Waitlist Management for Other Program Registration

Overview

The Other Programs Registration module supports the ability for registrants to be put on the waitlist for a class. If waitlisting is enabled, after the class has reached the max number of students, the form will indicate that the registrant has the ability to sign up for the waitlist only, and this allows the user to select the class. If waitlisting is not enabled, after the class has reached the maximum number of students, the form will indicate the class is “Full” and will not allow the user to select the class.

Configuration

Registration Configuration Record

To globally allow waitlisting for the registration scenario, check the “Allow Wait List” flag on the Program Registration Config record (see screenshot). If “Allow Wait List” is checked, once the Max Students number is reached, the registrant will see a “Wait-list Only” notice in the registration interface. They will be able to register and be added to the waitlist for the class. Additionally, program managers may desire to display the waitlist length. If “Display Wait List Length” is checked, then the registrant will see a notice, “Wait List Only. Queue: 1st”, for example if they are the first to get onto the waitlist.

Course Record

In order to define which courses in the Registration Scenario allow for waitlisting, check “Allow Wait List” on the “Other” tab on the Course (see screenshot). In addition to the global setting on the Program Registration Config record (see above), this Course setting allows program managers to have control over which courses within the scenario allow waitlists.

Class Record

Set the Max Students number to indicate when registrants should begin to be added to the waitlist. Additionally, review and set the “Program Registration Availability Method” on the Registration Config tab in order to determine how waitlist and available seats should be calculated (see screenshot).

The default setting, “All Registrations” means that every registration that is “Confirmed” or further along in the process (including if payment selection has been indicated, or if payment is completed) will count against the Max Students number.

The alternative setting, “Paid Registrations,” means that only registrations where payment has already been received will count against the Max Students number. The “Paid Registrations” setting is used to configure classes where unpaid registrations should not influence the waitlist or the number of available seats that display online.

Program Registration Selection

No Waitlisting Enabled

If no waitlisting is enabled and the Max Students number is reached (which will be calculated one of two ways depending on the “Program Registration Availability Method” field), then the registrant will see a red “Full” notice on the class, and there will be no ability for the registrant to select the class.

 Waitlisting Enabled

If waitlisting is enabled and the Max Students number is reached (which will be calculated one of two ways depending on the “Program Registration Availability Method” field), then the registrant will see a pink “Wait-list Only” notice on the class. Additionally, if the Program Registration scenario allows for displaying the wait list length, the user will also see which spot in the queue they will occupy if they register. At this point, the user can select the class and be added to the waitlist. The user will not be able to pay at this time. For this reason, many registration scenario classes that require fees will set “Program Registration Availability Method” to the “Paid Registrations” value so that only registrants who pay the program fees count against the Max Students number, and unpaid registrants are not counted.

Managing Waitlist

For classes where waitlisting is enabled and the Max Students number is reached, the waitlist number will be filled on the Registration records sequentially. As waitlists are filled, the program managers may manually reassign waitlist numbers as needed if some registrants should be given priority over others.

If waitlist circumstances change, (for example, if a previously-registered student withdraws from the class roster), or if a student should be added to the roster for any reason, the program managers may record payment information on the Registration record by updating “Payment Received” and by updating the notes, and they may enroll from the waitlist onto the class roster (see GIF screenshot).

When a previously waitlisted registrant is enrolled on the roster, the remaining waitlist numbers will recalculate and remain in the same order.