Self-Enrollment Options

Self enrollment is a method to allow users to enroll themselves into a course section in Moodle or Learn. This should not be enabled for students in any for-credit courses, as enrollment needs to be connected to PeopleSoft. For other types of courses (orientations, trainings, microcredentials, etc.), self-enrollment may be appropriate.

Options

There are different options that can be set up for self-enrollment, depending on your needs and the best fit for the user experience. The TLC is happy to partner with you to choose the best option, as they have experience in the pros and cons for each method.

1. Open Self-Enrollment

   This will allow anyone with access to Moodle or Learn to self-enroll into the course section freely. They enroll by either searching for the course section on Moodle or Learn and clicking Enroll or by using a direct URL to the course section in Moodle or Learn, then clicking Enroll.
   

   Pros	Cons
   This is the easiest method of self-enrollment because there are no enrollment keys. This is the easiest method to set up technically as there are no special settings beyond enabling self-enrollment.	Anyone with access to Moodle or Learn can enroll, so content is open and freely available to anyone at Clarkson.

2. Self-Enrollment with Enrollment Key

   This will allow anyone with the Enrollment Key and access to Moodle or Learn to self-enroll into the course section. They enroll using the same method described above for Open Self-Enrollment, but also have to enter an Enrollment Key to gain access.
   

   Pros	Cons
   You can better control access as only those that have been given the Enrollment Key can self-enroll	You have to ensure the users have the correct Enrollment Key, so there is one more step to self-enrolling. You cannot prevent users from sharing the Enrollment Key, so it is still a good idea to monitor the participant list.

3. Self-Enrollment with Group Key

   This allows anyone with a Group Enrollment Key and access to Moodle or Learn to self-enroll into the course section. They enroll using the same method described above for Open Self-Enrollment, but also have to enter a Group Enrollment Key to gain access. The difference between using a Group Enrollment Key versus an Enrollment Key is that users are automatically placed into a pre-designated group when they self-enroll. This can be helpful when you have cause to separate users in the course section out for activities, ease of grading, communications, etc. Although this involves a bit more work up front, it is excellent for course organization in certain situations.
   

   Pros

   Cons

   This is a fast, easy way to separate users in the course from the start. When users are separated into groups, anything in the course can be released just to specific groups including resources, activities, and communications. Users will be separated out into groups in the Gradebook, making it easy for different instructors to grade or view different groups, grade just certain groups (ex: those that need to complete the course versus those that do not), etc.

   This self-enrollment method takes close attention to detail and more set-up as you need to first set up the desired groups and assign them a Group Enrollment Key before enabling Self-Enrollment. You need to distribute different Group Enrollment Keys to your different audiences.