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Minimum Number of Participants

1 Requirements

In scenarios where blended-learning or on-site-courses are mapped in ILIAS, there is often a need for cancellation deadlines:
In contrast to pure elearning courses, on-site components of a course consume certain resources that:

• Might also be used for other purposes.
• Must yield a minimum return on the costs.

Therefore, blended-learning courses possibly must be cancelled in case a specific minimum number of participants isn't completed.
And in contrast to pure elearning courses, the cancellation of on-site components of a course entails some possible other events:

• Must the training rooms be reserved?
• Is accomodation of participants needed?
• Must trainers be scheduled for the training?
• Are materials (print copies, devices, special clothing, food/drinks) to be provided?
• Are invitation mails to different stakeholders of the course (participants and their possible superiors, trainers, keynoters, hotel etc.) to be dispatched?

Therefore, blended-learning scenarios would benefit a lot if a minimum number of participants was introduced.
Currently, ILIAS only provides an option to state a maximum number.

1.1 Open Questions

• One question to be discussed here is whether this number refers to the members of the course or to the participants:
  (This distinction is another proposal within the "Seminar Management" complex.)
  And if it's participants, do we need a different behaviour for the "Maximum Number" setting, too?

• Another question is whether:

  • A course falling short of the minimum number is to be cancelled automatically or
  • The administrator(s) of such a course are to be notified in order to decide whether the course should be cancelled.

1.2 Related Topics

This article is only a part of an entire complex of features.
Immediately related topics are:

• Seminar Management
• Course Templates
• Central Seminar Provider Management
• Central Seminar Material Management
• Course/Group Cancellation Deadlines
• Member/Participant Distinction in Courses
• Central Trainer Management, incl. "Trainer Deployment Schedule"

2 Status

• Idea / concept: bromberger (a) qualitus.de
• Interest in funding: ???
• Maintainer: Meyer, Stefan [smeyer]
• Development: Feature is developed by Leifos
• Test cases: …

3 Additional Information

• If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: bromberger (at) qualitus.de

4 Discussion

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 20 July 2015: We appreciate the feature.

• The option should be available for sessions and groups, too.
• The property should be displayed on the info screen and the registration screen.
• If the admin/tutor has activated the notification (members screen) she will be informed about the fact that not enough registrations have been done after the end of the registration perioduntil the start date of the course (if given) (new cron job, one mail per day per user, aggregating all courses).

Bromberger, Norbert [bromberger], 13. August 2015: 

• good decision!
• But: An organization that provides a trainings offer has to look for their costs of the training (trainer, hotels etc.). The make contracts with the subs until which date they could cancel the order. The training organization calculates a minimum of participants that should be registered until this date so that the training will bring a benefit for the training organization. If the minimum number of participants is not reached the training admin should be informed so that he can cancel the offer. After passing the date of cancelation – registration are still possible until the end of end of the registration periode. In my opinion the date of cancelation is a much better criterion for starting the mailing process.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 17 Aug 2015: We discussed the feature again and make the following change: If the admin/tutor has activated the notification (members screen) she will be informed about the fact that not enough registrations have been done after the end of the cancelation period, if given. If not after end of the registration period. In both cases until the start date of the course (if given) (new cron job, one mail per day per user, aggregating all courses).

, 18 Aug 2015: For sessions there is no cancellation deadline  (see Course/Group Cancellation Deadlines) and no registration period. So I don't know if this feature makes any sense for sessions.
(Groups do not have a start date, but this is IMHO a minor problem.)

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], August 31, 2015: As long as sessions do not support cancellation deadlines and registration periods (which are needed to trigger a cronjob), a feature for minimum number of participants does not make sense for this object type.

5 Implementation

, 18 Aug 2015: This feature has been implemented.

Lauener, Hansjörg [lauener]: For ILIAS-Admins: Please note: this feature will only work if the cron-job 'Course/Group: Minimum Members Check' is activated in the ILIAS administration. 

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 26.07.2015 by Suittenpointner, Florian [suittenpointner]

• C6483: Mindestanzahl in Kurs-Einstellungen eintragen
• C6484: Benachrichtigung über zu geringe Teilnehmerzahl auslösen (Stornierungsfrist)
• C6485: Benachrichtigung über zu geringe Teilnehmerzahl auslösen (Buchungsfrist)
• C6486: Benachrichtigung über zu geringe Teilnehmerzahl läuft aus (Veranstaltungsbeginn)
• C6487: Benachrichtigung über zu geringe Teilnehmerzahl durch Einstellungsänderung beenden
• C6488: Benachrichtigung über zu geringe Teilnehmerzahl durch Teilnehmerverwaltung beenden

Approval

Approved at 15/08/28 by Bromberger, Norbert [bromberger].