Courses allow you to build learning experiences in your Heartbeat community that increase engagement.

Courses Overview Video

Setting Up Your Course

When creating a course, you'll walk through a multi-step process to set up the overall structure of how you will deliver content.

Course Structure

1. 🌲 Evergreen: Always available courses. Lessons can be dripped out over time.

2. 👥 Cohort-Based: Courses run in groups with fixed start and end times. (i.e. bootcamps, fellowships, etc.)

Course Name & Info

Give your course a name and description. These will both be visible on the card when a member is on the "Courses" section of your community. Make it clear what a member will learn from taking the course.

(Cohort-Based only) First Cohort Name

Give your first cohort a name. Every time you start a new cohort, you'll be asked to give it a name. A common first cohort name is "Founding Cohort" or "Cohort 1"

Free Access

Anyone selected in the Free Access section will be allowed to enroll in this course for free.

• Free courses: If you course is free for anyone in your community, select the "User" role here.

• Subscription-based Course Products: If you are selling a subscription product in your community and want to give access to this course as part of the subscription, add that group here.

• Individual Course Products: If you are selling this course as an individual product, there is no need to add a group here unless you want to give another group access for free. You will be able to make the course group (which is created automatically after creating the course) into a paid product.

(Cohort-Based only) Channel Setup

Heartbeat will automatically create the channels for your course members. This automation will repeat every time you start a new cohort.

• Course Abbreviation: A short identifier for your course. This will be used for naming your channels

• Channels: Add channels that you'd like to create for each individual cohort of this course. These channels will only be available for the respective cohort.

Building Course Modules and Lessons

Modules are the building blocks of courses, and within each module, you can create multiple lessons. Lessons can include various types of content, such as text, videos, links, and more. Easily edit lessons using a user-friendly content editor, similar to Heartbeat documents. Incorporate headers, to-do lists, bullet lists, tables, images, quotes, and embeds.

Adding Assignments

Include assignments for students to complete. Choose between private and public assignments.

• Private Assignments: enable direct submission and feedback from admins. You can find submission data on your course dashboard under "View Submissions:

  

• Public Assignments: encourage community engagement, where students share their work in specified channels.

Hosting Live Events

Schedule live events like lectures directly within lessons. Utilize Heartbeat's integration with Zoom to set up and invite participants to live sessions. This feature is valuable for real-time interaction and collaborative learning.

Publishing Options

Decide how content is published to learners. Choose between immediate publishing, drip release, or scheduled publishing.

• Immediate Publishing (None): Publish the lesson to everyone immediately

• Drip: Drip content to members over time. You can toggle the "days until available", which means the lesson will only be visible to members this many days after joining the course. They'll receive a notification when new content is available. New content is released at the same time of day as the time when they initially joined the course.

• Scheduled Date: The lesson will become visible to members on the specific date that you choose.

Notifications can be sent via push notifications and/or email, enhancing engagement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when someone gains access to a course group?

How do I track user progress?

Access assignment submissions, track completion, and measure overall participation from your course dashboard:

How do I create a new cohort for my course?

Select "Create Cohort" from the 3-dot menu on the course card. You'll be asked to name the new cohort, adjust due dates for assignments, decide on free access, and will have the opportunity to adjust the automatically created channels.