Enrolment

(This video is taken from the Courses and categories course in the Totara Academy, where you can access more resources and learning materials - including other videos). 

Enrolment methods

There are a large number of course enrolment methods available with Totara Learn. Before they can be used all enrolment method plugins must be enabled by a Site Administrator from the Site administration menu by going to Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins.

Each course can enrol users using different enrolment methods. The enrolment methods can be hidden and have their settings changed and reordered.

Manual enrolment

This enables users to be enrolled manually via Course administration > Users > Enrolled users.

It allows the Editing Trainer of the course to manage individual or collective enrolment to their course themselves. To manually enrol a user follow these steps:

1. Go to Course administration > Users > Enrolled users.
2. Click the Enrol users button at the top right or bottom left of the page.
3. From the Assign roles dropdown choose the appropriate role.
4. Select enrolment options as required.
5. Browse or search for the user.
6. Click the Enrol button opposite the user. The user will indent in the list and the enrol button will disappear, indicating that the user is enrolled.
7. When you have finished, click the Finish enrolling users button.

The user will then appear in the list of enrolled users and will no longer be available in the search list.

Default site settings for manual enrolment

As a Site Administrator you can configure a number of site-wide default settings for the manual enrolment method. 

Guest access

This allows those with the guest role to view the contents of a course. Users with the guest role may be visitors who do not have an account on your Totara, or users who do have an account (authenticated users) but who would just like to explore your course.

It is possible to add an enrolment key so that only those guest users you wish to grant access can enter the course.

Guest access is enabled from the Site administration menu in Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins, then you will need to ensure the eye icon is open for Guest access.

To allow guest access for a course:

1. Select the course using Find courses
2. In Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods,  ensure Guest access is enabled (has its eye open).
3. If the Guest access method is not listed then select Add method and select Guest access from the dropdown box.

You will also need to show Guest login button on login screen via the Administration menu under Plugins > Manage authentication and setting the Guest login button to Show.

If you'd like to log users who access the site via guest login, then select Server > Cleanup > Log guest access under the Site administration menu. You can also get Guest users to agree to the site policy under the Administration menu via > Security > Site policies. Guests then have to agree to the site policy before accessing a course with guest access.

Default site settings for guest access

As a Site Administrator you can go to Plugins > Enrolments > Guest access under the Administration menu to configure site-wide defaults for guest access in courses.

• Add instance to new courses: Any new course will  have the Guest access enrolment plugin included.
• Allow guest access: Selecting Yes will mean the new course will allow guest access to them.

Clicking the Advanced button next to Allow guest access will hide this setting in a course and will instead display a Show more link to click on to access the setting.

Auto-login guests

To automatically log in guests when they access a course with guest access.

1. Users > Permissions > User policies under the Site administration menu.
   
2. Tick the Auto-login guests box.
3. Under the Administration menu via Plugins > Authentication > Manage Authentication, you must have Guest login button set to Show.
4. Under the Administration menu via Security > Site policies you can check Open to Google setting so that the Google search robot will be allowed to enter your site as a Guest. In addition, people coming in to your site via a Google search will automatically be logged in as a Guest.

Self enrolment

This allows users to enrol themselves into a course, either directly or via an enrolment key (course password). The trainer does not then have to manually add learners. More than one instance of the self enrolment method can be used so that when users enrol themselves they are assigned different roles e.g. certain users can be assigned the role of student and other users can be assigned the role of non-editing trainer.

Default site setting for self enrolment

To change settings open the Administration menu and navigate to Plugins > Enrolments > Self enrolment. Choose options for defaults that admin can set:

Audience sync

The audience sync enrolment plugin allows you to make a course available to a specific audience in your Totara system. 

To add the audience sync enrolment method to a course, from within the course follow these steps:

1. Go to Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods.
2. From the Add method dropdown list select Audience sync. 
3. For the Audience setting select which audience you wish to sync and configure the optional settings. 
4. You can optionally select a group from the Add to group dropdown, or select Create new group to add the audience to a new group.
5. Click Add method.

Any members of that audience will now be enrolled on the course and unenrolled if they are removed from the audience. You can go to Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods and click the edit icon alongside the Audience sync method to change any of the optional settings but not the audience. 

