Add a lesson for your live sessions
On the Lessons tab, add a lesson (or a whole module) called something like Live sessions. List each call with its date, time and time zone, like "Tuesdays at 7 pm Eastern", and add your Zoom or Google Meet link as a Button element, the same way as a worksheet.
Only students who are logged in, and still on your course, can open lessons, so the link isn't on any public page. Students can still pass a link on, so turn on a passcode or a waiting room in Zoom.
Or stream it right into the lesson with YouTube Live
In YouTube Studio, click Create, then Go live, and schedule your stream. Set its visibility to Unlisted, so only people with the link can find it, and make sure Allow embedding is on. Copy the stream's link and paste it as the lesson's video, as you would any video.
On the day, students watch it live in the lesson, and afterwards the same video is the replay. Zoom can also send a meeting to YouTube Live, so you can teach on Zoom and stream it to the lesson.
The first time, YouTube asks you to verify your phone number, and turning on live streaming can take up to 24 hours, so set it up a few days early. Some YouTube channels can't show live streams on other websites yet: check the lesson as a student before the day, and if the video says it's unavailable, add the stream's link as a button too, so students can watch it on YouTube.
Open each session's lesson at the right time
Put each session in its own module and set Students get this module to on a date, then pick the date and, if you like, a time (see Release lessons over time). Until then, students see the module's and its lessons' titles with a lock and when it opens, in their own time zone.
So name your lessons with their dates, like Live Q&A · Tuesday, November 4, and your schedule is there for students to see before the links are.
Send reminders from your email platform
Course Mark doesn't email students when a module opens. In Publish, step 1, turn on Send students to your email platform, so every student is in your Flodesk, MailerLite, Mailchimp or Kit. Then set up emails there: a reminder with the link the day before, and a "the replay is up" email after.
Or, with the Email your students add-on, write to everyone on the course from its Students tab, whenever you need to.
Add the replay and publish your changes
After the call, add the recording to the lesson: Zoom can save it to your computer or the cloud, and you can upload it to YouTube as Unlisted or to Vimeo. Then go to Publish and click Publish changes: students don't see your edits until you do.
Collect questions before the call
Turn on lesson questions on the Community tab (free), and students can ask under the live session's lesson before you go live. With the Community add-on, you can also pin a post about the next call to the top of your Community page.
Close enrolment once your group starts
For a course that runs with a group, you can stop selling it once the group starts. In Publish, step 1, tick Close enrolment and choose Now or On a date, with a time. Then publish.
- Once it's closed, your sales page shows your message in place of the buy buttons, like "The next group starts in January", with an optional button: a sign-up form for your waiting list works well.
- Your checkout or sign-up page says it's closed, and nobody new can buy or sign up. Your shop and the marketplace show Enrolment closed.
- On a date, it closes by itself at the time you chose, where you are. You don't need to publish again.
- Students already on the course keep their access, and you can still add people on the Students tab.
- Selling with a Stripe Payment Link? The link itself still works for anyone who saved it: deactivate it in your Stripe dashboard too.
- To open it again, untick Close enrolment and publish.
Good to know
- Your course page shows when each module opens in each student's own time zone. In lesson text and emails, say which time zone you mean.
- A module opens at the moment you chose. A student who already has the course open sees it when they refresh the page.
- YouTube's live chat stays on YouTube. For a call where students talk to you and each other, use the Zoom or Meet link.
- Vimeo's live events can't play inside a lesson, but regular Vimeo videos can, so a Vimeo replay works.
- Put your session dates on your sales page too, in What's inside or your questions.
More help guides
Still stuck?
In the builder, click Help and tell us what's happening: we'll see which course you mean. Or email support@coursemark.co.