Short-course workflow guide

Start with what you want to achieve.

Finish this sentence together: “We want to be able to…”. It might be offering a new course, helping people join, handling changes consistently or understanding the figures. Then choose one real course that will help you examine that aim.

Choose one course you know well.

Choose one real course and an ordinary complication, such as a date change. Work with the colleagues responsible for it. Include the website, finance, learning or other systems that should remain in place, and follow what actually happens rather than an ideal process.

Read it online and use it with colleagues. No sign-up needed.

Follow the work that makes it possible.

Follow a normal booking and one ordinary complication. Note the people, decisions, records and checks involved. Keep the parts that already work well. Where something becomes difficult, identify the information or responsibility that would make a difference before deciding on a tool.

1. Publication

Who creates, approves and publishes course information?
Which record is authoritative for the price and date?
Where does a change require someone to update the same information by hand?

A useful output: Name the owner of course information and list every place it is published.

2. Enrolment

What does a learner need to know before joining, and when can they enrol themselves?
When does staff support help with prerequisites, access needs or exceptions?
Where relevant, how do employer bookings and payment arrangements work?

A useful output: Describe a normal booking and the cases that need a person’s help.

3. Changes

If a date or tutor changes, or a class is cancelled, who decides what happens?
Who updates the records, informs affected people and checks the work is complete?
Which exceptions need a different decision, and who owns them?

A useful output: Record the handovers and the final check for one ordinary complication.

4. Finance

How do enrolments connect with payments, invoices, refunds, credits or employer invoices where relevant?
What belongs in the finance system, and who owns those records?
What needs to reconcile, who checks it and how are exceptions resolved?

A useful output: Identify the authoritative financial records and reconciliation responsibilities. Not every course is learner-paid.

5. Completion

What attendance, outcomes and certificates are appropriate to this program?
Which records are needed, who checks them and who should receive them?
How do obligations differ across leisure learning, professional development or VET programs where relevant?

A useful output: Agree the completion records for this course, rather than assuming one set of obligations fits every program.

6. Improvement

Which single issue is worth exploring first?
Could you use time to publish, repeated updates or unresolved finance exceptions as a simple measure?
What is your own starting point, and who will review whether the change helped?

A useful output: Choose one improvement and a measure based on your work, not an external benchmark.

Map the work and the handovers.

Copy these headings into your team’s working notes. Add one row for each step and exception. The date-change row below is illustrative, not a customer workflow or an onCourse configuration.

One-course workflow map, with an illustrative date-change row
Step	Responsible person/team	System/record	What passes to the next person	Exception/check
Illustrative: change a class date	Program coordinator decides; administrator updates	Class record and published course details	Confirmed date and affected learner/tutor list to the communications owner	Check all affected people were informed and each published date matches
Your course step…	Who owns the decision and action?	Where is the authoritative record?	What information or task moves, and to whom?	Who checks completion or resolves an exception?

What would a useful next step look like?

You should have a picture of one course, a clearer view of responsibilities and one improvement to explore. Choose a measure from your own work so you can later judge whether it helped. If you want to discuss what you found, we can consider relevant onCourse examples and what would need to be agreed.

We distinguish existing platform capabilities, the setup your organisation needs and any connections requiring separately agreed work.

Talk through what you found

Plan a practical next step for your course programs.