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.
Permission needed: System Admins and Course Owners can create and edit on-demand courses. Facilitators cannot open the course editor. If an action is missing, ask a System Admin for your business account to check your access.
Create an on-demand course
Open the Admin Dashboard and select Courses.
Select Create New.
Choose the word your business uses for courses, then select On-demand online course.
In Description, add the Title, images and course-page content that learners should see.
Complete the other course-editor areas: Pricing & Delivery, Contents, Settings and Share.
You can return to the editor from the course dashboard by selecting Edit Course. You can also open Courses, open the course menu and select Edit or Settings.
Set the price, availability and access duration
Price and offer availability
Open Pricing & Delivery.
Enter the Price. Set the price to 0 if the offer should be free.
Select More Options if you need to set Available from (optional), Available until (optional) or Spaces to block.
Select Add Price if the course needs another price option.
The available-from and available-until settings control when that price option can be selected. They do not publish or unpublish the course.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. See Send Course Bookings to an External Website.
Course access duration
Open Settings, then Access Options.
Under Students should have access to the course, choose Indefinitely / until removed by you or For a limited time.
If you choose limited access, enter the Number of days.
This setting applies to new learners. To check or change one existing learner, open the course's Registrants tab, select their Registration, then use the pencil beside Access expires. You can set a date or clear the individual date to return to the course default.
For the full access-duration workflow, read Setting an Access Limit on On-Demand and Blended Courses.
Add lessons and course content
Open the course and select Edit Course, then open Contents.
Use Create and Edit Lessons and Course Content for the complete current editor workflow. It covers sections, lessons, rich content blocks, files and PDFs, quizzes, SCORM packages, schedules, saving and Preview as Student.
Host the course somewhere else
Use Host Externally when learners complete the course on another website or learning platform instead of inside Cademy.
Open the course and select Edit Course.
Open Settings, then Advanced Settings.
Turn on Host Externally.
Add the link, login steps and other learner instructions under Content Access Details.
Save the course.
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, use Course Welcome Content for information learners should receive after booking.
Control who can find the course
Open Courses and use the visibility control for the course:
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.
The course menu also contains Duplicate and Add to Collection. A published course has Unpublish & Archive; an unpublished course has Archive; and an archived course has Restore.
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.
From the Admin Dashboard, select Courses from the left menu.
Select the course, then select Contents.
Save the course at least once. Preview as Student is not shown until the course has been saved.
Select Preview as Student. You can use the same button from the Course Content overview, inside a lesson or inside the Quiz editor. Previewing from a lesson or Quiz opens that lesson directly.
If Cademy shows Save Before Previewing?, choose Save & Preview to include your latest changes, or Preview Without Saving to open the last saved version.
Check the new tab. The banner says Previewing as admin. Progress is not tracked. Draft lessons are available to admins and marked Unpublished.
Admin preview is not a registered learner test.
It does not record lesson progress or Quiz responses. It can launch SCORM in a temporary preview session, but it does not save SCORM progress, completion or resume information. Scheduled and Draft lessons remain available to the admin, so preview does not prove that learner access, release schedules or previous-lesson locks work as intended.
To test real learner access and progress, or to test a Registration, Order or public checkout, follow Test a Course as a Learner.
Rename the learner buttons and course labels
On Pro, Teams and Custom plans, a Course Owner can rename Start Course and Continue Course for one course. Go to https://admin.cademy.io > Courses, open the course's three-dot options menu, select Settings, then select Advanced Settings and scroll to Custom Labels.
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
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.
For the complete correction workflow and its effect on Completion, certificates and CPD, see Change a Learner's Lesson Progress.
In the Registration, Access expires shows a date or Never. Use the pencil beside it to change the learner's individual expiry.
Learners can see their course under My Courses & Bookings > My Courses. An Order owner can also see an applicable access date in the Order summary. A participant booked by someone else, or added through a direct Registration, does not have that Order summary.
To issue a certificate automatically when a learner completes the course, open Settings, then Certificates & CPD, and turn on Automatically issue certificate. You can also choose whether to Email student when certificate is issued.
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 Certificates to issue an additional certificate with a different template.
For more help, read 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 and has no fixed attendance date. A blended course combines dated sessions with online content. An on-request course lets a customer request dates or delivery directly from the provider.
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?
Use the course menu to archive it. Published courses show Unpublish & Archive, unpublished courses show Archive, and archived courses show Restore.
Why did changing Access Options not update existing learners?
The course setting affects new learners. Open the existing learner's Registration and update Access expires separately.
Can I test a SCORM package with Preview as Student?
You can launch the package in a temporary preview session, but preview does not save learner progress, completion or resume information. Follow Test a Course as a Learner to test tracked SCORM behaviour with a real learner.
Why can I not see Preview as Student?
The course must be saved before the button appears. Save the course, then return to Contents.
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.
Why is the course missing from Student Profile?
Follow Test a Course as a Learner 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 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 Certificates to issue an additional certificate manually with a different template.