Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets merchants build, sell and deliver online courses natively inside their store. Its Shopify Flow integration turns course events, such as a student finishing a course or failing a quiz, into workflows that run on their own.
A course business is full of small, repeated jobs: tagging graduates, chasing students who stall, answering comments, giving a wholesale buyer access. Each takes a few clicks. Done every day, they add up, and the ones you forget cost you students.
What is Shopify Flow, and what does Alva Courses add to it?
Shopify Flow is Shopify's free automation app. A workflow is a trigger, optional conditions and one or more actions. Alva Courses adds 13 triggers, such as Course completed and Course quiz graded, and 7 actions, such as Enroll customer in course, on both plans, Unlimited and Unlimited Pro, at no extra cost.
Triggers start a workflow when something happens in a course
Every Alva Courses trigger carries the student as a Shopify customer, plus the course's ID, title and link. The 13 triggers cover enrolment, lesson and course completion, quiz grading, lesson comments and your replies, contact forms, coursework, certificates, and access being removed, expiring soon or expired.
Because the student arrives as a customer, any Flow action can use them: add a customer tag, send an internal email, or update Klaviyo or a Google Sheet. The triggers reference lists every field each trigger sends.
Actions let any workflow change a student's access
The 7 Alva Courses actions work the other way round. A workflow can enrol a customer, revoke or extend their access, resend the course access email, send a certificate, reset progress, or look up a student's progress for a later step. The actions reference covers each one.
Alva Courses only sends a trigger to Flow while a turned-on workflow uses it, so the triggers you don't use send nothing.
What can you automate in an online course business?
Most course automations do one of four jobs: follow up when a student finishes, spot students who are stuck, keep your team on top of comments, and grant or change access from outside the course. Each job starts from an Alva Courses trigger, or ends in an Alva Courses action, inside a Shopify Flow workflow.
- After a student finishes. Course completed can tag the graduate, award loyalty points, send the completion to Klaviyo or enrol them in your next course.
- When a student is stuck. Course quiz graded can email you about a failed attempt, and a progress check a week after enrolment can nudge anyone who hasn't started.
- When students comment. Course lesson comment posted can post each comment to Slack, and Course instructor reply posted can tell the student you answered.
- When access changes. A Shopify customer tag can enrol someone without an order, and Course access expiring soon can remind a student, or extend their access, before it ends.
What are the Alva Courses templates in Shopify Flow?
Alva Courses publishes six ready-made templates in Shopify Flow's template library. Each is a finished workflow built on an Alva trigger or action. You install it, fill in anything specific to your store, such as an email address, and turn it on. Two connect to Slack or Google Sheets, and one needs the Rivo loyalty app.
| Template | How it works |
|---|---|
| Tag customers who complete a course | Course completed → Add customer tags, tag course-completed. Nothing to fill in. |
| Email me when a student fails a quiz | Course quiz graded → Passed is false → Send internal email. You enter your email address. |
| Post new lesson comments to Slack | Course lesson comment posted → Send Slack message. You connect Slack and pick a channel. |
| Enroll tagged customers in a course | Shopify's Customer tags added, tag enroll-course → Enroll customer in course. You enter the course ID or URL handle. |
| Log quiz results to Google Sheets | Course quiz graded → Add row to spreadsheet. You connect Google and pick the spreadsheet. |
| Award loyalty points for completing a course | Course completed → Rivo's Add Points, 100 points. Needs the Rivo loyalty app. |
Tag customers who complete a course
The simplest template has nothing to fill in. When a student completes a course, Flow adds the tag course-completed to them, so one customer segment finds every graduate for discounts and email campaigns. Completed means every lesson finished, any required quizzes passed and, where a course needs one, a passing evaluation.
The tag is the same for every course. To tag one course's graduates only, add a Course ID condition. Full steps: Tag customers who complete a course.
Email me when a student fails a quiz
Course quiz graded fires for every graded attempt. The template only continues when Passed is false, so you're emailed when a student fails or a timed quiz runs out, with their score and answers. Enter the address where you answer students; Send internal email goes to you and your staff, never to the student.
It is the fastest way to find students who need a hand, especially if you use quizzes as knowledge checks between lessons. Full steps: Email me when a student fails a quiz.
Post new lesson comments to Slack
Each time a student comments on a lesson or replies in a thread, Flow posts the comment to a Slack channel with a link to the lesson, so whoever is on duty can answer quickly. Connect Slack and choose the channel. Your own replies as the instructor never start it.
Flow posts through a Slack app called FlowBot, which has to be added to the channel first. Full steps: Post new lesson comments to Slack.
Enroll tagged customers in a course
This template starts from Shopify's own Customer tags added trigger. Add the tag enroll-course to a customer and Alva Courses' Enroll customer in course action enrols them and emails their access link. It suits wholesale buyers, event guests and staff training. Enter the course's Flow ID or URL handle before turning it on.
Running it twice never enrols anyone twice, and it won't re-enrol a customer whose access was removed after a refund. Full steps: Enroll tagged customers in a course.
Log quiz results to Google Sheets
Every graded quiz attempt becomes a spreadsheet row: the course, lesson, quiz, result, score and attempt number. Connect your Google account and choose the spreadsheet. Quizzes you mark by hand are logged once you finish reviewing them, so the sheet stays a complete record of every attempt.
Full steps, including how to stop a comma in a course title from splitting a column: Log quiz results to Google Sheets.
Award loyalty points for completing a course
Course completed feeds the Rivo loyalty app's Add Points action, which gives each graduate 100 points, a reward that brings them back to your store for the next course. Install Rivo first, and change the amount if 100 doesn't suit your programme.
