Collecting Sign-Ups for Trial Lessons

A trial lesson gives potential participants a chance to try out a class before committing to a full course — and gives you the opportunity to assess their level and needs. In ActiveNow you can collect trial lesson sign-ups online, assign instructors, and convert a trial into a regular individual or group course in just a few clicks.

1

Availability for trial lessons

Go to Settings → General → Additional features and enable Trial lessons (individual).

Settings page showing the Trial lessons (individual) feature toggle

Before you can start accepting trial lesson sign-ups, you need to set up availability for them in the Calendar. To do this, drag across the Calendar to create a new Availability for trial lessons (individual).

Calendar showing a new availability block being created for trial lessons

For each availability block, specify the trial lesson type (for example, the subject) and select which instructors can teach that type of trial lesson during the given time. You can also repeat the availability for other days of the week and set when it is active (for example, add breaks).

Availability block configuration form showing trial lesson type, instructor, and schedule options

2

Trial lesson sign-up form

Next, you need to add the trial lesson sign-up form to your website. You can find it in Settings → Sign-ups. Click Place on website next to the trial lessons form, copy the form code, and paste it into the appropriate place on your website.

Settings Sign-ups page showing the trial lesson form with a Place on website button

You can edit the form by clicking Edit next to the trial lesson form in Settings → Sign-ups.

The sign-up form will show available time slots for the selected trial lesson type, calculated based on the availability of instructors assigned to that type.

Trial lesson sign-up form showing available time slots

3

Handling trial lesson sign-ups

All sign-ups submitted through the form will appear in Pending sign-ups → Trial lessons signups. There you can confirm or reject each sign-up. When confirming, you can review all the details, select an instructor from those available at the chosen time, and leave an internal note for the instructor. If the lesson takes place Online, you also need to provide a link to the session. After confirming, the client will receive an email with all the trial lesson details.

Pending sign-ups page showing the Trial lessons signups list with confirm and reject options

If your trial lessons are not free and you use online payments, you will see the payment status for each lesson. Payment alone does not automatically confirm the sign-up — the school still needs to confirm it manually.

Trial lessons sign-ups list showing payment status for each entry

4

Following up after a trial lesson

Once a trial lesson ends, the instructor can record whether the participant wants to continue and leave a comment for the school (for example, about convenient course times for the participant or instructor).

Trial lesson detail view showing the instructor's continuation decision and comment field

As soon as the decision is recorded, it will appear in Pending sign-ups → Finished trial lessons.

From there, you can use the Actions button to:

• Create an individual course for the participant (they will receive an email notifying them)

• Add the participant to a group course (they will receive an email notifying them)

• Hide the task from the pending list

Finished trial lessons list showing the Actions dropdown with course creation options

Every hour, finished trial lessons for which the instructor has not yet recorded a continuation decision will also appear on the list. This lets you follow up with the participant or ask the instructor to fill in the decision — which they can do in their Instructor Panel, in the e-register, or in the Decisions after trial lessons tab.

5

Creating trial lessons manually

You can also create a trial lesson manually from the Calendar. Drag across the Calendar to create a New trial lesson and assign any participant from the list. The participant will not receive a confirmation email when added this way, so manual trial lessons are best created after privately agreeing on the details with the participant.