On-demand online courses let learners work through self-paced content without attending on fixed dates. You can host the lessons in Cademy or give learners access details for content hosted elsewhere.
A Registration is one learner’s place on the course. An Order records the booking and its payment.
Permission needed: You need System Admin access or Course Owner access to the course. Facilitators cannot open the course editor. If an action is missing, ask a System Admin to check your access.
Create an on-demand course
Open the Cademy admin dashboard and select Courses.
Select Create New.
Choose the word your business uses for courses in the service keyword selector. Then select On-demand online course under What is the format?
In Description, enter the course title where you see Add your title here. Use Add Course Images to choose the course images, then replace the description placeholder with information learners need before booking.
Select Save and check for Course saved. The new course is saved but remains unpublished.
Continue through Pricing & Delivery, Contents, Settings and Share as described below. Share appears after the course has been saved.
To return later, open Courses, select the course and select Edit Course. In List View on Courses, you can also open the course’s three-dot menu and select Edit or Settings. Changing tabs on a new course also attempts to save it; navigating within an existing course editor can save outstanding changes. Review your choices before switching pages.
Set the price, availability and access duration
Price and offer availability
In the course editor, open Pricing & Delivery.
For one simple offer, enter the Price. Use 0 for a free offer and check the currency shown. If you already see offer cards, select the offer to edit its price.
For additional offers or availability dates, select Custom Offers & Add-ons if the expanded list is not already shown.
To change an existing offer, select its card. To add another, select Add Price, choose Create an Offer, and enter its Name and Price.
Inside an offer, select More Options if you need Available from (optional), Available until (optional) or Spaces to block. Spaces to block means how many places one purchase of that offer uses.
If you opened an offer dialog, select Update Price for an existing offer or Create Price for a new one.
Below pricing, set Duration to the advertised length of the course. This is separate from the learner’s access limit.
Select Save and check for Course saved.
Offer availability dates control when customers can select that price option. They do not publish or unpublish the course. Add-ons are optional extras: use Add Price, choose Create an Add-on, enter its name and price, then Create Price and save the course.
On eligible plans, External Bookings can send a learner from the on-demand course page to your own registration or booking system. The external booking is not recorded in Cademy automatically, and any membership requirement is still checked before the external action becomes available. The Booking Options card that holds this setting is not shown in the editor of an on-demand course, so read Send Customers to an External Booking Website before you rely on it.
Course access duration
In the course editor, open Settings, then Access Options.
Under Students should have access to the course, choose Indefinitely / until removed by you or For a limited time. The last word of that label follows the course’s service keyword.
If you choose limited access, enter the Number of days.
Select Save and check for Course saved.
Existing learners can be affected. The course setting is the default for every learner whose place has no expiry date of its own, including learners who already have access. Changing it can shorten, extend or remove their limit. The days count from when the learner’s place was paid for or created, not from the day you change the setting, so a shorter limit can end an existing learner’s access straight away. The hint on the screen says the setting affects new students; it applies to existing learners without a date of their own as well.
To give one learner a date of their own, open Courses, select the course, open Registrants and select their Registration. Select the pencil beside Access expires, choose a date and select Save. Check for Access expiry updated. To remove an individual date, select Clear and check for Access expiry cleared; the place then follows the current course default again, unless its Order carries a date of its own.
For the order in which these dates apply, how the days are counted and what learners see when access ends, read Set and Change Course Access Expiry.
Add lessons and course content
Open the course and select Edit Course, then open Contents.
Use Build Lessons and Organise Course Content for the complete current editor workflow. It covers sections, lessons, rich content blocks, files and PDFs, quizzes, SCORM packages (learning content made with an external authoring tool), schedules, saving and Preview as Student.
You can also collect General or Feedback responses inside lessons with a Form block. See Add Forms to Lessons to make submission optional or required, control later-lesson access and find responses.
Course publishing and lesson publishing are separate. Publish the lessons learners should be able to open, then check their release schedules and any requirement to complete an earlier lesson. For release rules and due dates, see Schedule Lesson Access and Due Dates.
Host the course somewhere else
Use Host Externally when learners complete the course on another website or learning platform instead of inside Cademy.
Open Courses, select the course, then Edit Course.
Open Settings, then Advanced Settings.
Turn on Host Externally.
Under Content Access Details, add the website link, login steps and other instructions learners need.
Select Save and check for Course saved.
Approved learners see these instructions in the Course Access area of their booking or order. Leave Host Externally off when learners complete lessons inside Cademy.
Content Access Details are for externally hosted courses.
For a course delivered inside Cademy, see Add Welcome Information and Files for Learners for information learners should receive after booking.
Control who can find the course
In the course editor, open Share and use the visibility control. The same control is shown beside each course in List View on Courses. Saving a new course does not publish it.
Public: Visible to all.
Private: Hidden and accessible with a direct link. This option depends on your business plan.
Unpublished: Visible to you and enrolled users.
Starter, Pro and Teams plans include private courses. On any other plan or agreement, Private can be chosen only if your account has that feature. For plan information, see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees.
For the publishing checks, private-course requirements, course link and embed options, read Publish and Share a Course.
To help people find the course, open Settings, then Advanced Settings. The Categories & Tags section is there, and Search Details holds the Level, the Search engine & social media description and the service keyword.
In List View on Courses, the course’s three-dot menu also provides Duplicate and Add to Collection. For the steps to duplicate a course, see Change a Course Type.
In the same menu, a published course shows Unpublish & Archive; an unpublished course shows Archive; an archived course shows Restore. For the steps and what archiving changes, see Archive or Restore a Course.
