Courses that become full after submission – our initial approach

1 June 2020 • Tags: course full

We had a number of questions about what happens when courses become full after a candidate submits their application - but before they get their references:

• What do providers expect when they mark a course as full?
• Will providers consider any applications after marking a course as full?
• Should we let providers choose how to respond when they have pending applications (applications which are submitted but waiting on references)?

This is a complex scenario with inconsistent behaviour.

As we approach the end of our first recruitment cycle, we need to minimise the risk of candidates wasting a choice on a course that becomes full while they wait for their references.

We need a solution to this problem, even if it’s not perfect, so we can learn more about this situation and continually improve how we manage it.

We can deliver something in 2 stages:

1. Notify candidates by email when a course becomes full, informing them of their options and pointing them to support if they want to change their course choices.
2. Allow candidates to update course choices themselves.

What can a candidate do? #

There are various ways a candidate can respond when their course becomes full while waiting for references.

When a course is full or has been withdrawn (for courses which have a single location or study mode) #

Candidates can:

• choose a different course
• remove course from application
• submit application anyway

When a location is full or has been withdrawn (for courses with multiple locations, but not study modes) #

Candidates can:

• edit location
• choose a different course
• remove course from application
• submit application anyway

When a study mode is full or has been withdrawn (for courses with multiple study modes, but not locations) #

Candidates can:

• edit study mode
• choose a different course
• remove course from application
• submit application anyway

When a study mode at a location is full or has been withdrawn (for courses with multiple study modes and locations) #

Candidates can:

• edit study mode
• edit location
• choose a different course
• remove course from application
• submit application anyway

Design #

We’ll start by emailing candidates who end up in this situation. The email will outline their options and ask them to let us know what they want to do by contacting us.

Later on we’ll build a more sophisticated process, allowing candidates to make changes themselves. They’ll also get a notification on their dashboard.

We used Google Docs rather than HTML to prototype our designs. This allowed us to quickly iterate the design and content.

Using a placeholder syntax to indicate which content can vary

Using tables to imitate buttons and summary cards

We’ll see if the resulting document gives developers enough information to build the pages in this flow.