How to Enroll Students Manually in Tutor LMS

Sometimes students should not go through a checkout: a company paid by invoice, a scholarship student, a colleague testing the course, or a class you teach in person. Tutor LMS Pro's Enrollment add-on lets admins enroll students manually. This guide explains how it works in Tutor LMS Pro 4.1.3, including CSV imports.

Step 1: Enable the Enrollment add-on

Go to Tutor LMS > Addons and enable Enrollment ("Enable to manually enroll students in your courses"). A new Enrollment page appears in the Tutor LMS menu.

Step 2: Enroll students

1. Open Tutor LMS > Enrollment and start a new enrollment (Enroll Students).
2. Choose the course (or a course bundle).
3. Add students by searching existing users, or import them from a CSV file.
4. Confirm. Tutor LMS creates the enrollments and shows "Enrollment done for selected students".

Importing students from a CSV file

For larger groups, upload a CSV file with the columns first_name, last_name and email. For each row, Tutor LMS Pro:

• finds an existing user with that email address and enrolls them; or
• creates a new user with a unique username based on the email address and a random password, then sends them a password reset email so they can set their own.

Rows that cannot be processed are reported back. A file without the required headers is rejected. See bulk enrolling students for tips on preparing the file.

Managing manual enrollments

The Enrollment list shows each enrollment with its status. From there you can approve, cancel or permanently delete enrollments. With enrollment expiration enabled you can also extend an enrollment period. Admins can Mark as Complete a course for a student; Tutor LMS notes that this does not change lesson progress, but the course status becomes complete and the certificate becomes available.

How manual enrollments are recorded

Manual enrollments are normal Tutor LMS enrollments: posts of type tutor_enrolled with the student as author and the course as parent. For paid courses, the add-on records a manual enrollment order so your records stay consistent. Because they are standard enrollments, the usual hooks fire, so integrations that react to tutor_after_enrolled work for manual enrollments too. See how enrollment works.

Without Tutor LMS Pro

The free plugin has no manual enrollment screen. Options:

• Make the course free temporarily, have the student enroll, then make it paid again. Simple, but risky on a live site.
• Create a 100% coupon (native eCommerce) for that student.
• Enroll in code with tutor_utils()->do_enroll(), for example from a small admin tool:

/**
 * Enroll a user in a course (admins only). Returns the enrollment ID or 0.
 */
function my_site_enroll_user( int $course_id, int $user_id ): int {
    if ( ! current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
        return 0;
    }
    // Arguments: course ID, order ID (0 = none), user ID.
    return (int) tutor_utils()->do_enroll( $course_id, 0, $user_id );
}

Note that for a paid course, do_enroll() creates a pending enrollment, because the course is purchasable. You would then complete it with tutor_utils()->course_enrol_status_change( $enrollment_id, 'completed' ). Tutor LMS Pro's add-on handles this for you, which is one reason we recommend it.

Frequently asked questions

Do manually enrolled students get an email?

New users created from a CSV receive a password reset email. Enrollment notification emails depend on your email settings (the Email add-on in Pro).

Can instructors enroll students manually?

The Enrollment page is an admin screen. If instructors need this ability, it can be added with custom development.

Can I enroll a whole company at once?

Yes, with a CSV import. For ongoing company enrollments, consider an automatic integration with your HR or CRM system; see our API development service.