Courses

Switch it on. An administrator turns on Courses in Settings > Modules. Courses then appears in the menu.

Add a course. Choose Add a course. Give it a name, say who it is for, add a description and outline, a price if there is one, and the number of places. You can add its first session straight away.

Sessions. Each session has a day, a start and an end time, and a room or other place. A room you choose is held on the calendar, so it can't be booked by anyone else. Add as many sessions as the course needs from the course's page.

Who presents it. Choose from your instructors and other members, or type the name of an outside speaker.

Draft and live. A new course is a draft and members can't see it. Make it live when it is ready. You can move it back to a draft, close sign-up, or archive it when it is over. The coloured label beside the name always shows which it is.

Sign-up rules. Choose whether anyone can sign up or only people you add, and whether places are confirmed automatically or by you. Choose when sign-up opens, and when it closes: on a date, when the first session starts, a number of hours or days before it, and, if you wish, as soon as the course is full. When it is full, people can join a waiting list.

Who is on it. The Courses page shows every course with how many places are taken and how many are waiting for you. Open a course row to mark someone as paid, confirm or decline them, remove them, or add a member. On a course's page you can also tick who came to each session.

Emails. People are sent a confirmation with the dates and a calendar file, and a reminder two days before and on the morning of each session. Use Write to everyone on this course to send an update.

Hear about new courses. Members can ask to be told when a course opens, for all courses or only for the topics you set up in Courses settings.

Next time. Choose Duplicate on a course to copy it with its presenters, times and rooms. Past courses are under Past.

A public page. In Courses settings you can switch on a public page for your school. It gets its own web address, made for you, and lists the courses that are open to anyone. Guests sign up with a name and an email, and a phone number if you ask for it, and don't need an account. You choose whether the email and phone number are required, optional or not asked. If a guest ticks the box to hear from you again, they get one email asking them to confirm, and are only kept as a contact once they do. Other guest details are removed about three months after the course. You can make a new address at any time; the old one then stops working.