Shape the Future of “Cancel Session”

1. No, no need to cancel an ended session for us. 

2. Shouldn’t be mandatory
3. I think this is the right approach -leave them enrolled in the course
4. Defaulting to OFF is fine
5. Cancelled session reporting could be key to an organization. Example, low enrollments could require a session to be cancelled -- having that reporting could be crucial. I would say retain for at least 12 months. 

Hi Martina,

Here are a few answers and thoughts related to the questions that would specifically apply to how our organization currently uses Discover and ILT sessions.

For number 1, this approach makes sense overall. We would not want ended sessions to be canceled retroactively, since at that point the session would have already technically occurred. The main exception would be situations where the session time has passed, but the Power User or instructor forgot to cancel the session beforehand.

One question we did have: would Power Users still be able to cancel a session shortly after the scheduled start time? In many cases, instructors wait a few minutes after the scheduled start before ultimately deciding to cancel due to learner no-shows. If the session automatically changes to “Ended” immediately at the scheduled start time, that could create some operational issues for us.

Number 2 also makes sense from our perspective.

For number 3, would there be an option to also unenroll learners from the course itself? Some of our sessions are closed enrollments tied to specific clients. If learners are only removed from the session but remain enrolled in the course, they would still be able to access and view other available sessions within that course. This could become an issue, since many of those sessions belong to other clients and we would not want learners enrolling into unrelated sessions or “floating” between client-specific offerings.

For number 4, that approach also makes sense. We would want each decision to be intentional, since circumstances and scheduling needs can change quickly.

For number 5, one of the primary reasons we would want this feature is for historical data tracking and reporting purposes related to canceled sessions and the reasons they were canceled. If canceled sessions and their associated data are permanently deleted after 3 months, that significantly reduces the long-term value of the feature for our team. A longer retention period, or at minimum retaining reporting data even after deletion, would make this much more useful operationally.

Hope this helps. Thanks!

Madi

1. No, no need to cancel an ended session for us. 
2. Mandatory/Not Mandatory doesn’t matter to us.
3. Leave learners enrolled in the course but give an option to transfer between sessions instead of having to unenroll from one session manually and reenrolling to another session manually.  
4. Defaulting to OFF is good.
5. For reporting purposes, I would need to have cancelled sessions data around for a minimum of one year.  

Hi - the #5 is an issue for us. Please do not permanently delete them. It can be a key metric for teams that have large ILT shops and off hand after running a large ILT setup for years? I can tell you that I cannot tell you what a right duration before would be deleting them because the moment I tell you one? Someone would show up and request something else. Please think of them like a special category of session - synonymous to an archived enrollment.

Sounds great!

A few comments:

1. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months - I think we’re missing an important piece here for many customers - Data.. E.g., at the end of the year, the Training Manager wants to know: “How many sessions we delivered? How many sessions we cancelled?” In our case, we don’t need to restore a session, so if the record is going to be deleted anyways, we will probably just keep deleting it instead of using this new feature.
2. Learners get notified automatically - I assume we will be able to control it through the Notifications app (i.e., decide which Groups/Branches and Courses will receive the notification and customize the notification). If it’s not through the Notifications app and it’s similar to sending email notifications through the Course page, the Power User/Superadmin should be able to change the “From” email address to match the approved Mail Domains in Docebo, edit the subject, and message body.
3. Power User Permissions - Since we don’t have this feature today, we gave our Power Users the option to Delete ILT sessions. It would be great if we can remove this permission from their profile and only allow them to Cancel sessions. 

Thank you!

Also - I get that this is happening in a few releases. A really really really important (yes really 🤣) feature is to support managers enrolling/canceling an enrollment for their team members into sessions. This is a huge one in the healthcare space. 

Thanks for sharing the actual decisions rather than a high-level roadmap summary. This is exactly the kind of transparency that makes it possible to give useful feedback. Here's our take on each decision, with context on our setup since it shapes most of our concerns.

1. Cancel Active sessions only - we need Ended sessions too

Yes, and this connects directly to point 3 below. We use an external commerce system and sell training to paying customers. When the decision is made to cancel a session, we don't just flip a switch… we reach out to every enrolled customer and work through their options: transferring to a future session in a different delivery format or location, or processing a refund. That workflow can take two to three weeks, because customers need to check schedules, get approvals, and make decisions.

That timeline can easily drift past the original session date. By the time everyone is accounted for and our systems are updated, the session may have already ended. We need to be able to mark it canceled after the fact, or we're forced to leave it technically "active" past its end date just to preserve the ability to cancel it later, which is a workaround, not a solution.

2. Mandatory reason: yes, but not free text

A mandatory cancellation reason is the right call. The problem is a free-text field. Over time, free-text entries become a free-for-all: different terminology, different levels of detail, no consistency. We can't report on canceled sessions and reliably identify whether we have a low-enrollment trend, a recurring logistics issue, or a problematic instructor pattern. The data exists but it's not actionable.

We'd strongly prefer a pre-defined list of options (low enrollment, instructor unavailable, venue/logistics issue, business decision, etc.) with an "Other" catch-all for edge cases. That gives you the audit trail and gives admins the reporting they need.

