Understanding the Limitations of Anonymous Guests

Owned by Luc Richard
Last updated: Mar 07, 2024 by Frederick Harju
1 min read

Problem

When learners log in as anonymous guests (e.g. by clicking on a "Log in as guest" button on the login page), they can enter any course that allows guest access. But guests always have read-only access. This means that they cannot:

  • Sign up for face-to-face sessions

  • Take quizzes

  • Fill out feedback surveys

  • Post in forums / discussion boards

  • Edit wiki pages

  • Participate in a chat

  • Submit assignments

  • Add glossary or database activity entries or comments

  • Receive any scores or grades, including in SCORM files

Note that the list above is not an exhaustive list. Basically, any activity that requires a guest to participate in will either not work or will work with severe limitations.

So while this feature can be handy when you want to let a user simply look around at your work or perhaps see a course before they decide to enroll and/or pay for the course, it's not useful if you need to track someone's participation or progress, or if you need them to participate in the course.

Solution

The best solution is to create an account even for guest users. This can be done by enabling self-registration on the site, or by manually creating the accounts for your guests - assuming you know who they are.