Setting Up The Seminar Activity (Totara)

In this article you will learn how to use and manage seminars to engage your learners with synchronous (real-time) online learning activities.

Many effective blended learning experiences offer a combination of face-to-face and online learning, and mix self-paced study with periods of direct interaction with a trainer and other learners on and offline. Using the Seminar feature you can incorporate synchronous (real-time) online learning activities as part of your course offering. You can use seminars to schedule live sessions, sign-up learners to attend, send reminders, select rooms and assets and track attendance.

TOPICS

• Introduction to the Seminar Activity
• Seminar Administration Settings
  • Seminar Administration Dashboard
  • Seminar Default Settings
    • Global Settings
    • Activity Defaults
    • Event Defaults
  • Adding Custom Fields
  • Managing Rooms
  • Managing Seminar Assets

• Create a Seminar Activity
  • General Settings
  • Sign-Up Workflow Settings
  • Manage "Reservations"
  • Seminar Calendar Options
  • Seminar Activity Completion
• Add a Seminar Event
  • Add an Event Session
    • Scheduling Conflicts
• Add & Assign a Trainer
• Event Attendance
  • Add Attendees Manually
  • Take Attendance 
  • Export SeminarAttendance 
• Manage Seminar Notifications

• • Notification Templates
  • Notification Scope and Customization 

    • Add or Edit a Site-Wide Notification Template

    • Add Seminar Activity Notification

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Introduction to the Seminar Activity

The seminar activity module enables a Site Administrator or Editing Trainer to set up a booking system for one or many in-person/classroom based events.

Each event within a seminar activity can have customised settings around training room, start time, finish time, cost, capacity, etc. These can be set to run over multiple days or allow for unscheduled and wait listed events.  An activity may be set to require manager approval and trainers can configure automated notifications and event reminders for attendees.

Learners can view and sign-up for events with their attendance tracked and recorded within the grades area.

The diagram below illustrates how the Seminar activity is structured. A Seminar may hold one or many Events which may be made up of one or several Sessions. Each Session has a start and finish day and time and may be tied to a specific Room and any number of Assets.

In the topics that will follow, we will cover the settings you need to consider and the steps you need to take for effective Seminar management.

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Seminar Administration Settings

In order to add Seminar activities with Events to a course, the Seminar activity must be enabled on your site.  Site administrators can enable the Seminar activity from the Administration menu by going to Plugins > Activity modules > Manage activities. Here you will need to click the Hide/Show toggle icon (,) next to the Seminar activity so that the eye icon appears open.

  Seminar Administration Dashboard

The Seminar dashboard provides an overview of all seminar events across the site. A Site administrator can access a Seminar administration dashboard under the Site Administration menu via Seminars > Events report.

The dashboard is split into two tabs Events View and Sessions View.

• Events View: Shows one row per seminar event. 
• Sessions View: Displays one row per session date. 

These reports can be configured via the Report builder, the results exported to .csv, excel, .ods, or pdf, new columns and filters can be added, and each column sorted ascending or descending as required.  Administrators and users with the capability of totara/reportbuilder:manageembeddedreports can select Edit this report when viewing the dashboard or go to Reports > Report Builder > Manage embedded reports via the Site Administration menu.

The Actions column displays an icon () which provides a link directly to the corresponding Event's attendee list.

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Seminar Default Settings

To minimize any additional configurations of Seminars and Events for course creators and facilitators, a site administrator can create default settings for these based on the typical workflow or parameters set out by your organization. 

 Global Settings

Site administrators can manage Seminar activity settings across all seminars via Global settings.  These settings can also be accessed via the Site Administration menu via Seminars > Global settings or via Plugins > Activity modules > Seminars.

 

 

 

In addition to settings that apply to seminars globally, the Seminar activity has two inter-related components: the Seminar course activity and the Event(s) and Session(s) linked to that activity. 

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  Activity Defaults

Site administrators can manage Seminar activity default settings via the Site Administration menu within Seminars > Activity defaults.

