What Is the Sessions Activity Function?

Open LMS’s session activity function is a flexible scheduling tool that lets you create and manage learning events inside your course. It’s designed for both simple sessions (like a single lecture with a Zoom link) and complex programs (such as multi-day workshops, training tracks, or events with multiple trainers, rooms, or equipment).

Students can register, receive reminders, and track their attendance. Teachers can organize sessions, manage resources, and monitor participation with detailed reporting.

Key Features at a Glance

• 📌 Add multiple session activities to the same course
• 🔀 Organize sessions into tracks (e.g., Track A: Beginners, Track B: Advanced)
• 📅 Add multiple dates within a track (e.g., weekly classes, multi-day events)
• 📆 Automatically create linked calendar events that update if the session changes
• 🏷 Add custom fields (like trainers, rooms, equipment) to sessions and tracks
• 👥 Manage capacity for rooms/locations so you don’t overbook
• 🚫 Set trainer/room availability and unavailability
• 📨 Send confirmations, cancellations, or reminders to students (and their supervisors/mentors if enabled)
• ✅ Define completion rules (e.g., “fully attend track(s)”)
• 🔒 Control who can register and when they can cancel

Adding a Session Activity

1) General settings

• Add a name and description for your session
• Choose whether to:
  • Show sessions in the course calendar
  • Send email notifications with iCalendar attachments
• Configure enrollment options:
  • Decide if attendees must already be enrolled in the course or if they will be automatically enrolled
  • Set the maximum tracks per user
  • Set the maximum waitlist spots per user
• Attendance and booking options (manual booking, etc.) are available in addition to the standard activity settings.

Once you click Create, additional configuration options will appear.

2) Tracks

• Create one or more tracks if you want to group sessions into different pathways.
• For each track, define:
  • Track name, Track ID, Description
  • Maximum number of attendees
  • Instructor
• Within each track, you can add multiple sessions:
  • Define start and end dates, notes/instructions for attendees, and session instructors
  • Sessions can be updated or cancelled individually, or the entire track can be cancelled

3) Booking Sources

You can control how attendees are booked into sessions. Each booking method can be enabled/disabled and given a time window.

• Manual booking
• Group sync booking
• Cohort sync booking
• User sign-up.

Teachers can also book attendees manually from the course list, book entire cohorts, and define the behavior for overbooking (skip users/allow over limit).

4) Notifications

Decide which messages should be sent:

• User booked (standard or custom)
• Booking cancelled (standard or custom)
• Booking restored (standard or custom)
• Training session cancelled (standard or custom)
• Training track cancelled (standard or custom)
• Attendee messaging (standard or custom)

5) Other options

• Manage permissions
• Configure waitlists
• Restore backups if needed

6) Final Step

Once configured, everything is ready for students to join the sessions—or sign up themselves if allowed.
 

Managing Sessions

• ✅ Track Attendance → Mark attendance for each date
• 📊 Reports → View who attended, missed, or partially attended
• ✉️ Messaging → Send targeted messages to all participants, only those booked, or those who cancelled
• 🛠 Resource Management → Rooms, trainers, and equipment availability are automatically checked to prevent double-booking

• Example Scenarios

• University lecture series → Add a weekly track with 10 dates, linked to the same room
• Corporate training program → Create beginner and advanced tracks, each with its own trainers and equipment
• Workshops → Book rooms with set capacities, send confirmations, and track who completes at least three of four sessions
• Office hours → Create multiple dates in a track, let students register for a slot, and avoid trainer double-booking

Tips for Teachers

• Use tracks to separate different groups or cohorts
• Always set room capacity to prevent over-enrollment
• Enable notifications to reduce no-shows
• Regularly check attendance reports to follow up with absent students

Migrating from Face-to-Face to Sessions

For sites actively using Face-to-Face, we have provided a migration option to move existing activities into Sessions.

To use it:

1. Add a new Session activity to the course that contains the Face-to-Face activity you want to migrate.
2. Once the Session activity is created, enter it and click the Migrate Face-to-Face button.
3. Select the pre-existing Face-to-Face activity in the course that you want to migrate.

During the migration process, existing Face-to-Face sessions will be converted into tracks with sessions inside.