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Setting Up a Free Preview Lesson

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  2. Use Case Information
  3. Unlocking a Lesson for Free Preview
  4. Choosing a Free Preview Lesson
  5. Learner View
  6. Notes, Tips and Considerations

 

Free Preview allows you to configure a small sample of your content for viewing by the general public.

Use Case Information

Any purchasable course can be configured to grant learners access to one or more free preview lessons, either to all learners, or only to learners who will provide an email address. This allows potential learners to preview a sample lesson before purchasing the course. This is a two step process. First, open lessons up to be available as a sample lesson. Next, select a Sample Lesson in the Enrollment Step.

Warning

If you do not select a Sample Lesson on the Enrollment Step, the option for a Sample Lesson will not be available to learners on the detail page.

Unlocking a Lesson for Free Preview

  1. From your homepage, select Content, then Manage Content.
  2. Click the Content Title for the course you want to alter and you'll land on the Content Step.
  3. Locate the lesson that you would like to make available as a preview and click the pencil icon located next to the padlock icon which indicates the current setting as either locked or unlocked.FreePreviewLesson_OpenLesson_AdminView_GIF.gif
  4. Select a preview option:
    • Open to learners only.

      Note

      Open to learners only is default option and does not qualify as open for a sample lesson

    • Open to everyone.
      • When Open to everyone is selected, anyone with a link to that free preview will be dropped directly into the first open lesson and will view any open content within the course interface.
    • Open to everyone with email capture.
  5. Click Save and don't forget to publish your changes!

Choosing a Free Preview Lesson

  1. From your dashboard, select Content, then Manage Content. 
  2. Click the Content Title for the course you want to alter and go to the Enrollment Step. 
  3. Locate the Sample Lesson field and click the drop-down to choose the lesson where the preview should begin. Any of the lessons that you previously set to Open to everyone or Open to everyone with email capture will be available.

    Tip

    If you have multiple lessons set to Open to Everyone or Open to everyone with email capture, we recommend that you choose the first lesson opened.

  4. Optionally enable the setting Show Syllabus with Free Preview Lessons if you would like to allow unregistered learners to see the course syllabus (sections, lessons, and pages) in free preview lessons.FreePreviewLesson_SampleLesson_AdminView.png
  5. Click Save. 

Learner View

Detail Page: Learner will click Sample Lesson above the purchase widget on the Detail Page sidebar to access the content preview.

Email Capture Messaging & Terms: When Open to everyone with email capture is selected, clicking the preview link from the course detail page will display the email capture page prompting the learner for his/her email address. The learner will then be taken to the preview lesson within the course interface.

Paywall: When learners are finished previewing the will see this paywall.

Show Syllabus with Free Preview Lessons: If you want to set non-consecutive lessons as part of the preview, you also need to enable the setting Show Syllabus with Free Preview Lessons. FreePreviewLesson_DisplaySyllabusSetting_LearnerView_GIF.gif

Note

To learn more about editing paywall and email capture terms visit the article Customizing Paywall Terms and Confirmation Information

Notes, Tips and Considerations

  • By default, the option on the detail page for learners to see the preview says "Sample Lesson". This can be changed in Translations - search for the field course.look-inside.
  • Once a learner views all pages within the preview lesson(s), the paywall page will appear prompting learners to purchase the full course. We encourage all clients to customize the language on these pages when this feature is enabled. To do this, go to Content > Manage Content > Click on Content Title > Enrollment Step > Ecommerce tab > Advanced > Click Edit Paywall & Terms. 
  • Sample lessons do not work well when a course has Force Linear Progress enabled, unless you only plan to open one page as your free preview. In preview mode, there's no way to record completion for a learner on any given page which means learners won't be able to move forward to view additional pages.
  • It’s not possible to track and save progress for unregistered learners, so if sample lessons include any interactive activities (quizzes, match pairs, SCORM, etc.), the progress will be reset when the learner navigates away from the page.

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