  Event Defaults

Site administrators can manage Seminar Event default settings via the Site Administration menu within Seminars > Event defaults.

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Adding Custom Fields

Seminar custom fields can be managed by Site administrators via the Administration block within Administration > Seminars > Custom fields.

Custom fields can be added to a range of forms (Sign-up, User Cancellation, Event Cancellation) and elements (Event, Asset, Room) within the Seminar activity to request or provide information. 

Any number of custom fields can be added to each of the forms and elements and the selections made by users on the site.  

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Managing Rooms

A Site Administrator can access the Rooms administration dashboard via the Administration menu within Seminars > Rooms.

The Manage rooms area provides a list of all Rooms within the site and, by default, the ability to search for available Rooms by date.

To create a new Room within the site, use the Add a new room button located at the bottom of the Manage rooms page.  Enter in all values within each of the required fields.

Managing Seminar Assets

A Site administrator can access the Assets administration dashboard via the Administration menu within Seminars > Assets.

The Manage assets area provides a list of all Assets within the site and, by default, the ability to search for available assets by date.  Assets can include:

• Equipment such laptops, projectors, water coolers, cables
• People such as Trainers, IT technicians
• Services such as catering, room setup, enabling hearing loops, etc.
• Any other items you might wish to link to to an Event Session.

 

To create a new Asset within the site, use the Add a new asset button located at the bottom of the Manage assets page.  Enter in values within each of the required fields.

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Create a Seminar Activity

Creating a seminar event is a two-part process. First you must add a Seminar activity then you can add Event occurrences within the activity.

1. Log in as a Site Administrator or Editing Trainer, navigate to (or create) the required course.
2. Ensure editing is turned on.
3. Where the Activity chooser is on, select Add an activity or resource within the relevant section and select Seminar from the popup menu and click Add.
4. Complete the required sections and click...

• • Save and return to course to return to the course homepage,
  • Save and display to create the Event, or 
  • Cancel to discard your changes.

When adding a Seminar activity, the following are key areas to consider:

• General Settings
• Sign-up Workflow
• Manager Reservations
• Calendar Options
• Activity Completion

General Settings

In addition to the Name and Description fields, the following are general setting fields unique to the Seminar activity.
Third-party email address(es)	Third-party email address(es) is an optional field used to specify the email address(es) of a third-party (such as an external instructor) who will then receive all active notification messages for a session, including confirmation messages when a user signs up for a session. When entering multiple email addresses, separate each address with a comma.
Notify third-party about wait-listed events	Enabling this option will send third-party email address(es) a notification when a learner signs up for a Wait-listed event. When this option is not enabled, the third-party will only be notified when a user signs up or cancels for a scheduled event.
Events displayed on course page	This is the number of sessions for each seminar Activity that will be shown on the main course page.
Default 'allow cancellations' setting for all events	Set the default cancellation settings for this seminar and allow users to cancel their bookings 'At any time', 'Never', or 'Until cut-off reached' (x amount of time before the event starts).
Select job assignment on signup	When requesting seminar event attendance, learners can specify their job assignment relating to the training event. For seminar events that require manager approval, learners reporting to multiple managers can choose to select which manager should receive the booking approval request.
Prevent signup if no job assignment is selected or can be found	Limit registrations for the event to those individuals who have their job assignment(s) specified.

Sign-up Workflow Settings

The Sign-up Workflow settings manage the how attendees sign-up for seminars.

