Introduction
Your Docebo platform allows you to manage your course enrollments through various features. One of these fundamental features is the waiting list, which allows you to monitor course enrollment and decide how many students can be enrolled in a course or session at one time. You can also manage learners waiting to be enrolled in a course. This article will show you how to set enrollment capacities and manage the waiting list for courses and ILT or webinar sessions.
Managing self enrollments
Users can self-enroll in courses from catalogs. The enrollment policy is managed at the course level, from the course properties area. Reach this area by accessing the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses.
Find the course in the list on the main Courses table and click on the course description. While in the Properties tab, click on Advanced settings and select the Catalog options tab.
First, make sure that the course is visible in catalogs by either selecting the Show course in internal and external catalogs option or the Show course in internal catalogs only option in the Course visibility in catalogs section of the tab, then move to the Course self-enrollment section and configure whether:
- self-enrollments are not available: the course will be hidden for all users in external catalogs. Superadmins and Power Users will see the course as locked in internal catalogs unless they are enrolled. Learners will see the course in internal catalogs only if they are enrolled.
- self-enrollments are available
- self-enrollments are available for a limited period and define a starting or ending date from when or up to when learners can enroll, or set a period, between two dates.
If self-enrollments are available, either permanently or for a limited period, you'll be able to further configure the enrollment policy in the Course enrollment policy section (this section is not displayed when self-enrollments are not available).
The enrollment options available for the course are:
- Only administrators can enroll learners. Use this option if you want to make the course visible in catalogs, but do not want learners to self-enroll in the course. In this scenario, only Superadmins (and Power Users with granted permissions) can enroll users in the course. If the course is part of a learning plan, this option is ignored when a learner is enrolled in said learning plan. When this option is selected together with the Self-enrollments are available option in the Course self-enrollment section of this tab, the course will appear in catalogs but will be locked. It is recommended not to enable both options at the same time.
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Pending administrator approval. When this option is selected, learners can self-enroll in the course, but a Superadmin (or a Power User with granted permissions) has to manually approve the enrollment. Please note that:
- Learners are placed on the course waiting list till approval, meaning that you have to select the Enable waiting list option when you enable this enrollment policy.
- When a course is purchased through e-commerce, the standard enrollment policy is overridden. If a paid course allows self-enrollment (with the Self-enrollments are available option enabled in the Course self-enrollment section) and the enrollment policy requires administrator approval, users will still be enrolled immediately upon self-enrollment. However, this override does not apply when users self-enroll in a course via a learning plan.
- If the course is part of a learning plan, this option is ignored when a learner is enrolled in said learning plan.
- Self-enrollment. If enrollments are Free, users can self-enroll in the course directly from the course catalog.
Users can self-enroll in e-learning and ILT (Instructor-Led Training) courses, as well as in sessions of ILT courses.
Maximum enrollment quota
In addition, you can configure the maximum number of users simultaneously enrolled in the course by enabling the option in the Maximum enrollment quota section and setting a threshold.
When this option is selected, users cannot enroll in the course when the maximum enrollment quota is met, unless the course waiting list is enabled. If so, they’re placed on the course waiting list.
The maximum enrollment quota is not taken into consideration when users self-enroll or are enrolled in courses as part of a learning plan. In the case of ILT courses, users are enrolled in the course itself but not in individual sessions. However, if the maximum enrollment quota is met, they will not have access to the course training material.
The maximum enrollment quota is also not considered for enrollments resulting from an automated enrollment rule: The learners will be directly enrolled in the course even if it is already full.
Configuring the course waiting list
As a Superadmin or Power User with granted permissions, you can activate the course waiting list by accessing the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses.
Find the course in the list on the main Courses table and click on the course description. While in the Properties tab, click on Advanced settings and select the Catalog Options tab.
In the Waiting List section, check the Enable waiting list option so that the users enrolling in this course from the catalog will keep their enrollment priority over the non-enrolled users.
