Use lesson schedules to choose when online lessons open and when learners should complete them. A drip feed releases lessons over time. Schedules are available for on-demand and blended courses with lessons hosted in Cademy.
An on-demand course is self-paced. A blended course combines online lessons with scheduled sessions. On a blended course, you can time a lesson around each learner’s booked course date, even when learners on the same course attend on different dates.
Who can use this? System Admins and Course Owners with access to the course can edit lesson schedules. Facilitators cannot open the course editor.
Choose how lesson dates are calculated
Each lesson has two separate settings: Opens controls when its content becomes available; Due sets a completion deadline. A due date does not remove access. Other access requirements, such as course access expiry or completing an earlier lesson, still apply.
Option | What it means | Available on |
straight away / no due date | No timed opening restriction, or no completion deadline. | On-demand and blended |
on a set date | One date and time for everyone taking the course. | On-demand and blended |
after enrolling | A number of days or hours after each learner’s enrolment reference date. | On-demand and blended |
before the course starts | A number of days or hours before the booked date starts. | Blended only |
after the course starts | A number of days or hours after the booked date starts. | Blended only |
before the course ends | A number of days or hours before the booked date ends. | Blended only |
after the course ends | A number of days or hours after the booked date ends. | Blended only |
For after enrolling, an order-based learner’s timing starts from the Order’s paid date when one is recorded, otherwise its created date. For a learner added manually or imported without an Order, it starts from the Registration’s created date. It does not start when the learner first opens a lesson. A day counted from this date is a period of 24 hours.
If the course gives learners access for a limited number of days, those days are counted from the same date. A lesson set to open after the learner’s access has expired does not open for them unless their access is extended. See Setting an Access Limit on On-Demand and Blended Courses.
A Registration is one person’s place on a course. An Order is the purchase record. These dates can differ from the day the learner attends, so choose a course-start or course-end option when the timing should follow attendance dates.
Set when a lesson opens and when it is due
Go to admin.cademy.io and select Courses.
Open the on-demand or blended course. Select Edit Course, then Contents.
Open the lesson. Select Schedule beside its publication status. If the lesson already has a schedule, this control shows its saved timing summary instead. In the older content editor, select Schedule & Options. To create and edit lessons, and for what to do if your editor looks different, see Create and Edit Lessons and Course Content.
In the Schedule dialog, use Opens to choose an opening option. For on a set date, enter Opens Date and Opens Time in your device’s timezone. For a relative option, enter a whole number and choose days or hours.
Use Due to choose no due date or a deadline option. For on a set date, enter Due Date and Due Time in your device’s timezone. For a relative deadline, enter a whole number and choose days or hours.
Read any date preview, warning or error below the settings. Correct an error before continuing.
Select Done, then select the lesson’s main Save button. Done applies the choices to the editor; Save stores them.
Reopen the scheduling control to check the saved values. Make sure the lesson is Published when eligible learners should see it.
Relative amounts must be whole numbers from 0 to 365 days, or 0 to 8,760 hours. Zero means the opening or deadline is at the selected starting point. Closing the dialog without selecting Done discards the changes made in that dialog.
An on a set date time is one moment for every learner. Cademy reads the date and time you enter in your device’s timezone, not the course’s timezone, so check your device before you enter them. Course-start and course-end options follow the timezone of the learner’s course date instead. Timezones explains where that timezone is set.
A saved change applies to every learner on the course, including learners who have already started it. If a lesson’s new opening time has not arrived for a learner, the lesson is locked for them again, even if they had already completed it.
Use the preview and check warnings
When you choose a course-start or course-end option, the dialog shows the calculated timing for the next upcoming course date. This is an example for that date, not one fixed date applied to every learner. If there is no upcoming date to preview, you can still save the rule.
Cademy blocks certain combinations where it can establish that the lesson would be due before it opens, including two conflicting set dates. The error says This lesson would be due before it opens. Set a due date after it opens. and disables Done.
A warning can also identify upcoming course dates where the opening and deadline conflict. A warning does not prevent saving. Check each named date and adjust the rule so learners have time to complete the lesson. Not every combination can be checked, particularly when you mix after enrolling with a course-date rule.
Time lessons around a blended course date
Course-start and course-end rules use the date on the learner’s Registration. If the learner booked a block of sessions, the start is the first session’s start time and the end is the final session’s end time. If they booked one session separately, the rule uses that session. You cannot choose a different session inside the block as the timing point.
Days follow the course date’s local clock time, including a seasonal clock change. Hours count elapsed time. For example, one day before a 09:30 start is 09:30 on the previous local date; two hours after a 16:30 finish is 18:30.
Preparation before attendance: set Opens to straight away and Due to 1 day before the course starts. A learner whose date starts on 10 June at 09:30 has a deadline of 9 June at 09:30. A learner booked for 17 June has a deadline of 16 June at 09:30.
