How-to

Collection-based course policies

Alva Courses can key an access deadline, a grade scale and a certificate design to a Shopify collection. Every course bought through a product in that collection inherits them, so a catalogue of forty courses takes one rule instead of forty trips through the course settings.

Create a rule

1. Open Shopify admin, then Alva Courses → Settings, and click Manage policy rules.
2. Click Add rule.
3. Choose the Shopify collection the rule applies to.
4. Fill in Access limit (days). Leave it empty to say nothing about the deadline; 0 means unlimited access.
5. Optionally set a Grade scale and a Certificate for the courses this rule matches.
6. Leave Rule is active ticked and click Save rule.

Which rule wins

Rules are ranked in the list and the top rule wins. Drag to reorder, then click Save order. Each setting resolves on its own: the highest-ranked matching rule that has an opinion about the deadline supplies the deadline, while a rule that leaves a field empty hands that field to the next matching rule, and finally to the course's own settings. Open Which rule wins? and choose a product to see the outcome before you sell anything.

Subscriptions ignore the deadline

Access limit (days) is ignored for subscription products, because the billing period already sets when access ends. A rule's grade scale and certificate still apply to them.

Existing students keep what they bought

A rule is applied at the moment of purchase and the result is recorded on the student's enrolment. Editing a rule afterwards, reordering the list, or changing which products sit in the collection never moves someone who has already bought. To change one student, edit their enrolment from the Members page.

See also

See set a course deadline, per-course certificate designs, or set up your grade scale.

Last updated 2026-09-07