For Org Admins and Teachers
Access Codes & Signup Links
Access codes let learners enroll themselves into your course with a short code or link, without roster uploads or manual invitations. They are ideal for live events, workshops, and cohorts where a lot of people need to join quickly.
Note: Access codes must be turned on for a course by an org admin before teachers can generate them. This feature also requires your organization to have a custom Vocareum subdomain (for example, yourorg.vocareum.com). Please have your organization administrator reach out to support@vocareum.com to set one up if needed.
How access codes work
There are three roles involved:
Role | What they do |
Org admin | Enable access code control for the course. |
Teacher | Generates access codes and shares a code or a signup link. |
Learner | Enters a code (or clicks a signup link) to enroll themselves. |
A teacher can create one code for a whole class, or many single-use codes, whatever fits the event. Each code tracks how many times it has been used and can have its own start and expiration dates.
Step 1: Enable access codes (Org admin)
Access code control is enabled in the course settings by an org admin.
Open the course resources.
Turn on Make this course public.
Turn on Enable access code control.
Save the course.
Note: These are two separate settings. Make this course public lets the course appear for self-enrollment; Enable access code control then requires a valid code before a learner can join. Turning access code control off later does not remove learners who have already enrolled.
Step 2: Create access codes (Teacher)
Once access codes are enabled, generate them from the Access Control section of the course settings.
Go to the course settings and open Access Control.
Fill in the code options (see the table below).
Click Generate code.
New codes appear in the Access Codes List below the form. Codes are easy-to-type word combinations, for example butter-window-smile.
Option | Description |
Redemption Limit | How many learners can use each code. Each learner can redeem a code once. Set this to your class size to share a single code with a whole cohort. |
Code quantity | How many separate codes to generate at once. |
Start Date (optional) | When the code becomes active. Leave blank to make it active immediately. |
Expiration Date (optional) | When the code stops working. Leave blank to expire on the course end date. |
Event/Purpose (required) | A label so you can identify the code later, for example "Hackathon Signup" |
Step 3: Share a course signup link (optional)
A signup link is a short link that takes a learner straight to a prefilled signup page and enrolls them in your course automatically, so they never have to type the access code themselves. This is the easiest option for live events.
In the Access Codes List, open the Actions menu (⋮) for a code.
Select Copy signup link.
Share the copied link with your learners
Manage your access codes
The Access Codes List shows every code for the course, including how many times each has been redeemed, its status, and its dates.
Open the Actions menu (⋮) on any code to:
Copy signup link: copy the learner signup link (see Step 3).
Edit: change the code's redemption limit, dates, or Event/Purpose.
View logs: see when the code was created, edited, and redeemed.
Enable / Disable: turn a code on or off. Disabling stops new redemptions; learners who already enrolled keep their access.
Delete: permanently remove the code.
Use the Export button above the list to download all code data as a CSV.
What your learners experience
With a signup link (recommended): the learner clicks the link, signs up or logs in, and is automatically enrolled and taken to the course.
With an access code: the learner goes to your organization's Vocareum site, signs up or logs in, and enters the access code when prompted to join the course.
Tip: Learners sometimes confuse two different codes. The login code (a one-time passcode emailed during sign-in) is not the same as the access code (the code that enrolls them in your course). Signup links avoid this confusion entirely, since the access code is already built into the link.
Tips & troubleshooting
Share one code with a whole class by setting the Redemption Limit to your class size.
Codes left without an expiration date automatically expire on the course end date.
Teachers, TAs, and staff with course roles do not need a code; they bypass the prompt automatically.
Still being asked for a code after disabling it? Confirm that Enable access code control is turned off in the course settings, not just the individual code.
Related articles
Documentation from the Vocareum Help Center: