How Learners Enroll
How a learner joins a course, learning path, or cohort, and what gets checked along the way.
A learner always enrolls in a whole offering — a course, a learning path, or a cohort — never in a single lesson. Once enrolled, they get access to that offering's content (subject to the access controls described later in this section).
Ways to enroll
| Method | Who does it | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Self-enroll | The learner | Free or open offerings where anyone can join. |
| After a purchase | Automatic | The learner is enrolled the moment payment succeeds. |
| After a scholarship | Automatic | The learner is enrolled when a scholarship is granted. |
| Admin enroll | You / an admin | Adding a specific learner yourself. |
| Bulk enroll | You / an admin | Adding many learners at once from a list. |
This page covers self-enroll and what the system checks. For the admin methods, see Admin & bulk enrollment.
How self-enroll works
A learner opens a published offering and clicks Enroll. Before the enrollment goes through, the system checks a few things:
- Is it published? Only published offerings can be joined.
- Is enrollment open? You can turn enrollment on or off for an offering.
- Are seats available? If you set a seat limit, the offering stops accepting learners once it is full.
- For cohorts — is the enrollment window open? A cohort accepts learners only between its start and end enrollment dates.
If every check passes, the learner is enrolled and can begin. If any check fails, they can't enroll right then (for example, the seats are full or the window has closed).
Enrollment statuses
Every enrollment has a status. It controls whether the learner is active and whether they can enroll again later.
| Status | What it means | Can they re-enroll? |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Currently enrolled and learning. | No — they are already in. |
| Completed | They finished the offering. | No |
| Suspended | Temporarily paused by an admin. | No |
| Cancelled | The enrollment was cancelled. | Yes |
| Expired | Their access window ended. | Yes |
In short: an active, completed, or suspended learner can't re-enroll in the same offering, while a cancelled or expired one can.
Cohort rules
Cohorts are time-bound groups, so they have two extra rules:
- A learner can be in only one cohort at a time within the same parent offering. They can't join two parallel cohorts of the same thing.
- Each cohort has its own enrollment window and seat limit, separate from other cohorts.
Want to learn how cohorts and learning paths are set up? See Cohorts and Learning paths in Courses & Content.
Good to know
- Access expiry (access window). Each enrollment can have an end date, after which the learner's access expires. You can choose to allow extensions.
- Notifications. Each enrollment can have notifications turned on or off for that learner.
- Enrolling does not automatically open every lesson. What a learner sees and when is controlled by eligibility rules, drip scheduling, and prerequisites.