How to Create a Course

With the SendPulse online course platform, you can create courses of any format: video lessons, audio lessons, text lessons, add files, and a final test to confirm successful completion of the course.

In this article, we will look at how to create a course on your domain, add lessons and materials using the drag and drop lesson builder, set up course options, invite students and instructors, and create a certificate of completion.

Add a New Course

Go to the "EDU" section, and click Сreate your first course.

Before you create any course, you will see the welcome screen. If you have previously created some courses, click Add Course in the menu on the left.

Click New course.

Enter the course name.

The name of the course will be displayed in the list of courses in your account, on the site that allows to enroll in your course, and on certificates of competion.

Set the URL of the Course Page

The course URL is a unique link where your students can find the landing page that allows to enroll in the course and get access to lessons in their accounts.

Creating a New Address

Select the second subdomain of the course address.

The "sendpulse.academy" and "sendpulse.online" domains are available on the free plan as second-level subdomains. To connect your own domain, switch to a paid plan. After creating the course, you will need to connect the domain in the "Sites" > "Site Settings" section in the "General" tab. You will then be able to select the connected domain in the course settings.

Enter the first subdomain of the course address.

Using an Existing Domain

When creating your next course, you can select previously added domains and create new course pages using them or create courses using new domains.

Enter the URL of the page with the name of the course in the second field.

Click Next, and you will be redirected to the course management page.

Customize Your Course Page

At this stage, you can create custom course landing pages that allow you to add elements and information about your courses without any limits.

Create a Course Landing Page

At the top of the page, you will see your course name and domain. To return to the previous step and edit the name or domain, click Modify.

From Scratch

To create a course registration website from scratch, click New site.

Add the necessary website content using blocks, sections, and widgets, and add the "Login EDU" widget.

Site Template

You can also choose a ready-made website template and customize it to your needs. Select a template language, and click one of the suggested options to view it. Scroll down to the end of the template, and click Select.

Add a Course Preview

Go to the "Settings" tab, and upload or select an image for your course preview.

Course preview is displayed in students’ accounts in the list of courses and in instructors’ accounts.

Add Lessons

Under the name of the lesson, click Add lesson. Using the drag and drop lesson builder, you can create lessons, sections, and tests for each section.

Creating a Lesson

To create a lesson, you can add the following drag and drop builder elements:

Text (used to add a text block to the page).

Gallery (used to add multimedia elements to the page: picture, image carousel, and video).

Audio (used to upload audio content).

File (used to upload other downloadable materials).

Select a panel element, and drag it to the workspace for further customization.

Read more about lesson settings: How to Create a Lesson in the Drag and Drop Builder.

To add the next lesson, click on the top left menu, and below the list of lessons, click Add lesson.

You can set a lesson availability date. Schedule your lesson to become available on a specific date or in a specific number of days after the previous lesson. Read more: Schedule Your Content Availability.

Creating a Section

You can create a section on the course management page or using the builder.

To create a section using the builder, click on the top left menu, and below the list of lessons, click on the arrow, and select "Add Section."

Read more about section settings: How to Create a Section.

Edit the title, and add a description.

Creating a Test

You can create a test to assess the knowledge and skills your students acquired during the course.

To create a test using the builder, click on the top left menu, and below the list of lessons, click on the arrow, and select "Add test."

Read more about test settings: How to Create a Test.

Enter a name for the test. Click on the text of the first question, and answer options to edit them.

You can add answer options and mark the correct answer on the right.

You can also drag and drop additional elements and diversify your page using the left panel.

Customize Your Course Options

You can configure the following settings that determine how students will be trained:

Course completion format (determines whether the course is lifetime, or sheduled).

Course cost (determines whether the course is free or paid).

Course order (determines the order in which each lesson is presented to the student: linear or non-linear).

Course сonditions (determines the criteria by which the course is considered completed by a student: completed all lessons, completed all lessons and passed the test, or just passed the test).

Add a Certificate

Create a certificate to confirm that the student has successfully completed your course according to the selected criteria.

Go to the "EDU" section in the "Certificates" tab.

Customize the style and content of the certificate. Choose the color and format of the text, add pictures, and allow to display some additional information.

Add Instructors

By default, a course has one instructor — the account owner who created the course. You can add more instructors on a paid plan.

To add an instructor, invite the user to your account. Then, in the “Overview” tab under the instructors section, click <icon> (Add instructor).

Select the invited user, and add an avatar.

Add Students

You can add students manually via your personal account. They can also enroll in the course on their own via the course website.

To add students manually, go to the "Overview" tab, and under the "Students" section, click Add.

Click the desired tab to select contacts to add: manually by list, via mailing list, or one at a time.

You can also add a tag to downloaded contacts.

To get access to the course self-enrollment page, go to the course, and copy the link.

Run the Course

Once you've set up your lessons, test, and course enrollment page, click Start to launch the course.

Please note that once you launch a course, you will not be able to change the format, cost, or address of your course.

Remember to also publish the course registration page.

Please note that lessons will be available to students if they are already registered and that the course is live even if you have unpublished the registration site.

If you have set up a free course, then every student who confirms the enrollment in your course will be able to immediately start the lessons.

If your course is paid and time-limited, then the student will be able to access the lessons only from the start date till the end date after having paid for the course.

Check Your Сourse Performance Rates

You can check the attendance and conversion rates your course registration page brings in the "Statistics" tab in the "Sites" section. Since the site has only one page, and it is the main page, the information will only be provided for one page at a time.