Publishing and Activating a Class

Every class in Nimbu moves through a defined lifecycle — from initial setup through to delivery and eventual closure. Understanding the difference between a class's publication state and its activation status is essential for controlling when students receive access and how your training delivery is managed over time.

This article explains the three class states, what happens when you publish a class, how to activate and deactivate trainer-led classes, and when student invitation emails are sent.

What's Covered in This Article

This article covers the lifecycle of a class from creation to closure:

• Class States: What each state means and what is possible within each one.
• What Happens When You Publish: The system actions triggered when a class goes live.
• Activating and Deactivating a Class: Managing access for trainer-led classes after publication.
• Student Invitation Emails: When invitations are sent and what they contain.

Who can do this: Administrators and Trainers with Class Management permissions can publish, activate, and deactivate classes.

Class States

A class exists in one of three states at any point in time. These states control whether students can access the class and what changes administrators and trainers can make to it.

Pending

A Pending class is a work-in-progress. It has been created and configured but has not yet been activated. Students cannot access or see a pending class, and no invitation emails are sent.

Use the Pending state to finalise your class setup - confirming dates, assigning trainers, adding students, and customising units - before committing to a live delivery. Changes to any part of the class configuration can be made freely at this stage.

Active

An Active class is live and accessible to enrolled students. Activating a class is the action that triggers student access and, in most cases, sends invitation emails to newly added students.

Once a class is active, certain structural changes are restricted to protect the integrity of active training records. Students enrolled in an active class can see the class on their dashboard and begin accessing their units.

Inactive

An Inactive class has been closed or archived. Students can no longer access the class or interact with its content. The class record and all associated student progress data are retained in the system for compliance and audit purposes.

A class is typically set to Inactive when the training delivery period has ended or when the class needs to be administratively closed. Inactive classes can be viewed by administrators and trainers but cannot be resumed or reactivated for new student activity.

What Happens When You Publish a Class

Publishing a class is the point at which it transitions from setup to live delivery. When you click Activate to publish a class, the following occurs:

• The class becomes accessible to students. Enrolled students can log in and navigate to their assigned units and content.
• Invitation emails are sent. Students who are already added to the class at the time of publication receive a welcome email with their login credentials and a link to the training portal. See Student Invitation Emails below for details.
• Unit enrolments are created. Each enrolled student receives an individual unit enrolment for every unit in the class, and progress tracking begins.
• The class appears in the trainer's dashboard. The assigned trainer can see the class and its students in their Classes registry.

Note: For Self-Served courses, the class is created and activated automatically when the course is published  there is no separate activation step required by an administrator or trainer.

Activating and Deactivating a Class

For trainer-led classes, activation and deactivation are the primary controls for managing student access after the class has been published.

Activating a Class

To publish and activate a new class:

1. Navigate to Classes in the left-hand sidebar and open the class you want to activate.
2. Complete all required configuration - class name, date range, assigned trainer, course, and student enrolments.
3. Click the Activate button.
4. A confirmation modal will appear asking whether you want to send invitation emails to enrolled students.
5. Confirm to activate the class. The class status will change to Active and students will be notified.

Deactivating a Class

Deactivating a class sets it to Inactive and immediately removes student access. Use this when a training delivery period has concluded, when a class needs to be administratively suspended, or when a class was created in error.

To deactivate a class:

1. Open the class from the Classes registry.
2. Click the kebab menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the class view.
3. Select Deactivate from the dropdown.
4. Confirm the action. The class will move to Inactive status and students will no longer be able to access it.

Important: Deactivating a class does not delete any student data, progress records, or submission history. All records are preserved. Students who are mid-unit when a class is deactivated will lose access immediately and will not be able to continue or submit work until the class is reactivated.

Student Invitation Emails

Nimbu sends invitation emails to students to give them access to the platform and notify them of their enrolment. The timing and content of these emails depends on the state of the class when the student is added.

When a Class Is Activated

When you activate a class that already has students added to it, Nimbu prompts you to send invitation emails to all currently enrolled students. Students who accept this invitation receive:

• Their registered email address and a temporary password (for new users who do not yet have a Nimbu account).
• A class enrolment notification with the class name and a direct link to their training portal.

When a Student Is Added to an Already-Active Class

If you add a new student to a class that is already published and active, Nimbu automatically sends that student an invitation email immediately upon enrolment. There is no need to manually trigger an invitation.

When a Class Is Still in Draft

If a class is in Draft status, no invitation emails are sent - regardless of how many students have been added. This allows you to build out your class, import student lists, and configure everything privately before committing to a live delivery.

Tip: Use the Draft state to confirm your student list is complete and accurate before activating. Once a class is activated and emails have been sent, students are immediately aware of their enrolment.

Resending an Invitation

If a student did not receive their invitation or requires their access details to be resent, an administrator or trainer can trigger a password reset from Settings > Users. This sends the student a new email with instructions for accessing their account.

Quick Reference

Related Articles

• Creating a Class (Happy Path)
• Student Communications (Students & Enrolments)