3. Learner enrollment handling

This is our most significant concern. If learners are removed from the session but stay enrolled in the course and are free to re-enroll on their own in Docebo, our external systems — finance, commerce, registration — are immediately out of sync. We can't support a model where learners self-select into a replacement session independently, because the downstream systems need to be updated in coordination.

In practice, this means we'd likely need to leave the session "active" until every learner has been handled in our upstream systems. That process takes time, and it can extend past the original session date — which brings us back to needing the ability to cancel an ended session (see point 1). The two issues are connected. If the enrollment handling doesn't accommodate external system coordination, it forces the ended-session problem.

4. Restore defaults to OFF

Defaulting to OFF is the right call. The risk of silently restoring stale enrollments... users who've been removed, instructors who've been reassigned is worse than requiring a conscious opt-in. One suggestion: a "restore all" master toggle at the top that enables all three sub-toggles at once, for cases where a full restore is clearly the right move. Keep the individual toggles for granular control, but the shortcut would reduce unnecessary friction.

5. No auto-delete! this is a deal-breaker for us

Canceled sessions are operational data, not just abandoned records. We use session history to inform program decisions: Did this course cancel more frequently three years ago than it does now? Are cancellations trending in a particular region or delivery format? Is a particular course consistently under-enrolling at the session level even when course-level demand looks healthy? None of those questions can be answered if the data is automatically deleted.

Three months is far too short for annual training programs and for organizations that run multi-year program reviews. Auto-deletion of canceled sessions would be a deal-breaker for us. We need canceled sessions retained indefinitely, or at minimum with an admin-controlled archival option rather than a hard system-imposed deletion.

Happy to provide more detail on any of these if it's useful. The commerce integration context probably isn't universal, but the data retention concern likely applies broadly to any organization that uses training history for planning or compliance purposes.

1. You can only cancel Active sessions — not Ended ones

Yes - I see no reason, for our use case, that we’d want to cancel an ended session.

2. Cancellation reason is mandatory

For us, mandatory is preferred. We do whatever we can to keep our calendar of sessions accurate and reliable, and we take cancellations seriously - we require our people to provide a reason for cancellation, and I would want to document that. I would prefer a drop-down/select menu rather than a free text box (or maybe an “other” option that allows for free text) to ensure data consistency. I know my L&D Manager is going to want a report that shows what was canceled, how far in advance, and for what reason.

3. Learners stay enrolled in the course, but are removed from the session

I don’t know how often we’d use it, but I do want the option to exist. In the case that the course is required for a user group, we’d want to go ahead and transfer them to make it easier on the user. Many of our courses are optional, so I’d want users to manage their own calendars and select a future date that works for them. 

4. When you restore a session, enrollments, instructors, and additional fields are NOT restored by default

Defaulting to OFF is the preferred setting for us - definitely do want the option to bring in previous data, so I love that we will have toggles for that.

5. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months

Please do NOT delete canceled sessions for at least 12 months. We run end-of-year reports and this is a metric we use to provide feedback to our instructors about performance, communication, and reliability. I would prefer that they are not ever deleted, but if this is set up as a temporary thing, we need to be able to run data for the previous 12 months.

I would also like to know more about the notifications that would go with canceling a session and how that would be handled/managed. 

Hi! Thank you for sharing the details. Here’s how these decisions map to our ILT use cases across multiple brands and high‑volume training environments:

1. Canceling only Active sessions  
This works for almost all of our scenarios. While most of our canceled sessions are done at the organization level, there are times when decisions are made the local level (franchise) or by the facilitator. This may mean that a session is canceled without us knowing beforehand. In those cases, we’d need to cancel it retroactively to keep accurate reporting.

2. Mandatory cancellation reason  
Mandatory is the right call for us. A missing reason creates confusion for admin and leadership, and holds the person canceling the session accountable for reporting why. Ideally we’d be able to create our own cancellation reasons (Mandatory, select button) and then have the ability to add additional details (Optional, free text).

3. Learners removed from the session but kept in the course  
Being kept in the course is a must. As far as assigning a learner to the replacement session, we would definitely need to have the option to select if it is done by admin only or by the learner. As previously mentioned, most sessions are canceled at the corporate level, so we would use the transfer option most frequently. Occasionally when sessions are scheduled and provided at the franchise level, the learner is most likely going to be the one selecting their session.

4. Restoring sessions with all data toggled OFF by default  
We strongly support defaulting to OFF. Our staffing and scheduling change frequently, so automatically restoring old facilitators would create more cleanup than value. Opt‑in restoration is safer.

5. Auto‑deleting canceled sessions after 3 months  
At least one year is needed for auditing purposes, and I’d even go as far as to say being able to keep them 18-24 months may even be more ideal to compare year-over-year data. This helps us see trends that could be related to time of year/seasonality and give a more robust way to assess facilitator performance.

Happy to elaborate on any of these if it helps shape the next iteration!

1. You can only cancel Active sessions — not Ended ones

agree

2. Cancellation reason is mandatory

agree, we need to create some processes by mandatory actions in some cases for our admins. This data in invaluable for reporting and planning. Could this be a dropdown with pre-populated options?

