Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets merchants build, sell and deliver online courses natively inside their store. Its Shopify Sidekick integration lets Shopify's AI assistant look up your courses and students, and draft changes to a course's enrolment email.
A course business runs on small questions. Why can't this student get in? Did their access email go out? Who hasn't started? With Sidekick, you type the question instead of opening three pages.
What is Shopify Sidekick, and what does Alva Courses add?
Shopify Sidekick is the AI assistant built into the Shopify admin. On its own it knows your store's Shopify data, such as products and orders, but not your course records. Alva Courses adds 12 read-only lookups and one email-editing action, switched on for every store with the app installed, on both plans, with nothing to set up.
Why Sidekick needs Alva Courses to answer course questions
Shopify sees the order for a course product, but enrolments, lesson progress, quiz attempts and certificates live in Alva Courses. Without the integration, Sidekick knows a customer bought the course, not whether they can open it.
Answers can also link to the matching Alva Courses page, such as a student's member page or a lesson in the builder, so you can act on what you find.
What can Sidekick look up in Alva Courses?
Sidekick can find courses, lessons and students, explain one student's access and progress in a course, list a course's enrolments by status or date, count enrolments and completions, show what's waiting for your review, and check which emails Alva Courses tried to send a student. Every lookup reads saved records and changes nothing.
| Area | What Sidekick can tell you |
|---|---|
| Courses | Find courses by title, published status or whether they have a linked product. Read settings such as access length and certificates, and the outline with drip, scheduled and draft states. |
| Lessons | Search a course's lesson and section titles, then summarise a lesson's release rules, block types and short text excerpts. |
| Students | Find a student by name, exact email address or Shopify customer ID. |
| One student's status | Enrolment status and expiry, whether they can open lessons and why, lessons completed, any quiz or evaluation blocking completion, and the certificate send date. |
| Enrolment lists | A course's enrolments filtered by active, expired, revoked, no completed lessons or awaiting evaluation, and by enrolment or expiry date. |
| Course numbers | Students who enrolled in a date range and how many completed, or completions recorded in a date range. |
| Your work queue | Coursework awaiting evaluation, quiz attempts awaiting review and unread Messages, without marking anything read. |
| Email attempts | Enrolment, certificate, completion and progress digest emails Alva Courses tried to send a student, with failures and bounces flagged. |
| Setup check | Whether a course is published, has a linked product, awards a certificate and will send its enrolment email. |
| Enrolment email | Each field of a course's enrolment email, read before Sidekick drafts a change. |
What can't Sidekick do in Alva Courses?
Sidekick can't change anything in Alva Courses except an enrolment email draft you then save yourself. It can't create or edit courses and lessons, enrol or remove students, extend access, grade coursework, review quizzes, answer messages, resend emails or send certificates. Those jobs stay in the Alva Courses admin pages, or in Shopify Flow.
It also has deliberate blind spots worth knowing before you rely on an answer:
- Lesson search covers titles only. It doesn't search the text inside lessons, and a lesson summary shows short excerpts, not the whole lesson.
- No private student work. Coursework, quiz answers, reflections and message text are never passed to Sidekick.
- Membership tags aren't re-checked. Access that comes from a Shopify customer tag is reported as unverified, so check the customer's tags in Shopify.
- Not a roster export. Lists arrive up to 20 rows at a time. For a full list, export members to CSV from the Members view.
- Only the enrolment email. Certificate, completion and digest emails can't be edited through Sidekick.
- No revenue or watch time. Alva Courses doesn't send either. Course sales are Shopify order data, which Sidekick reads without Alva Courses.
Which Sidekick prompts work for courses and students?
The prompts that work best start with “Use Alva Courses”, name one course, identify one student by exact email address, and give one date range. That helps Sidekick choose the right app and avoids partial results. Replace the brackets in the prompts below with your own course names, emails and dates.
Check one student
- “Use Alva Courses to check [student email]'s access and progress in [course name].”
- “In Alva Courses, why can't [student email] open [lesson name] in [course name]?”
- “Has Alva Courses sent [student email] a certificate for [course name]?”
- “Check recent enrolment email send attempts for [student email].”
Completion and access are separate: a student can finish a course and later lose access, with their progress kept. An exact email address avoids mix-ups between students who share a name.
