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You need to add and authorize the addition of the CE Courses module to an event before you can use these features.
The CE Course module lets you manage Continuing Education (CE) courses for associations, colleges, universities and other organizations including tracking credits or points for each course attendee.
You might also choose to do this using a Smart Connector to connect EventsAir to your LMS (Learning Management System).
You can set up and differentiate courses in many different ways: subject, category, instructor, region, and more, or fee type.
Once you’ve set these up and create the necessary interactive site(s), you create two portals:
The CE Portal – for students/people who want to choose a course and register. Read more about the CE Portal.
In a Membership Contact Store event, you can also allow prospective attendees to search for, choose and pay for courses on the Member Portal.
The CE Instructor Portal - for Instructors to see and update course details, email anyone who’s enrolled for their current course(s), and run reports on their previous courses. Read more about the CE Instructor Portal.
Express Actions like applying credits in bulk and marking CE Course Attendance in bulk are also very useful in managing CE Courses.
The information below tells you more about configuring the CE Courses module, and also gives some general information on managing CE Courses.
Setting up the CE Courses module
Go to the Setup panel of your event (or linked Contact Store) and go into the CE Courses module.
CE Courses - Preferences
Go to CE Courses module Preferences to switch various options on and off within the module, depending on what type of courses you're setting up. Once you enable these (or remove them) and select "Save", they'll appear in the module setup.
After saving:
The optional tabs are listed below – enabling them means they’ll show up in the module (and be available in other parts of EventsAir):
Overview - once enabled, you can also choose plain text or HTML for the text formatting. This lets you add an overview description to each course (in the course setup).
Classification Types – lets you set up types (groups) for your classifications.
Classifications – lets you add classifications within the types. The classification information (including Type, if enabled) appears in the setup for each new course.
Instructors – within each course setup, you can use the Instructors tab to add contacts (in this event/contact store) as Instructors.
Credits – this feature lets you add credits to courses (when setting up the course).
Course Grade and Course Score – Under the “Advanced” tab for each course, you can check boxes to enable recording of Grade and/or Score.
Default Certificate - There is a dropdown where you can choose either the Certificate of Attendance (which you'll see in the Reporting Panel, in Contact reports); or Certificate of Achievement (in the Reporting Panel, CE Courses reports), or another report (these are also in the CE Courses reports).
CE Courses - Payment and Cancellation Policy
Just as with other modules, you can define CE Course-specific payment and cancellation policies and schedules. You can also override or adjust these for individual courses. Read more about Payment and Cancellation policies.
Organizing your courses
Take time to plan how you'll organize your course structure. Classification is optional but really helps prospective course attendees search for the right course (and helps you manage all your courses).
You have 3 levels of classification to work with:
Classification Types - groups of classifications
Classifications
Sub Classifications
Classification Types
This top-level category is for your most broad categories. Add the name of your new Classification Type, and press Save.
For example, you might group classifications into types based on characteristics such as level (Beginner, Intermediate, Extended).
You might also choose to use Types to group courses by delivery method (online, in-person).
Although you can only have one “Type” per classification, you can add multiple classifications to each course (including sub-classifications).
While it’s best to plan beforehand to create the structure that suits you best, you can add additional classifications to a course later.
Classifications & Sub Classifications
Enter the name of your new Classification, select your pre-defined Classification Type (see above), and press Save.
(Each Classification MUST have a Type – only one Type can be selected per classification.)
Continuing our example above, let's say you created a number of “Beginner” Classifications, selecting "Beginner" Classification Type for all of them:
Beginner Early Education
Beginner Aged Care
Beginner Project Management
Below each of these, you might create Sub Classifications: Semester One and Semester Two, for example.
Sub Classifications are optional.
You could go on to create separate classifications for delivery methods - for example, selecting the "Online" Classification Type for all of these:
Asia Pacific Online
USA Americas Online
EMEA Online
NOTE: Since Classification Types and Classifications will sort alphabetically in the module view, you may choose to add numbers to their names, or use the search function as needed.
Once you create a course (see below) you can add multiple classifications to it, and these can include sub classifications.
