If you manage and sell online courses, these tips will make managing waiting lists a breeze.

Registration for courses can be a stressful and important process, as courses are usually available with a limited number of spots, even online. Many courses are also essential classes for student learning as well as requirements for certain degrees.
Using online courses with WordPress can make the online learning process smoother for students and allow courses to exist to global users, although with that many potential students, there are bound to be waiting lists for courses.
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The waiting list for your WordPress course registration can be an issue. It’s important to be prepared for that. Waiting lists are a good tool to have so that instructors can see just how much interest there is in a course, so that the next sections of that course can be scheduled to meet the demand.
One of the best ways to manage a waiting list for an online course is by using a waiting list plugin. Most learning management system plugins exist in WordPress, and they also have add-ons, which are additional features and functionality to make the plugin work even better.
These add-ons tend to provide features which make the running of the online course much smoother for both the admin and the students, and increases the engagement between them
Course Catalog LMS Plugin
The Course Catalog LMS Plugin from CreativeMinds is a great tool for anyone looking to create and manage a successful learning management system. Admin can easily create an e-learning website, create classes, enroll students and share online courses all in one platform.
Additional features include sending full email reports, adding courses in different languages for international students, and track user registrations when course registration is open. All catalog data can also be exported and generated into a CSV file for record-keeping.
This Course Catalog LMS plugin is available for one website for $39 and for up to five websites for just $69. This WordPress course plugin also lets admin create a directory of courses that each have their own individual page. Customers can search for courses using keyword, locations, course type and more.
Course Catalog Waiting List Add-On
The Course Catalog Waiting List Add-on is a helpful tool to add additional functionality for the Course Catalog plugin. This includes creating waiting list forms for individual courses so students can leave contact information to register when the course is available.
The Course Catalog Waiting List Add-on is available for $29 for two websites and $59 for up to five websites as well as one year of support and updates. This plugin is also an excellent way to ensure you will have a full class load of students for a course as soon as registration is open.
Additional features of this add-on include a convenient drag & drop editor to create fully customized waiting list forms, the ability to hide or show a waiting list for a class to students, customize special messages, and review submitted information on the waiting list forms.
Managing the Waiting List
Once the waiting list has been created for the online course, it can be posted for students to access. The admin has the ability to restrict the number of participants in each course to make it more manageable.
The course can also be made private by the admin, so students cannot see it, but leave their contact information on the waiting list for a future course registration. On the same token, students can send registration requests for classes, which is a way to determine class need and interest.
Students who send registration requests can also select the specific course they want and the future dates for the course. From there, the admin can see which courses are in the highest demand and add more dates for those courses in the future.
Once students have submitted their contact information to the waiting list, they will receive a message showing that their addition to the waiting list was a success or if there was an error. These messages can be fully customized in the backend of the add-on and can be in any available language needed.
As soon as the contact information has been submitted to the waiting list, that information is available for the admin to track on a separate dashboard in the backend. Each request can also be moderated to make sure it is actually from an interested student and not spam.
Conclusion
The Course Catalog Waiting List Add-on for WordPress from CreativeMinds is an excellent add-on for anyone with an online course who needs to manage waiting lists for online courses. Having a waiting list is a good way to stay organized as well as offer high in demand courses for students.
Students can register for a waiting list to stay up to date on when a course will be offered again. This add-on also allows students to ask to join a course and select the future course dates. This information provides the admin with how much interest there is in a course.
This waiting list add-on is an ideal choice for anyone with an online course because it keeps the number of students manageable for the admin. It makes sure not too many people can register and allows for the addition of more courses in the future to meet demand in a reasonable manner.
In addition to creating and managing a full waiting list for online courses, this add-on also lets users customize the confirmation email and message that students receive after they input their contact information into the waiting list.
Anyone with an online course should have a waiting list for interested students. No matter the topic, waiting lists allow the admin to see the demand and let the students know when the content is instantly available.