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What are the course access types, and which do I want?
Four of them: full access, drip content, partial access, and partial access with drip. The first opens everything at once, the second releases lectures on a delay, and the two partial options limit which modules a student can open at all.
The four, side by side
| Access type | What the student gets | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Full access | Instant access to all modules and lectures. Any delays set between lectures are ignored | Handing over everything at once |
| Drip content | Modules and lectures open progressively, on the delay you set | Releasing a course gradually, on the delays set between lessons |
| Partial access | Only the modules the instructor selected | A lower-tier offer, or a bonus-only package |
| Partial access with drip | Only the selected modules, and the lectures inside them released gradually on the delays | Selected modules, released gradually rather than in one go |
Which one do I want?
The choice comes down to two questions asked in order. Does the student get the whole course, or part of it. Then, does what they get arrive at once, or over time.
- Whole course, straight away: full access.
- Whole course, released over time: drip content.
- Certain modules only, straight away: partial access.
- Certain modules only, released over time: partial access with drip.
That is the plain-English version systeme.io's support team gives, and the two questions are the whole decision.
Full access ignores the delays you already set
This is the part that surprises people. Delays are stored on the lectures, so a course can be built with a careful weekly schedule and still open in one go.
Sell that course on full access and every delay set between lectures is ignored. The delays are not deleted, they are passed over.
Where the access type is picked
Two screens, doing two different jobs.
- On the order form, when the course is added as a resource to a digital product. Select Digital product, add the course as a resource, then select the course access type before adding a price plan.
- When adding a student by hand. Assets, then Courses, then Add student. It asks for a first name, last name and email, then for the access type, then Save.
The lists do not agree on how many there are
The article comparing the access types opens by saying there are four. The article on adding a student by hand lists four to choose between, and the one on changing a student's access type lists the same four in its dropdown.
The guide to selling a course lists three at the order form step: full access, partial access and drip content. Partial access with drip is not among them.
The comparison article's own worked example sells an offer granting partial access with drip, so the two pages describe the same screen differently. Check the dropdown on your own order form before planning an offer around it.
What the partial options make possible
They exist so that one course can be sold more than one way, without building it twice.
systeme.io's worked example is a ten-module course on a seven-day drip, sold as three offers from that single course.
- A half-course offer granting partial access with drip to the first five modules, one lecture every seven days.
- A full-course offer granting ordinary drip access to all ten.
- An upgrade offer that unlocks the remaining five for somebody who bought the half course, continuing the same seven-day schedule.
The modules do not have to run in order. Grant partial access to modules 1, 3 and 5 on a course dripping one module a week, and module 1 opens on enrolment, module 3 seven days later, and module 5 seven days after that.
An upgrade bought part-way through a drip does not jump the queue. The newly unlocked modules start releasing once the existing sequence has finished, keeping the intervals you set.
Changing it after somebody has enrolled
Go to Assets, then Courses, then the Students tab. Click the student's email address, find the Enrollments section, click the three dots and pick Change course access.
Pick the new access type from the dropdown and save. Choose either partial type and a Choose module dropdown appears, which is where modules are added or taken away.
Progress survives the switch where it can. systeme.io states that moving a student between partial-based access types preserves progress where possible, that content they have already opened stays open, and that the existing drip progression is maintained.
The one constraint on the choice
An expiration delay, which shuts a course down a set number of days after it opens, is not offered on every access type. systeme.io's guide to selling a course states that the option is available only for courses with full or partial access.
Expiration also outranks everything else. Where an expiry is set, it ends a student's access on that date even if their content is still dripping.
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Keep reading
- What is the difference between a course and a membership? No separate membership product is documented. What builds one instead.
- Where do my course videos actually live? On systeme.io itself, if you upload them. The two numbers that decide whether that works.
- What is drip content, and should I use it? Lectures on a timer instead of all at once, and the option it costs you.