Find students who need a nudge
- “In Alva Courses, list students who enrolled in [course name] in [month and year] and haven't completed a lesson yet.”
- “Whose access to [course name] expires in the next 14 days?”
No completed lessons doesn't prove a student never visited. Expiry lists only include enrolments with an end date, so unlimited, free-course and tag-based access won't appear.
See what needs your attention
- “Which evaluations, quiz reviews and unread messages need attention?”
- “Is any coursework in [course name] waiting to be graded?”
Sidekick shows how long each item has waited and leaves your Messages inbox as it was. How to grade and evaluate online coursework covers the grading itself.
Measure a course
- “How many students enrolled in [course name] between [start date] and [end date], and how many have completed it?”
- “How many students completed [course name] last month?”
These are different questions: one follows students who enrolled in the period, the other counts completions recorded in it, and older completions may lack a recorded date. Ranges use your shop's timezone.
Check course setup
- “Check [course name] for publication, product links, email settings and certificate settings.”
- “Which of my Alva Courses courses are unpublished or have no linked product?”
- “In [course name], find lessons with [topic or keyword] in their title, then summarise [lesson name].”
A settings check isn't a test purchase: before a launch, also send yourself a test enrolment. More examples are in Sidekick prompts for courses and students.
How do you edit a course's enrolment email with Sidekick?
Ask Sidekick to change a course's enrolment email, and Alva Courses opens that course's email editor with Sidekick's wording staged as a draft. You check the preview and click Save, or Cancel to leave the saved email unchanged. Saving doesn't send anything, and sending a test email stays a separate manual step.
- Ask for a specific change, such as “Use Alva Courses to edit the enrolment email for [course name]. Make the message shorter and more welcoming, keeping its variables.” Approve the app if Shopify asks.
- Open the email editor Sidekick offers, and check the course name. If no course was chosen, pick one.
- Review the changed fields and the preview. Variables such as
{course.title}and{customer.first_name}must stay in place. - Click Save when the wording is right, or Cancel to keep the saved email.
Small requests work too: “Change the button text in the enrolment email for [course name] to Start lesson one.”
What Sidekick can change in the email
Sidekick can draft the subject, title, message, footer, button text, login hint, and an optional extra link, which needs a label and a full https:// address.
Alva Courses refuses drafts that drop a merge variable or insert HTML. Sender, recipients, branding and whether the email sends stay in your email settings.
Before you click Save
- One course at a time. Saving changes that course's email only, and later edits to your shop email don't overwrite it.
- Same plan rules. Saving uses the course email editor's usual plan check, so it works on Unlimited and Unlimited Pro.
- No silent overwrites. If someone saves the same email first, the older draft is rejected.
- Delivery still has to be on. Students only get the email when email delivery and the enrolment email are enabled.
Edit course emails with Sidekick has the full steps, and Customise emails for each course explains variables, links and the shop email default.
What data does Sidekick see, and who can use it?
Sidekick sees only the course data Alva Courses returns for the store you're signed in to, and only after you approve Alva Courses in that conversation. Alva Courses uses the same Shopify sign-in check as its own admin pages. It adds no Sidekick roles or approval list, and its lookups run read-only, so asking questions can't change your records.
- Your store only. Every lookup is checked against the signed-in store, so no store can see another's courses or students.
- What it sees. Course and lesson titles and settings, short lesson excerpts, student names, enrolment and progress status, and email send status.
- What it doesn't get. Coursework, quiz answers, reflections, message text, access links and email recipients. Student results show a name, not an email address.
- Course text is treated as data. Alva Courses tells Sidekick to treat course titles, lesson text and email wording as quoted content, never as instructions.
- Staff access. Each request needs a verified Shopify admin session for your store. Shopify applies its own staff permissions to Sidekick; Alva Courses adds none.
How Shopify handles the conversation itself is covered by Shopify's own Sidekick documentation and policies.
What do you need to use Sidekick with Alva Courses?
You need Alva Courses installed on your store and access to Sidekick in your Shopify admin. Shopify includes Sidekick with its plans, though features and usage limits vary by plan, and it works in the admin on desktop, tablet and the Shopify mobile app. Staff use it within their normal admin permissions.
