Some important details on the application process, where teachers review the student applications while candidates receive email notifications about their status, were discussed in my previous post.   Also mentioned was the need to have a waiting list to give teachers more control over the application process.

Let's get into more details about the waiting list in this post.

Requirement No. 3:  The need to have a waiting list which gives teachers more control over the application process

Teachers set the number of students that they want to accept into the course so that if the maximum number of students has been reached, future registrants will be put on the waiting list.  Similarly, users who do not meet a pre-requisite, for instance, a minimum grade, are also placed in the waiting list.

The Solution:

We have integrated the waiting list interface which allows teachers to view the users according to type.

Users in the waiting list interface can be grouped into one of three types:

• Users in Waiting List which refers to uses who have been placed in the waiting list either because they did not meet a prerequisite for the course or because the course ran out of slots.
• Users in Waiting List that have been approved which refers to users who have been approved to participate in the course they have chosen.
• Users that need Prerequisite Approval which refers to users who have not met prerequisites such as a required grade to participate in the course.
• Users whose Prerequisites have been approved which refers to users whose application to participate have been approved by the teacher, in spite of the inability to meet a prerequisite.

In some cases, students may also opt to be placed on the waiting list, even if the course is still open, and decide later if they wish to be enrolled into the course.  In any case, when a student is put on the waiting list, they receive an email notification that gives them a set period of time to accept a spot on the waiting list.

Benefits:

This gives teachers to have control and authority over the course applications by allowing them to set the number of students that can be accepted into a course.  It also gives teachers or course administrators ease in the review and acceptance of students by allowing them to specifying course requirements or pre-requisites.  Having been able to define the course pre-requisites, teachers are able to view the list of registrants and applicants in various states of registration.