Courses

The Course product lets you create structured learning experiences using video, slides, text, and downloadable materials. Everything is hosted on your Sherpo site. Each course and lesson can be free or paid and includes progress tracking, completion data, and integrated checkout. If you want to see how Courses appear to users, check this guide:

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Create a course product

1. Go to Products → New product.
2. Enter a title, subtitle, and short description.
3. Select the Course tile (video icon).
4. Click Create product to open the workspace.

From here, use the Basic info tab to describe your course, list what’s included, and configure pricing in Prices. Courses support the same pricing options as other Sherpo products. You can offer free or one-time paid courses, create coupons, set up automations, and enable reviews. For details on the Overview, Basic info, and Settings tabs, see:

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Manage lessons and chapters

Open the Lessons tab to build your course structure.

• Add Chapter creates a named section and its first lesson. Chapters group related lessons together.
• Add Lesson creates a new lesson inside a chapter or as a standalone lesson.

Each lesson can include video, slides, text, and downloadable materials. At a glance, you can see each lesson’s title, video duration, file size, and visibility status. You can add or reorganize lessons and chapters at any time.

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Add a new lesson

Click Add Lesson to create a new lesson page. Each lesson has two tabs:

1. General for basic info and visibility.
2. Content for the lesson material itself.

You can rename lessons at any time.

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General tab

Use the General tab to define the public-facing details of your lesson.

• Add a poster image (recommended 16:9, up to 5 MB). This appears as the lesson thumbnail and as a static frame before the video plays.
• Enable Publicly available to make the lesson accessible without purchase.

This is useful for introductions, previews, or teaser lessons.

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Content tab

Add the main content of your lesson here.

• Video uploads support .mp4 and .mov files up to 5 GB. Sherpo hosts and optimizes them automatically.
• Slideshow uploads accept .pdf files up to 250 MB and display them inline.
• Description supports rich text, embeds, transcripts, and lesson notes.

After uploading slides, you can enable Downloadable slides to let users download the PDF. Downloadable slides do not include PDF security. If you need watermarking, upload the file as an extra resource instead. When finished, click Create or Save as Draft. For videos, slides, and files to upload correctly, first update the lesson and wait for uploads to complete.

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Add a chapter

Chapters help organize lessons into sections.

1. Click Add Chapter.
2. Enter a chapter name.
3. Click Add Chapter to save and create the first lesson.

Lessons can be moved up, added before or after others, or moved into a chapter if they were created outside one.

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Drafts and publishing

Lessons can be either Draft or Published.

• Draft lessons are hidden from users but visible in Admin mode.
• Publishing a lesson makes it immediately available in the course.

You can publish or unpublish lessons at any time. When editing a draft, click Update to keep it unpublished or Update and Publish to make it live.

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Course settings

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Course-specific

Under Settings → Course-specific, you can control progress tracking and course behavior.

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Progress tracking

• No tracking disables progress indicators.
• Manual lets users mark lessons as complete.
• On lesson open marks lessons complete when opened.
• On content completion marks lessons complete when a video finishes or slides reach the final page. Available on Pro and Ultra plans.

Progress is tracked per user and displayed in both the dashboard and the course view.

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Product page

Under Settings, you can customize what appears on the live product page.

• Hide reviews disables customer reviews and prevents new submissions.
• Sales counter shows the total number of transactions, including free unlocks and discounted purchases. When enabled, this displays the “N sales” line for social proof.

In settings, you can also delete or archive a product. Changes apply immediately.

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Add a cover

Use the Cover tab to upload preview media for your course. Covers appear on the product landing page below the title. You can upload:

• One video up to 5 GB.
• Multiple images up to 5 MB each.

Sherpo automatically generates previews and displays them in the course header. You can also always download your cover files, or add an alt text description for better accessibility.

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Add files and links

Files and links work the same way as in Download products:

Files and links

Learn how to add files and links to your Course.

Click here

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Video security

Videos uploaded to Sherpo are protected by default.

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Core protections

• Paywall enforcement restricts video access to users who unlocked the course.
• Tokenized playback uses short-lived, session-bound URLs that cannot be reused.
• Domain restrictions ensure videos play only on your Sherpo site or verified custom domain.

These protections keep your content accessible only to legitimate customers.

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Publish and sell

When your course is ready:

1. Set all lessons to Published.
2. Configure pricing in Prices and add coupons if needed.

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Customer experience

Once published:

• Visitors can view the course cover, description, chapters, lessons, and pricing.
• Customers unlock all lessons immediately after purchase.
• Access is scoped to each user account.
• Progress tracking syncs automatically.
• Sales appear under Product → Sales.

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Best practices

• Keep lesson videos under 15 minutes.
• Add short summaries in each lesson description.
• Use On content completion for video-first courses.
• Update lessons over time. Changes apply instantly.
• Use public lessons as previews to improve conversions.

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FAQ