While helpful, user groups are limited because they are static.  For someone to be a part of the group, the administrator must add each person to the collection. If someone in the organization becomes a candidate for a group, or if someone is no longer considered appropriate for the group, the portal administrator must maintain the user group by adding or deleting those users manually.

With the Audience option, administrators can set up rules which define the audience and then leverage that Audience as a group for enrollments, notifications, and other uses. This makes Audience dynamic. The portal administrator sets up a rule with specific criteria defining the membership, and the LMS includes anyone who matches those criteria. Membership automatically fluctuates to include or exclude individuals depending on how they meet the rule's criteria.

To create an Audience: 

1. On the left navigation menu, select Audience > Add Audience. 
2. Define the Audience Name, Description, and Status.  
3. In the Filter section, build the rules that will define your Audience membership. The criteria available work similarly to our Advanced User Search, which you can review for information on building the query. The example below shows an example of an Audience definition where:
   - Username contains the letter “S”
   - Are in the National Football League Organization
4. Click Preview Users to verify the list, if desired.
5. Click Submit to save the record.

The example below shows the results of Preview Users.

Unlimited Enrollment

In response to user requirements for enrolling large groups of users, we have created an offline (asynchronous) batch processing option for enrolling large numbers of students. In addition, we have increased the capacity for quick (synchronous) enrollments to 100.

The batch process works by  allowing the administrator to define targeted users via the Advance User Search tools and then directing the system to handle enrollment conflicts. The process looks like this: 

• Select the course into which you want to batch enroll users and select the Batch Enroll option.
• Identify the criteria you want to use for defining the target users.
• Select the desired overrides (if any) to manage enrollment conflicts (all courses) and enrollment limits (for ILT courses only), choosing whether or not to override any enrollment conflicts 
  • choosing whether or not to override any enrollment conflicts 
  • deciding what to do about enrollment limits (ILT classroom courses only) 

1.  Select your course and navigate to the Course Details page (for Self Study, E-Learning, Assessment or Course Group courses) or Offering Details page (for ILT or V-ILT courses) and click on the Enroll Others tab.

2.  When the enrollment page appears, click on the Batch Enroll link.

3.  When the criteria selection page appears, select the appropriate Criteria to define whom you want to enroll in the course and click Preview Users at the bottom of the page.
 


4. On the Preview Users page, review the list of enrollees. If they are correct, then click the Next: Conflict Management button at the bottom of the page. If they are not correct, click on the Back to Filter button to return to the audience criteria (filter) page.



5. When the Conflict Management page appears, select the desired options for managing the potential conflicts in the system (“How do you want to handle any enrollment conflicts?”) and, if the course is an ILT offering, managing the seating limit (“How do you want to handle enrollments beyond the seat limit of this offering?”). Once you have made the desired selections for conflict management, click on the Next: Review button. 



6. On the Review and Submit page, review your selections. If everything is set for the intended enrollees, click the Enroll Users button. Otherwise, you can click Back to Conflict Management to return to the conflict management page and change your selections for overrides.



7. After you click on Enroll Users button, the system will inform you that processing (processing confirmation) is occurring and you will be notified via email (or the messages in the “My Messages” section of your home page in the LMS) when the enrollments are complete.




Take note of the following:

• Users will be enrolled in the course via their primary profile 
• Be patient with the notification; if you have enrolled thousands of users, it might be a little while before you are notified of the completion of the process
• When you receive the notification, it will list all the users successfully enrolled, those who are on the interest list, those who are on the waitlist and anyone who could not be enrolled.