Again, following the example, if you create a course called "Cognitive Development in Pre-schoolers", you can:
- Add the Beginner Early Education Classification
- Add the Beginner Early Education - Sub Classification Semester One
If the same course is offered in both semesters, in two different regions, with the same delivery method and course code, you could again add Beginner Early Education and then a second Sub Classification of Semester Two if you want to offer this course in both semesters.
Then you can ALSO add the classifications "Asia Pacific Online" and "EMEA Online".
Students searching for this course will be able to search by these classifications and sub classifications.
Create a course
You can define both internal and external CE Courses here.
Setting up a new course (Details tab)
When creating a new course, some fields are mandatory and others are optional.
Unique Code - you need to create a code of some kind to identify this course.
Name - the name of the course that students will see - this is a required field.
External Course [checkbox] – check the box if this is a course run by another institution. If you check this, the input fields will change, and you can no longer control the settings for Inventory, Alerts, Room Setup, Confirmation Merge Doc, etc.
Inventory Limit - you can opt for Unlimited, or Limited to a specific number.
Minimum Attendance - lets you specify the minimum attendance allowed for this course.
Optional Alert - checking this option will send an alert once the inventory level drops below the pre-set limit.
Limit - sets the percentage of remaining inventory items to trigger an alert.
Alert Level - set the alert level that you wish to send. A critical or high alert will also trigger alert indicators on the navigation bar and the event selection screen.
Start and End Dates and Times – technically dates and times are optional - but courses without both start and end dates will not show up on portals.
Date Text - add some explanatory text here if needed.
Master Course Code - the course on which this course is based, if any. This may be an internal reference, and isn't required here.
Series Code - lets you note if this course is part of a series. This may be an internal reference, and again, isn't required.
Status - designate the current status of this course:
Open
Closed
Tentative
Postponed
Canceled
Location - select from a list of pre-defined Course Locations (see more information further below in this article).
Setup Details - any notes about how the room should be configured - seating, A/V, etc.
Food & Beverage - notes on required catering for the session.
External Registration URL - you can add the URL for your interactive registration site for this course, if offered as an external course. You can also check the box to add an Auto Login Token, allowing the registration site to be pre-populated with the student's details.
External Website URL – you can add the URL for a promotional website here.
Confirmation Merge Docs - the name of a merge document created specifically to confirm registration for a course. (With Merge Fields you can create a single Merge Doc that can handle confirmation for ALL your different courses!)
Course Certificate - choose a report layout for the certificate that will be sent to the attendee upon completion of the course.
Calendar Color - choose how this will look in the Course Calendar.
Credits - lets you specify the number of hours this course earns, and whether they are Continuing Education Units (CEU) or Credit Hours. Press Add Credit, select a pre-defined Credit Type from the drop-down list [which you need to have created beforehand], and type in the number of Credits. (You define Credits in a different section - see more information below.)
Classifications tab
As detailed earlier in this article, Classifications are like tags you can add to a course to help categorize it.
Press Add Classification, then specify the Classification Type, Classification, and (optionally) Sub Classification.
Overview tab
Enter descriptive text to be displayed on the CE Web Portal or registration site. Enter as many lines as you need; the input box will expand. [If you selected HTML overview in Module preferences, you can press the “Open HTML Editor” button to add/edit HTML.
Instructors tab
You can either create a New Contact and enter the details directly, or link to an existing contact already in your database. After adding Instructor details (in the same format you would for any contact in the Attendees/Contacts panel), you’ll see their name and organization under the Instructors tab for the course, and can add notes on each instructor.
The notes will appear on the “CE Course Instructor” module on their contact record.
Payment Policy & Cancellation Policy tabs
If enabled in the Payment and Cancellation section of CE Course setup, these tabs will be visible.
You can choose to either use the defaults you created for all CE courses, or set custom policies just for this course.
Itinerary Tab
This is where you can set up the specific itinerary details for the course. This free-form text field can capture itinerary details such as transportation, location, dress codes, and more.
Tip: The itinerary details can be merged into Merge Docs for additional information that you can communicate to the attendee.
Advanced tab
Under Advanced, you can opt to record grades and/or scores for this course.
Seeing and searching for courses after you create them
After creating and saving a course, you won’t immediately see it in the left-hand tab of the module (see below).
Because you may have hundreds, or even thousands of courses set up in the CE module, by default, you will not see all courses listed in the module setup, under Courses, unless you want to.
