Introduction
ILT and VILT courses are organized in sessions, and sessions can be made up of one or more events, formerly known as session dates. Learners do not need to be enrolled in all of the sessions composing an ILT or VILT course, but when you enroll them in a session they will be enrolled in all of the session’s events.
This article is a guide on how to create and manage sessions and events, as well as the attendance and evaluation of the learners enrolled in them.
Create a new session
To create a new session, select your course from the Course management page by clicking on its description, then click on the plus button in the top right corner of the course page and select the New session option.
In the New session right panel, fill in the session name and the maximum enrollment value, that is, the maximum number of learners (excluding instructors) that will be allowed to enroll in the session. Restrictions may be caused, for example, by the classroom or the webinar room capacity. For more information see the chapter Set maximum allowed enrollments for a session.
Use the Session instructors field to identify the instructors that will lead the session. For more information see the chapter Set the instructors of an ILT session.
Move now to the Session Evaluation/ Completion area to configure how the session will be marked as completed for learners. For more information see the chapter Set how a session is marked completed.
If there are mandatory additional fields for sessions defined in the platform, move to the Additional Information tab of the right panel, and fill them in. This tab is not visible when there are no mandatory session additional fields set. For more information see the chapter Fill in session additional fields.
Click Create and edit to complete the session creation. You will be automatically redirected to the session configuration area, divided into three tabs: Properties, Events & Attendance, and Enrollments & Evaluations.
Once a session is created, it is listed in the table of the Sessions tab of the course area.
Open a session’s configuration page
An ILT course can have one or more sessions, which you will find listed in the Sessions tab of the course’s management page.
To access the configuration page of a session:
- Select Admin menu > Course management > [ILT course name] to open the course configuration page and then select the Sessions tab. Here you will see listed all the currently configured sessions for that course:
Click a [session name] in the list to open the configuration page for that session. In the Properties tab of this page you can configure various aspects of session, as covered in the remainder of this article.
Set maximum allowed enrollments for a session
When you create a session, you are required to set a maximum number of learners who can be enrolled in that session. You can also edit this value in the session properties.
To do this, in the configuration page for the session, select the Properties tab, then in the vertical navigation select General.
- In the Session information section, the Maximum enrollments field sets the maximum number of learners who can be simultaneously enrolled in the session.
If you attempt to enroll users into the session beyond this limit, the excess participants will either be placed in the session waiting list (if the parent ILT course has the waiting list enabled), or the enrollment will fail.
Notes: Enabling the waiting list at the ILT course level also enables it at the session level. However the two waiting lists are separate. The course waiting list depends on the Maximum enrollment quota set at the course level, while the session waiting list depends on the Maximum enrollments you set here, at the sesion level.
You can optionally also set the Minimum enrollments for the session: this value is provided for informational purposes only and will not prevent learners from accessing their enrolled session
Set how a session is marked completed
In the session properties, you can configure how that session will be marked as completed for participants. For example, you could choose to consider the session completed when someone attends all its events, or when the instructor evaluates them as having “passed” it, or when the learner has completed a test.
To do this, in the configuration page for the session, select the Properties tab, then in the vertical navigation select General. Now in the Session completion area, you can select one of the available options.
| Option | Description |
| Manual | The session can be marked as completed manually only by Superadmins and Power Users (with granted permissions). |
| Evaluation based | The session is marked as completed if the session instructors, Superadmins and Power Users (with granted permissions) manually mark it as Passed in the session Enrollments & Evaluations tab. In addition, you can configure a maximum score for the session. The possibility to evaluate learners (Evaluate option) is only available for sessions whose completion is based on the evaluation. |
| Attendance based | The session is marked as completed when the attendance status in the attendance sheet is marked as Present either for all of the session events or for a custom number of them. If the learner is marked as Absent, the session completion status is set to In progress unless it is already Completed. If the session completion status is Completed, marking the user as Absent will not revert it to In progress. Instructors, Superadmins, and Power Users (with granted permissions) can mark the attendance of learners even when the session completion method is different from Attendance Based, but, in those situations, the session will not be marked as completed. |
| Training material based | Use this completion method if the course the session belongs to includes a test as training material so that the session is marked as completed (and its events) are marked as attended when the learner completes the test. If the course includes multiple tests, learners must pass them all to mark the session (and its events) as completed. |
Set the instructors of an ILT session
You can set the instructors of a session when you create a new session, and also when you edit the session. Note that, unlike for e-learning courses, ILT session instructors are not enrolled in the course as learners. They are assigned to the session in the sessions’ properties.
For a description of the actions that instructors can perform see the article Instructor user guide.
To set an instructor, from the session configuration page, select the Properties tab, then in the vertical navigation select Details.
In the Session instructors area you will find listed any instructors already assigned to the session.
- You can remove an existing instructor by clicking the x alongside their name
- To add an instructor, start typing their name, username or email address, and then select from the drop-down list.
- If the instructor you select is already assigned to another session or event with conflicting dates/times, a warning message will alert you to the overlap.
The instructors you assign in this way can also create and update the training material for the course. Remember that, since instructors are not enrolled in the session, they do not impact the Maximum enrollment quota set in the course's advanced properties nor do they appear in the list of users of the Course summary report.
Session instructors vs event instructors
A session can consist of one or more events, which you will see listed in the Events and attendance tab:
- When an instructor is assigned to a session, they are automatically assigned as instructor to all the events that make up that session:
- This means they will be able to mark attendance for all the events of that session, as well as set participants’ evaluation and completion status for the session as a whole.
If required, you can also assign an instructor only to a specific event of the session. To do this, from the Session’s Events and attendance tab, click the [event name] to open the event’s configuration page, then in the Properties tab select Details:
- In the Session instructors section you will see the instructors set at the session-level. These are read-only and cannot be modified from here.
- In the Event instructors section you can set instructors for this particular event. The event instructor can mark attendance only for their assigned event.
Tip: In the learner view of the course, the session instructors are listed in the Session instructors area of the ILT course page, whereas the individual events will list only the instructors set at the event level. However it is still the case that session instructors are also instructors for all events.
Configure session self-enrollment deadlines
If the ILT course is configured to allow self-enrollment (under the course Properties > Advanced settings > Catalog options) then you can optionally set a self-enrollment deadline. For example, you might want to close self-enrollments a certain number of days before the session starts.
To set this up, from the session configuration page, select the Properties tab, then in the vertical navigation select Details. In the Self-enrollment deadline area:
- Select the Enable deadline for self enrollment check box
- Select one of the options for how long self-enrollments are allowed.
| Option | Description |
| Automatic deadline | This option is based on the session start date. When this option is selected, learners can self enroll in the session until the session start date, which is the first day of the first event included in the session. |
| Deadline date | This option is used to configure the last date when learners can self-enroll in the session. |
| Dynamic deadline | Use this option to configure the number of days before the session start date when learners can self-enroll. The session start date is the first date of the first event included in the session. |
If the E-commerce app is active in your platform, when setting an enrollment deadline, remember that users won't be able to purchase a session after the deadline, although they will be able to add it to their cart.
Fill in session additional fields
The additional fields available for ILT sessions are those configured in the Course management page > Additional fields tab, for the Resource type = ILT sessions.
When you configure a session, you can fill in the values of the additional fields that you want to use. These values will appear to learners on the course page and session page, under Additional information.
→ If any session additional fields are set as mandatory, then you must fill them in to be able to create or edit the session.
Enable RSVPs from external calendars
If external calendars are active, in the session Properties tab you can enable the external calendar RSVP feature for the session. Examples of integration with an external calendar are Docebo for Google Calendar and Docebo for Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar.
Creating and managing session events
Move to the Events & Attendance tab to create a session event. Click on the plus button in the top right corner of the page, and select New event. In the right panel, set the event name, date, description, and time. Make sure that you select the proper event time zone so that it will be converted according to the learner time zone when enrollment notifications are sent to learners.
Tip: You cannot create a single event that spans multiple days. If you need to schedule an overnight event (for example, for nightshift users), you will need to create two separate events: one for the first day and one for the second day.
Optionally, you can set a break time. When setting the break time, the platform will calculate the effective time that learners spend in the event by deducting the break time from the event total time.