- Alva Courses plan. Either of the two plans; the integration costs nothing extra.
- Not in a mobile browser. Shopify says Sidekick isn't available when you use the admin in a mobile browser.
- Language. Shopify says Sidekick adapts to your store's language settings and can help in multiple languages.
- Apps. Sidekick works with up to 20 connected apps for each user on a store, and only with apps that support it.
If Sidekick itself is missing, check Shopify's Sidekick help: availability is Shopify's, not Alva Courses'.
How do Sidekick and Shopify Flow fit together?
Sidekick and Shopify Flow do different jobs. Sidekick answers a question or drafts an edit when you ask. Shopify Flow runs on its own when something happens, such as a student completing a course. Use Sidekick to look into a problem once, and Flow to handle it every time it comes back.
Flow also makes the changes Sidekick can't: Alva Courses' Flow actions enrol customers, revoke or extend access, resend the access email, send certificates and reset progress.
| Job | Ask Sidekick | Automate with Shopify Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Students who haven't started | List last month's enrolments with no completed lessons. | A recipe checks progress 7 days after enrolment and emails anyone under 10%. |
| A student is stuck on a quiz | Show which quizzes are holding up their completion. | A template emails you whenever a student fails a quiz. |
| Access about to end | List whose access expires in the next 14 days. | Course access expiring soon fires 14, 7, 3 and 1 days before, so you can remind or extend. |
| Access without an order | Not possible: Sidekick can't enrol students. | A template enrols customers you tag with enroll-course. |
| An unclear enrolment email | Draft clearer wording for you to review and save. | Resend course access email sends the saved email again. |
How to automate your online courses with Shopify Flow walks through the templates, and Automate Alva Courses with Shopify Flow lists every trigger and action.
How do you start using Sidekick with Alva Courses?
There's nothing to switch on in Alva Courses. Sign in to the right store, open Sidekick in your Shopify admin, ask it to use Alva Courses, and approve the app when Shopify asks. Approval lasts for that conversation, so a new chat can ask again. Then ask about one course or student at a time.
- Sign in to the store where Alva Courses is installed, and check you can open the app.
- Open Sidekick from its icon or, in Shopify's refreshed admin, the Sidekick field shown on most pages.
- Ask “Use Alva Courses to find my courses.” Naming the app helps Sidekick pick it.
- Approve Alva Courses for the conversation when Shopify asks.
- Follow up with one course, such as “In Alva Courses, show the lesson outline and product links for [course name].”
Get started with Shopify Sidekick has the same steps, plus what Shopify's approval prompt means for each new chat.
When Sidekick can't find your course data
Start a new conversation, name Alva Courses and approve it again. Then narrow the question to one course, one student or a shorter date range. Troubleshoot Shopify Sidekick covers the rest, including drafts that won't save.
Frequently asked questions
No. The Alva Courses integration with Shopify Sidekick is switched on for every installed store, on both plans, Unlimited at $9.99/month and Unlimited Pro at $14.99/month, at no extra cost. Sidekick itself is included with your Shopify plan, although Shopify says its features and usage limits vary by plan.
Only an enrolment email, and only when you save it. Alva Courses' Sidekick lookups read records without changing enrolments, progress, grades or message read status. An email edit arrives as a draft in the course email editor, and nothing changes until you review the preview and click Save.
No. The Alva Courses integration doesn't create courses, enrol or remove students, extend access, grade coursework or send emails. Make those changes in the Alva Courses admin, or with Shopify Flow, whose Alva Courses actions include Enroll customer in course and Extend or set course access.
Alva Courses adds no Sidekick roles or approval list. It checks the same verified Shopify admin session as its own pages, for the store you're signed in to. Shopify asks you to approve Alva Courses in each new Sidekick conversation and applies its own staff permissions to Sidekick.
Alva Courses only reports what its saved records can show. Access through Shopify customer tags isn't re-checked live, a student's progress is unknown on courses with more than 500 lessons, and long lists arrive a page at a time. Ask about one course, one student or a shorter date range, or open the linked Alva Courses page.
It can show the send attempts Alva Courses recorded for a student's enrolment, certificate, completion and progress digest emails, including failures and bounces. A successful attempt doesn't prove the email reached the inbox or was opened, and comment, evaluation and contact form notifications aren't covered.