A course's access settings decide who can see it, who can enroll, and whether they pay. Offer a free course, put a paywall in front of a paid course (one-time purchase or subscription), approve learners by request, or include the course in access groups.
Who can do this: Community owners and admins, and the course's space admins. Only community owners and admins can pick a level for Unlock by community level. · Where: Web (the course's Course Management panel). · Plan: Courses, access groups, and unlocking by community level depend on your platform plan. To charge for a course, connect Stripe first; see Connect Stripe and get paid.
Open a course's Access & pricing settings
- On the course page, click the gear icon (Manage Course). You can also click the course in Admin → Courses → All Courses.
- Click Access & pricing.
- Make your changes and click Save changes.
Choose a course's visibility
Under Visibility, choose:
- Public: anyone can see the course and enroll for free. Public courses are always free.
- Private: everyone can see the course page and its outline, but lesson content stays locked until the member has access.
- Secret: the course is hidden from people who aren't members.
Listed in search and directories follows the publish state and can't be switched by hand. See Publish a course.
Charge for a course: one-time purchase or subscription
- Turn on Paid course. Paid courses must be Private or Secret. If the course is Public, Mateflow asks Make this course private?; click Enable payment to switch both at once.
- Choose a Payment mode:
- One-time purchase: enter a Price. Members pay once and get lifetime access; the course then appears under Lifetime Access in their Member Center.
- Subscription: there's no price field here. The price comes from the subscription plans linked to the access groups you select under Included in access groups (next section). See Create a subscription plan: pricing, trials, and benefits.
- Optionally turn on Allow join requests so learners can also apply for access without paying.
- Click Save changes.
Include a course in access groups
Access groups (previously called member tiers) can include a course, so their subscribers are enrolled automatically.
- Turn on Included in access groups.
- Choose an Access group mode:
- Access group only: subscribers of the selected groups are enrolled automatically.
- Access group + paid join: subscribers are enrolled automatically, and everyone else can still pay to join.
- Under Select access groups, pick at least one group, then click Save changes.
Including a course in an access group only grants access; it never blocks anyone else. To limit a course to paying members, set it to Private or Secret and turn on Paid course. See How access groups work.
Unlock a course by community level
Unlock by community level lets members enroll for free once they reach the Required level you pick. It works only for free, Public courses, and only if your platform plan includes courses with gamification. Enrollment is permanent, even if the member later loses points. Until then, members see their progress toward the level. See Set up points, levels, medals, and the leaderboard.
What members see on a course's page
The button on the course page follows your settings:
| Your settings | Button members see |
|---|---|
| Public (free) | Enroll for Free |
| Paid, One-time purchase | Buy Now |
| Paid, Subscription | Subscribe |
| Private or Secret, not paid | Request Access |
Requests appear under Join Requests in the panel. See Approve requests to join your community or a space.
People who run the course (community owners, admins, and moderators, the course's space admins, and its instructors) can open every lesson without enrolling or paying. They see Preview Course instead of a purchase button.
Offer free preview lessons
Preview lessons are a free sample of a paid or private course.
- One lesson: in the lesson editor, turn on Preview (Public Preview on the Lesson Settings tab).
- A whole section: open the section's ⋯ menu, click Configure Section, and turn on Preview section.
People who haven't enrolled can then open those lessons from the locked course page. See Add sections and lessons to a course.
Release a course's lessons over time with drip content
- In Course Settings, turn on Drip content and choose a Drip mode: Fixed date or Days after enrollment. Click Save changes.
- In Curriculum, open each section's ⋯ menu, click Configure Section, and set its Unlock date or Days after enrollment.
Locked sections tell learners when they open: on a date, or a number of days after they enrolled.
Limit seats and add learners yourself
- Seat limit: set it in Course Settings. 0 means unlimited.
- Add a learner: in Students, click Add Student and search for the member. Manual enrollment doesn't collect payment, but it takes a seat and makes the person a member of the course space.
- Remove a learner: removing a student also removes their course space membership and clears their progress. Certificates they've earned are kept.
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