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. The owner accepts or rejects each suggestion, then completes the review. Everything is captured against a fixed version of the course, so there is one record of what was said and what changed.
There are two jobs here, and you are probably doing one of them.
- Running a review — you send the course out and deal with what comes back. → Part 1
- Taking part in a review — someone has asked you to look at a course. → Part 2
Reference material — who can do what, and managing external reviewer accounts — is at the end.
Part 1 — Running a review
Start the review
In the course editor, choose Build → Start Review. The wizard has three steps.
Step 1 · Review type
Content reviews the course as written. Translation reviews the translated text instead.
Translation review only works once the course actually has translations. Until then the option appears with a NO TRANSLATIONS badge and cannot be selected:
This course has no translations yet. Add them from the Translations tab, then come back to start a translation review.
Two things to know before you plan around it:
- The dashboard stage does not decide this. A course can sit in Translations Complete and still show NO TRANSLATIONS here. What counts is whether a translation workflow has written translations to the course. If the option is greyed out on a course you thought was translated, check the Translation Workflow, not the stage chip.
- You cannot pick languages. A translation review covers all of them.
Step 2 · Add reviewers.
Search by name or email. You can start with nobody and add people later.
This step finds internal accounts only. If you need someone without a Poet account, start the review first and add them afterwards — see Add people once it is running.
Step 3 · Summary
Check the details and start.
You are now the review's Owner. The course moves to In Review and enters a read-only Review Lock, so nothing shifts under your reviewers while they work.
If you edit the course during the review, reviewers see a Course updated note and can refresh to the latest version.
Add people once it is running
Choose Share to open Manage Reviewers. Search for anyone with a Poet account, and optionally add a message and a due date.
Someone without a Poet account
In Manage Reviewers, expand Invite external reviewer and 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. Send it by another route — a call, a separate message, however your organisation handles this. Skip it and your reviewer gets a link they cannot use.
External reviewers can comment and suggest only. Their account belongs to your organisation rather than to one course, so reuse it if you review with the same person again.
Work through the feedback
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. Accepting applies their wording exactly as written. 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.
You will get an email — "A reviewer has finished their pass" — as each reviewer finishes.
Finish 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 one reviewer finishing their own pass. Complete Review is you closing the review for everyone and returning the feedback to the course.
Part 2 — Taking part in a review
Opening it
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, so there is nothing to break.
Eg if you are not a poet user
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The first time, Poet runs a short guided tour. Replay it any time 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 one 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 — the author will then 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, with a Suggest a change box on the right.
Type your wording and choose Suggest Change.
Your suggestion goes to the owner 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.
You can also Highlight and view your suggestion by toggling on the preview suggestion button or clicking on the 'suggestion' text.
When you have finished
Choose Mark my review done. This tells the owner you have had your say. You can Reopen my review later if you think of something else.
If you do not have a Poet account
You will get an email — "You've been invited to review a course" — with an Open review link. Sign in with your email address and the password the owner sends you separately. You land on My reviews.
| 2. Login Page
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3. My Reviews | 4. Course review |
From there it works exactly as above: read, comment, suggest, then Mark my review done.
Your access ends when the review closes or when the access period runs out. If your link stops working, that is usually why — ask the person who invited you.