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Adding a session

Add a session to a course and set its dates, community options, and instructors.

Add a scheduled session to a course, either at a geographic location or online. Define the dates, capacity, community settings, and instructors for the session.

By default, a Web-based Online session is initially available when you add a session.

Add a session

  1. Open the Curriculums/Courses side-tab and click Manage Sessions.
  2. Use the fields in the search window above the results table to filter the list of courses. Use the fields as follows:
    • Org ID – Org ID under which the course is registered.
    • Course ID – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the Course ID.
    • Course Title – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the title.
    • Location – Location of the session.
    • Show – Filter the results by session availability (All, Open, or Closed).
    • Session Name – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for courses that contain that combination in the session name. For online courses, search for "Web based".
  3. Select the course ID of the course to which you want to add sessions and click Add Session. Alternatively, select the course ID, right-click on the table, and select Add Session. The Add Session dialog box opens.
  4. On the Session tab, specify the course ID, location, session name, and instructor's notes. The location defaults to Online. Click Select to choose from the available locations set by the administrator. Notes provide users with additional information on the session. Students see this in the course catalog.
  5. Click the Dates tab and specify the session starting and ending dates and times. Specify the capacity and the meeting days, along with the registration starting and ending dates. See "Dates tab details" below.
  6. Click the Community tab and specify the chat, instant messenger, discussion board, and email support settings.

    Note: If the administrator disabled community items at the organization level, you cannot set them at the session level.

  7. Click the Instructors tab to assign instructors to the session. The Instructors Assigned box lists the instructors currently assigned to instruct the course. The Instructors Available box lists the available instructors. Select an instructor and use the arrow buttons to manage the list of instructors assigned to the course. For example, to add an instructor to the instructor list, select the instructor from the Instructors Available box and click the left-arrow button.

    Note:

    • An instructor must be assigned if you would like course/session notifications to be sent.
    • Only users who are flagged as instructors in the profile can be assigned as an instructor. Ensure that the instructor's user profile includes the selected Instructor flag so that he or she can be assigned to one or more sessions.
    • If a reporter is also an instructor and the instructor is assigned to a session, reporting as a session-level instructor takes precedence when running reports. In other words, the reporter can only run course-level reports for sessions he or she is assigned to as an instructor.
  8. Click the Session Info tab, if it is available. This tab only displays if the administrator has set up categories for sessions.
    • The categories set up for sessions display here (for example, Department 1, Department 2, Department 3, Location Contact Information, and so on) so data can be entered for this particular session.
    • Up to eight categories can be defined at the organization level.
    • Each content line retains up to 200 characters.
    • Students do not see this information.

    Tip: Session Info can be used for administrative tracking for each session via custom reporting.

  9. Click Save.

The session is added to the session list.

Dates tab details

  • Allow early access to materials (days) – If materials are to be pre-released to students, specify the number of days in advance of the session start date.
  • Student Limit – The default of 0 specifies an unlimited number of students. If a limit is set and it is exceeded, a waiting list icon appears to the right of the session in the list of sessions (see Viewing the waiting list). The system shows how many students are currently registered to the right of this field.
  • Meeting Days – Check the boxes for the specific days of the week the session runs. This is only used for displaying on the student calendar. If you have a session with a start date of 8/1 and an end date of 8/31 but your class only runs on Mondays, for example, check only the Monday box in the session record; otherwise it shows on the calendar for all the days you have checked. When you add a session, all check boxes are left blank by default, so be sure to set them correctly.
  • Registration Start Date and Registration End Date – Set registration/enrollment time periods. Even though the course is set for the future, you may want to allow students to register ahead of time.
  • Student Invitation URL – This Web address is automatically generated and can be copied and pasted into an email if you want to send out invites to students to take the session. The URL takes students directly to the CourseMill login dialog box to log in, and then directs them to the catalog to enroll in the session. It does this by placing the Course ID in the Catalog ID search field so that only that course is displayed in the course catalog.

Note:

  • Users who are self-enrolling can see the Location, Begin Date, and End Date of an instructor-led session if your admin has enabled the managed properties ShowLocInCatalog and ShowDateInCatalog for display of these columns in the Course Catalog. You might have these turned off if all your courses are online.
  • If you set specific dates and times for your session and the course enrollment notification is being sent, you can also send a calendar (.ics) file as an attachment that allows the student to automatically log the session date/time in the Outlook calendar. Your admin can do this by setting the managed property CreateCalendarEventFiles to Yes.
  • Setting the managed property CalendarReminderTime sets the calendar alarm warning notice prior to the beginning of a scheduled class starting time for all students. Default: 15 minutes.

Edit multiple sessions with Batch Session Data

You can use Batch Session Data to edit dates for multiple sessions at once using an import file. The import file can be a CSV (comma-separated values), TSV (tab-separated values), or TXT file, and must contain an OrgID, CourseID, and SessionID column for each session that you would like to modify. You can specify any additional fields to edit details of these sessions, including StartDate, EndDate, SessionName, and so on. See the CourseMill database schema for the coursesco table for a list of available fields that can be updated. SessionID is automatically generated by CourseMill and cannot be changed.

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