How it works

Progress is calculated from the lessons a student completes in the storefront course player and is stored on their enrolment in that course. Alva Courses offers two resets, and they clear different things.

A staff reset from the member page is a fresh attempt: it also deletes quiz attempts and evaluations. The Reset Progress lesson block lets a student revisit the course: it clears lesson progress and video resume positions only, and keeps their quiz results and completion record. Neither reset changes access. If a student's progress won't save in the first place, see A student can't mark a lesson complete.

Reset a student's progress from the member page

1. Find the student

In the Shopify admin, open Alva Courses and click Members, or open a course's Members tab. Search by name or email, check the student's progress against what they report, then click the student to open their member page.

The Course Members Overview with per-student progress bars and status pills.

2. Click Reset progress

At the top of the member page, click Reset progress. It is unavailable while the student isn't enrolled in any of your courses.

3. Choose the course and confirm

Pick the course under Course to reset, read the warning, and click Reset progress in the dialog. A banner confirms that course progress and quiz attempts have been reset.

4. Know what is deleted and what is kept

The reset permanently deletes the student's lesson progress, quiz attempts and answers, course evaluations and video resume positions for that course. Their enrolment, access dates, reflection notes and comments are kept. It can't be undone and sends no email. Nothing keeps a copy of the deleted quiz answers, your grading and feedback on them, or evaluations, so note anything you need first.

5. Ask the student to reload the course

If the course is open in the student's browser, ask them to reload it. When they finish again it counts as a new completion, with a new completion date, and any certificate or completion email the course sends can go out again.

Reset progress or re-enrol?

Use Reset progress when a student keeps their access but should start the course again, for a retake or a recertification. A reset never restores, extends or shortens access. If the real problem is lost access, fix the access instead:

After a refund: a new purchase restores access, with their earlier progress still in place. Enrolling them again from their member page can't reverse a refund, because the refunded course still counts as enrolled there. See refunds and course access.
After their deadline passed, where your store enforces deadlines: change the student's deadline. Only the date moves, and their progress is untouched. See change a student's deadline.
After you unenrolled them from the course: click Enroll on their member page and choose the course. Unenrolling deletes that enrolment, including its progress and quiz attempts, so they start again from the first lesson.

You don't need to unenrol and re-enrol a student to reset their progress. That also starts them from zero, but it gives them a new enrolment date and access period, which restarts any drip schedule.

Let students restart a course themselves

The Reset Progress lesson block lets a student restart a course on their own. It clears their completed lessons, progress percentage and video resume positions, and they start again from the first lesson. Placing the block in a lesson turns this on, and deleting the block turns it off. There is no separate course setting.

Add the block

In the Shopify admin, open Alva Courses, select the course, and open the lesson where the block belongs.
Click Add Content and choose Reset Progress. The block is in the content menu of both the course builder and the lesson editor.
Optionally change the Title, Description and Button text. Leave a field empty to show the default wording in the student's language.
Save the lesson.

What the student sees

The student sees a card with a Reset progress button, or your own button text. It opens a confirmation that lists what is cleared and what is kept. After they confirm, the course reloads at the start. Lessons that must be completed in order lock again, and drip schedules don't change.

If the student already has a certificate, the confirmation offers Download certificate first. The certificate becomes downloadable again when they finish the course again, and no second certificate email is sent.

What a student reset keeps

Quiz attempts and results. Attempts already used still count toward attempt limits, and earlier passes still count.
Reflections, comments and instructor feedback.
The original completion date and any certificate already sent.

Limits

A student can reset a course once every 10 minutes, and no more than 5 times an hour.
The student's access must still be active.
The block isn't available on courses that require instructor evaluation. Students on those courses see a note suggesting they contact the store. If one of them needs a fresh start, use the staff reset.
The student must be logged in to their customer account, or have opened the access link from their enrolment email, and Alva Courses must be able to verify their account. If it can't, the student is asked to reload the page or sign out and back in.
If the student hasn't completed any lessons yet, there's nothing to reset and the button is unavailable.
When you preview the course, you can open the confirmation but not confirm it.

Progress tags

If progress tags are on for the course, any reset, from the block or from the member page, moves the student back to the not-started tag. That can re-enter them into automations or email flows that use that tag.

See who reset a student's progress

Each reset is recorded, whether the student used the lesson block or someone used Reset progress on the member page. Open the student's member page and expand the Progress resets card to see their 20 most recent resets across your courses. The card is read-only. Unenrolling a student from a course also removes that course's reset history.

Date: when the reset happened, in your store's time zone.
Course: the course that was reset.
Reset by: Student (lesson block) or Store staff.
Before reset: the lessons completed and progress percentage just before the reset, and whether the course was completed.
Cleared: the video positions removed and, for staff resets, the quiz attempts and evaluations deleted.

When a student says their progress disappeared, check this card first.

What learners see

After a staff reset, the student reopens the course to find every lesson unticked and the progress bar back at the start. Their quiz attempts are gone too, so they can take each quiz again. After a reset from the lesson block, they also start from the first lesson, but their quiz results stay in place.

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Last updated 2026-10-13

Reset or fix student progress