Program session (self contained CS /shared independent course session)

A program session is created in order to deliver a program and can be listed in the catalog for self-enrollment.

Program sessions can be set up in one of two ways:

A. Self-Contained Program Session (With course sessions auto-created during program session creation)

B. Empty Program Session (without auto-creation of course sessions)

A. Self-Contained program session

When a self-contained program session is created, the course sessions for each of the courses within the program are also created (using the same start and end dates as the program session). These course sessions are linked to the program session and are known as tightly-coupled course sessions

When creating a self-contained program session, leave the default state of the Create Course Sessions for all courses checkbox as checked.

The course enrollment type is controlled during the program creation. When adding a course to the program, the type of enrollment is determined by the Enrollment Type setting for the selected courses.

The Enrollment Type controls whether the learner is enrolled in the course sessions automatically upon program session enrollment or is required to self-enroll at a later time.
While the default enrollment type is auto-assigned, the Elected by Learner setting may prove useful when a program contains a large number of courses and you don’t necessarily want all course session enrollments to have the same start and end dates as the program session. This gives the learner more flexibility in scheduling.

In this example program, the first two courses are auto-assigned while the third is elected by the learner.

As courses are added to the program, each course shows its chosen Enrollment Type attribute.

The resulting learner view shows the auto-enrolled course sessions at the top of the program and those to be elected by the learner under the Not enrolled courses section.

B. Empty Program Session

An empty program session is created without any linked course sessions automatically created. The advantage of using an empty program session without tightly coupled course sessions is that each course session can be shared within multiple programs and used as an independent course session. This approach is suitable for when you don't want to have multiple course sessions for a single course. 

When creating an empty program session, uncheck the Create Course Sessions for all courses checkbox. 
 

Course sessions that were created outside of this program (and are available) will be shown under the program’s Not enrolled courses section for the learner to self-enroll.  On completion of a course, user's credits will be reflected in program's earned credits. Once user passes program completion criteria (Min Credits/ Mandatory courses), program will be marked completed and it's badge/certificate is awarded. 

[Note: If you want to setup few courses as 'elected by' and want to show 'Not enrolled courses' section to learner, you should create program using program type as ( Assessment/Certification/ Training/Other) as this section in available for these program types.]