Lesson 2: How to Set Up Course Registration

Before creating and selling courses, it’s important to understand how learners can access your content. The Course Access Settings in LearnDash let you define whether a course is free, paid, subscription-based, or restricted. You’ll also find options for prerequisites, points, and access expiration.

Locating Course Access Settings

From your WordPress dashboard:

1. Go to LearnDash LMS > Courses.
2. Select the course you want to edit.
3. Click the Settings tab at the top.

Here you’ll see the access modes and related options.

Access Modes

LearnDash provides five course access modes:

• Open
  • Free and open to anyone visiting your site.
  • No registration, login, or payment required.
  • Progress tracking is not available unless the user is registered.
  • Linear progression does not apply.
• Free
  • Users must be registered and logged in.
  • No payment required.
  • A “Take This Course” button appears, guiding users through the registration process.
  • Administrators can also manually enroll students.
• Buy Now
  • Requires login and a one-time payment.
  • Compatible with PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay, and 2Checkout.
  • Not for use with eCommerce or membership plugins (use Closed instead).
  • Requires entering a price in the Course Price field.
  • Optional: integrate with the Achievements add-on to let users purchase using points.
• Recurring
  • Similar to Buy Now but requires a subscription payment.
  • Choose a billing cycle in days, weeks, months, or years.
  • Supports PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay, and 2Checkout.
  • Optional fields:
    • Recurring Times (limit or allow unlimited cycles).
    • Trial Price & Duration (offer a trial period before billing begins).
  • Includes an Enrollment URL field for redirecting users post-enrollment.
• Closed
  • Users must log in and be enrolled manually, via groups, or through an external plugin.
  • Designed for membership or eCommerce integrations.
  • Enables a custom button URL, redirecting users to an external checkout page.

Course Prerequisites

Require learners to complete specific courses before accessing another. Options include:

• Any Selected: Completing one of the chosen courses grants access.
• All Selected: All chosen courses must be completed first.

You can add as many prerequisites as needed by selecting them from the dropdown list.

Course Points

Use points to reward progress or as prerequisites for advanced courses.

• Required for Access: Learners must earn a minimum number of points before enrolling.
• Awarded on Completion: Points given when a course is completed.

Example: Award 50 points for each beginner course. Require 100 points to unlock an intermediate course.

Course Access Expiration

Limit how long learners can access a course after enrolling.

• Enter the number of days the course remains available.
• Optional: enable data deletion when access expires (note that deleted data cannot be recovered).

Why This Matters

Course access settings give you flexibility in how you deliver learning—whether you want completely open content, one-time sales, subscription models, or gated learning paths with prerequisites and points.

Tip: Choose your access mode carefully based on your business model—subscriptions for ongoing revenue, prerequisites for structured learning paths, or free/open for lead generation.