Important: Archiving an on-demand course removes learners' access to its content. Restore it if learners need access again.
Test the learner experience
Use Preview as Student for a quick check of the saved lessons and course layout.
Open Courses, select the course, then Edit Course → Contents.
Save the course at least once. In the current content editor, Preview as Student appears after saving. The older editor does not show this button.
Select Preview as Student. You can also use it inside a lesson or Quiz to open that lesson directly.
If Save Before Previewing? appears, choose Save & Preview for your latest changes or Preview Without Saving for the last saved version.
Check the new tab for Previewing as admin. Progress is not tracked. For a System Admin or Course Owner with access to this course, Preview as Student opens admin preview even if the same login also has a Registration. Draft lessons are available to admins and marked Unpublished. If the banner is missing, stop and check which page and login you are using before interacting.
Check which view opened. When the admin-preview banner is shown, lesson progress and Quiz responses are not recorded, and form submission is disabled. SCORM packages can launch in a temporary session without saving progress, completion or resume information. Draft and scheduled lessons can remain accessible to admins, so this view does not prove learner access rules. Use a separate learner email without administrator access for a faithful learner test.
Real learner tests create records and can use course spaces or send messages. Follow Test a Course Before Launch for the appropriate Registration, Order or public-booking route and its cleanup steps.
Rename the learner buttons and course labels
Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans include Custom Labels; for plan information, see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees. Open Courses, select the course, then Edit Course → Settings → Advanced Settings. Find Custom Labels to rename Start Course and Continue Course. Select Save and check for Course saved.
These labels apply to Cademy-hosted lessons. The button shown depends on the learner's progress, while the completed View Course action keeps its normal wording. The same section can also rename the course's main Booking Button and Forum Name. For every supported location and exception, see Rename Course Buttons and Forum Names.
Track access, lesson progress and certificates
CPD means continuing professional development.
Open Lesson Progress on the course dashboard to review learners across the course.
To review or correct one learner, open Registrants, select their Registration and expand Lesson Progress. Select a lesson’s status badge to choose Mark Completed, Mark In Progress or Mark Not Started.
Before changing a lesson’s status, follow Correct a Learner’s Lesson Progress. It explains the complete correction procedure, its confirmation and the effect on Completion, certificates and CPD.
In the Registration, Access expires shows a date or Never. Use the complete expiry procedure above if it needs changing.
Learners can see their course under My Courses & Bookings > My Courses. When an expiry date applies, the learner sees Access expires on the course’s Content page. The Order Contact, the person who booked, can also see an applicable access date under Your Order. A participant booked by someone else does not have that panel.
In the course editor, open Settings → Certificates & CPD and turn on Automatically issue certificate if learners should receive one when they complete the course. Choose Email student when certificate is issued if a new certificate should also be emailed. Select Save and check for Course saved.
Automatic issuing does not create or email another certificate when that Registration already has an active certificate, even if it uses a different template. Where Custom Certificates are available, use the manual issuing steps in Set Up and Issue Course Certificates to issue an additional certificate with a different template.
For more help, read Set Up and Issue Course Certificates and Find Course Dates, Locations, Joining Instructions and Content.
Frequently asked questions
How is an on-demand course different from a blended or on-request course?
An on-demand course is self-paced, with no fixed attendance date. A blended course combines scheduled sessions with online learning content. On-request is for individually arranged training; depending on its setup, customers submit a request or book an available calendar slot.
Why can I not see Create New, Edit Course or the visibility actions?
System Admins and Course Owners can create and edit on-demand courses. Facilitators cannot open the course editor. Ask a System Admin for your business account to check your access.
Why can a learner not see a lesson?
Check that the lesson is Published, its release schedule has been reached, the learner has a Registration that allows access, any previous-lesson requirement is complete, their course access has not expired, and the course is not archived.
Can I delete an on-demand course?
No permanent delete action is provided here. Use the course menu to archive it. Published courses show Unpublish & Archive, unpublished courses show Archive, and archived courses show Restore. Archiving removes learners’ content access; it is not permanent deletion.
Does changing Access Options affect existing learners?
Yes, when their place has no expiry date of its own. Cademy uses the current course setting for those learners, so a change can shorten, extend or remove their limit. A learner whose Registration has an individual Access expires date keeps that date until you change or clear it. See Set and Change Course Access Expiry.
Can I test a SCORM package with Preview as Student?
Yes. When the admin-preview banner is shown, the package uses a temporary preview session without saving learner progress, completion or resume information. For a System Admin or Course Owner with access to this course, Preview as Student opens admin preview even if the same login also has a Registration. Follow Test a Course Before Launch to test a real learner’s experience.
Why can I not see Preview as Student?
Save the course, then open Edit Course → Contents. The button is available in the current content editor; the older editor does not show it. Follow Test a Course Before Launch for another way to check the course.
Are External Bookings and Host Externally the same?
No. External Bookings controls where the customer registers or books. Host Externally controls where the learner completes the course content. A course may use either option or both, depending on its setup and plan. For where External Bookings can be set, see Send Customers to an External Booking Website.
Why is the course missing from the learner’s account?
Follow Test a Course Before Launch to check the learner email, active Registration, course status and Order participant when relevant.
Why did the learner not receive a certificate after completing the course?
Open Courses, select the course, then Edit Course → Settings → Certificates & CPD and check that Automatically issue certificate is on. If the Registration already has an active certificate, automatic issuing does not create or email another one, even if it uses a different template. Check Email student when certificate is issued if the learner should receive an email when a new certificate is issued. Where Custom Certificates are available, follow Set Up and Issue Course Certificates to issue an additional certificate manually with a different template.