Removing course contents (training material) from global search

Thanks @lrnlab, thought this was the case.  @Adam Ballhaussen suggested I put a post on, so maybe the technical geniuses can come up with some CSS or something to help :)

Hey @Neil Patterson, thanks for sharing your question here! I wanted to ensure I fully understood before responding. I’m unaware of any current options to restrict training materials from appearing in global search in Docebo. Someone may surprise us here, but I can say with nearly full confidence this isn’t currently possible.

I recommend voting on the following idea if you haven’t already, as it addresses your use case.

In the meantime, it might help to provide some enablement to your learners by instructing them to use the Knowledge Assets tab in the search results, which displays all assets from Coach & Share visible to the learner.

If you don’t fancy the Knowledge Assets label, you can always translate it via the Localization Tool. The Module is app7020 and the Key is Knowledge Assets.

For others interested in this topic, this was initially brought up in reference to the following question:

• Changing or hiding SCORM Package Icon via CSS

Thanks Adam - I voted on the above idea a long time ago (I see the idea is 4 years old?!).  We are trying to get our people to hit enter to get to this page and direct them to the assets tab, however most look at the drop down list from the search bar itself.  Internally we are doing what we can, but having something that we can control as an admin would be best. 

@Adam Ballhaussen - next question… how to I unselect my answer as a best answer - clicked on my reply to @lrnlab by mistake 

@Neil Patterson have no fear! We’ve got you covered. I unmarked your reply that was marked best answer. And I’m happy to hear you’ve voted for the idea. I agree with you that it would be really helpful to have some control over what displays in global search

I’m really surprised more admin are not asking how to remove all the ‘NOISE’ - such as SCORM file, xAPI (Tin can) etc. from the end-user’s search results.

Come on, admit it - search functionality in Docebo is terrible. It’s either INDISCRIMINATE- ALL (with global search) or TITLE-ONLY (in channel search)
Case in point: I have 12 courses bundled into 2 learning plans, but when I use global search for a unique keyword that only applies to these 12 courses, I get 26 results.  - On top of that, some of the courses are for Managers and others for Direct Reports, but that is a tag, so you can’t distinguish which is which by trying to solve for the global search ‘noise’ by putting them in a Channel. (Docebo’s search can’t search Descriptions or tags from inside a Channel…) really!?! 😞

From a learner’s perspective, this is confusing, overwhelming and gives them no clear direction.

• As the Learning Admin, I should be able to control the learning experience and hide the random source files that I’ve curated into a course or Learning Plan.

Give me ONE GOOD REASON the Learner needs to see xAPI package results for content I put into a course for them.

To add to this, I recently had a Program Manager ask to confirm that their learners could search for and enroll in a course. This has broken the experience so much that I had to sadly say we did not recommend that option.

I would love to be able to endorse the search feature instead of relying on direct links and workarounds for the broken search. But I can’t.

Hi all, I tend to agree that the search function needs work but you also need to note that the search function works best with tags and since tags can only be set at the learning object level for courses, it’s the best way to get your top results showing as with some level of predicability. It’s also worth noting that in some cases, your learning content titles may be different than course titles so I can be helpful to see results that show both the course and content results.Just something to think about...😀

Ditto to this. My users are confused because “there seems to be two of every course.” I understand why both show up, but my users don’t know the difference between a learning object and a course, so it doesn’t make sense to them. And the more confused they are, the less they want to use the system. This seems to be a huge User Experience issue to me.

Came here to add a comment exactly like Jen’s above. 

I am constantly being asked why there’s two of each course and what “SCORM” means. It’s confusing a lot of our users & it’s a terrible experience for them. 

Please consider allocating resources to fix this & give admins greater flexibility!

Ditto, Ditto, and Ditto to @JenWadsworth 

Definitely agree with the above. We are using CSS to hide the search bar entirely because of this. 

Curious if there’s a way to use CSS to hide specific “menus” from the results. I.e. can I lmit it just to the courses in catalogs by hiding everything else?

Or...any word on enhancements to search settings? 

Edit: CSS won’t limit the confusing results still. Enhancing what is shown should be a priority enhancement. 

The search function with all its’ noise is the biggest complaint I have from my learners. It would be far better to show only courses, then  have a “more” button to show the noise items.

Hi community! Just got my usability survey and the top complaint is about the search engine. Can anyone share the CSS you are using the hide the search bar?

We have had to stop naming course materials with words simila to course title.  e.g. just use the words ‘Pre-work’ instead of ‘Communications skills pre work’ otherwise is appears in the global search.

This has been a real problem for us as users are forever confused. What's frustrating is that you can see a subset of the search results which only shows ‘course catalogue’ items so it must be possible on some level to have the choice to only show this instead of absolutely everything. 

Concur with all the points raised above, the global search in its current state is actually quite damaging for our paying subscribers UX. We have a pressing need to be able to dictate/limit which content the global search identifies. 
 

Echoing @gali.rotem ‘s ask: can someone please share the CSS code to hide the global search? 

We recently joined Decebo and I’m also surprised that training materials are popping up in global search features. The fixed discussed above would alleviate a lot of confusion for the learner. 

Great news to everyone in the thread:

A specific Advanced Settings configuration has been released earlier this year that allows admins to choose which types of results show in Global Search; you can read more here. This means you can disable the Training Material tab and TM results from showing to your platform users, for example.