This article explains how you can invite participants to training sessions, track the status of the invitation, and inform participants about any changes, without the need for any more external tools and lists.
You can read about the following topics:
- How to invite participants to training sessions
- How to track the status of the invitation
- How to inform invited participants about changes
Note
These functionalities are only available to Administrators and employees with edit rights in the Training section of the Performance area.
Invite participants to a training session
In the following three scenarios, we will explain how to invite participants to training sessions depending on the conditions. First, make sure you go to Training. Under Course catalog, click the title of the course you want to open, then click the arrow button to the right of the relevant session.
Send an invitation to all participants who haven't been invited yet
Scenario: You have just created a new training session and have added the participants to it. The invitation status for all participants will show as Not sent. Now you would like to send an invitation to all participants.
Follow these steps: Click on Send invitations. A dialog will inform you that a standardized invitation will be sent via email to the added number of participants, containing the session schedule and description. Click Send invitations to confirm.
Notes
▶︎ In case you had already sent the invitation to some participants previously, they will be excluded from the email list.
▶︎ The email will contain an ical attachment where participants can confirm or decline their attendance and add it to their calendars. If you use Outlook, make sure to activate email responses.
▶︎ If participants decline their attendance at a session that is open to self enrolment, they are still part of the session and they each occupy one seat. To free their seats you must remove them from the session, or they must cancel their attendance under Training > My training > Planned courses.
Send an invitation to specific participants
Scenario: You have sent the invitation to the training participants, and then added some additional participants to a training. Now you would like to send the new participants an invitation.
Tip
If you want to see all participants with a specific invitation status, you can use the drop-down menu above the session dashboard to filter your list.
Follow these steps: Activate the checkbox next to the name of the participants you want to invite. Then click Send invitations. A dialog will inform you that a standardized invitation will be sent via email to the added number of participants, containing the session schedule and description. Click Send invitations to confirm.
Notes
▶︎ The email will contain an ical attachment where participants can confirm or decline their attendance and add it to their calendars. If you use Outlook, make sure to activate email responses.
▶︎ If participants decline their attendance at a session that is open to self enrolment, they are still part of the session and they each occupy one seat. To free their seats you must remove them from the session, or they must cancel their attendance under Training > My training > Planned courses.
Send, and resend an invitation to all participants
Scenario: You have sent the invitation to the training participants, and then added some additional participants to a training. Now you would like to send the new participants an invitation, and also send a reminder to those participants who haven't yet responded to the previous email invitation.
Tip
If you want to see all participants with a specific invitation status, you can use the drop-down menu above the session dashboard to filter your list.
Follow these steps: Activate the checkbox next to the name of the participants you want to send or resend the invitation to. Then click Send invitations. A dialog will inform you that a standardized invitation will be sent via email to a certain number of participants (and how to how many participants it will be resent) containing the session schedule and description. Click Send invitations to confirm.
Notes
▶︎ The email will contain an ical attachment where participants can confirm or decline their attendance and add it to their calendars. If you use Outlook, make sure to activate email responses.
▶︎ If participants decline their attendance at a session that is open to self enrolment, they are still part of the session and they each occupy one seat. To free their seats you must remove them from the session, or they must cancel their attendance under Training > My training > Planned courses.
Track the invitation status
Once invited participants start to respond to the training invitation, the response is shown in the Invitation status. To check the Invitation status, go to Training. Under Course catalog, click on the title of the course you want to enter, and click on the relevant training session. In the column Invitation status, you can see the following possible statuses:
- Not sent – No invitation has been sent yet
- Awaiting response – Participant has not yet responded to the invitation
- Accepted
- Declined
- Tentatively accepted
Tips
▶︎ When hovering the cursor over the status, you will see a tooltip that gives an explanation on the status, and indicates the date when the invitation was sent, or when the participant responded.
▶︎ In the column Attendance status, you can also track the attendance of your participants after the training.
▶︎ If you want to see all participants with a specific invitation status, you can use the drop-down menu above the session dashboard to filter your list. After your event has passed, you can also filter your list based on attendance status.
Inform participants about changes
If you need to modify the training session date or time, cancel a session that has invited participants, or remove an invited participant from a session, your participants will be informed.
▶︎ If you cancel a session or remove a participant, the affected participants will receive an automatic email about the cancellation of the training session.
▶︎ If you edit the date or time of a session, all invited participants will receive an automatic email with an updated invitation. The Invitation status will be changed to Awaiting response.
Tip
To learn more about deleting or cancelling a session, removing participants, and editing sessions, read our article Manage courses and sessions