How many times the user can sign-up	Select from the dropdown how many times a learner may sign-up within a seminar activity: 1-10, or  Unlimited. A value of 1 disables multiple sign-ups. This setting does not take cancelled sign-ups or declined requests into consideration.
Restrict subsequent sign-ups to	Restrict subsequent sign-ups based on the state of previous signups. Choose from: Fully attended Partially attended No show Enabling any of these state restrictions will limit users to a single concurrent sign-up within the seminar, as they will not be able to sign-up to another event until their current sign-up has its attendance set to one of the selected states. If none of these restrictions are enabled users can have as many concurrent sign-ups within the seminar as the maximum limitation allows. Cancelled sign-ups are not taken into consideration.
Clear expired waitlist	The waitlist for events get cleared when when they start, allowing user to signup to new event.  The Waitlisted sign-up expired notification can be used to inform users about this happening.
Users can declare Interest	Displays an option within the seminar activity to allow a user to flag their interest and write a message without signing up. Information about those who have declared an interest can be reported on from within the activity. Choose from: Never, When no upcoming events are available for booking, or Always.
Require approval by	Available options are defined by the approval options setting on the seminar administration settings page.  They include: No approval: A user will be immediately booked into a event when signing up. When selected, the Add approver button will not be able to be selected. Learner accepts terms and conditions: A user will be presented the text defined in the text area below and required to accept the configurable terms and conditions. All users with Event role (e.g., Editing Trainer, Trainer, etc) assignments in the event will immediately be sent a notification with instructions to approve the attendee's request to sign up for the event. Manager Approval: The learner's manager will be immediately sent a notification with instructions to approve the user's request to sign-up for the event. Manager and Administrative approval: All users selected as an approver will be immediately sent a notification with instructions to approve the user's request to sign-up for the event. Approval can then be given by the Manager followed by the Administrator. However, the Administrator may finalize the request without Manager approval.

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Manage Reservations

Where the seminar activity has been set to Allow manager reservations, Staff Managers (users with direct reports) with the relevant Permissions and Capabilities in the context of the course can Reserve or Allocate spaces at a seminar event for members in their team. There is a difference between reserving a space and allocating a space:

• • Reserving spaces: Allows managers to secure a pre-determined number of spaces on a session for their team. This is helpful when it is not yet known who will be attending from a team.
  • Allocating spaces: Allows managers to assign a pre-determined number of spaces on a session for specific members in their team. 

The number of spaces that can be allocated is set per seminar activity, so if a lot of spaces are reserved for a particular event then there will be fewer available for other events. 

Allow manager reservations	If Yes, Managers are able to make reservations or bookings on behalf of their team members. Closer to the time of the event, a manager or trainer can nominate individual learners for the reserved bookings.
Maximum reservations	Set the number of reservations or bookings a Manager can make for members of their team.
Automatically cancel reservations	If enabled, reservations will be automatically cancelled based on the number specified in Reservation cancellation days.
Reservation cancellation days	Set the number of days in advance of the session that reservations will be automatically cancelled if not confirmed. Automatically cancel reservations must be set to Yes to be able to edit the number of reservation cancellation days.
Reservation deadline	The number of days before a session starts after which no more reservations are allowed. This must be greater than the number of reservation cancellation days.

 

 

Calendar Options

Learners can view their Seminar Event booking(s) in a number of areas including the:

• Site-wide Calendar (where shown).
• Seminar's course Calendar (where shown).
• Seminar's course home page.
• Seminar Events Dashboard.
• User's Bookings area within the My Learning area (where available).
• User's Dashboard under Upcoming Events.

 

Seminar Activity Completion

Before configuring activity completion it first needs to be enabled at the course level. You can turn completion tracking on by navigating to the course, then Course administration > Edit settings > Completion tracking. Set Enable completion tracking to Yes, then click Save and display. Now when you edit an activity the Activity completion section will be available.

If enabled, activity completion is tracked, either manually or automatically, based on certain conditions.

For the Seminar activity, it is recommended to use the Require status activity completion condition if the intention is to track completion based on attendance.

Add a Seminar Activity

After adding a seminar activity to a course page, events should be created that contain the specific date, time, and location (sessions) for the instructor-led/classroom based training (when known).  

Any number of events may be added to a seminar activity with all activity settings applicable to each Event.  And an event can be made up of any number of sessions.

• Log in as a Site Administrator or Editing Trainer and navigate to (or create) the required course. 
• Click on the name of the Seminar event or View all events from the course homepage.
• Click the Add a new event link.
• Enter the relevant details for the Event as per the below, including any Custom fields. 
• Click Save changes to add the Event or Cancel to discard your changes.

