# Courses

> Create a course, organize it into modules and lessons, decide who can open it or sell it, and track members' progress.

Source: https://support.estage.com/community-courses
Part of the ESTAGE Support help center (https://support.estage.com). Full knowledge base: https://support.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---

A **course** is structured learning inside your community: modules that hold lessons, each lesson
with a video or other media, text, downloads and a discussion. Members work through it and mark
lessons complete; you decide who can open it — everyone, or only people who bought it. Use one for
onboarding, a paid program, or any material members should go through in order.

Courses live on the **Courses** page of your community. As an admin you see **Add course**, a
**+ New Course** tile and a **Categories** button there.

## Before you start

- **Be an admin, or hold the right permission.** Creating a course is **Courses & challenges →
  Create** in [roles](https://support.estage.com/community-roles); building and editing it is **Edit**, removing it
  **Delete**.
- **To sell a course or limit it to some members**, have the CRM tags — and, for the purchase
  modal, the product — ready first. See
  [Badges, rules & paid access](https://support.estage.com/community-access-rules).

## Creating a course

1. On **Courses**, click **Add course**.
2. Fill in **Add Course**:

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **What type of course?** | **Standard**, or **Daily Challenge** for a day-by-day program — see [Challenges](https://support.estage.com/community-challenges). |
| **Product Name** | The course title (up to 50 characters). |
| **Description** | Up to 200 characters, shown on the course card. |
| **Available in channels** | Which [channels](https://support.estage.com/community-channels) show it (shown once you have more than one). Empty means the current channel. |
| **Who can access?** | **All members have access**, or **Only members with these tags** (below). |
| **Select Category** | At least one category. **+ New Category** adds one here. |
| Cover | The card image. Best at 1460 × 752 px. |
| **‘Mark as Complete’ Required** | Members can't move to the next lesson until they mark the current one complete. A **Popup Message** tells them so. |
| **Published** | Off hides the course from everyone but admins. |
| **Show No. of Active Users** | Shows how many members are taking it. |

3. Click **Create**.

ESTAGE creates the course with a first module and lesson ("New Module", "New Lesson") and opens it,
so you can start writing.

### Selling a course or limiting it to some members

Choose **Only members with these tags**, pick the CRM tags that grant access, then choose what
people without them get:

- **Show product purchase modal** — pick the product with **Link Product** (and turn on **Enable
  Coupons** if you want to accept codes). Members buy it right there; the purchase adds the tags and
  opens the course. Picking a product uses its image as the cover.
- **Redirect to page** — send them to a page of your site, such as a sales page.

How tags, products and access fit together is on
[Badges, rules & paid access](https://support.estage.com/community-access-rules).

## Building the course

Open the course. Its menu has **Add Module** and **Edit Course**.

- **Modules** — each module's menu has **Edit** (rename), **Add Lesson** and **Delete**.
- **Lessons** — the trash icon deletes one. Drag modules and lessons to reorder them (on desktop).

> **Note**
>
> A module can be deleted only once it has no lessons. Delete or move its lessons first.

### Editing a lesson

Click the pencil next to a lesson's title:

- **Add Featured Media** — **Video** (from your ESTAGE video library, an external URL, or **Upload
  Video**), **Audio**, **Image**, or **HTML Embed Code**. **Add More Featured Media** stacks
  several.
- The lesson text, with **Insert Product** to place a product in it.
- **Add Resource Link / Downloads** — named links or files members can open from the
  **Resources** tab.
- **Free Preview Lesson** — this lesson is open to everyone, even without access to the course.
- **Published** and **Allow Comments**.
- **Autoresponder Integration** (Business Plus) — adds or tags members who complete this lesson
  in your autoresponder. Turn it on, pick the **Autoresponder**, then the **List** or **Tags**.
  Members are subscribed or tagged when they mark the lesson complete; pair it with a CRM
  automation to send the email itself. **Manage Autoresponders** opens your project's email
  integrations.

Click **Save**.

> **Note**
>
> Until you pick a list or tag, nobody is added anywhere — turning the switch on alone does
> nothing. The same setting is in a challenge's lessons.

## Editing, hiding and deleting

From the course card's menu:

- **Edit Course** opens **Update Course** — the same fields, plus **Active**. An inactive course
  stays visible but can't be opened.
- **Delete Course** removes it after a confirmation.

> **Caution**
>
> **Deleting a course is final.** It disappears for every member, including people who paid for it.
> Turn off **Published** instead if you might bring it back.

Admins see badges on cards that are unpublished ("hidden for all users except the admin") or
inactive.

### Categories

**Categories** on the Courses page manages the list members filter by. Add a **New category**,
optionally tied to a channel, or delete one.

### Order

Drag course cards by their handle to change the order members see (desktop only).

## What members see

- A card per course with **Open**, or the purchase button when they don't have access yet. They
  can **Search courses** and filter by category.
- Progress — "N% Complete" on the card, "X of Y lessons complete" inside.
- **Mark complete** on each lesson, a **Next Lesson** button, and a discussion under every lesson
  where comments are allowed.

## Things worth knowing

- **Up to 100 courses** per community, and up to 100 modules per course.
- There are no quizzes, certificates or drip dates. To pace a course, use **'Mark as Complete'
  Required**, or build it as a [challenge](https://support.estage.com/community-challenges) with unlock rules.
- **Courses deployed from an ESTAGE hub** arrive in a **The Vault** category and take updates
  from the original — see [Deploying hub content](https://support.estage.com/community-deploy-from-hub).
- Editing courses is split in [roles](https://support.estage.com/community-roles): **Create**, **Edit** (which covers
  modules, lessons and categories) and **Delete** are separate permissions.