To nominate which courses you want to appear in the module’s left-hand panel under “courses”, look for "Search to select a course", and press the Search button.
A new pop-up will open.
To search for specific courses, you can:
Enter into the search field box any detail about the course, which can be related to Course Name, Unique Code, Master Course Code, and Series Code, and return any courses that contain your search term in any of these fields. [You don't need to type in the complete code or name; just part of it will return all matching courses.]
AND/OR
Specify a date range (or end date, or start date)
Note that the first date box will auto-populate with today’s date. To see all courses you’ve created, delete that date, leave the text search field blank, and select “Search”.
If, when searching based on the text field, you don't see the results you expect, review the From and To dates in the Search window again.
[You’ll see the same course search features in other places too, like Express Actions.]
Check the box(es) next to the course(s) you want to view in more detail, and click the Open button.
This takes you back the Module setup view, with the course(s) you selected now visible in the left-hand panel of the module, for easy selection and editing.
Use the X button next to “Search to select a course” to collapse the list in the module left-hand panel back to no courses, and begin a new search.
Course Fee Types
Much like Functions, every course needs at least one “Fee Type” (even if the amount payable is $0). This is required for the course to appear on CE portals, to allow you to manually register attendees, and more.
Note that if you set a Fee Type amount of 0, the payment status for the course will appear on contact records as “Complimentary”.
In the Fee Types setup, you specify the name of the Fee Type, and then you can add the currency amount, inventory, minimum attendance for this fee type to be offered, CE Portal visibility, and (under the Advanced tab) additional valid pay statuses if needed, tax and cancelation fee details.
Fee Type Advanced Tab - Valid Payment Status - the default payment statuses are Purchase, Inclusive, Complimentary, and Canceled. You can also enable additional payment statuses, such as:
No Charge
Own Expense
Invited
Not Attending
Not Required
Deposit
Charge to Another Contact
Waitlist Purchase
Waitlist No Payment Required
You can read more about setting up waitlists here.
Credits
The Credits section lets you name (define) a type of credit that can be earned. You just enter a name, and press Save.
You don't enter number of credit points/hours here; this is done when the Credit Type is applied to a Course (see above) or to an attendee record (in the Attendee's contact record, under CE Credits).
Credits can also be applied in bulk, using the Apply CE Credits tool in Express Actions
Disabling Credits
You can disable any credits that are no longer used. You wouldn't delete these as they may still be applied to previous classes, but disabling them will prevent them from being used for other courses in future.
Location
This is where you pre-configure all Locations you can add when you are setting up your courses.
Enter the location name and press Save.
You can (optionally) enter a comment to help describe the location better. These notes appear on the CE Courses Portal.
Discount Codes
You can choose to nominate a Set Amount off Course Fee – a fixed amount
OR
Percentage off Course Fee – a percentage amount
You can also choose dates when the discount is available, Course Fee Types it can be applied to, and more,
CE Courses in the Attendees/Contacts Panel
Instructors will have the CE Course Instructor items on their contact record (you may need to refresh to see these items):
Attendees/Contacts will have CE courses (and possibly CE Credits) on their contact records:
Filtering:
In the Contacts (Attendees) panel, using the Contact module filter, you’ll see a checkbox called “Instructors Only” (this will only show in events with the CE Courses module). This is only way to filter specifically for instructors.
For course attendees, there are other specific CE Course filters added to your event when you have the CE Courses module.
You can also use custom fields, marketing tags and note types in a CE Contact Store.
More about CE Course items on an attendee record
Inside the Course item details on an attendee/contact record, you can see details such as Grade and Score (if these have been enabled) and Attendance Status.
The possible Attendance Statuses are below (they’re not shown in this order in the dropdown menu):
Registered
Pending
In Progress
Attended
Not Passed
No Show
Canceled
Deferred
These statuses (along with grades and scores) can be updated by the Instructor after each course has finished (via the CE Instructor Portal), or by you, using the CE Course Attendance Express Action [which also lets you update grades and scores].
If your attendees/contacts are listed in a CE Course Contact Store, and a contact attends a course in another event linked to this CE Contact Store, you can use the Update Contact Store Express Action to add CE Credits to the Contact Store record.