Create a new multi-part (Sessional) Course Template

Steps to create a new Sessional Course Template

1 Add a new Course Template for each Course part
2 Add a new parent Course Template
3 Create the Sessions Plan

Related Helpguide Pages

Learn how to set up a new sessional course offering in your accessplanit platform by setting up a new Course Template.

Course offerings are continuously being updated; with course content being refreshed, and new courses being introduced. If you have a new course which is made up of multiple parts that you would like to offer through your accessplanit platform you will manage this in your accessplanit platform using a ‘Sessional Course’.

Sessional Courses are used to manage all Courses that have multiple parts, this includes:

Courses that run over multiple days (particularly non-consecutive days)
Courses that require different Resources (such as different Trainers) from day to day
Courses that are a combination of different types of learning (such as some Classroom dates, some eLearning elements, and some Webinar dates)
Courses that have optional elements (such as Courses where there is an optional exam at the end)

To build your own Sessional Course, you will first set up each of the parts to the Course as their own Course Template (such as a Course Template for ‘Day 1’, and another Course Template for ‘Day 2’), then you will build a ‘Sessional' Course Template which is where you will define the order that the sessions happen when this Course is scheduled!

If you will be offering a new Course which is made up of multiple parts, follow this page to learn the steps to set up a new Sessional Course Template.

Please note

There is a lot more information available in our Related Help Guide Pages (on the left of this page) for creating each type of Course Template, this guide focuses on linking multiple Course Templates together into a Sessions Plan to build a multi-session Course.

Add a new Course Template for each Course part

The first step is to add a new Course Template for each part of your Course, and include the typical information about this part, such as how much it typically costs and it’s standard duration. If you would like a more in depth look at creating a Course Template check out this page: Create a new Classroom Course Template

Open the Course Template DataGrid from your main menu on the left
Click the ‘Add Course Template’ button at the top of your DataGrid
This will open the new Course Template form
Enter the key details about your Course, including the Label, select the Course Template Type.
Please note - the Course Template ID will automatically populate if you leave this blank
Enter the typical Duration, Places, and Cost of the course, this will be the time of each Session. Start and end times are defined later
Please note that your settings here will be automatically inherited by the Courses you schedule using this Course Template, however you will be able to override them if any these Courses have a different Cost, Duration, or min/max places
Repeat steps 1 - 5 until you have created all the Sessions for your multi part Course offering.
You can use the ‘Add Another’ button to speed this process up!

Add a new parent Course Template

Once you have created each part of your Course, you will next add a new Course Template that will be the parent Course. This will be the Course that your customers will book onto.

Your ‘Head Course’ is the last Template to create and add, this will follow the same process to create a new Course Template. If you would like to see more detail about adding a Course Template see this page Create a new Classroom Course Template
The Duration for this Template will be the full length of the Course
For example, if a Course is made up of three 1-day sessions that run each Monday, the duration will be 15 days with session 1 on day 1, session 2 on day 8, and session 3 on day 15
Checking the ‘Is Course Sessional By Default?’ checkbox will change the Course Template to be Sessional and mean you can choose the Cost Type and assign your Sessions
By ticking this box you will get access to the ‘Default Sessional Cost Type’ drop down box
This field determines how the the cost of the Course should be calculated for each Delegate. There are a four options to choose from:
- Sum of Sessions - the Delegates will pay the total cost of each Session that they are attending, not the Cost of the Head Course.
- Course Cost - the Delegates will pay the cost of the head course (the one that you are currently creating!) and will not pay anything extra for each session they select.
- Course Cost Plus Optional Sessions - the Delegates will pay the cost of the head course plus the cost of any sessions which are not mandatory.
- Course Cost Plus Sessions - the Delegates will pay the cost of the head course plus the cost of every session.
Choose your Courses Minimum and Maximum Sessions
Here, you can enter how many Sessions a Delegate must select in order to book the course and the maximum number of Sessions they need to attend
Click the ‘Save’ button to create this Course Template

Create the Sessions Plan

The final step of building a Sessional Course is to create the Sessions Plan, this involves adding in each Course Template part as a Session to the parent Course Template, and deciding which Sessions are mandatory and which are optional.

Once you have saved your Course Template as Sessional, you will get an additional option in the Course Template Management Menu called ‘Session Plan Items' this is where you will define the schedule for your multi part Course
Click ‘Add Session Plan Item’
Select the first Session of the multi Session course (the one that will run first) This is the ‘Mapped Course Template’ selector
Use the ‘When’ options to choose when to this Session will run, these options are based on the start date of the ‘Head Course’

The Offset Type & Unit allows you to mark the time distance between the Head Course and the session.
Typically, the Offset Unit for the first session is 0 days/hours, as the first session will start at the same time as the Start Date/Time of the course.
Bear in mind that the Offset is always based on the Start Date of the Course (not the previous session), therefore a session running on day three of your course would have an offset of 2 (running two days after the start date).
It is important to take the following points into consideration when using the day offset in a Session Plan:
- When calculating total course length non-working days are not counted
- However, when calculating offset days in a session plan non-working days ARE counted, such as weekends
- When a Sessional Course is scheduled, if the session plan would result in a child session appearing on a non-working day, the child session will be placed on the next available working day, so make sure the dates of your session plan fall in the correct place after creating a Sessional course based from a session plan
Add an ‘Override Cost’, you can choose here if you wish to add a Cost for the course that will be different to the Cost you assigned when you created your Template
You can then choose if this session is mandatory, if the Delegate needs to attend the session, check this box
Selecting the option for ‘Clone Trainer’ and ‘Clone Venue’ will mean the Resource you add to the head course will be cloned to this Session, please note that the Trainer/Venue must be assigned when the parent Course is first scheduled for this option to work
Save & Close
Repeat these steps to link all of your Course Template sessions to your Head Course Template, and use the offsets to define your schedule, for example a three consecutive day course will have three session plan items with offsets of 0 days, 1 day, and 2 days