Courses

The courses feature is a templated structure for creating and releasing course content. The simple module/lesson structure makes it easy for you to create your course and publish your content in a user-friendly format.  For example, say you have a course or a membership program where you release new content on a weekly basis. You could set up each week's content as a lesson, and then format your course to be lessons only. Then your participants can click on the week they want to view. You can also load the content in advance and have it published on its own by using the schedule option for publishing.  Or maybe you have an evergreen course where you want to release content at different times based on when the participants signs-up. You would be able to do this simply with both the mark as a complete feature and with the dripped content feature.  Each course is broken down into modules and the modules are broken into lessons which are where your course content will live. Lessons generally have a primary video followed by some written copy. You can then add additional videos, audio files, PDFs, basically any file that exists in your media library.  You can also link worksheets from your content tab to a lesson. Here is our step by step guide on worksheets In addition, when you are all done setting it up, courses allows you to create and add quizzes to help students evaluate the information they have retained. Here is our step by step guide for creating quizzes in your course Note About Publish Status / Access Control Draft make the page not viewable by anyone until you change the status to published, scheduled or auto-published Scheduled allows you to choose a specific date when that course/module/lesson will appear as published to everyone who has access to a site. Dripped allows you to control who can view that page via a trigger, automation, or broadcast Published makes the page viewable by anyone who has access to the membership site, or you can control it further by selecting specific products from the list.     

Click the Create a new course button in the upper right corner Choose the membership site you want to add the course or create one on the go. Fill in the information for your Course settings information and click the Create course button to save

Module/Lessons After you set up your course, Module 1  will be ready for you. The Module name will be the title but it is not a page in the course. You can now add additional lessons to the module. Adding a Lesson While on your course screen, click the + button to Add a lesson  Click on the lesson name to edit the lesson. The Lesson edit screen will open. Fill in the information about your lesson in different sections you will find: Info : under this section you can add The Lesson title, add a thumbnail image, include information about the author and choose the publish state Content : From this section, you can add the main content of your Lesson, including content such as Media, Worksheets or Quizzes: Additonal content : Add PDFs, videos, audio, worksheets or other media files that course participants can download. Preview : You can select from here what you want to show to people who do not have access to the course: Settings, automation, Triggers: You will have several options regarding the lesson completion: Once all is ready, set the status to Published and then click the Save changes button Repeat these steps for each Lesson you want to add in your Module.  Speed up creating new lessons by uploading multiple media files to a module. Click on the 3 dots menu at the far right of the module block. Then Create lessons from uploaded files. Give access to modules manually or automatically after a specific number of days. Click on the Status label at the module or Lesson section far right, then choose 'Dripped'. Two options will now show up:  1. By day: from the day they get access to the course, how long should we wait to give them access to the module automatically Note: If they already have access to the course and you changed it to drip by day, it will give them access based on the date they originally got access to the course in the past 2. Manually/Triggers/automation: You can use several option to release content, manually, setting up triggers, setting up an automation or through a broadcast. You can also set the drip settings up on the module and lesson settings pages. Adding a New Module  Select Content from your Simplero Dashboard In the Membership sites tab, select a membership site you want to add a new module Select the Courses tab Select the Course Name you wish to add a new module to Click the + Add a module button In the Module edit sidebar, enter the Title, Description, set the Publishing options, and then click the Create module button If you wish to add a lesson to your module, see the above steps for Adding a Lesson

Quizzes are a great way to help your students evaluate their progress and understanding of the course material. You can now add a quiz directly in Simplero for them to complete before they move on from the lesson or module.  Creating your quiz is simple... Select Content from your Simplero Dashboard In the Membership sites tab, select a membership site you want to add a quiz Select the Courses tab Select the Course Name  Locate and select the Module you want to add the quiz to Create a New Lesson Convert the lesson into Quiz.  You’ll now see the section below to Add questions and Answer options (Questions are multiple choice, each time you add an answer another field will pop-up to enter another answer. Once you've entered all the possible answers, simply check the box for the correct answer, You can also explain why the answer is right or wrong. We will show it on the Quiz page once the participant has clicked on ‘Check answer’. Finally click on Add question to save the changes. You have several optional settings that you can turn on in your Quiz: Show the correct answer after the response has been submitted. Disable access to the rest of the course while the logged in user is taking the quiz. Set up a passing grade before the Quiz can be marked as completed. Set a time limit to complete the Quiz. Select the Publish status option and then click the Save changes button! Your quiz is now live and ready for your students to take. Check it out at the bottom of this lesson or see our guide on taking quizzes to see how it works from their view! Whenever a course participant submits a Quiz response, you’ll be able to see it on the Course Overview >> Quiz column: Responses.

