The Share feature provides a variety of ways to get people into your Paths quickly and smoothly. In addition to email invites and shareable links, you can now instantly add individuals or groups of existing members to cohorts, download a QR code to use in print or digital media, or share via AirDrop or a variety of apps.
Additionally, your learners will be able to share your public courses with their friends, families, or other network to bring your content greater exposure (here are three tips for growing your online course with word of mouth).
Highlights for staff:
Instantly add your existing members to a cohort; you'll be able to add any number of people to a Path within seconds.
Select everyone from an existing cohort or mentor group and add them to a new cohort all at once.
Send email invites to new members and track the status of your invites. Bulk-add or invite new members by entering a comma-separated list of email addresses.
Copy a shareable link or a QR code to use in broader promotions.
Highlights for members:
Members can share public courses, extending your content's exposure by word-of-mouth and social sharing.
Teachers or Mentors can easily recommend a next course for someone they're mentoring to take from the public Library.
Where to find the Share button
For staff, open any cohort to the Path and the Share button for that cohort can be found at the top of Path next to the cohort name.
To quickly add people to a cohort you're teaching, you can also go to the Home page > Teach tab, open the additional actions by tapping the three dots on the cohort and then select "Share."
On a Public course, anyone can access the Share button just below the course title. This provides a shareable link that takes recipients to the About page where they can decide if they want to sign up for any public offerings of the course.
Views/visibility of the Share button
Admins and Library Editors will have access to all the share options listed below for any cohort. They will be able to "Add" anyone in the account-wide member Community to a cohort.
Course Editors will have access to all the share options for courses that they can edit. They will only be able to "Add" people that they already have access to.*
Teachers and Moderators will have access to all the share options below in cohorts they are teaching. When selecting roles, Teachers can select up to the Teacher role and Moderators can select up to the Moderator role. They will only be able to "Add" people that they already have access to.*
Mentor Group Admins and Mentors will have access to the Share button on Public courses and Share will include only "View" links.
However, if they are also enrolled in a cohort as a teacher or moderator, they will be able to enroll everyone in their Mentor Group in that cohort using all the share options listed below.Learners, Observers, and Visitors will only see the Share button on Public courses. Share will only include "View" links.
Course Editors, Teachers, Moderators, and Mentor Group Admins and Mentors can "Add" people to cohorts if they already have access to people due to the following conditions: the member is enrolled in a course that they edit, is enrolled in another cohort that they teach, or is a member in a Mentor Group where they are a Mentor or Admin).
Ways to share
There are two main ways to share a Path.
You can copy a shareable link to your clipboard, download a QR code that directs people to the shareable link, or use the mobile share options to access the shareable link.
Or, you can add people to your account instantly under the "Add" tab. If no payment is required and the person already has a login, they will be enrolled instantly. Anyone who needs to create an account or needs to pay for a course will receive a personal invite link by email. They will need to accept the invite link in their email to create their account and/or pay for the course if payment is required.
1. Link
Copy shareable link
Select the link icon to copy the shareable invite link to your clipboard. Paste it anywhere you like. Common uses for the shareable link include...
adding as a hyperlink to text or a button on an external website
adding as a hyperlink to text or a button in an external email
share on a Slack channel or other communication app
share via text
paste into an Embed Block in another course as a way of sharing recommended courses to take next
and more.
QR code
Download a unique QR code in .png format to use on printed materials like newsletters, handouts, a syllabus, posters...or a billboard or wherever you like! When someone scans the QR code with their phone camera, it will take them to the shareable invite URL on the mobile browser.
Share via...
This feature works best on your device's default browser and will pull up the default share options for your particular device and browser combination, such as AirDrop, text, email, WhatsApp, social media platforms, or other apps installed on your device.
This allows learners to share a public course to social media, lets a teacher to AirDrop a private link to a course to her students, adds a shareable invite link to a new email using the default email app on your device...and more.
Please note that this feature is not currently supported on the Chrome or Firefox browsers. The "share via" options that you can access depend on your unique device and browser setup.
Choose roles
This determines the permissions provided by the share link.
View: review the About page and decide if they'd like to join.
Observe: view-only access (cannot complete steps or interact with community).
Learn: complete steps and use Learning tools.
You can continue inviting Course Editors as indicated here or using Add to Path to assign courses to Course Editors for this release.
2. Add
Step 1: Find people
Enter email(s)
You can type in an email address or paste in comma-separated email addresses to add people in bulk (easily add 50, 100, or 1,000 people from a list of emails).
