selector.

Inside an academy, the learner only sees the content distributed to that department’s groups. The switch itself: Switching between universes.

When an academy is useful

Academies suit accounts where one person belongs to several content universes. A group operating several brands gives each brand its own academy, with its own content, name and logo. A learner working for two brands switches between them from their home page.

Before creating one, read When not to create an academy: the most common misuse is treating it as a filing level above tracks, and it costs later.

What an academy does not change

• It removes nothing from the Root account. From Root account, the learner finds all their content, across every academy. The academy is a filtered view, not an extra wall.
• It does not change how content is administered. Rights and content ownership stay governed by the department mechanisms. For how figures are read per perimeter, see Academies and analytics.
• It does not create a separate account. Same learner, same profile, same login: only the content universe changes.

Sharing a common core across academies

An academy is a department, so it can receive a track shared from another department. The track stays owned by its original department, remains read-only, and an update to the original is reflected everywhere it is shared. That is what allows a common core, compliance or safety for example, to be delivered in several academies without duplication. See Sharing a track across departments.

Going further

• Creating an academy: turning the setting on for a department, step by step.
• Switching between universes: what the learner sees and does at the moment of the switch.
• When not to create an academy: the uses that look right and are not.
• Modelling your company org chart: choosing between department, group and academy before creating anything.