To access the Module settings, click on the Module name. From the Module Editor on the sidebar, you can edit: Title Publish status Draft Published Dripped - Learn more about this feature here. Automatically by day Manually Schedule Description Display settings: Use the site’s color accent color. Learn more about this here. Use a custom color

Find the Lesson settings by clicking on the lesson name ,which will take you to the Lesson Edit screen. From this page, you can edit: Info Title: The public name of your lesson, the one that your customers will see Custom thumbnail (optional): If you want your lesson to have a different thumbnail than the default you set on your course settings Author Publish state: Who can see your lessons? This is determined by the Publish state. It is important to note that your customers need to have access to the site, course, and module first. Otherwise, they will not see the lesson regardless of this setting. Draft - Only admins can see that the lesson exists Published - Means viewable all the time to anyone who has access to the module. Dripped - Means that you control when someone who has access to the course and module gets access to the lesson. You will need to grant access via product, list, automation, trigger, or manually. Otherwise, they will not be able to see the contents of the lesson, even if they have access to the course and module. You can let them see a preview of some lessons by using course preview settings inside each lesson. Schedule - Choose the date when your lesson will be published. This will be the same date for all of your customers.  Date: The date will show on the lesson. Useful if you have live calls or event recordings. This is only informative. It will not change when your lesson is viewable or affect it in any way.  Content This is the main lesson content. Choose between: None Video Audio Quiz - See how to create your quiz in this guide Worksheet - See how to create your worksheet in this guide Other  Then choose the text content for the lesson. This will show below the main content.  This is what your customers will see: Additional Content Sometimes, within a course, you might want to embed the contents of a PDF, video, audio, images, or any kind of media on a course page that is not the Main Lesson content. You add any media, as well as worksheets, to your lesson using this additional content section. This is how it will show on your lesson: Add your files/media from your Media Library or by drag and drop You can reorder it using the drag dots on the left. Turn Embed On/Off to either be visible right there on the page (On) or as downloadable links (Off). This is how it shows on the page: Edit the settings of a specific file: file description, and decide to show/hide the download link. Expand all embedded content you've attached above by default - will show all your content expanded when they open the lesson, so your customers don't have to Lesson Preview Preview settings help you determine what your customers see when they don't have access to the course or to the lesson "When someone doesn't have access to this COURSE, show" - Allows you to decide what your customers see when they don't have access to the course yet. This is perfect if you want to upsell your courses. See more details on this guide. This setting only shows if the course is set to "Dripped". "When someone has access to this course but not this LESSON, show" - Lets you decide what they see if the lesson is set to drip and you haven't given them access to it yet. This can be useful if you want them to purchase access to that specific lesson and want them to see that it exists.  Settings Track multiple completions. For example, workouts, meditations, etc. This will allow your customers to complete a lesson multiple times.  Always start at 1x speed (regardless of the user setting). (Only visible if you add an audio/video as the Main content) Automations Start/ stop automation based on completion of the lesson Triggers You can add actions based on triggers : These are the available triggers based on Lessons:

