Academy LMS gives you three ways to control who can see a course and when it goes live. Make a course Private so only enrolled students can open it, protect any course with a password, or schedule a course to publish itself at a set date and time. This guide covers all three.
Step 1: Open the course status dropdown
Go to Academy LMS → Courses and open a course, or create a new one. In the publish box on the right, click the status dropdown. It shows four options: Publish (visible to everyone), Draft (not published yet), Private (admins and editors only) and Scheduled (publish on a set date).
Step 2: Make a course Private
Select Private from the dropdown and update the course. A private course is invisible to everyone except admins and instructors: a student who is not enrolled gets a plain page-not-found error if they try to open its link directly, and the course does not accept open enrollment.
Step 3: Manually enroll students in a private course
Private courses need you to add students yourself:
Note: Manual Enrollment is a Pro addon.
Once enrolled, the course opens normally for that student, with an enrollment date and a Start Course button like any other course. Anyone you have not enrolled still cannot reach the page at all.
Password protect a course
Password protection works on a course no matter what status it has (Publish, Draft, Private or Scheduled). In the publish box, turn on Password protect and type a password.
Update the course to save it. A visitor who opens the course page now sees a password form and must enter the correct password to unlock the content.
Once a student is enrolled in the course, Academy LMS skips the password form for them. They never have to type the password again.
Schedule a course to publish automatically
Select Scheduled from the status dropdown. A Publish on date field appears.
Set the date and time and update the course. Academy LMS publishes the course automatically at that date and time, so you do not need to come back and click Publish yourself.