Introduction
Seats provide a convenient way for Power Users to enroll learners in paid courses. For example, suppose the Power User Amy has 10 seats for a paid course, then it means she will be able to directly enroll 10 of her users in that course, without making any purchase.
There are two ways in which a Power User can acquire course seats:
- The Power User can purchase the requisite number of course seats, making a payment via the shopping cart. These are called purchased seats.
- A Superadmin can directly assign seats to the Power User. These are called extra seats.
When a Superadmin views a course in course management, the Seats tab shows all the Power Users who have seats for that course.
This article covers how to work with course seats, meaning those that are managed from the Seats tab of a specific course. For information about subscription seats, refer instead to the article Creating and managing subscription plans.
Prerequisites
Course on sale in catalogs
The seats mechanism is available only for paid courses. This means courses that are configured as On sale in catalogs.
→ You can find this setting in Course management > {course name} > Properties tab > Advanced settings > E-commerce.
Seats are not available for free courses, and they are not available for subscriptions or learning plans (even if they are paid).
Power User permissions
In addition, to be able to use seats, the Power User must have the course assigned as resource and a profile with the following permissions:
- Enrollment: View, Create, Edit, Can activate enrollments
- Courses: View, Waiting subscription
- Course catalogs: Can buy and assign seats for courses and learning plans
- Without the Can activate enrollments permission, the Power User can still enroll learners using seats, but a Superadmin will need to confirm the enrollments. The enrollment can also be confirmed by a Power User with the Enrollment Edit+Can activate enrollments permissions.
- The Waiting subscription permission is necessary to see the enrolled users who are pending confirmation or have been placed in the course waiting list.
- The Enrollment Edit permission allows the Power User to change the enrollment status of their users in a course. But without also granting the Can activate enrollments permission, some of the status changes (eg to Enrolled, In progress or Completed) will be unavailable.
Visibility note: If a Power User loses the resource-assignment of a course for which they had purchased or been granted seats, those seats are lost and cannot be recovered, even if the Power User is later re-assigned the course as resource.
→ In particular, when you give a Power User the resource assignment “All courses and learning plans in visible catalogs”, you are assigning to them all the content in the catalogs that are visible to them in learner view. So changing the learner visibility of a catalog (the branches, groups or users allowed to see that catalog) may consequently also affect the Power User’s resource assignments.
Notes on enrollments
Some courses have a limit on the number of users who can be simultaneously enrolled, and beyond this quota enrollments may not be accepted, or users may be placed in a waiting list.
→ This behavior is configured in the course enrollment policy in Course properties > Advanced settings > Catalog options.
For more information see the article on Managing enrollments and waiting lists.
Assign extra seats to a Power User
→ Superadmin only
You can directly assign seats to a Power User. This enables them to enroll learners in a paid course without having to purchase the seats.
- Select Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses and click the course title.
- Click the Add seats button in the top right corner. This will open a panel for assigning seats.
- In Power User name type the name of the user to whom you want to assign the seats.
→ This user must have the permissions set out in the Prerequisites chapter, otherwise the operation will fail. - In Extra seats enter the number of seats to assign.
→ If the Power User already has some seats for this course, the ones you set here will be added to the existing ones. - When you are finished click Confirm.
If the assignment is successful, you will see the updated number of seats in the Seats tab of the course, under the extra seats column heading.
Edit the extra seats of a Power User
→ Superadmin only
You can use this method to increase but also to decrease the "extra seats" assigned to a Power User. Note that you cannot edit the "purchased seats" in this way.
- Select Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses and click the course title.
- Select the Seats tab. Here you will see all the Power Users who have seats for this course.
- In the Seats tab, hover over the row of the Power User, click the ellipsis icon, then click Edit.
- In the Edit seats panel that opens, you can change the number of extra seats assigned to this Power User, either decreasing or increasing it. Directly enter the new value of seats that you want this Power User to have.
→ Note that you cannot remove seats that have already been used to enroll learners. For example, if a Power User has 9 total seats, of which 3 are used, the smallest new value of seats that you can enter is 3. - Click Confirm.
Purchase seats for a course
→ Power User with the permissions set out in Prerequisites.
As a Power User, you can purchase one or more seats that you can later use for enrolling yourself or your users in a course.