To access the course settings, go to Content -> Courses in your Simplero Dashboard and then click on the settings icon next to the course: Below, we explain the different sections inside the settings: Course Name Title: The public name of your course, the one that your customers will see Internal name (optional): The name on your admin side. This can help you differentiate courses internally when you have, for example, the same course every year or different cohorts Labels (optional) Course Card Shown at the top right of the Course page and in the Course Directory. This includes: Card Image: Shown in the Course sidebar and in the Course Catalog. Description: Only shown to people who have access to the course.  Description for Course Directory: Optionally provide a different description for the Course Directory page. See below an example of a Course Directory: Inside the course, you will see: Publish State Who can see your course? This is determined by the Publish state, which controls the overall course access.: Draft - Only admins can see that the course exists Published - Means viewable all the time to anyone who has access to the membership site. Dripped - Means that you control when someone who has access to the site gets access. You will need to grant access via product, list, automation, trigger, or manually. Otherwise, they will not be able to see the contents of the course, even if they have access to the site. You can let them see a preview of some lessons by using course preview settings inside each lesson. Schedule - Choose the date when your course will be published. This will be the same date for all of your customers.  Community Features Site Group - When a member gets access ot the course, they will become members of the group Event series - Upcoming events for this series will automatically show at the top of the course page Bots - When a member gets access to the course, they will get access to that bot   Preview Here, you decide how people can (or can not) purchase access to this course once they already have access to your site (this could be through a different product, list, or you can simply have an open site). You have two options: Show selected lessons for preview - Note: You will then need to go to your lessons settings and choose which ones you want to show  None - Don't show anything. Members will not see this course at all If you choose to show selected lessons, you will then see the option to choose: The message to people that doesn't have access yet Button label Button link  *We explain in detail what it looks like for each of them in the lesson Course Preview. Settings This includes a few settings that are specific to courses, and you might not have seen them anywhere else in Simplero. We are going to walk you through those in detail below: Disallowing participants to mark lessons as completed will make this button below invisible at the end of each of the course lessons (Note: it is ON by default, if you turn on the toggle you will remove the button): Requiring the lesson to be completed will force the end-user to mark the lesson as complete before they can access the next lesson. Lessons further on in the course will be locked until the previous lesson has been marked as completed.  In the example below, I have completed Lesson 1, so I have access to Lesson 2. Since I haven't completed Lesson 2 yet, I do not have access to Lesson 2 yet. We keep record on completed lessons per member and lesson on the Members and Lessons Analytics tabs:Note: If you activate this setting after your customers begin the course, they will have to go back and mark every lesson as complete that they hadn’t already Disable autoplaying the next lesson after watching the main video - By default, if your customers watch the main video in the lesson they will be taken to the next one. If you don't want this to happen, turn this toggle ON.    Disallow users to leave private notes - By default, your customers will be able to leave private notes that only they can see. If you don't want this to happen, turn this toggle ON.  Hide from the Site Course directory, Dashboard, and Feed pages Exclude from "New Course content" blocks - You can exclude individual courses from appearing in the New course content sections shown on your site's Home, Feed, and Courses pages.  Add new lessons to the top of modules by default - When adding new lessons (either manually or automatically added by Zoom), they will be added at the top of modules Remove download links from videos, audios, and PDFs (You can also prevent downloads site-wide.) - This will remove the download links from ALL videos, audios and PDFs in your site. Note: You can still allow your customers to download some specific media files by adding them to the additional content of your lessons and choosing to allow downloads.  Disallow consuming your course as a podcast - By default, this section on the course sidebar will be available to listen to the course lesson as a podcast. If you don't want this to happen, turn this toggle ON.  Comments on course lessons Choose if you want to allow comments at the end of the lesson content. Certificates If you use Simplero, you don’t need to purchase separate software just to award certificates to the people who complete your courses. You can generate Certificates automatically in Simplero, thus saving money as well as making things simpler for you. Check how to do this in this manual. Triggers Like most places in Simplero, you can add triggers to your course. In this case, you can choose: When the member completed all lessons  Presentation You can change how your course looks by clicking on Presentation:  From there, you can choose: The course structure: shows the course as A list of lessons Modules and lessons Whether to show lesson information - the author and the latest time it was updated Whether to show the course totals - Content duration and lesson counts A default card image for lessons, which will show if you haven't set one for the lesson.