 

Date/time (Session)	By default, tomorrow's date and 9am-10am will be given as the (first) Date and time (Session) of the Event.  Use the edit icon () to open the Start and Finish Date time selector and enter the required dates.   Select the Add a new session button if additional sessions are required or use the Copy icon (two pieces of paper) to duplicate a Session Date/Time and make the required edits. For additional details on adding a new session, see Add an Event Session below.
Room	Click on Select room under the Room column to choose an existing Room for this Event Session or, if needed, Create a new room. Click Ok to save your selection(s) or Cancel to close the box without saving. (Please see Manage Rooms for more information). If you Create a new room within a Seminar Event, the Room will only be available for the current Event unless the 'Publish for reuse by other events' checkbox is enabled. This room can be made available to other Events at any time via the Edit Event dialog box. If your Event is run regularly over a set period of time (for example every Monday for a month) you should create a different Session for each day so you don't book a Room or for the entire month and calendar invites reflect the split training period.
Assets	Click on Select assets under the Assets column to book existing Assets for this Event or, if needed select Create new asset. Click OK to save your selection(s) or Cancel to close the box without saving.  (Please see Manage Assets for more information). Assets added via the Create new asset option will only be available within the current event unless 'Publish for reuse by other events' checkbox is enabled. This Asset can be made available to other Events at any time via theEdit Event dialog box.
Sign-up opens	If enabled, learners will not be able to sign up for this session until this time has arrived.
Sign-up closes	If enabled, learners will not be able to sign up for this session once this time has passed.
Maximum bookings	Sets the number of seats available at an Event. When a Seminar event reaches capacity, the event details no longer appear on the course page. The details will appear greyed out on the View all events page and the learner cannot enrol on the event.   You can either use the selected room capacity or manually override the maximum bookings allowed. If you expect a certain number of attendees to cancel or not attend the session, you might want to allow overbooking to ensure a full session. If you need to keep seats free for moderators or other trainers, you might choose to reduce the number of bookings available.
Enable Waitlist	When checked, learners will be able to sign up for a Seminar event even if it is already full.  When a learner signs up for a event that is already full, they will receive an email advising that they have been waitlisted for the event and will be notified when a booking becomes available.    When manager approval is required and a manager has the capability then the user on approval will go directly into the session. When manager approval is required and the manager doesn't have the  capability then the user on approval will go to the wait-list. To stop an Editing trainer, Trainer, or Course creator adding learners to the waitlist when it has been disabled, the capability must be switched off in the role. Learners will only be wait-listed if they have signed up for a session themselves. If the learner is booked by a Site Administrator, Editing Trainer, Trainer, or Course Creator, they will be automatically booked into the course, regardless of whether the session is over capacity or not. Learners who have the Sign up to full events capability set to Allow, will be signed up to the event instead of joining the waitlist.
Allow cancellations	Allow users to cancel their bookings At any time, Never, or Until specified period (x amount of time before the session starts).
Minimum bookings	If the minimum bookings has not been reached by the cut-off point, then the appropriate users will be automatically notified.
Notify about minimum bookings	If the minimum bookings have not been reached by the cut-off point, then the appropriate users will be notified. Users to be notified is determined by role assignments and the configuration setting under Site administration > Seminars > General Settings > Notification recipients.
Normal cost	Normal cost is the amount paid by learners who do not have a discount code.
Discount cost	The discount cost is the amount paid by learners with a discount code. If a discount cost is entered, the learner will be required to enter a discount code when signing up for a session.
Details	Details are tracked per Event basis. If text is populated in the Details field, the text will be displayed on the user signup page. By default, the details text also appears in the confirmation, reminder, waitlist and cancellation email messages.

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Add an Event Session

An Event can have many Sessions. The Date and time setting of an Event is effectively its session. The more dates and times you add, the more sessions your event has.

By default, tomorrow's date and 9am-10am will be given as the (first) Date and time (Session) of the Event.  Use the edit icon () to open the Start and Finish Date time selector and enter the required dates.  