Follow-up learning: set Opens to 2 hours after the course ends and Due to 7 days after the course ends. For a date ending on 12 June at 16:30, the lesson opens at 18:30 that day and is due on 19 June at 16:30.
These are fictional examples. After saving your own rule, use a test learner booked on the relevant date to check the result in the course content.
When a course date changes
Changing the booked date’s start or end changes lesson times calculated from that point. Moving a learner to another date of the same course also changes their course-date lesson times. A fixed on a set date rule stays on its chosen date.
A Registration move affects more than scheduling. Review the consequences and restrictions in Move a Participant or Replace the Person Attending before moving a learner.
What learners see
Learners see published lessons they are eligible to access. In a blended course, the content outline shows their booked date in Your Course. Course-date lessons explain their timing with wording such as “Due 1 day before your course starts”.
Before a lesson opens, the outline shows an availability badge. Opening a locked lesson shows when it will become available instead of its content. A deadline appears as a due-date badge; an incomplete lesson whose deadline has passed shows Overdue. Learners can still complete an overdue lesson while their course access remains valid.
If a learner has no booked date, a lesson that opens relative to the course date stays locked with Awaiting Date. A course-date deadline has no calculated due date until a date is assigned. The “You’re not booked on a date yet” banner appears when a lesson is waiting on that date to open. Booking establishes when the lesson opens; it does not necessarily open it immediately.
A learner who joins after a course-date deadline has passed sees the incomplete lesson as overdue. The deadline is not moved forward simply because they booked late.
Lesson notification emails
Adding a Registration or changing a lesson’s opening or due-date rule prepares future lesson notifications for eligible learners. This includes learners added manually or imported without an Order. Course-date changes and Registration moves also update the relevant reminder schedules.
These notifications are separate from the confirmation sent when a learner is added or imported, and from the session reminders under the course’s Emails settings. Turning off Send confirmation email or an import’s Send Confirmation does not turn off future lesson notifications.
Each notification is sent to the learner’s email address and links to the lesson.
Opening notifications are checked hourly, so delivery is not guaranteed at the exact minute a lesson opens.
Deadline notifications are checked daily for approaching, due and overdue lessons. Each daily check looks for incomplete lessons whose deadline is 2 to 3 days away, 1 to 2 days away, within the next 24 hours, or 1 to 2 days in the past. Choosing hours for a deadline does not create an hourly countdown email.
The learner needs an eligible Registration that has not been cancelled or deleted, a recorded email address and valid course-content access. Email sending must also be enabled for the provider’s account.
The per-learner checks skip completed lessons, cancelled Registrations and schedules whose live timing is no longer in the sending window.
When a Registration or changed rule is processed after its opening or deadline has already passed, Cademy does not create a retrospective notification for that past moment.
Setting a lesson to Draft hides it from learners but does not cancel its notifications. To stop future notifications for that lesson, also choose straight away under Opens and no due date under Due, then save the lesson.
An opening date or deadline shown in the course is not proof that an email reached the learner. If a message is missing, check the learner’s Registration, email address, access and saved lesson rule. A System Admin can also review the recorded emails using Find Sent Emails and Check Delivery Status.
Test the saved schedule
Use Preview as Student to check saved lesson content, not to test the learner’s release restrictions or deadlines. Admin preview stays in preview mode even if you are also registered on the course.
To check the actual schedule, open the course through a real test learner Registration. For course-date rules, book the test learner on the date you want to check. Compare the outline and locked lesson with the saved rule. To check different cohorts, use learners booked on different dates. Follow Test a Course as a Learner.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change or remove a schedule later?
Yes. Open the lesson’s scheduling control. Choose straight away under Opens to remove its timed opening restriction, or no due date under Due to remove its deadline. Select Done, then Save. Other access and completion requirements still apply.
Why are the course-start and course-end options missing?
They are available only on blended courses. On-demand courses support a set date or days or hours after enrolling. Courses without Cademy-hosted lessons do not use this lesson-scheduling workflow. If a blended course is changed to an on-demand course, a lesson’s saved course-start or course-end rule stops applying: the lesson opens without that restriction and has no calculated deadline. Open the Schedule dialog, where the rule shows Only blended courses can time lessons around the course date., and choose another option.
Why can a learner not open a lesson after its opening time?
Check that the lesson is Published, the learner has valid course access, and any required earlier lesson is complete. For a course-date rule, also check the date assigned to the learner’s Registration.
Will a learner lose access after the due date?
No. The due date is a completion deadline, not an access expiry date. The learner can complete the overdue lesson while their course access remains valid. To set or change how long learners keep access, see Setting an Access Limit on On-Demand and Blended Courses.
Can I set a different rule for one learner?
No. The rule is saved on the lesson. Its calculated date can differ because learners enrolled at different times or booked different course dates; there is no individual lesson-schedule override in this dialog.