You can add multiple audience sync enrolment methods on a single course for different audiences. 

Default site setting for audience sync

As a Site Administrator you can go to Site administration > Plugins >Enrolments > Audience sync and configure the following settings.

Program

User has been enrolled by enrolling in a program or certification. This enrolment method is not setup within a course as other methods are, instead courses are enrolled on when program or certification rules allow.

Default site settings for program enrolments

Category enrolments

If you wish for a user to have access to all courses within a certain category then you can use the category enrolment method. This is done at the category level and the enrolment will then be inherited by all courses in the category. 

To enrol a user in a category follow these steps:

1. As a Site Manager or Site Administrator, go to the category you want to add the user to. 
2. Then go to Administration > Category > Assign roles.
3. Click the Enrol users button at the top right or bottom left of the page.
4. From the Assign roles dropdown choose the appropriate role.
5. Select enrolment options as appropriate.
6. Browse or search for the user.
7. Click the Enrol button opposite the user. The user will indent in the list and the enrol button will disappear, indicating that the user is enrolled.
8. When you have finished, click the Finish enrolling users button.

The user will then appear in the list of enrolled users and will no longer be available in the search list.

External database

You may use a external database (of nearly any kind) to control your enrolments. Fields from the external database should contains a field containing a course ID, a field containing a user ID, and optionally a field containing a role. These are compared against fields that you choose in the local course, user tables, and role tables. You can specify the database driver and connection parameters, use the Test settings to check field mappings and connection to the database are OK.

It is also possible to create new courses in Totara using the course full name, shortname, course Id, course category from the external database.

Flat file

Users are enrolled with a CSV file. The flat file enrolment plugin allows bulk enrolment management (enrol or unenrol) of existing users in existing courses via a CSV file.

The file is processed by the Flat file enrolment sync scheduled task and then deleted. 

The file should include action, role, user ID number, and course ID number. Start time and end time are optional fields. Details of the file format are shown on the flat file settings page under the Administration menu within Plugins > Enrolments > Flat file (CSV). 

Enabling flat file enrolment 

1. Go to the Administration menu and go to Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins and click the eye icon opposite Flat file (CSV). When enabled, it will no longer be greyed out.
2. Click the settings link.
3. Configure as required (see details of settings below).
4. Click the Save changes button.  

IMS enterprise 

This method will repeatedly check for and process a specially-formatted text file in the location that you specify. The file must follow the IMS Enterprise specifications containing person, group, and membership XML elements.

Additionally, you can use the IMS Enterprise plugin to update a course full or short name, to create nested categories during course creation, update a user record, or to set/update an authentication type for a user (during creation and updates). 

LDAP enrolment

Users are authenticated and then enrolled through LDAP.

Publish as LTI tool (experimental)

When used with the LTI authentication plugin it allows remote users to access selected courses and activities. In other words, Totara Learn functions as an LTI tool provider.

Once you have enabled the Publish as LTI tool (accessed through the Administration menu via Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins) you can then add it to your desired course. 

1. From Course administration go to Users > Enrolment method.
2. From the Add method dropdown menu select the option Publish as LTI tool (experimental). 
3. Complete the settings as desired. 
4. Click the Add method button.

To share this new LTI tool with others you will need to go to Published as LTI tools from the Course administration menu. Here you will need to take a note of the either the Launch details or Registration URL so that you can share these with the other Trainer who wishes to utilise your LTI content. If the other Trainer is also using a Totara site then they can then add your LTI using the External tool activity. 

Settings 

Course meta link 

You can have enrolment be inherited from another course, called a metacourse. The course meta link plugin needs to be enabled both on the site level by the Site Administrator and has to be enabled within the course.

To enable course meta link enrolments within a course follow these steps:

1. Go to Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods.
2. Select Course meta link from the dropdown menu.
3. Choose the course you wish to inherit enrolments from.
4. Click Add method.

MNet remote enrolments

Allows a remote MNet host to enrol their users into our courses. It is recommended to use Totara Connect for connecting remote Totara together

PayPal

Users purchase enrolment with Paypal.

Seminar direct enrolment 

Allows users not enrolled in a course to sign up to a seminar event and enrols them in the course.