When someone’s already pulling out their credit card and buying from you, that’s the moment they’re most open to buying more. They’ve already said yes. They already trust you. They’ve already decided you’re the right fit. Why not make it easy for them to take the next step right there on the spot? On-site upsells make it seamless, natural, and joyful to grow your customers’ journey and your business right along with it. What does it look like? When a course has the preview settings turned on, it will be visible in the course catalog to anyone who has access to the membership site. However, if the contact does not have access to the course, it will be grayed out and have a "Preview available" banner and a locked padlock. This will help your customers identify which courses they have access to and which additional ones they might be interested in purchasing.  In the example below, the customer has access to the "Overcome fear" course, but the two courses on the right are set to show as preview: They are then able to click on the grayed-out course and get more information about it. What they see when they click will depend on the option they choose in the settings. There are 3 things that you can personalize: The message for customers who don't have access - This will disappear once they have access Button- This typically leads to a page where they can get more information about the course or purchase it. This button will disappear once they have access to the course.  Lessons selected for preview - If they don't have access yet, they will only see the lessons that you have selected for preview. They will not see the rest. This will be determined by the settings on each one of the lessons.   How Do I Set It Up? To set up the preview so you can do on-site upsells, you will edit 2 distinct areas in your course: Course settings - Where you decide if they see the upsell, the message they see, and where the button leads them.  Lesson settings - Where you decided which lessons you want to show for them to preview. This is a great way to showcase your content and convince them to buy! Course settings In the course settings, you determine if you want that specific course to show as a preview and what you want your customers to see when they click on it.  Select Content -> Courses from your Simplero Dashboard Select the Course you want to set up  Click the Course settings  Scroll down to find the Preview section Here, you decide how people can (or can not) purchase access to this course once they already have access to your site (this could be through a different product, list, or you can simply have an open site). You have two options: Show selected lessons for preview - Note: You will then need to go to your lessons settings and choose which ones you want to show  None - Don't show anything. Members will not see this course at all If you choose to show selected lessons, you will then see the option to choose: The message to people who don't have access yet Button label Button link  Lesson Preview Settings Lesson previews let someone dip their toe in before committing. They watch one lesson, they feel the shift, they get a quick win, and suddenly, buying the full course feels like the obvious next step. In the lesson settings, you decide which lessons your customers can see when they don't have access to the course yet Select Content -> Courses from your Simplero Dashboard Select the Course you want to preview the lesson Click on the Lesson  Scroll down to the Preview section This section is where you will determine if the lesson will be available to be clicked on and viewed when in preview mode or if it will be excluded altogether from the course overview.  Nothing - The lesson doesn't show at all Title only - It shows the title of the lesson with a locked padlock. Your customers can't see the content inside it Content - It shows the title of the lesson with an unlocked padlock. Your customers can click on the lesson and see the content Once you have made your decision, click the Save changes button, and you are all set.

The Podcast feature allows members in your course to download and consume the MP3 and MP4 files via their preferred media player. To allow your customers to use the Podcast feature follow the steps below.  Select Content from your Simplero Dashboard In the Membership sites tab, select the site  Select the Courses tab Locate the Course name and click the Settings button in the far right side of the course name Or, locate and select the Course name and click the Course settings  You will be directed to the Settings screen. Scroll down to the Settings section Toggle the option Allow participants to consume your course as a podcast Scroll down and click the Save changes button The option will be visible from the top of the course view: Turning off the Podcast Feature You have two options to turn off the feature: Option 1: Still allow downloads (Turn off the feature but still allow them to download files individually) Select Content from your Simplero Dashboard In the Membership sites tab, select the site  Select the Courses tab Locate the Course name and click the Settings button in the far right side of the course name You will be directed to the Settings screen. Scroll down to the settings sections Toggle off the option Allow participants to consume your course as a podcast  Scroll down and click the Save changes button  When your customers select the "Podcast Link" in the bottom left sidebar they will be directed to their media player and all the media files in that site that they have access to and will be available to them in a list to play/download.  Note: Only the files they have access to via their course(s) and that are loaded via the media file feature below content boxes (not the ones linked to or embedded) will download  Option 2: Turn off all downloads in your membership site (Not recommended) Go to the configure section on your membership site Scroll down to the advanced settings section Toggle on the option Remove Download Links from videos,audios, and PDF’s Scroll down and click the Save changes button

