Creating a session

Why this matters

Sessions are what students actually engage with. If sessions are unclear, hard to find or poorly structured, students are less likely to register, attend or explore further.

Clear, well-structured sessions help students quickly understand what is relevant to them, commit to attending and take the next step in their journey.

Overview

Sessions are the individual talks, tours or streams that students engage with.

Sessions are created and managed independently in the CMS.

To show a session to students, you assign it to the parts of your experience where it should be available, then surface it using either an Event Section (Events layout) or a Relevant Sessions block in the page builder or Guided Tour Content Drawer.

Steps

• Go to Sessions in your CMS and click Add New Session
• Enter a Title. This is your internal name in the CMS and should be clear for your team (for example, include course codes or internal naming if helpful). Add a Display title to control how the session appears to students on cards and pages. Use the Display title for a clear, public-facing name
• Choose Session type:
  • Scheduled for sessions happening at a specific date and time
  • On Demand for sessions available to watch during a period
• If Scheduled, set the Start and End date and time. This controls countdowns, status (e.g. Live, Ended) and ordering. Times are entered in the system time zone and shown to students in their local time
• Choose how students access the session:
  • For in-person sessions, tick On location and add an address. Only available for On-Campus Events
  • For virtual sessions, add a Join link or Embed source. Available for Virtual Events
• You can enable Q&A for any session (on-campus or virtual, embedded or external):
  • Choose Slido, Chatify or custom HTML/JS
  • Set when Q&A becomes visible using a time threshold
  • Q&A appears as a side panel alongside the session where enabled
• Add a Short description for the session card and a Full description for the session page. Focus on what the student will gain
• Add a Featured image. This is used on cards and the session page
• Add Presenters and any Additional links to give context and build trust
• Set Filters (for example subject or audience) to control who sees the session
• Set Assignment to control where the session appears. Assigned sessions can be surfaced in a few ways:
  • Through the page builder, using a Relevant Sessions block
  • In a Guided Tour, via the Guided Tour Content Drawer using a Relevant Sessions block
  • In an Event Section which includes a built-in session grid, with optional calendar and list views
• (Optional) Set Priority to control ordering when sorted by relevance. Lower numbers appear first
• (Optional) Enable Authentication if you want to require sign-in before viewing content
• (On-Campus Events) Add Location settings to support mapping and Explore by Map. Only available for On-Campus Events. See Assignment for how sessions appear across your experience
• Publish the session

What students see

• Upcoming sessions show a countdown
• Close to start, status changes to Starting soon or Live
• After the session, it shows as Ended and moves to the end of listings
• Recently updated sessions show a visible update indicator

Best practice

• Write titles for students, not internal teams
• Focus descriptions on what the student will gain
• Use Scheduled sessions for live moments and On Demand for flexibility
• Add presenters to build trust and context
• Always assign sessions to the correct section so they are visible

Important

• Do not reuse old sessions for new events. Reusing sessions mixes historical data and reduces reporting accuracy
• To reuse structure safely, clone an existing session from the All Sessions page. Hover over a session and click Clone. This creates a new draft that you can edit without affecting historical data

Field reference (optional)

Use this if you need full control over advanced fields.

• Launch session button: Override default CTA text
• Additional links: Add up to three supporting links
• Featured image: Used on cards and session page
• Address: Displayed for on-location sessions
• Filters: Control who sees the session