Articles on: Managing users, staff and access

Inviting staff members and users

Manage your team at: Staff (in the sidebar) and Settings → User invites (for learner invite links)


SimChat distinguishes between staff members (administrators, authors, assessors and viewers) and users (learners). Each has different access levels and invitation methods.


Staff members vs users


Staff members include:


  • Owners and administrators who manage the organisation
  • Authors who can create and edit scenarios
  • Assessors who review learner sessions for their cohorts but don't create content
  • Viewers who get the learner experience on a staff seat, without seeing anyone else's data


Users are the learners who practise with your scenarios. They cannot edit scenarios or view activity from other users.


See Understanding roles in SimChat for the full breakdown.


Inviting staff members


You can invite staff by email or with a shareable invite link.


By email


  1. Go to Staff in the sidebar, then Email invitations
  2. Click Invite staff
  3. Enter their email address(es)
  4. Under Team role, choose Viewer, Assessor, Author or Administrator
  5. Add a Custom message (optional)
  6. Click Send invitations


They'll receive an email with a secure link to join your organisation.


Invite staff members to join your organisation


Staff invitations expire after 7 days. Send a new invitation if one expires.



Use a staff invite link when several people need to join with the same role - for example a team of authors.


  1. Go to Staff in the sidebar, then Invite links
  2. Click New invite link
  3. Enter an Invite name
  4. Under Staff role, choose Viewer, Assessor, Author or Administrator
  5. For authors and assessors, optionally choose Staff of cohorts - new joiners become staff of the selected cohorts, with their access scoped to those cohorts
  6. Set Maximum uses and Expires in (days) if needed
  7. Click Create link


You can copy the link and share it by email or any other channel. Staff who use it are added to your organisation automatically with the role you chose.


Want someone to look after just one cohort - reviewing its sessions and writing scenarios for it - rather than your whole organisation? Invite them as an author or assessor with that cohort selected under Staff of cohorts, or add them later from the cohort's page. See Creating and managing cohorts.


Inviting users


Users join your organisation using invite links. You can share these links manually, for example through your LMS, or send email invitations directly from SimChat. Users will need to create a SimChat account and will be automatically associated with your organisation when they use the link.


To create an invite link:


  1. Go to Users → Invites in the sidebar (or Settings → User invites)
  2. Click New invite
  3. Give it a descriptive invite name (e.g. "Year 2 Medical Students")
  4. Set any optional limits:


  • Max uses - how many people can use this link
  • Expiry date - when the link stops working
  • Video minutes per user - how many video minutes each learner gets (leave blank for no per-user limit)
  • Audio minutes per user - how many audio minutes each learner gets (leave blank for no per-user limit)


  1. Assign a Linked cohort (optional) - learners will be added to this cohort automatically
  2. Click Create invite link


You can then:


  • Copy the link to share manually
  • Send invitations via email directly from SimChat


Create invite links for users to join your organisation


Max uses and Expiry date control the invite link itself. To control how long each learner keeps access after they join, use the access expiry option below.


Per-user minute limits divide up your organisation's shared balance - they do not add extra minutes. See Setting per-user minute limits.


Setting when access expires


When you create an invite link (or invite users by email), you can choose when the people who join through it lose access:


  • No expiry - access continues until you remove or deactivate the user
  • A number of days after joining - each learner's access ends that many days after they join
  • A fixed date - everyone who joins through the invite loses access on the same date


Access expiry only applies to people who join from that point onwards. Learners see a reminder before their access ends. You can also change a single user's expiry date, or set a new one when reactivating a user, from the Users page.


Anonymous access


For situations where learners shouldn't have to create an account - such as research studies, open days or large one-off cohorts - you can turn on Anonymous users when creating an invite link. With this on:


  • Learners join instantly without registering - no email or password
  • No personal data is collected about them
  • You must set a maximum number of uses for the link


Anonymous participants accept the data usage terms before they start, and their activity still counts towards your organisation's minutes.


Organising users into cohorts


Cohorts help you organise users and control access:


  1. Go to Cohorts in the sidebar
  2. Click Create cohort
  3. Name your cohort (e.g. "Cohort 2026")


After creating a cohort, you can add users to it, link an invite so new joiners land in it automatically, restrict scenarios and collections to it, and add the authors and assessors who run it as its staff. See Creating and managing cohorts.


Joining through single sign-on or your LMS


If your organisation uses SSO or LMS (LTI) integration, people can join without invites at all. Learners are added automatically, and staff can be held in a pending approval queue until an administrator assigns their role and cohorts from the Staff page. See Single sign-on and LMS integration.

Updated on: 11/07/2026

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