Using the CMS

The CMS is the administrative area of Shapeshift. It provides access to the underlying learning content, learners, Organizations, enrollments, notifications and other platform data.

CMS access is intended for trusted administrators who need to manage the platform itself.

Organization Owners and other users who only need to manage their own learners use the Management Dashboard instead within the LMS. This provides a more focused experience without exposing the wider platform data available in the CMS.

CMS homepage

The CMS homepage provides an overview of platform activity and reporting.

Shapeshift uses an embedded reporting dashboard to surface key information directly within the CMS, with more detailed reporting available where required.

See Reporting and Analytics for more information.

Content Manager

The Content Manager is where most day-to-day administration takes place.

Depending on your implementation, this can include:

Learning content

Courses
Lessons
Quizzes
Quiz Questions and Question Banks
SCORM Content
Surveys
Webinars
Learning Paths

People and access

Users
Organizations and Sub-Groups
Enrollments

Platform content

Branding and other platform content
Implementation-specific content

Shapeshift is built on Strapi, which refers to these areas as Collection Types and Single Types. You may see this terminology within the CMS.

The exact content types, fields and labels available can vary between implementations.

Dynamic Content

Some content types support Dynamic Content, allowing administrators to build richer pages from reusable components such as text, images, video, accordions and other interactive content.

Dynamic Content is managed within the relevant content record rather than from a separate CMS area.

See Dynamic Content for the available components and how to use them.

Media Library

The Media Library provides a central location for uploaded images, documents and other supported files.

Assets uploaded to the Media Library can be reused across content rather than needing to be uploaded separately each time.

See Media Library for more information.

Advanced Actions

Advanced Actions provides additional administrative tools that sit outside the standard Content Manager.

This includes managing Email Notifications and may include other operational tools depending on your implementation.

See Email Notifications for information on configuring automated learner emails.

Draft and Publish

Supported content can use Draft and Publish, allowing administrators to prepare changes without immediately making them available to learners.

Publishing makes the latest version available to the learner experience.

See Draft and Publish for details of which content supports this and how publishing works.

Users and CMS administrators

Learners and CMS administrators are separate types of account.

A learner account provides access to the Shapeshift learning experience. A CMS administrator account provides access to the administrative CMS.

Someone who needs both types of access may therefore have both a learner account and a CMS administrator account.

CMS administrators can also use Impersonation, where enabled, to view the learner experience as a particular user when supporting or troubleshooting them.

See Users, Administrators and Impersonation for more information.

Administrator roles and permissions

CMS access does not need to be all-or-nothing.

Different administrator roles and permissions can be configured depending on the responsibilities of your team. For example, one administrator may need to manage learning content while another may require broader access to learners and platform administration.

The roles available and their permissions are specific to each implementation.

Administrators should only be given access to the areas and actions they need.

Bulk administration and imports

Many common records can be created or updated in bulk using CSV imports.

This can be useful when managing larger volumes of learners, learning content or enrollment data.

See Importing Data for available import types, templates and guidance.

CMS Settings

The CMS also contains system-level Settings provided by Strapi.

Most client administrators will not need to make changes here. Settings relating to plugins, APIs and other technical platform configuration should generally be managed as part of the implementation rather than day-to-day content administration.

Deleting existing content

Take care when deleting existing records, particularly content that has already been used by learners.

Learning content can be connected to Courses, enrollments and learner history. Removing an existing record may therefore have wider consequences than removing it from the current learner experience.

Where you are unsure whether existing content can safely be deleted, check with your platform administrator or Plume first.

Your CMS may look different

Shapeshift is configured for each implementation, so the exact fields, content types and administrative options you see may differ.

Plume will typically configure Content Manager layouts, field labels, help text and other administrative elements so that the CMS reflects how your platform is intended to be managed.

This means screenshots or instructions in the documentation may occasionally differ slightly from your own CMS while the underlying functionality remains the same.