Search filters help you find the right courses faster.

In this guide: 

• Begin a search
• Understand the results
• Filter the results
• Example

If you prefer videos, see the following overview:

Begin a search

From your OpenSesame dashboard or login page, click the search bar:

The most popular searches appear. You can select one for quick results. Otherwise, start typing a topic.

Related searches appear first, followed by Curated Lists and individual courses. Each suggestion can be clicked.

For full results, enter your topic.

Understand the results

Search results appear in a grid, with an illustrated card for each course:

• Each image is selected by the publisher to reflect course content.
• A Plus banner appears if the course is included in the OpenSesame Plus subscription. 
• The course title, publisher, and an icon indicating the content style appear next. (For more on styles, see Filter the results.)
• A label appears if the course is New (added in the last 60 days), Updated (in the last 60 days), or Exclusive to OpenSesame.
• A feedback rating appears, when available, followed by a seat time.
• A globe and number represent the available languages.

If you prefer a compact display, switch from the default grid to a list view:

Use Sort By to change the sort order. The default is by Relevance, which uses OpenSesame's algorithms to suggest good matches. You can also sort by when a course was added, updated, its rating, its title, or its price.

With the default sort order and display, up to three recommendation sections appear:

1. Curated Lists
2. Popular courses, based on OpenSesame ratings and usage
3. New and updated courses

All other results follow.

The top twenty-five results appear automatically. To continue browsing, click Load More for the next twenty-five.

Filter the results

To narrow down your results, use filters. 

If you prefer videos, see the following walkthrough:

By default, the most popular filters are expanded:

To condense them, click any filter's arrow to hide that filter.

There are many options for granular searching.

• The OpenSesame Plus toggle, which is on by default, limits search results to courses included in the OpenSesame Plus subscription.
• Category offers broad catalog topics. To search within a category, select it.
• Publishers limits results to specific course creators. For courses available only from OpenSesame, turn on the OpenSesame Exclusive toggle.
• Languages lets you select content languages and translations. More details follow on how this filter operates.
• Skills filters for up to 25 skills you select from the thousands represented in the OpenSesame catalog. To refine your search, keep typing in the Skills search bar.
• Seat Time represents how much time a learner needs to complete a course, according to the publisher.
• Competencies limits results to courses relevant to the OpenSesame Primary Competency Model.
• Product Type lets you include, exclude, or search only for Curated Lists.
• Accessibility Standards requires results to meet key accessibility benchmarks.
• Accreditation Organizations limits results to courses that offer Continuing Education (CE) credit hours. 
• Style lets you select the formats your learners prefer, such as:
  • Audio
  • Book summary
  • eBook
  • Interactive
  • Virtual reality
• Course Features lets you require popular features, such as quizzes.
• Ratings, when available, are from feedback provided by OpenSesame learners within the course. (If you use a learning platform with its own feedback tools, feedback collected by your platform isn't shared with OpenSesame.)
• Price represents the full price of one non-subscription license to a course, if purchased individually. To view prices, switch from the default grid to a list view.

When you use multiple filters, they work together using "and." For example, selecting category X, publisher Y, and course feature Z shows courses that meet all those requirements.

The Languages filter works the same way. OpenSesame organizes languages in three ways:

1. Course Text
2. Subtitles
3. Audio

Course Text describes a course’s primary interactive content, such as the user interface.

Note: If the Languages filter is inaccessible, try removing any Publisher filters. A publisher might support your target languages, but in a different combination of filters.

Here's how to search for popular combinations:

• Course Text only - To find courses with primary content that matches your selected language(s), keep the default, where only the Course Text toggle is on. (If you use this filter to search for two or more languages and there are no exact matches, you receive the closest available results.)
• Subtitles only - Turn on the Subtitles Translated toggle and turn off the others.
• Audio only - Turn on the Audio Translated toggle and turn off the others.
• Subtitles and audio - Turn on the Subtitles and Audio toggles, and turn off the Course Text toggle.

Depending on your results, you can also filter within a language. For example, it's possible to avoid British or Australian English if you want courses with an American accent, or favor Canadian French over European French. If a language has such variations available, click its arrow to review them.

Example

A search for "management" has thousands of initial results. Applying the following filters narrows those results to 47:

• Language: English
• Skill: Project Management
• Seat time: 1 hour +
• Rating: Four stars or more
• Accreditation organization: The Project Management Institute (PMI)

By default, up to three active filters follow the number of results. If you used more than three, click More to reveal them.

To remove an active filter and immediately update the results, use its X. In this example, removing the accreditation filter increases the results to 120 courses.

If you navigate away from search results and then return, your active filters remain.

Finally, if you prefer instant course suggestions instead of manual searches, see How to use Smart Lists.

If you have further questions, our Support team is here to help at support@opensesame.com or via live chat and phone. Reach us at (503) 808-1268, ext. 2 (U.S.) or +44 203 744 5541 (Europe).