Selecting your launch date

Here are some things we suggest you take into consideration when planning a launch date for your course.

You've done most of the hard work - it's now time to lock in your gold-star launch.

Choosing an effective launch date is critical to program success. As a rule, we discourage launching your course on a a Friday, as Fridays result in lower learner engagement - inboxes tend to overflow, and learners are unlikely to take action right before they leave for the weekend.

When choosing your launch date, here are some key points to consider:

• Are you tying the course launch to an important reconciliation activity, date, or event? If so, we encourage providing learners' access to the course at least 24 hours ahead of when you anticipate everyone logging in or your event happening. This means you have 24 hours to troubleshoot and ensure all is well before go-time, but can still build on the momentum of a special calendar date.
• Ensure you have support available. The Reconciliation Education team is available during regular office hours to provide support to your learners. However, not all learners will reach out directly to our team, and we suggest having some team members available to help field internal email inquiries or questions from learners.
• You don't need to launch to everyone all at once. Whether you've purchased a set number of seats or an enterprise-wide license, you can choose to register your learners in whatever combination suits your learning path. Regardless of when a learner is registered, they still receive 365 days to complete the course. You may choose to launch to one cohort first, then launch to a second, third, or fourth at any point during your license. Knowing which learners you are registering first (knowing your audience) is key to picking a successful launch date.
• If you are offering the learning as an opt-in course, consider how long you want to leave registration open. You may want to select recurring dates for your launch if the learning is voluntary (such as organizations who use sign-up forms). For example, you may want to instruct learners that they can sign up all month, and will be registered on the last Thursday of each month until June, when you close registration. Consider your full launch plan when choosing a first launch date so that your learners have consistent instructions.
• Leave time for learner communication. Gold-star launches always include communications from your organization to your learners, ahead of their receiving their welcome email. Learners who understand the importance of the learning are more driven to complete the course. Read our suggestions for learner communications here.