In the Event type area set whether the event takes place in a classroom, via online webinar, or both. For more details about this see also the chapter on Event types:
| Event type | Instructions |
| Classroom (ILT) |
Check the Venue checkbox and select a location and a classroom for it. In the Attendance options section, set if you want to enable an attendance QR code for this event. This will create a QR code that learners can scan to self check in at the event. For more information see the chapter Attendance QR code. |
| Webinar (VILT) |
Check the Video Conference Tool checkbox. To set up the webinar, configure the webinar tool and the account used to host the webinar (some webinar tools may also require a password).
|
| Both Classroom and Webinar | Check both the Venue and the Video conference tool checkboxes. Having both options enabled allows you to manage those situations where part of the learners are attending the event on-site and part of them are online. |
Please note! At any time, you can switch the event type from classroom (Venue option) to webinar (Video Conference Tool option) and vice versa, as well as enable or disable one of the options. Make sure your users are informed about the switch, if the Notifications app is active in your platform, you can reach learners with a notification.
Optionally, enable the Collaboration tool option to link to an external tool (such as Google Classroom, Miro, NewRow, Klaxoon) available to learners, so that they can collaborate and get in touch with one another for talking, planning, and brainstorming on the course topics. Type the URL of the external tool shown to learners in the event details area.
Finally, you can choose an Instructor for your event. In the search text box, start typing the name of the instructor, then choose it from the list that will appear below the search bar.
Press Confirm to confirm the event creation. To edit the event, access the event configuration area, where you will find two tabs: Properties and Attendance.
Let’s start with the Properties tab. Use the General section of this tab to review and edit the details you set when you created the event.
Move to the Details tab to configure the event instructors for the event, if different from the session instructors. If you assign an instructor to a single event within a session, they can mark the attendance for the learners attending that specific event but will have no control over the other events or over the session. In this scenario, the instructor will neither be able to upload nor manage the training material assigned to the course.
Event types (onsite/online/flexible) and session types
When you configure an event within a session, you can specify a Venue, a Video conference tool, or both.
These choices determine the Event type, which can be:
- Onsite: If only a Venue is configured
- Online: If only a video conference tool is configured
- Flexible: if both a Venue and video conference tool are configured
The event type is visible to administrators in the Type column of the list of session events, and to end users in the Session events area of the course overview page.
The types of events included in a session in their turn determine the attendance type for the session as a whole, which can be:
- Full onsite: All the events are available onsite (all events in the session are either onsite or flexible)
- Full online: All the events are available online (all events in the session are either online or flexible)
- Blended: Session includes both onsite-only and online-only events.
- Flexible: All events in the session are of flexible type (all events in the session can be accessed both ways)
The session attendance type is displayed to learners on the course overview page.
In the Sessions tab of a course, you cannot display attendance type as a column, but you can filter sessions based on this property.
Dates and times of events and sessions
Date and time of an event:
When you configure an event, you specify its Date, along with its Start time and End time, and the relevant Time zone.
In the Events and attendance tab of the session, the event Time is shown following the time zone specified for the event itself.
Session start date and end dates:
For a session, the dates are not fields that you configure. In Course management, the Start date and End date of a session are automatically populated based on the dates/times of the session’s events:
→ The start of the session corresponds to the start date and time of the earliest event, and the end of the session corresponds to the end date and time of the latest event.
Tip: Notice that in the Sessions tab, the Start date and End date of the session are always shown in the time zone set in the user profile.
Learner view of event and session dates:
On the course overview page, logged-in users will see:
- The session dates in their own time zone (as configured in the platform)
- The dates of each individual event in their own time zone (clock icon), and also in the event’s time zone (globe icon) if this is different from the user’s
If the course is visible to non-authenticated users on the public catalog page, there visitors will see:
- The session dates in the event’s time zone, only when all events are available onsite (Full onsite or Flexible session) and in the same time zone. Otherwise the session dates are shown in their browser’s time zone.
- The event dates in the same way as for logged-in users, except the browser time zone is used instead of the user’s time zone.
Managing events
To manage the events of a session, select the session in the Sessions tab of the course, and move to the Events & attendance tab.
Click on the filter icon on the left side of the table and use the available options to filter the events according to their attendance type, instructors, start and end date, properties, locations and videoconference tool. Click on the Columns selector icon to select the columns you want to include in the table or search for events by typing a keyword in the text search area.
Click on the ellipsis button at the end of the event row to perform one of the following actions:
| Action | Description |
| Edit | Edits the event details. |
| Duplicate event | Makes a copy of the event. In the right panel, type the name of the copied event and set a date for it. Optionally, you can assign the same instructors to the new event. When an event is copied, the new event will be created with all of the details of the original event, except for the venue assignment (for on-site courses) and enrollments. Access the new event details page to assign a location and a classroom to it. When duplicating events, take into account that the duplicated event may overlap other events already created in your platform. In order to prevent this behavior, enable the Prevent overlapping of ILT sessions option in the Platform Advanced Settings, ILT tab. Remember that this option only works when duplicating events, and not when creating new ones. |
| Send email to instructors | Send an email to all of the instructors of the event, or to a selection of them. When you select this option, a slideout panel will open for you to compose the message and select the sender and the recipients of the email. Under the message area, you will find a list of shortcodes that can be inserted into the message of the email, by copying and pasting them. This option is disabled when no instructor is assigned to the event, or when none of the instructors has a valid email address. |
| Delete | Deletes the event. When an event is deleted, the event date and the user data regarding the event attendance are deleted as well. |
You can perform the same action for multiple events. Select them by checking the checkbox at the beginning of the event’s row and click on Choose action at the bottom right corner of the page to:
- quickly assign instructors to all of the selected events
- send an email to all of the instructors of the selected events. Unlike what happens when the action is performed for a single event, you cannot select individual instructors.
- delete the selected events
Managing enrollments and evaluations for sessions
Learn more about enrolling and evaluating users in ILT and VILT sessions in the dedicated article of the knowledge base.
Managing sessions
All of the sessions included in an ILT or VILT course are listed in the course Sessions tab. From here, click on the item in the Events column to access the event management area and on the item in the Enrolled Users column to manage the session enrollments.
Click on the filter icon on the left side of the table and use the available options to filter sessions according to their instructors, start and end dates, location, attendance type, and other details. Click on the ColumnsSelector icon to select the columns you would like to include in the table, or search for sessions by typing a keyword in the text search area.
Click on the ellipsis menu at the end of the session row to perform one of the following actions:
| Action | Description |
| Edit | Edits the session’s details. |
| Print the session attendance sheet | Create a physical registration page that learners will sign to mark their attendance. Learn more on attendance sheets. |
| Learner view for the session | Understand what the session page will look like for learners. This page shows information for each session in which the learner is enrolled. Click on the arrow icon in the session’s row, to see information about the location together with the map preview. |
| Duplicate the session |
Make a copy of the session. In the right panel, type the name of the copied session and select how many duplicates you want to create. In order to select the repetition frequency, select the Set Sessions Frequency option and use the corresponding dropdown menus to select the frequency. Finally, set whether to copy session additional fields (remember that the enrollment additional fields are not duplicated). If there are mandatory session additional fields in the platform, the Additional Information tab becomes visible in the right panel. If you do not fill the additional data, you will not be able to duplicate the session.
|
| Send email to instructors |
Send an email to all of the instructors of the session and to all of the instructors of the events composing it, or to a selection of them. When you select this option, a slideout panel will open for you to compose the message and select the sender and the recipients of the email. Under the message area, you will find a list of shortcodes that can be inserted into the message of the email, by copying and pasting them. If the events scheduled in the future have at least one instructor, you can restrict the email sending only to the active and the future events by selecting the corresponding option. This option is disabled when no instructor is assigned to the session, nor to the events composing it, or when none of the instructors has a valid email address. |
| Delete | Deletes the session. |
From the Sessions tab, you can perform the same action for multiple sessions. Select them by checking the checkbox at the beginning of the session row and click on Choose action at the bottom right corner of the page to:
- quickly assign instructors for all of the selected sessions
- send an email to all of the instructors of the selected sessions and of their events. Unlike what happens when the action is performed for a single session, you cannot select individual instructors.
- delete the selected sessions
Deleting a session
When a session is deleted, the events, the users’ data about the event attendance, and the session training material not also available in the Central repository are deleted too. The users in the session waiting list and those enrolled only in the selected session are unenrolled from the session and moved to the course waiting list, independently from their status in the session when it was deleted. The users who previously enrolled in the deleted session and also enrolled in any other session of the same course will not be moved to the course waiting list, and will keep their enrollments in the other sessions.