Course completed fires once per completion, so revisiting a finished course doesn't earn more points. Using a different loyalty app? Award loyalty points for completing a course shows the same workflow with another app's points action.
How do you install an Alva Courses template in Shopify Flow?
Installing a template takes a few minutes. In your Shopify admin, open Shopify Flow, browse the template library, search for Alva Courses and open the template you want. Click Install, fill in any highlighted fields and turn the workflow on. Installed templates start turned off, so nothing runs until you do.
- In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Flow and click Create workflow.
- Choose Browse templates.
- Search for Alva Courses, or filter by Apps → Alva Courses, to see all six templates.
- Open a template and click Install.
- Fill in any highlighted fields, such as your email address, a Slack channel or a course ID.
- Click Turn on workflow.
Use Alva Courses templates in Shopify Flow walks through each step, and every template has its own help article with a test you can run.
A workflow only sees events from the moment it's on
Alva Courses starts sending a trigger within about a minute of you turning on a workflow that uses it. Earlier events are never sent afterwards, so a template you turn on today tags today's graduates, not last month's. Reward or tag earlier students by hand.
Which course automations can you build without a template?
Five more workflows have step-by-step recipes in the Alva Courses Help Center instead of a template. They send course completions to Klaviyo or Shopify Messaging, email students when you reply, remind students before their access ends, and nudge students who haven't started. You build each one yourself in the Flow editor.
- Send course completions to Klaviyo: Klaviyo's Track an event action records a Completed Alva course event on the student's profile, ready to start a Klaviyo flow.
- Send a Shopify Email when a student completes a course: congratulate graduates with a discount on your next course through Shopify Messaging.
- Email students when you reply to their comment: Course instructor reply posted brings the student back to read your answer.
- Remind students before their course access expires: Course access expiring soon fires 14, 7, 3 and 1 days before access ends, so you can send a reminder or extend access.
- Nudge students who haven't started a course: wait 7 days after enrolment, check progress with Get course progress, and email anyone under 10%.
Expiry reminders only matter when a course has a deadline. Course deadlines that actually expire explains when a time-limited course is the right product.
How Flow emails reach students
Shopify Flow has no transactional email for customers. Send internal email goes only to addresses you type in, so it suits alerts for you and your staff. Shopify Messaging's Send marketing email reaches only students subscribed to email marketing.
To reach every enrolled student with an email address, use Alva Courses' Resend course access email action. It resends your enrolment email, link included, so it works best as a nudge back into the course.
How do you limit a workflow to one course?
Every Alva Courses trigger fires for all your courses and includes a Course ID. To act on one course, add a condition that Course ID is equal to that course's Flow ID. In Alva Courses, open Settings → Integrations → Shopify Flow: the Course IDs for Flow table lists each course's Flow ID and URL handle, with copy buttons.
The same Flow ID appears on each course's Settings tab. Alva actions accept either the Flow ID or the URL handle, and a workflow that uses an old handle keeps working if you later change the course's URL.
How do you check that a workflow is working?
Alva Courses shows what it sends. In Settings → Integrations → Shopify Flow, each trigger a turned-on workflow uses is marked In use, and Flow activity lists the latest 25 triggers Alva sent and the latest 25 actions it ran, with their status and any error. In Shopify Flow, each workflow's recent runs show every step.
Things to plan for
- No guaranteed order. Two triggers from the same moment, such as the last lesson and the course completion, can reach Flow in either order.
- Rarely, twice. If a server restarts at exactly the wrong moment, Flow can receive the same trigger twice, so prefer steps that are harmless to repeat, such as adding a tag.
- Evaluated courses. On a course that requires evaluation, Course completed fires when you pass the student's coursework, not when they finish the last lesson.
- Revoked access keeps progress. Revoke course access keeps lessons, quiz attempts and coursework, and you can restore access from the student's page in Members.
Automate Alva Courses with Shopify Flow covers the rest, including every trigger and action in one place.
Where should you start?
Start with the template that removes a job you already do by hand. If you tag graduates manually, install Tag customers who complete a course; it has nothing to fill in. If you check quiz results to find struggling students, install Email me when a student fails a quiz. Then build the recipes as your course business grows.
Frequently asked questions
No. Alva Courses includes its 13 Shopify Flow triggers and 7 actions on both plans, Unlimited at $9.99/month and Unlimited Pro at $14.99/month, at no extra cost, and Shopify Flow itself is a free Shopify app. Apps you connect inside a workflow, such as a loyalty or email marketing app, keep their own pricing.
In your Shopify admin, open Apps, then Flow, click Create workflow and choose Browse templates. Search for Alva Courses, or filter by Apps and choose Alva Courses, to see all six. Open a template, click Install, fill in any highlighted fields and click Turn on workflow.
No. Installed templates start turned off, so nothing runs until you click Turn on workflow. Alva Courses then starts sending the trigger within about a minute. Events from before that, such as earlier course completions or quiz results, are not sent to Shopify Flow afterwards, so handle past students by hand.
Yes. Every Alva Courses trigger fires for all your courses and includes a Course ID field. Add a condition that Course ID is equal to the course's Flow ID, which you can copy from Settings → Integrations → Shopify Flow in Alva Courses or from the course's Settings tab.
Yes, in two ways. Alva Courses' Resend course access email action resends your enrolment email to any enrolled student with an email address. Shopify Messaging's Send marketing email action sends an email you design, but only to customers subscribed to email marketing. Flow's Send internal email is for you and your staff, not students.
Only some. Tag customers who complete a course, Email me when a student fails a quiz and Enroll tagged customers in a course need only Alva Courses and Shopify Flow. The Slack and Google Sheets templates ask you to connect those accounts, and the loyalty template uses the Rivo loyalty app's Add Points action.