- From the Course catalog page, or from any other page where the course is accessible, select the course card.
-
If it is a paid course and you have the necessary
enrollment and seat assignment permissions,
in Purchase options you can click
Add seats to cart.
Note: If you are already enrolled in this course, you will not see the purchase options. Instead, click Manage and select Add seats to cart.
-
In the dialog box that opens, enter how many seats you want to purchase.
Here you will also be shown how many seats you currently have,
if any.
-
When you are ready click Confirm, and then
Go to cart to finalize your purchase in the shopping
cart.
(You can also edit the number of seats there). Complete the checkout
procedure
in the normal way. See the article
Navigating and Managing your Shopping Cart.
Please note: Depending on your permissions, the shopping cart may show you an option to Buy for another user. However, you cannot actually purchase seats for someone else. If you select this option you will be able to purchase a single enrollment in the course for the designated recipient user. See How to purchase a course for someone else
Enroll your users with seats
→ Power User with the permissions set out in Prerequisites.
Once you have acquired seats for a course (either through purchase or assignment), you can use those seats to enroll your users or yourself in the course.
- Select Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses. In the list of courses, locate the course in which you want to enroll users.
- The Seats column shows you the number of available seats you have / total seats.
→ To display this column, click the Column management icon and select it. You may need to deselect some other columns to be able to do so.
→ If you need more seats, you can click the seat icon to go directly to the purchase page for the course. - Hover over the course row, click the ellipsis icon then select Enroll users.
- A panel will open where you can select the users to enroll in the course. You can select users individually as well as by branches:
- For an individual user, in the Users tab select the check box next to the user’s name.
- For a branch, in the Branches tab, select the check box next to the branch name. If the branch has sub-branches, you can click the check box again to include the descendants (green check mark).
- When you have made all your selections click Next.
- You will now see the total number of users you are about to enroll. Check that the number of seats you have is sufficient for this.
- In the Level field, select the level (learner, tutor, or instructor) with which the selected users will be enrolled. This will not apply to any users that are already enrolled in the course.
- You can also configure a validity period for the enrollment.
- When you are finished click Confirm.
→ If you had enough seats and the operation was successful, you will see the refreshed course list with the updated seat count.
Please note: Depending on configuration, the users you enroll may be put on a waiting list, or require approval to confirm their enrollment. See Notes on enrollments in the Prerequisites.
The seats used for enrollments are not recovered if the user is subsequently unenrolled from the course.
Enroll yourself with seats
→ Power User with the permissions set out in Prerequisites.
If you have seats for a course, you can use one of your seats to enroll yourself in the course.
- From the Course catalog page, or from any other page where the course is visible, click the course card.
- In the course page, under purchase options click the button Self-enroll (with seats).
You will be directly enrolled in the course, and one of your seats will be used for the purpose.
Note that you will not see the Self-enroll (with seats) option if you are already enrolled in the course.
How to purchase a course for yourself
If you are a Power User with the seats permissions set out in Prerequisites, when you view the purchase options for a course you will always see the Add seats to cart button in place of the Add to cart button.
To purchase the course for yourself, click Add seats to cart to purchase a seat, which you can then use to enroll yourself.
Note that you will not see the purchase options if you are already enrolled in the course. In this case you can still purchase seats using the Manage menu, but not use them to re-enroll yourself.
How to purchase a course for someone else
If you are a Power User with the seats permissions set out in Prerequisites, you have the Add seats to cart option in place of the Add to cart option. The recommended method to purchase a course for another user is:
- Purchase a seat in that course, and then use that seat to enroll the recipient user.
However, if you also have the permission to purchase on behalf of someone else, another option is as follows:
- Click Add seats to cart, leave the number of seats = 1, and in the dialog box click Confirm, then Go to cart.
- In the shopping cart, under Purchase recipient, select the option Buy for another user.
→ A dialog box warns you that, when buying for another user, you can only purchase one seat per course. Click Confirm. - In the User field, enter the name of the recipient of your purchase. You can start typing the first few letters and then select from the list. Or you can click the Select user icon to open a panel and browse all your assigned users.
→ This user will be directly enrolled in the course when you complete the purchase. - Enter the billing information and complete the purchase in the normal way. See the article Navigating and Managing your Shopping Cart.