Schedules & release windows

A schedule decides when a program opens and when it closes. Use it to run a program on fixed dates for a group that moves through together, to give each person their own window starting the day they enroll, to release the material in stages, or to leave it open-ended.

Availability

Plan: Scheduling itself is not plan-gated and is not a module your organization turns on. Getting to a program in order to schedule it does depend on the Programs module, which is part of your subscription package and set by Lurno.

Permission: the Scheduling entry in the sidebar appears for anyone who can manage enrollment in the organization. Inside a program, the Simple editor saves under the same permission that lets you edit the program. The Advanced builder saves under the manage-schedules permission — on the standalone builder reached from the Scheduling section, the save button is simply hidden without it.

Don’t see this in your account? See Plans, permissions & modules.

What this does

A schedule attaches a schedule type and its dates to one thing — a program, one offering of a program, or a single step inside a program. Lurno stores at most one schedule per thing, so a program carries one schedule and each offering carries its own.

To run the same program on two different calendars, create a second offering in Enrollment and schedule that offering; see Enrollment overview.

A “program” may be renamed in your organization (a course, a track, a curriculum, a learning path); see Terminology.

Before you start

• You can manage scheduling in your organization.
• The program exists and has content. See Building a course.
• Decide which schedule type fits before you open the builder — it is the first step and it changes which date fields appear.

Two ways in — and they are not the same record

From the program. Open Programs, open the program, then use the Scheduling group in the left rail: Schedule, Prerequisites, Drop policy, Calendar. This is the one to use. Schedule always loads what is already saved on the program, so editing is safe and repeatable.

From the Scheduling section. Open Scheduling in the sidebar and choose Schedule a program. You get a list of the programs set up for enrollment; picking one opens the same builder pointed at that offering rather than at the program.

Caution

The builder reached from Scheduling → Schedule a program always opens blank and always tries to create a new schedule. It does not load a schedule that offering already has, and saving a second time fails because only one schedule per thing is allowed. Treat it as a first-time setup path, and make later changes from the program’s own Scheduling → Schedule.

Simple and Advanced

Inside a program, Scheduling → Schedule opens with a Simple / Advanced tab pair in the header.

Simple is a step list. Each step of the program gets two dropdowns — Starts and Due — and changes save automatically as you make them. A Live preview below shows the resulting order. Simple is described in Drip content.

Advanced opens the full schedule builder described below, and Lurno switches you to it automatically when the program uses something Simple can’t draw. Hover the tabs and the tooltip lists which of these applies:

• a step has a drop policy
• a step has a cohort-scoped variant
• a step has AND/OR conditions
• a step uses a non-completion prerequisite, such as a date
• a step depends on a step that isn’t immediately before it
• a step uses an advanced schedule shape
• a step depends on something outside this program

Build a schedule (Advanced)

The builder is a four-step wizard: Type → Dates → Drip rules → Review & save. The Drip rules step appears only when the type is Drip.

1. Type — pick one of five: Always available, Fixed dates, Rolling, Drip, Cohort.
2. Dates — fill the fields that type needs (see the table below).
3. Optionally fill the Enrollment window (optional) block — Enrollment opens, Enrollment closes, Seat limit. See the caution under the reference table before you rely on these.
4. Drip rules (Drip only) — see Drip content.
5. Review & save — the review lists the program and the type, plus the seat limit and enrollment window when you set them. Choose Save & preview.

A Live learner preview panel sits beside the form the whole time and updates as you type, so you can read the schedule back as a sentence (“Fixed window — opens …, closes …”) before committing.

Schedule types

Type	What it does	Dates you set
Always available	No fixed dates; people can join and finish any time	None
Fixed dates	The same start and end for everyone	Program opens, Program closes
Rolling	Each person gets their own window from their enrollment date	Duration, in days from enrollment
Drip	A window plus per-item unlock, close and due day offsets	Program opens, Program closes, plus drip rules
Cohort	A group moves through together on a shared window	Cohort starts, Cohort ends

Reference

Field	What it controls
Program opens / closes	The access window for Fixed and Drip schedules
Cohort starts / ends	The shared window for a Cohort schedule
Duration	Days from each person’s enrollment until access ends (Rolling)
Enrollment opens / closes	Recorded on the schedule and shown in the preview
Seat limit	Recorded on the schedule and shown on the review step

Caution

Enrollment opens, Enrollment closes and Seat limit are stored on the schedule and shown back to you, but nothing about registration is decided from them. Who may register, when registration is open, capacity and the waiting list are all handled in Enrollment. Set them there. See Enrollment overview.

Time zones

The schedule builder has no per-schedule time zone. Program opens / closes and Cohort starts / ends are plain calendar dates. Enrollment opens / closes are date-and-time fields, read in the time zone of the browser you type them into.

Your organization has a time zone of its own, on the Language Settings tab of the organization’s page (My Organizations → open the organization). It starts at Not set. Setting it does not retro-shift a schedule you already saved, and the scheduling module does not read it — it exists for other parts of Lurno. See Organization settings.

Troubleshooting

Content is locked when it should be open. Check the schedule type first. A Rolling schedule starts from each person’s own enrollment date, so two people see different dates from the same schedule. For Drip, also check the item’s own offsets on the Drip rules step.

Saving from Scheduling → Schedule a program fails. That offering already has a schedule, and that path can only create. Open the program instead and edit its schedule from the left rail.

Two groups need different dates. A program carries one schedule. Create a second offering for the program in Enrollment and schedule that offering separately, rather than editing one schedule back and forth.

The Simple tab is greyed out. The program uses a shape Simple can’t represent. Hover the tabs for the list of reasons, and work in Advanced.

The end date passed but people still have access to their records. Closing a program ends new activity; it does not remove enrollments. To remove people, see Transfers & removals.

The save button isn’t there. On the standalone builder the save button is hidden when you can’t manage schedules. Inside a program the button stays visible and the server refuses the save instead. See Roles & permissions.

Related

• Drip content
• Prerequisites
• Drop policies
• Enrollment overview
• Enrolling people & groups