You can also flag the option to automatically enroll one waitlisted learner when another learner is unenrolled. The system will select waitlisted learners based on the enrollment date (see the following chapter).
Finally, set the self-enrollment policy as described in the Managing self-enrollments chapter of this article. When self-enrollments are allowed, the waiting list feature only works with the Pending administrator approval and the Self-enrollment policies.
Automatic user enrollment from the waiting list
You can manage the automatic user enrollment in the course or in a session by enabling the Allow automatic enrollment from the waiting list when learners unenroll option in the course Properties, Advanced Settings - Catalog Options tab, Waiting list section.
When this option is selected, the platform will automatically enroll one waitlisted learner when another learner unenrolls or is unenrolled from the course or session. The automatic reallocation of waitlisted users occurs in the following situations:
- a Superadmin unenrolls an active user from the course or session.
- a user unenrolls him/herself from the course or session
- every time a user changes the ILT or VILT session he or she is enrolled in
Please note: If there are multiple users on the waitlist for a course or a session, priority is given to who enrolled the earliest (thus, they were on the waitlist first).
When is a user placed on a course's waiting list?
A user can be placed on the waiting list of a course when the Enable waiting list option is enabled and due to enrollment capacities or enrollment policies, depending on how the Superadmin has configured the course’s advanced properties. A user will be placed on a course’s waiting list in the following scenarios:
- If manually placed by a Superadmin or a Power User (with granted permissions)
- If the maximum enrollment quota is met
- If the enrollment policy is set to Pending administrator approval (see the Managing self enrollment chapter of this article)
- If a user self-enrolls into an ILT course and there are no available sessions or all sessions are fully booked, and the course max quota has not been reached
- If an ILT course has no sessions and the maximum enrollment quota is reached
When is a user placed on a session's waiting list?
A user can be placed on the waiting list of an ILT session due to enrollment capacities or enrollment policies, depending on how the Superadmin has configured the course’s advanced properties. A user will be placed on a session’s waiting list in the following scenarios:
- If manually placed by a Superadmin or a Power User (with granted permissions)
- If you have set a maximum enrollment capacity for the session
- If the session is fully booked, even if the course maximum enrollment quota has not been exceeded. In this scenario, the user status in the course is enrolled, while their status in the session is waiting users
- If the course maximum enrollment quota is met, even if the session is not fully booked
Managing the waiting list of courses
To manage the waiting list of an e-learning course, access the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses. Select the course, and move to the Enrollments tab.
The Enrollment Status of the users in the course waiting list is Waiting users. Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the user row, and select the Edit enrollment option. In the right panel, change the enrollment status from Waiting users to Enrolled to enroll the users in the course, or to any other available status. Press Confirm to complete your action. Use the same menu option to manually place a user in the course waiting list, by changing his/her status to Waiting users.
Managing the waiting list of ILT sessions
To manage the waiting list of an ILT session, access the Navigation menu > Content and delivery (folder icon) > Courses. Select the ILT course, and move to the Sessions tab, select a session and move to the Enrollments and evaluations tab.
Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the user row, and select the Change status to change the enrollment status from Waiting users to Enrolled to enroll the users in the session, or to any other available status. Use the same menu option to manually place a user in the session waiting list, by changing his/her status to Waiting users.
Learners being placed on the waiting list
After enrollment capacities and policies are set and the course is available in catalogs, learners can enroll. If the waiting list is active and learners will be waitlisted due to capacity or enrollment policy limits, a warning banner will notify them on the course page.
When learners enroll in a course waiting list, that course is displayed in the My courses and learning plans page. They can view the course page, which shows general information and a list of content, but access to training materials or sessions is restricted. The course’s card in the My courses and learning plans page and catalogs displays the label Waiting list.
Tips and tricks
To quickly see the number of users on the waiting list of courses from the Courses page, enable the Waiting list column with the Columns management feature.