 When enabled for a course the seminar direct enrolment plugin allows users not enrolled in a course to sign up to a seminar event. By signing up to the seminar event the user will be automatically enrolled into the course and will be given access to all other activities contained within the course.

The amount of enrolments displayed on the course page is controlled by two settings:

• Site level: Under the Administration menu go to Plugins > Enrolments > Seminar direct enrolment plugin where an admin can set a default value for all courses with Seminar direct enrolment method.
• Course level: Under an individual course's seminar direct enrolment method where admin can set a different value. 

The values are;  All (default), 2, 4, 8, and 16 for both settings.

If you disable the seminar direct enrolment method, the users who are only enrolled by this method will have their enrolment disabled, but will remain enrolled in the course and specific sessions etc. They would then need to be enrolled with an alternative enrolment method e.g. self-enrolment, manual enrolment etc.

Deleting the seminar direct enrolment method, will mean that users who are only enrolled by this method will be unenrolled from the course. This will remove activity and course completion information from the course as well as removing them from specific seminar events. They would then need to be enrolled with an alternative enrolment method e.g. self-enrolment, manual enrolment etc.

Learning plan

The Learning Plan enrolment module restricts interactive enrolment in courses. Where a course uses the Learning Plan enrolment plugin to manage interactive enrolments, only users who have the course listed as an approved component as part of an approved learning plan are permitted to self enrol.

Edit the site enrolment method

1. Click Enrolments on the Administration menu, under Plugins.
2. Enable the enrolment method(s) that you wish to use in your Totara site.
3. To change the plugin setting, click on Edit opposite the enrolment plugin(s) you have chosen.
4. Click the Save changes button.
    

Change the course enrolment method

1. Log in as a course administrator.
2. Select Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods.
3. Select Edit, Hide, Delete icon for the Enrolment method listed or choose Add method if the enrolment method is not listed.

Enrolled users 

All course participants are enrolled in the course and assigned an appropriate role.

Enrolled users:

• Can be assigned to groups.
• Have grades.
• Can submit assignments.
• Are visible in the list of participants.
• Can subscribe to forums.
• Can participate in choices.

Only enrolled users are true participants in course.

The enrolled users page accessed via Course administration > Users > Enrolled users lists all users enrolled in the course, together with their last access time, roles, groups, and enrolment methods.

Changing enrolled users

1. Click Users in the Course administration menu.
2. Click Enrolled users.
3. This will show all enrolled users in a table with their Roles, Groups, and Enrolment method.
4. Select the + or X in the table to change these.

Roles

To assign an enrolled user a role, click the Assign roles icon (a person with a plus sign) in the roles column then select the desired role.

To remove a role assignment, click the delete icon (a cross) next to the role name.

Site administrator as an enrolled user

The Site Administrator has access rights to all aspects of the system, this allows them to bypass the normal conditions and procedures a regular user must step through. This means that the site behaviour will be different to the behaviour you'd expect compared to a normal user/learner.

The Site Administrator may wish to utilise the Switch role to... option within the Course Administration menu to view content from a learners perspective and see how this content will appear. It is, however, recommended that when completing learning in a live setting you should create a new learner account and not the Site Administrator login.

Groups

To add a user to a group (requires at least one group to have been created previously), click the Add to group icon (a plus sign) in the groups column, select the desired group then click the Save changes button.

Searching enrolled users

The search facility allows a trainer to search for specific enrolled users. This is useful when a course has many users enrolled with different methods.

Scheduled tasks

There are a number of scheduled tasks associated with different enrolment methods.

Unenrolling users

When users are unenrolled from a course, it is important to note that certain data and access will be removed. This is true regardless of whether the user was manually unenrolled by a Site Administrator or Trainer, if the Learner unenrolled themselves from the course, or if they were removed from an audience assigned to the course.

For example, Learner A is enrolled on a course as they are part of a first aider audience, and they have signed up for a practical training session using the seminar activity, having already completed a prerequisite quiz. When Learner A is removed from the first aider audience, they will automatically be unenrolled from the course. In this instance, they would no longer be able to access the course, their quiz grade would be deleted, and their seminar reservation would be cancelled.

Therefore it is important to carefully consider when Learners are unenrolled using any of the described methods.