Select Add a new session if additional sessions are required or use the Copy icon (two pieces of paper icon) to duplicate a Session Date/Time and make the required edits.

When editing a Date and time or adding a new date the Select date dialogue box will display the following options:

• Timezone: Select the timezone you want this Event to be displayed in e.g. 'Pacific/Auckland'. This will display the start time, finish time and timezone in accordance with the timezone selected. If you choose User timezone, this will display the start time, finish date and timezone in relation to the timezone of the user viewing the event.
  
• Start time: When creating or editing a Event, the event timezone may differ from the timezone for the Start time. This is because the timezone for Start time is determined by the timezone of the user creating or editing the Event. The timezone of the user creating or editing the event does not affect the event timezone itself.  Use the calendar icon to open the calendar view date selector. 
• Finish time: When creating or editing a Event, the event timezone may differ from the timezone for the Finish time. This is because the timezone for Finish time is determined by the timezone of the user creating or editing the Event. The timezone of the user creating or editing the event does not affect the event timezone itself.

Scheduling Conflicts

When updating the day or time of a Seminar Event, resulting in a scheduling conflict for one or more confirmed Attendees, you will be presented with a dialog box confirming whether you would like to Cancel your update, or Save changes and ignore all conflicts.

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Add & Assign a Trainer

• Select a Totara role for the trainer.  Your site is currently set to have the Editing Trainer as the role for the trainer. You can continue with this, add the Trainer, or a custom role. To be able to assign this role to the trainer role in a Seminar, go to Seminars>Global Settings and select the role.

• Go to the Administration block of the course, then Course administration > Users > Enrolled users. Locate and enrol the trainer(s) in the course in an Editing Trainer role.

• Once trainer(s) has been enrolled in the course in the appropriate role, the name of the trainer(s) will appear under the Event roles category when you add or edit a seminar event.

• A trainer can then be assigned in a pre-existing seminar event or when you add a new seminar event.

• You will see the results on the Attendees page under the Event Details tab.

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Event Attendance

It is possible for Site Administrators, Editing Trainers, and Trainers to add Learners as attendees to a seminar event.

Add Attendees Manually

To do this you will need to:

• Go to the seminar activity you wish to add attendees to.
• Alongside the corresponding event click the Attendees link.

• Within the attendees tab, the Actions dropdown choose Add users (manual).

• Next, search for the user by first name, last name or email address and/or clicking on their name(s) from the Potential user list.
• Once you have found the user, click their name and then select Add.
• Click theContinue button to confirm your updates.

• You will then be taken to the next steps where you can update your user selection via the Change selected users link.

• Configure any notifications you wish to send to the selected users and their managers.

Take Attendance

Once Attendees are booked and confirmed for a Seminar Event and the start time of the training has passed, an Administrator, Editing Trainer, or Trainer canTake Attendance.

The Take Attendance area can be accessed via the corresponding Attendees link in the Event.

Individual Attendance

You can mark attendance for each individual by using the corresponding Current status dropdown to select 'No Show', 'Partially Attended', or 'Fully Attended' as required.  A learner's status can be updated at any point once an Event has started.  Click Save attendance to save any changes or Cancel to clear all changes and return to the Attendees tab.

 

Bulk Attendance

Alternatively, you can mark attendance in bulk.  Using the Select dropdown choose All, Set, or Not Set then set the Mark all selected as dropdown to No Show, Partially Attended, or Fully Attended as required.

• • All: Select all learners.
  • Set: Select all learners that have already been marked with an attendance status.
  • Not Set: Select all learners that have not yet been marked with an attendance status.

Click the Save attendance button to save changes or Cancel to clear all changes and return to the Attendees tab.

Export Seminar Attendance

You can Export all users and their saved Attendance status to Excel, OSD or CSV.  Choose the required format from the dropdown menu and choose either the Open or Save File option when prompted.

