Course Review lets you send a course out for feedback and sign-off inside Poet, instead of exporting it to Word and collecting comments by email.
Reviewers read the course, leave comments and suggest wording. You accept or reject each suggestion, then complete the review. Everything is captured against a fixed version of the course, so there is one record of what was said and what changed.
Who can do what – Roles and permissions
| Comment | Suggest wording | Accept or reject | Complete the review. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Learning Designer / Author | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Reviewer (including external) | ✔ | ✔ | — | — |
| Translation Manager | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Starting a review
1. Open the wizard
In the course editor, choose Build → Start Review.
2. Choose the review type
Content — Review course content and structure. The default.
Translation — Review translations only. Reviewers work through the translated text rather than the source.
Translation review needs the course to have translations
If the course has none, the Translation option is shown but cannot be selected. It carries a NO TRANSLATIONS badge and explains why:
This course has no translations yet. Add them from the Translations tab, then come back to start a translation review.
The course stage does not decide this. A course can sit in the Translations Complete stage and still show NO TRANSLATIONS here. What matters is whether translations have actually been written to the course by a translation workflow — not what the dashboard chip says. If the option is greyed out on a course you believed was translated, check the Translation Workflow rather than the stage.
You cannot choose which languages to review. A translation review covers all of them.
3. Add reviewers.
Search by name or email.
When you add a reviewer, they can be given either the role of a reviewer or an editor (the same role as the person that is creating the review).
You can also start a review with nobody and add people later.
You cannot invite an external reviewer here. This step searches existing Poet accounts only, and existing external reviewer accounts do not appear in it either. External reviewers are added after the review is running—see Inviting someone without a Poet account.
4. Check the summary and start
You become the review's Owner. The course moves to In Review and enters a read-only Review Lock, so nothing shifts in the course while you and your reviewers work.
While a course is in review
Comments arrive in the Comments panel. Suggested changes show as Pending until you act on them.
Open a page with a pending suggestion and you will see the current content beside the reviewer's proposed wording. Choose Accept or Reject. Accepted changes record who accepted them and when.
Reply to a comment to keep a conversation in one place, or resolve it once it is dealt with.
To add more people to a review, choose Share to open Manage Reviewers.
The course is locked while the review runs. It is pinned to a fixed version so reviewers are not reading a moving target. If you edit the course in the meantime, reviewers see a Course updated note and can refresh.
If you have been asked to review a course
You will be notified when you are added. Open the course, and it opens in the review view, which is read-only—you cannot change the course itself.
The first time you open a review, Poet runs a short guided tour. You can replay it from the '?' control at the top right.
Reading the course
Use the toggle at the top of the page:
- Interactive plays the course as a learner would see it, one screen at a time.
Full content lays every page out as text on a single scrolling page — quicker if you are checking wording.
Switch whenever you like. Your comments follow you.
Leaving a comment
The Comments panel sits on the right.
- To comment on the page as a whole, type into Write a comment and choose Post.
- To comment on something specific, select that piece of content first, then comment. The author will see exactly what you meant.
Filter the panel by All, Page, Items or Suggestions to find your way around a busy review.
Suggesting different wording
- Open the Edit dialog on the page.
- The current content appears on the left and a Suggest a change box on the right.
- Type your wording and choose Suggest Change.
Your suggestion goes to the author marked Pending. They can accept it with one click, which applies your wording as written — so write it as you would want it to appear.
When you have finished
Choose Mark my review done. This tells the owner you have had your say. You can reopen it later if you think of something else.
Inviting someone without a Poet account
An external reviewer is someone with no Poet account — a client contact, a subject-matter expert, outside counsel. Poet creates a limited account so they can read the course and comment, without access to anything else.
You cannot do this while starting the review
The Add Reviewers step searches internal accounts only. The order is fixed:
- Start the review
- Choose Share → Manage Reviewers
- Expand Invite external reviewer
If a review depends on a client contact, allow for this. You cannot line them up in advance.
Sending the invitation
Supply:
- Email, First name, Last name
- Password — a temporary one you choose, minimum 8 characters
- Access expires — 30 days by default
- Optionally a Message and a Due date
Choose Send invitation.
You must send the password yourself. The invitation email contains the review link but not the password. Poet says so on the form. Send it by another route — a call, a separate message, however your organisation handles this.
Skip this and your reviewer receives a link they cannot use. The first you will hear is when they email you asking why it does not work.
What the reviewer receives
An email, "You've been invited to review a course", with an Open review link. They sign in with their email address and the password you gave them, and land on My reviews.
When they finish they choose Mark my review done. You receive an email, "A reviewer has finished their pass". They can come back and choose Reopen my review if they think of something else.
What an external reviewer can and cannot do
They can read the course, comment, and suggest wording. They cannot accept or reject suggestions, complete the review, or reach any other course.
Their account belongs to one organization, not to one course. If you run a second review later with the same person, reuse the account rather than inviting them again.
If they lose their password
An administrator can reset it at Settings → User Management:
- Filter to the External Reviewer role
- Find the person and choose the reset password control
- Set a new password, minimum 8 characters
The same rule applies: "Share the new password with the reviewer yourself — it won't be emailed."
Finishing the review
Complete Review merges accepted changes into the course, marks the review complete, rebuilds the course and writes an entry to Version History.
To close a review without merging anything, choose Discard.
Complete Review is not the same as Mark my review done.
Mark my review done is what an individual reviewer chooses when they have finished their pass. Complete Review is the owner closing the review for everyone and returning the feedback to the course. Similar names, different people, different consequences.
Managing external reviewer accounts
Administrators can find them at Settings → User Management, filtered to the External Reviewer role. From each row you can edit the account, activate or deactivate it, reset the password, view its history, or delete it.
Access ends when the review closes or when the access period runs out, whichever comes first.
Expired accounts are not deleted. They remain in User Management marked Inactive, and they accumulate. Worth tidying after each significant review closes rather than annually — these are accounts belonging to people outside your organisation.
If a reviewer says their link has stopped working, an expired access period is the likely cause.
Starting a review assigns and notifies the people you selected. You'll see "Review started successfully" and the course opens in the review view—showing the locked Course version, a Comments panel, and Share, Discard, and Complete Review.
You'll see "Review started successfully", and the review view opens with a Comments panel and Share, Discard, and Complete Review buttons. The course enters a read-only Review Lock and its Stage moves to In Review.
While a course is in review
- Review Lock — the course is tied to a fixed version and becomes read-only, so content can't change underneath reviewers.
- Status — the course shows In Review and returns to Published when the review completes.
Comment — open the Comments panel, type in Write a comment, click Post.
Suggest a change — open the Edit dialog: current content on the left, a Suggest a change box on the right, with an optional comment → Suggest Change. Items show as Pending.
Seeing the current vs suggested change
Resolve and complete
- When a reviewer finishes they click Mark my review done and you're notified.
Open each suggested change and choose Accept or Reject (accepted shows a timestamp).
Click Complete Review and confirm — accepted changes are merged into the course (including translations if present), the review is marked complete, and the course rebuilds.
- The completed review is logged in Versioning → Version History.