ArcLearn for the IT Professional

ArcLearn is a video-centric, hosted website specializing in business skills training for individuals and companies.

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The on-line mode is used whenever the user is accessing the arclearn.com website. The user needs to be logged into the site to access content. Users will have varying privileges; the website will be sensitive to the specific privilege of each user and display only appropriate information. A user may be a participant (a student), a trainer, or an administrator.

All of the trainer and administrator functionality is available only in the on-line mode.
The off-line mode is using ArcLearn resources outside of the website, such as in your own LMS, in PowerPoint presentations, or simply in viewing videos using links from almost anywhere.

In the off-line mode, one can still stream the video over the Internet or play the video using a downloaded media file.
Streaming video will generally be in a MPEG-DASH or Apple Live Streaming (HLS) format using a HTML5 player, depending on the device and the support provided by the user's browser.
All ArcLearn courses and videos must be authenticated by ArcLearn. This is true whether the courses and/or videos are used at the www.arclearn.com website or off-line through other means. If ArcLearn video is not authenticated or if authentication fails, the user will be directed to the ArcLearn website for logging in with a authenticated user e-mail address and password.

Authentication is performed silently when possible. This means that authentication can occur without the user even knowing that it happened. From the user’s perspective, the video just plays.

Authentication happens by making a series of attempts in order to find the most appropriate method of silent authentication.
  1. A cookie is used. Any login to the site will create a cookie with an encrypted account identifier. If found, the cookie is used for an authentication attempt.
  2. An IP Address is used. If the account has registered the external IP address(s) of the organization, this IP address can be used to identify the account and thereby be used for an authentication attempt. The IP address used for authentication is the end-user’s IP address; you can determine this by putting this into your browser address bar: www.google.com/search?q=ip.

    IP Addresses are setup by any ArcLearn administrator for the account using the Site Administration functions.
  3. A referrer domain is used. This method only applies to video played by the organization’s websites or LMS. When the authentication attempts continue, if a referrer domain is available, this will be used.

    When the user is launching the video from a URL such as https://www.myCompanyWebsite.com/myLMS, the domain is “www.myCompanyWebsite.com”. Referred domains are setup by any ArcLearn administrator for the account using the Site Administration functions.

When any of the above authentication methods are setup, the end user will be able to use the resources of ArcLearn without entering any credentials. However, if all of the authentication attempts fail, ArcLearn will display a webpage for the user to enter a proper and authenticated email address and password.

Lastly, we support Single Sign On (SSO) on a requrest basis. Additional fees might apply.
Downloaded ArcLearn video is protected using Microsoft PlayReady encoding. This means that these videos are encrypted until decrypted by the end user’s computer. When authentication occurs properly, this process is silent and invisible to the end user.

All video that is downloaded will use Microsoft Silverlight technology. Downloaded video is typically encoded at a 4Mbps single bit rate for playing locally on a computer.

When video is streamed from the Internet, the video streams are deployed using the MPEG-DAHS or Apple Live Streaming technology. These are adaptive bit rate technology that creates the best user experience. Based on the performance of the user’s network (including bandwidth) and the performance of the user’s computer, the best bitrate stream is delivered to the user to maximize the viewing experience.
ArcLearn and all video is streamed using standard port 80/443 and the HTTP/HTTPS protocol. Unless your firewall blocks video content, there is no additional firewall requirement.
Streaming using ArcLearn uses a multiple bit rate, adaptive streaming technology. The actual bit rate transfer depends on the available bandwidth and the capabilities of the end user’s computer. The highest data transfer rate is 1.4Mbps. Many videos are available in HD 720p.
Major browsers are supported including current versions of Edge, Internet Explorer version 11, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Apple Safari.
Windows
Operating System: Windows 8, Windows 7,Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 2
Intel® Pentium® III 450MHz or faster processor (or equivalent)
128MB of RAM

Mac OS
Operating System: Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11+ (Intel-based) or above
Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor
128MB of RAM
Most courses can be downloaded in a Scorm 1.2 format (zip file) for playing on your LMS. Please note that although the courses are located on your LMS, all authentication rules still apply. See the SCORM options on the course details pages (course tab).
The ArcLearn website can be linked from your Intranet, but cannot be housed on your Intranet. However, you can create Intranet pages with the video links from ArcLearn. See the Copy URL buttons on the course details pages (video tab).