Downloading a Sign-in Sheet

From the Attendees tab you can download a sign-in sheet for use in your seminar session. The downloaded sheet will include the attendees' names, any sign-up notes, and a space for them to sign into the session. 

1. 1. Go to the Attendeestab.
   2. At the bottom of the page there is an option to Download sign-in sheet. 
   3. If you have multiple sessions in your event, use the dropdown menu to select the session you want a sign-up sheet for. 
   4. Select the file format from: CSV, Excel, ODS, PDF landscape, PDF portrait
   5. Click Download sign-in sheet. 

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Manage Seminar Notifications

The Seminar functionality allows Trainers, Editing trainers and Site administrators to set automated and customized system generated notifications for various actions, updates and milestones related to a seminar activity and the associated events.

You can create new templates, edit, delete, activate or deactivate existing ones, and sort the listing by Notification title and Status.

The Status indicates if the notification templates are Active (visible and able to be used) or Inactive (not visible and unable to be used).  Administrators can Activate/Inactivate a notification using the corresponding eye icons (,) under Options.

Notification Templates

There are a number of notification that are available in the system by default. If you wish to edit any of them, then you can find guidance on doing so above. 

 

Notification Scope and Customization

There are two spaces where you can interact with seminar notifications:

• Notification templates (site-wide): The default content for these notifications can be set by via the Administration menu within Seminars > Notification templates.
• Seminar notifications (activity specific): Within a specific seminar activity you can customise and add notifications via Seminar administration > Notifications. 

In both cases you will see a list of all the predefined templates for Seminar Events and custom notifications you have created at the relevant level. 

 

 Add or Edit a Site-Wide Notification Template

A site administrator can add a new, site-wide notification template that will be available for use across all seminar activities on the site.

• • Open the seminar activity you wish to add a notification for.
  • In the Administration menu go to Seminars > Notification templates. 
  • Click the Add button under the list of notifications. 
  • Complete the settings below. 

• • When you are finished click Add. 

To edit an existing template click the corresponding edit () icon under Options alongside the notification you wish to edit. Remember to click Save changes once you are finished editing. 

 

 Add a Seminar Activity Notification

• • Open the seminar activity you wish to add a notification for.
  • Under Seminar administration go > Notifications. 
  • Click the Add  button under the list of notifications. 
  • Complete the settings below.

Scheduling	Choose whether the message should be sent immediately Send Now or scheduled to Send later before the start of the session, after the end of the event or before registration closes.
Recipients	Choose who will receive the Notification message based on their registration status: Booked: Send the notification to all users who were booked for the session. You can further specify that the message should go to those who Attended only or only those who did not attend with the status No Shows. Wait-listed: Will send a notification to those who are signed up for a event which allows overbooking, but are not yet booked. User cancelled: Will send a notification to users for whom the event was cancelled or users who cancelled their own registration for a session. Pending Requests: Will send a notification to users for whom have requested a booking from their manager/role/admin that has not been approved or declined yet. Please note, when selecting All booked, notifications will be issued to all booked users, regardless of their attendance status, for events past and present. There are two permissions that are important for adding recipients: mod/facetoface:addrecipients: Allows the assigned role to add any recipients to the seminar's message. mod/facetoface:removerecipients: Allows the assigned role to remove any recepients from the seminar's message.
Template	Select which (if any) Notification Template to use as a basis for your new message.  After selecting a Template, the message content will appear in the Body field.
Title	Enter a name or subject for your message.  This should allow you to distinguish this Notification from all others and will be used as the subject line of the notification email.
Body	This is the body of the notification to be sent.  Within the Body of the notification there are a number of placeholders that can be used where the Placeholder  will be replaced with the appropriate values when the message is sent.
Manager copy	Use the checkbox to send a copy of the Notification message to the learner's manager.
Manager copy prefix	Add an additional message that will appear as a prefix or preamble in the manager's copy of the Notification if required.
Status	Indicates if the notification should be 'Active' (visible and able to be used) or 'Inactive' (not visible and unable to be used).

• • When you are finished click Save. 

 

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