Included in Simplero plans: Scale and Skyrocket If you use Simplero, you don’t need to purchase separate software just to award certificates to the people who complete your courses. You can generate Certificates automatically in Simplero, thus saving money as well as making things simpler for you. At the End of This Lesson You'll be able to automatically award professional-looking certificates when someone completes your course, with optional requirements like passing a quiz first. Before You Start A course already created Any logos, signature image, or PDF attachment you want to include (optional) In this guide Enable course certificates Customize the certificate Set up a Notification email when they receive a Certificate Require that your participants pass a quiz (or quizzes) to receive the certificate   Enable course certificates Go to Content -> Courses Choose your course Go to the settings Make sure that the setting "Disallow participants to mark lessons as completed" is OFF If it is turned OFF,  the ‘Certificate’ section will appear in the settings. Turn on "Award a certificate to participants who complete all lessons"   Customize Course Certificates You can keep your certificate simple or add extra information to create a more formal or accredited certificate. Basic options Primary logo Certificate title and text Show completion date Show unique certificate serial number Optional branding Secondary logo or seal (for example, an accreditation seal) -  Shown next to the primary logo Signature image - Shown above the signature name Signature name Signature title or role Optional course information You can also include: Body/course content – A short description shown beneath the course name. Topics – A list of subjects covered. Accreditation line – A longer accreditation or continuing education statement. Hours – For example, "25 hours" or "24 CE hours." Accreditation label – The name of the accrediting organization. Optional attachment If you have supporting documentation (course syllabus, appendix, additional information), you can attach a PDF that appears as a download next to Print and Share on the certificate page. Set up a Notification email when they receive a Certificate Set up an automatic email to notify your participants of the certificate they earned. Manage all awarded certificates on the top right menu: Awarded certificates.   Require that your participants pass a quiz (or quizzes) to receive the certificate Go to your Course Create one or more quiz lessons (or use one you already have) Note: Select Quiz under the lesson content.  On the quiz lessons, activate the passing grade and enter a percentage. Only participants with that grade will be able to complete the lesson and receive the certificate at the end of the course! Troubleshooting I don't see the Certificate section. Make sure that the setting "Disallow participants to mark lessons as completed" is OFF Certificates aren't being awarded. Verify participants have completed all required lessons. If a passing grade is required, make sure they achieved the minimum score. Want to learn more about course settings? Check this guide.

Do you want to know how far your members are in the course? How many members completed a specific lesson? How many viewed them? Go to the course and click on ‘Analytics’: Analytics by member Shows a list of member and their statistics: The date they logged in to their course for the first time Last login to the course Total number of logins Percentage of course progress List of all lessons and the status (viewed or completed) by a member. Note: M1L2 = Module 1, Lesson 2 Links to all completed worksheets (click on to view them) Click on the tabs to view them module by module or to see the video analytics: Analytics by lesson Shows a list of lessons and the statistics per lesson: Views by logged-in users Unique views recorded by the logged-in users. Completed number and percentage Video viewers Number of reactions and comments (you can click on the number to view them) If your course is open to non-members and you want to see the total views including non-logged-in members, you can add the “Total views” column: Downloading course analytics You can search, filter, choose columns, reorder, and download the analytics by using the icons on the top. You can also create new views and reorder the current ones so you don’t need to organize and filter the information every time:

In this guide... Duplicating a Course Moving a Course to a Different Site Deleting a Course Duplicating a Course If you want to duplicate a course... Go to your Content -> Courses Page Select the course you want to move Select action Choose Duplicate to Other Site Choose the site you want to duplicate it to (Tip: It can also be the same site you are on) Moving a Course to a Different Site If you want to move a course to a different site... Go to your Content -> Courses Page Select the course you want to move Select action Choose Move to Other Site Choose the site you want to move it to   Deleting a Course If you want to duplicate a course... Go to your Content -> Courses Page Select the course you want to move Select action Choose Delete You can also do any of these actions from inside the course. Just click on the three dots in the top right corner and choose the action. 

Our course features make it easy to share your knowledge in a clear, organized way using modules and lessons. You can schedule content, release it gradually, and even automate parts of the experience to support your students. Fun extras like quizzes and worksheets help keep things interactive and engaging.  In this video, we will walk you through the steps required to build a course. We'll discuss all the different course, module, and lesson configuration options available. You can learn more in our help guide module dedicated to courses. You can also have a look at the workshop ‘Setting Up Your Course in Record Time’.

How do you control access to your Sites, Courses, Modules, and Lessons? That's what we're talking about in this lesson! We call it "dripping".  There are a few different methods you can drip elements inside Simplero: Via Product purchase Via List Signup Via a Trigger Via an Automation Products and Automation will be fully covered in upcoming modules so for now we will just show how to provide access to those.   If you prefer written instructions, check out the below: Dripping: A Visual Representation Creating Multi-Level Access Products How to Use Drip Content Want to become a pro? Check out our workshop on Mastering Automations and Drip-Releasing Content where we explain how to do this in detail!