When creating a Course, you'll walk through a process to set up the overall structure of how you will deliver content. You can choose from 2 different course structures:
🌲 Evergreen: Always available courses. Lessons can be dripped out over time.
👥 Cohort-Based: Courses run in groups with fixed start and end times. (i.e. bootcamps, fellowships, etc.)
In this guide
To create a new course
To get started, go to the Courses tab in the left sidebar of your community. (If you don't see the courses tab, go to Settings > Community Sidebar and make sure the Courses feature is toggled ON). Once on the Courses tab, click the Create New Course button.
1. Add basic course info
On the left side of the creation screen, you will enter a course name, cover image, description, and choose the type of course you're creating.
Highlight expected outcomes and timelines in your course description to maximize sign-ups. Example: "Gain kitchen confidence in 3 weeks with 12 guided lessons from world-class chefs."
2. Add community embeds
Connect pieces of your community to your course to grow engagement. With community embeds, you can connect the following to your course:
Channels and individual posts
Recurring and one-time events
Member profiles and DMs
Automated matchups
🎓 Learn more about adding community embed cards.
3. Start collecting payments
Start collecting one-time or subscription payments for your Heartbeat course. When adding payments to your course, you have 2 options:
Make your course an independent product for purchase
Bundle your course into a paid membership
You can also give individual members or groups free access to your course. This might be helpful if you want your community admins, moderators, or beta testers to have free access to a course that would otherwise be a paid product.
🎓 Learn how to monetize your course in detail
4. Set Instructors and Completion requirements
Instructors manage member progress and submissions. Only members with a role that includes the "Manage Courses" permission can be instructors.
You can also make lessons required which will result in each lesson needing to be marked as Complete before the next lesson is unlocked. Without this toggle on, members are able to jump between lessons without completing them.
5. Set up automated workflows
Configure automated Heartbeat actions that trigger for a member when they complete your course. This can include sending a DM, email, notification, popup, or adding the member to a group.
🎓 Learn more about setting up automated workflows.
🎓 Learn how to create community badges.
Helpful Tutorials
Walkthroughs, tutorials, and guides to help you level up your paid course.
Full course walkthrough: Building a Course from Start to Finish
Pricing Strategy: Why Selling 'Vitamins' Hurts Your Community Business
Next Step: Customize your course
Move to the next step in building your course on Heartbeat:
Want to see more in courses?
Check out our courses feedback page to share your requests or upvote others. We prioritize updates to courses based on demand. So the more upvotes a request gets, the faster we build it!