Adding someone to a course

You can put somebody on a course yourself rather than waiting for them to join. This is how invitation-only courses fill up, and it works whether or not the person already has an account.

Somebody who already has an account

1. On the course page, choose Manage → Enrollment.
2. Start typing their name or email address in the search box at the top.
3. Choose them from the list.
4. Pick the role they should hold — As Student is the default.
5. Choose Add.

They are on the course immediately. There is nothing for them to accept.

Somebody who has no account yet

Enter their name and email address in the same panel instead of searching. Grapevine creates the account and enrols them in one step.

If the address already belongs to somebody, you are told so by name and offered the chance to add them rather than making a second account on the same address. Take it — two accounts on one address is the single most common cause of “my courses have disappeared”.

Which role to pick

The dropdown offers all four. In short: Student takes the course, Assistant marks it, Contributor writes it, Instructor runs it. Who can do what on a course sets out exactly what each can reach.

What it costs

Adding a student to a course is a billable enrolment on most sites. Each one is charged to the site’s card on the next nightly run.

Two things follow from that. A spreadsheet of five hundred people is five hundred charges, so check the file before you import it — see Importing enrolments from a spreadsheet. And adding an assistant, contributor or instructor costs nothing, because they are not taking the course.

Adding the same person twice is safe: the second attempt enrols nobody and bills nothing. “Did that work?” is the most common reason somebody presses Add again, so it is built not to punish you for it.

Telling them

Grapevine does not currently email somebody to say they have been enrolled — so if they are not expecting it, tell them yourself, and tell them which site to sign in to.