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Enrollment in course vs. Enrollment rules

  • January 21, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 54 views
E
Novice I

Hi everyone,
we are currently still in the process of implementing Docebo, and I have a bit of a mental knot when it comes to enrollments.

I understand that there are two ways to handle enrollments: directly within the course and via enrollment rules. What works the same with both methods is that users who are newly added to a group are automatically enrolled in the course.

The key difference, as I understand it, is that only direct course enrollments also enroll all current members of a group. From my perspective, the only advantage of enrollment rules is the overview they provide of which groups are enrolled in which courses. This overview is missing when enrolling groups directly in the course itself.

What I’m missing is a clear understanding of which use case calls for which method.

And how should I proceed if I accidentally enrolled the wrong group in a course?

Best answer by John Sager

​@estherh 

From the second paragraph “I understand that there are two ways to handle enrollments: directly within the course and via enrollment rules. What works the same with both methods is that users who are newly added to a group are automatically enrolled in the course.” First, based on what I am reading I think you may be confused on how groups can be used to enroll users in courses. 

That is not correct. New people added to a group enrolls those people in a course ONLY if you have an Enrollment rule set up to enroll people from group “X” into a course. keeping in mind that anyone in the group prior to you adding the group to the rule won't be enrolled (nothing retroactive). for example, if I have 50 people in an existing group and I use that group as part of an enrollment rule this 50 people will not be enrolled via the rule, but anyone added to that group would be added. - You mentioned that in your third paragraph. 

However, if for example you Create Group “Y” with 10 people in it and then go to the course and enroll those people using that group then ONLY those 10 people in that group at that specific time will be enrolled. If you came back, let's say 5 days later, and added 10 more people to group “Y” they would not be enrolled. 

Does that make sense? I hope that helps. 

John S

4 replies

J
Novice III
  • John Sager
  • Novice III
  • Answer
  • January 21, 2026

​@estherh 

From the second paragraph “I understand that there are two ways to handle enrollments: directly within the course and via enrollment rules. What works the same with both methods is that users who are newly added to a group are automatically enrolled in the course.” First, based on what I am reading I think you may be confused on how groups can be used to enroll users in courses. 

That is not correct. New people added to a group enrolls those people in a course ONLY if you have an Enrollment rule set up to enroll people from group “X” into a course. keeping in mind that anyone in the group prior to you adding the group to the rule won't be enrolled (nothing retroactive). for example, if I have 50 people in an existing group and I use that group as part of an enrollment rule this 50 people will not be enrolled via the rule, but anyone added to that group would be added. - You mentioned that in your third paragraph. 

However, if for example you Create Group “Y” with 10 people in it and then go to the course and enroll those people using that group then ONLY those 10 people in that group at that specific time will be enrolled. If you came back, let's say 5 days later, and added 10 more people to group “Y” they would not be enrolled. 

Does that make sense? I hope that helps. 

John S

lrnlab
Hero III
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  • lrnlab
  • Hero III
  • January 21, 2026

Agree with John;’s comments..adding…

Using enrolment rules sets your enrol,emnt on auto-pilot so it's great to automatically assign newly created users or users that move from one place to another in your organization. Assigning using groups also allows you use that group a filter for reporting, viewing enrolments at the course level, etc. Also note that you can set enrolment priorities and enrolment deadlines in your rule if your prefer not to apply those at the LP or course level for all users.

Hope you find this useful.

E
Novice I
  • estherh
  • Author
  • Novice I
  • January 22, 2026

Thanks for your explanation. That definitely helps clarify the intended behavior.

The reason for my confusion was a discrepancy between different sources: our Docebo deployment manager explained that when a group is enrolled directly in a course, users who are added to that group later would also be automatically enrolled. Based on that statement, I initially tested the behavior in our environment and at that time it appeared to work exactly like that.

Because your explanation contradicted both the statement and my first test result, I tested the behavior again yesterday evening. In this second test, the system behaved **exactly as you described**:
when a group is enrolled directly in a course, only the users who are members of the group at that specific point in time are enrolled, and users added later are **not** automatically enrolled.

At this point, I can only assume that the initial test result was caused by a temporary issue or bug, which led to my incorrect conclusion earlier.

Your explanation aligns with the current and repeatable behavior I’m now seeing in our tenant.

Thanks again for taking the time to clarify this. Much appreciated!
 

J
Novice III
  • John Sager
  • Novice III
  • January 22, 2026

Glad we could help you out! I’m a pretty new admin myself and we’ve only been using Docebo a little over two years now, so I know what you're going through. Hang in there and if you have other questions reach out to the community we all like to help!

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