When deleting VILT (webinar) sessions, make sure you are deleting them directly in the platform, rather than in the external webinar tool.
Importing sessions and events via CSV
You can bulk import sessions and events via CSV files, speeding up the creation of sessions and events in your platform.
Notes on Adobe Connect V2
If you are integrating with Adobe Connect V2, when selecting Adobe Connect Meeting or Adobe Connect Seminar as Video conference tool, you can optionally select a template and a folder to it. If your event will be carried out on Adobe Connect Seminar, the template selection is optional, while the association to a room is mandatory. Find out more in the Adobe Connect article of our Knowledge Base. Because of a limitation in Adobe Seminar, it is not possible to create two seminar events that overlap in time. There must be a gap of at least 30 minutes between one seminar event and the other. If two seminar sessions overlap, both events will be created in the platform, but only the first-created event will be created in Adobe.
If you import webinar ILT events via CSV, the value of the sco-id attribute is available in Adobe Connect.
Moreover, an additional option is available among the Attendance Options. The option name is Mark the event as attended if the user spends at least % of the total time of the webinar in the webinar tool. Use this option to set a minimum percentage of time that users have to spend in the event in order to mark it as completed. The percentage is calculated on the event total duration.
When setting the minimum percentage of time, please consider that the event actual duration may be different from the estimated one, since it may start or finish before or after the estimated time. In order to avoid little delays impacting the event completion, we suggest not to set the percentage to 100%, but to keep it at 90-95% maximum.
When selecting the Mark the event as attended when the user joins the webinar attendance option, the percentage value set in this area will not be taken into consideration.
If you select the Mark the event as attended if the user accesses the recordings attendance option and the user accesses the webinar recordings, the event will be marked as completed upon accessing the recordings, even if the user did not attend the webinar or attended it without reaching the minimum attendance percentage.
When the Mark the event as attended if the user spends at least % of the total time of the webinar in the webinar tool option is selected, you can track the time spent by learners in Adobe Connect V2 session using the Webinar Tool Time in Session field in the new Custom Reports.
Notifications
If you want your users and managers to immediately know when certain events have occurred, make sure that the Notifications app is active in your platform, and that you have correctly created and configured the following notifications:
| Notification | Description |
| ILT session changed |
Triggers when changes are made to an ILT session’s date, time, location, or when the session Maximum Enrollment Quota value is changed in the Properties menu, Catalog Options tab. Depending on the selected target, it notifies users enrolled in the session, instructors enrolled in the course session/events, and Power Users who have visibility over the course (irrespective of whether they have visibility over users enrolled in the session or not) or all Superadmins. |
| ILT session deleted | Triggers when an ILT session is deleted by a Superadmin. |
| ILT session starting | Informs parties of when their ILT session is about to or already has begun. |
| New ILT session created |
Triggers each time an ILT session is created by a Superadmin or Power User. It is sent to all users enrolled in the course. When selecting Users as recipients of this notification, use the Custom Selection option to filter the recipients by selecting only the users still not enrolled in any session of the course (but only enrolled in the course) and/or the users on the waiting list of at least one session of the same course. This selection prevents the sending of unnecessary notifications to the users already enrolled in a session of the same course. |
| User approved into ILT session | Notifies the audience that a user has been approved by a Superadmin for an ILT session. Users receive this notification when they are approved. Power Users must be assigned the course and the user to receive the notification. |
| User enrolled in ILT session | Notifies the audience when a user has been enrolled in an ILT session. Please note that this does not apply to self-enrollments requiring Admin approval. |
| User has failed ILT session | Triggers when a Superadmin or instructor fails a learner in an ILT session. |
| User has passed ILT session | Triggers when a Superadmin or instructor passes a learner in an ILT session. |
| User unenrolled from ILT session | Notifies the audience when a user has been unenrolled from an ILT session. |
| User waiting to be approved to an ILT session | Triggered when a user self-enrolls into an ILT session. The notification is always sent when the course enrollment policy is set to Admin approval, and when it is set to Free but the user is placed in the course waiting list because the session is full. |
| User was declined from an ILT session | Triggered when the Superadmin rejects the self-enrollment of the user in an ILT session. |
Please Note! Users and managers will only receive the notifications if the Notification feature is active in the platform and if you, as the Superadmin, have properly set up the notifications listed above.