3. Learners stay enrolled in the course, but are removed from the session

agree with the session removal however for the transfer; transferring users to an existing session that already has users who'll be ideal so we can fill up any sessions that have low enrolments; not just transferring the group to whole new session.

4. When you restore a session, enrollments, instructors, and additional fields are NOT restored by default

agree having a choice as to what is restored is ideal

5. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months

agree with other that this should not be deleted unless we can persevere reporting. Could this be archived instead? Or perhaps a filter or separate tab for cancelled sessions.

Thank you.

1. You can only cancel Active sessions — not Ended ones

We decide to cancel our session prior to the start of the session. We don’t have any cases where we would want to cancel after it is over.

2. Cancellation reason is mandatory

We love that this field will be added to the process and will always use this field, so it doesn’t matter if it is mandatory or not.

3. Learners stay enrolled in the course, but are removed from the session

We might use the transfer option. Our learners choose which session they would like to attend instead and there could be multiple options available to choose from. If we have more than one person to reschedule and they all choose different options when rescheduling, we would need this feature to accommodate that. If not, we would manually reschedule each person.

4. When you restore a session, enrollments, instructors, and additional fields are NOT restored by default

When we cancel sessions, we do not restore them.

5. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months

I am not sure what the point of this cancellation feature would be if the cancelled sessions aren't stored forever. We thought this was a solution to not have to delete sessions when they are cancelled? We would need to retain the records forever. If this goes live and sessions will be deleted automatically after any amount of time, we will not use this and continue to use our current workaround process.

1. Agreed!
2. Agreed!
3. We would transfer - we’d want to handle this ourselves rather than allowing a learner to select their own session. 
   • Special consideration: we use eCommerce for our ILTs, so we would need some type of tracking that the trainings credits used to pay for the original session would then transfer (from the canceled session to the replacement session). 
4. Agreed!
5. Disagree with 3 months. We would want this long term. If this is not an option, could we archive instead of delete? 
   • Reasoning: We want record of when we have offered the courses to live inside of the platform long-term. If they get deleted, that means we need to keep record of available/canceled sessions outside of the platform, causing friction and extra lift. 

For reference, I own the live training program here at Docebo (on the Customer Education team) - feel free to reach out any time, ​@martina.ferrari! 😊

1. Cancel only Active sessions, not Ended ones

No, I think an ended session shouldn't be canceled; however it's important to define what is an ended session. I have recently noticed the "session status" field which seems automatic and not very documented (or I missed it); if there would be a possibility to manually change the status (e.g. from "pending attendance" to "canceled" and from "pending attendance" to "ended" and vice-versa) then there will be a valid workaround for the cases you're looking for. In other words: if the "Ended" status can be controlled by admin, then it's fine to not allow canceling it; but if the "Ended" status is set automatically by the system after the date passed, then we should be able to cancel it, because an admin could have forgotten to cancel it on time or they were very busy or they were unavailable.

2. Cancellation reason mandatory

Yes, I think cancellation reason should be there. There would be cases when this would add friction, but i think the cancellation reason is more important in some other cases. If you want to cover everything and it's not too hard, you can create a switch at platform or course level "cancellation reason mandatory" yes/no or something like that. I also love the idea of a controlled "cancellation reason", like the superadmin to be able to create a drop-down field instead of a free text option, and even better to include an "Other" option with free text (e.g. a. "Customer canceled" b. "Resources unavailable" (e.g. instructor) c. "Other reason, please specify...")

3. How often would learners be transferred to another session

Sometimes, but not too often. It may be useful to transfer learners to another session, but it would be more useful if we can unenroll a learner completely from the session and course, with a default "unenroll from course, too" option enabled; this would provide the most flexibility. We have big issues with session admins forgetting to remove learners from the course and the learners can see future sessions while they are not supposed to, since they belong to different clients

4. Restoring fields by default when restoring a session

I think it doesn't matter so much. It would be nice to have the option to restore each previous parameter, but i wouldn't focus here on the default option.

5. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months

Why delete them at all? I agree the deletion would contribute to a cleaner database, but I can think of a scenario when you have to investigate history information about past sessions, for payment troubleshooting or for financial audits and if the canceled session is there you can say "this session was supposed to happen, but it was canceled with reason XXX". Also statistics for business decisions or customer negotiations. Maybe make the retention period a configurable parameter and let the admins modify it, including infinity or 10 years options.

PS: I appreciate collecting insights before taking a product decision, it would be amazing if this would be done every time.

1. You can only cancel Active sessions — not Ended ones

Agreed.

2. Cancellation reason is mandatory

Yes, agreed.  I would like the list to be predetermined as people have mentioned above with an “other” as the catch all.  Perhaps with the option of this field to be free text.

3. Learners stay enrolled in the course, but are removed from the session

Yes, agreed.  I would like the notification sent to the users in this instance to be configurable and with the ability to switch it off.

4. When you restore a session, enrollments, instructors, and additional fields are NOT restored by default

I cannot forsee that we would restore a session but always good to have the option.

5. Canceled sessions are automatically deleted after 3 months

Agree with the above, we need to keep these records for at least a year for auditing purposes.