Bulk-add email addresses
When adding a list of emails, the email addresses will need to be separated by commas. Paste in your comma-separated list of emails, then be sure to select all using the "Select" button. Click the "Add" button to send.
Use Look-up
Start typing a name to look up an existing member, Cohort, or Mentor Group, or choose from the drop down menu.
Existing Member - look up an existing member by name or email address.
💡Tip: You can even look up multiple users with a common company or team email by searching for just the "@teamname.org" portion.Existing Cohort - look up all the members of any existing cohort.
New! Now you can search for an existing cohort, select everyone enrolled in that cohort (you'll have a chance to edit your selection and roles), and then instantly add everyone to the current cohort.
💡Tip: use the cohort lookup to select people taking an existing cohort and enroll them in a new cohort.Existing Mentor Group - look up all the members of a Mentor Group.
New! Now you can search for an existing Mentor Group, select everyone who is a member of that Mentor Group, and instantly bulk-add them to any cohort.
💡Tip: if someone is a Teacher or Moderator in a cohort and they also hold the Group Admin or Mentor role in a Mentor Group, they will be able to open the cohort and add their entire Mentor Group to the cohort (they'll have a chance to edit the selection and roles before adding).New Member - send an invite link to simultaneously add a new person to your account and enroll them in the current cohort.
💡Tip: you'll be able to track the status of sent invites (see the section on the "Track" tab below).
Step 2: Select people and roles
Select people
Note that if you choose a group of people under Add (a cohort, a Mentor Group), you'll need to select people before you can continue. You can hit "select all" or manually select just a subset of people.
Choose roles
Once you've added someone or selected a group of people, you'll be able to adjust the role that you're giving them in the cohort. You can select a role from the "Update all" menu or choose a role from the drop down menu to the right of each person's name individually.
Here are the available roles:
Observe: view-only access (cannot complete steps or interact with community).
Learn: complete steps and use Learning tools.
Add a message (optional)
If you'd like to add a personal note or provide more context for the people receiving the assignment or invite, you can optionally write a message.
Track
If you invited anyone via a personal email invite, you can track those sent email invites under the Track tab. View the delivery status, revoke the link, resend the link, or copy the link (to send another way). After a single use, these invite links will be expired.
Note that the shareable links from the Link tab cannot be tracked.
What happens when you add people
If no payment is required and the person already has a login, they will be enrolled instantly.
Anyone who needs to create an account or needs to pay for a course will receive a personal invite link by email. They will need to accept the invite link in their email to create their account and/or pay for the course if payment is required.
FAQs
Why can't I copy the shareable link or download the QR code?
You won't be able to copy the link or QR code in the following circumstances:
The cohort seat limit is met.
Access to the cohort is expired.
The registration window is expired.
The cohort is marked as complete.
The cohort seat limit, registration window, and access window can be adjusted under the Cohort Settings.
Why can't I select or add people?
See the previous FAQ for general reasons why Share options may be unavailable. Additionally, you won't be able to select or add specific people in the following circumstances:
The individual is already enrolled in any role.
The individual's access to your account is revoked or their user is archived.
Find instructions for changing the role of someone already enrolled here. Find instructions for restoring a member's access to your account here.
How does Share compare to Add to Path?
The Add to Path feature was designed to add one or more cohorts to a single learner's path. It can only be accessed by admins, can only be used to assign courses to one person at a time, and it bypasses payment in some cases. Add to Path doesn't work with subscription-only courses when the learner is not subscribed.
By contrast, Share can be used to add multiple people to a single cohort, it can be accessed to varying degrees by anyone, and it never bypasses payment or the requirement for a subscription.
We plan to eventually expand the Share feature to replace and improve on the functionality of Add to Path and the remaining staff, member, and course editor invite interfaces.
If I add someone using Share, will they be prompted to pay?
Yes, if payment or a subscription is required to join your Path in the selected role, then the person you invite or add will be prompted to pay or subscribe in order to access the Path. The Share feature (unlike Add to Path) never bypasses payment.
Can I limit the Share options by changing the cohort settings?
Yes, the Share button is only visible to Members and Visitors when the cohort visibility setting is "Public." By setting your cohort visibility to "Private" or "Members-only," the Share button is hidden from everyone except staff.
Additionally, you can set a seat limit, registration window, access window, or mark a cohort as completed to disable the Share options for everyone.
The cohort visibility, access and registration windows, and seat limits can be adjusted under the Cohort Settings.
If someone shares an invite link to a public cohort and you later make the cohort invite-only, the public registration link will no longer allow learners to register. There are different formats for invite links to public cohorts versus private cohorts.