How-to

Set a course deadline

Alva Courses lets you give a paid course an access deadline. The date is written onto the enrolment as the student enrols, so everyone gets the same window counted from their own start date, and Alva Courses shows you who is still inside it. By default, passing the date does not close the course — you end access when you choose — unless Alva support has switched on deadline enforcement for your store.

Where a deadline comes from

Three things. An access duration on the course gives every new enrolment the same number of days. A subscription product takes its date from the variant bought — weekly, monthly or annual — and each renewal tops it up. And you can set a date by hand: on one student, on a selection of students from the course's Members tab, or from Shopify Flow with the Extend or set course access action. Free courses and membership-tag access never get a deadline.

Set an access duration on a course

In the Shopify admin, open Alva Courses and open the course you want to give a deadline.
Select the Settings tab. The Access Duration card appears on courses priced as One Time Purchase.
Under Access Duration, switch from Unlimited to Limited.
Type the number of days from enrolment to each student's deadline.
Save. Students who enrol from now on get a deadline; those already enrolled keep the one they have.

When the deadline passes

Alva Courses marks the enrolment Expired on the student's member page, your member list can filter active versus expired access, and the CSV export carries each enrolment's status and expiry date. With deadline enforcement off, the default, the course itself stays open: lessons, video, quizzes and comments keep working, and nothing is deleted. Your store can also have a grace period that adds the same number of days to every deadline before an enrolment counts as expired. Alva support sets it — email courses@alvaapps.com.

What students see

With deadline enforcement off, the default, the course player shows students no sign of the deadline: no countdown, no expired label, and the course opens as usual. Where enforcement is on, the course card, the course page and their My Learning page count down — "Access ends in 12 days", narrowing to "Access ends today" — and once the date and any grace period have passed, the card and their My Learning row are greyed out and labelled Subscription Expired. Extend or clear their deadline and the label goes away.

End a student's access

Unless deadline enforcement is switched on for your store, a deadline doesn't end anyone's access on its own. These end it either way:

Remove them. Open the student under Members, choose Unenroll and pick the course. Access stops straight away — see add or remove a member.
Refund the course. A full refund of the course's line item in Shopify withdraws its access — see refunds and course access.
Use Shopify Flow. The Revoke course access action removes access from a workflow and keeps the student's progress; Restore access on their member page undoes it — see Shopify Flow actions.
Sell it as a membership. For access that should stop when billing stops, grant the course with a membership tag that your subscription app adds and removes. Once the tag is removed, the course locks on the student's next visit — see grant access with membership tags.

If deadline enforcement is switched on for your store

Deadline enforcement is a per-store setting that only Alva support can switch on, and it stays off unless they have turned it on for your store. Where it is on, a passed deadline (plus any grace period) closes the course:

Blocked: lesson content, video playback, quizzes, comments, and saving any new progress or reflection entries.
Still reachable: results for quizzes they already submitted, your written feedback, their grade, and their certificate if they finished.
Nothing is deleted. Extend or clear the deadline and the student picks up exactly where they stopped.

Opening the course then shows "Your access to this course has ended." with the date it ended. Free courses and membership-tag access are never affected.

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Last updated 2026-10-13