A course's access status determines whether it is published, visible in your school, and available for enrollment. You can choose an access status when creating a course and change it later from the course's Access settings.
LearnWorlds supports four course statuses: Draft, Public, Private, and Enrollment closed. Your course's enrollment method and pricing options are configured separately. Find more information about creating courses in LearnWorlds here.
Course access
| Status | What it means | Enrollment and access | Plan availability |
| Draft | The course is being prepared and is not published | Learners cannot access the course while it is Draft | All plans |
| Public | The course is published and available to learners | Eligible learners can enroll using the configured enrollment method and pricing options | All plans |
| Private | The course is hidden from the course catalog | Access is limited to learners enrolled through a supported method | Pro Trainer and higher |
| Coming soon | The course page is published with a Coming Soon indicator | New learner self-enrollment is unavailable | All plans |
Find more about the plan availability per course type below.
What each course status does
Draft
Choose Draft while preparing a course that should not be available to learners. A Draft course is not published, and learners cannot access its content.
If you change an existing course to Draft, enrolled learners temporarily lose access. Their enrollments are retained, and access can be restored when the course returns to an eligible published status.
Public
Choose Public when your course is ready for learners.
A Public course can have a Paid or Open access enrollment method. Paid enrollment uses an eligible pricing option, while Open access allows signed-in learners to enroll at no cost.
Private
Choose Private to keep a course out of the course catalog and control who gets access. Private Courses are accessible only to those who have been explicitly manually enrolled in them Learners can be manually enrolled through supported admin or private-course access methods.
Coming soon
Choose Coming soon to publish a course page before opening enrollment. The course card displays a Coming Soon indicator.
Learners can view the course overview page and its public information, but they cannot self-enroll or access the course content.
How to change a course status
- Go to Courses & Programs → Courses
- Select the course you want to update
- Open its Access settings
- Select the course status you want and save your changes
How status changes affect existing learners
When you change a course's status, existing learners may retain or temporarily lose access, depending on the new status.
- From Public or Coming soon to Enrollment closed: New learners cannot self-enroll or purchase the course. Existing enrolled learners retain access
- From Public or Enrollment closed to Private: The course is hidden from the catalog, but existing enrolled learners retain access
From Public, Private, Coming soon, or Enrollment closed to Draft: Existing learners temporarily lose access to the course content. The course remains in their account, and access is restored when the course returns to an eligible published status
Admins can still manually enroll learners in Public, Private, and Coming soon courses, provided an eligible Public pricing option exists. Manual enrollment is not available for Draft courses.