With AccessAlly, an online course plugin for WordPress, you can create an unlimited number of courses use as lead magnets or paid offerings.
ARTICLE CONTENT:
How Courses Work
AccessAlly isn't just a membership site plugin, it also includes a built-in Course Creation Wizard that makes setting up your online courses easy, organized, and even a little fun.
Courses are flexible, and can take a variety of formats:
- Free challenges that are released instantly
- Multi-module courses that are dripped out over time
- Multi-module courses that are released instantly
These courses are especially powerful when paired with the LMS features that are available with the Pro version.
Inside your WordPress website, you can find AccessAlly's Course Creation Wizard. You can use it to structure any type of content, not just courses - it could be used to lay out 12 months worth of monthly membership pieces, for example.
The Course Wizard is separated into four areas:
- Create Standalone Course
- Create Stage-Release Course
- View and Modify Existing Courses
- Clone Existing Course
From these areas, you can build and manage the entire structure and permission tags for each one of your online courses. Please note that, although AccessAlly will set up your courses and permission tags, you must also set up the automations inside your CRM to connect the dots and ensure that the entire process is automated for your subscribers and students.
The first thing to notice in the Course Creation Wizard is that there are two types of courses:
While each type of course can include unlimited pages, lessons, and content, they differ in how the permission tags are applied:
Standalone Course Model
With a Standalone Course, there is only ONE access tag. So when someone purchases an online course that's been built with the Standalone model, they receive access to all the course content at one time.
Stage-Release Course Model
With a Stage-Release Course, on the other hand, you can separate your course content into different sections (called "Modules"). Each module can have it's own unique permission tag. This allows you to release the course content sequentially. This is the setup we've chosen for our free 30 Day List Building Challenge.
The Stage-Release setup also gives you the ability to do some really cool things - like only allow your students to access Lesson 2 of your course after they've received a passing grade on Lesson 1 (learn how to do that here).
What an online course looks like on your site:
A typical selling and onboarding sequence for course enrollment looks like this:
- A website visitor selects a course to buy from your website.
- When the payment is processed, AccessAlly creates a unique user for the purchaser and applies tags that give her access to the content.
- Triggered by the tags AccessAlly just added, your CRM sends the new user a welcome email that includes login instructions.
Here's What You'll Need to Create a Course
1
Create Course Mockup
Before creating your courses with AccessAlly, draw out a mockup so that you have an idea how you want your course to look and feel.
2
Use the Course Wizard to Build Your Courses
The Course Wizard takes you through each of the necessary steps to help you build organized, engaging courses.
3
Configure the Registration Method
If you're offering a free course, make sure you have the opt-in form set up and ready to go. For paid courses, you'll need an order form.
4
Link it all together with an automation
At this point, you have all the pieces set up. All that's left is linking them up so that everything happens automatically, from collecting payments to creating unique logins for each user. You'll make this happen with an automation inside your CRM system.