A Curriculum can be sold through E-Commerce as a single item with a single price. When a Learner purchases a Curriculum, they gain access to every Course it contains without paying for those Courses separately. This article explains how to configure a Curriculum for sale, how pricing, discounts, taxes, and currencies apply, what happens after a purchase, and which limitations to plan for before you publish.

How Curriculum Purchases Work

Selling a Curriculum differs from selling individual Courses because one purchase covers the entire program. Keep the following behavior in mind as you plan your pricing and enrollment setup:

• The Curriculum is sold as one item, at the Default Price or an applicable Variable Price set on the Curriculum.
• Purchasing the Curriculum enrolls the Learner in the Curriculum and in each of its Groups.
• The Courses within the Curriculum are included in the purchase. Learners are not charged for them, even when those Courses have their own prices.
• Pricing set on a Curriculum overrides the pricing of the Courses within it.

Before You Begin

Confirm that the following requirements are in place before you configure a Curriculum for sale:

• E-Commerce is enabled for your Portal. Curriculum prices cannot be saved while E-Commerce is turned off. 
  • For setup details, see Getting Started with E-Commerce and Configuring E-Commerce.
• The Curriculum is created and its Courses are added. 
  • See How to Create a Curriculum.
• Your Admin Role includes permission to modify Curriculum Enrollment Rules. 
  • See Admin Roles & Permissions.
• Any optional features you plan to use are enabled in E-Commerce Settings. These features include Multi-Currency, Course Repurchase, Multi-Seat Purchases, and Department Discount where available. Their settings appear on the Curriculum only after they are enabled.

Configure a Curriculum for Sale

The E-Commerce settings for a Curriculum are located in the Enrollment Rules section of the Add/Edit Curriculum page. This section also contains the Allow Self Enrollment setting, which determines who can find and purchase the Curriculum.

To configure a Curriculum for sale, complete the following steps:

1. In the Admin Experience, click Courses in the left-hand menu.
2. Click Courses to open the Courses Report.
3. Locate the Curriculum you want to sell.
4. Click Edit from the Actions menu.
5. Navigate to the Enrollment Rules section.
6. Under Allow Self Enrollment, select All Learners or Specific.
7. Click the Enable E-Commerce toggle to turn it ON.
8. Enter the Curriculum price in the Default Price field.
9. Configure any additional E-Commerce settings described in the table below.
10. Click Publish.
11. Review the Publish modal to confirm the Curriculum Status and the Available Users who can purchase it.
12. Confirm the publish to save your changes.

E-Commerce Settings for Curricula

The Curriculum uses the same E-Commerce settings as Online Courses, with Extensions included. Some settings appear only when the related feature is enabled for your Portal.

Make the Curriculum Available to Buyers

The Allow Self Enrollment rules control who can see and purchase the Curriculum. A signed-in Learner can purchase the Curriculum only when all of the following conditions are met:

• The Curriculum Status is Active.
• The current date falls within the Curriculum's access and expiration dates.
• The Curriculum has a price.
• The Learner does not already have an active enrollment in the Curriculum.
• The Learner meets the Curriculum's Prerequisites, or Allow Enrollment is turned ON.
• The Learner is included in the Curriculum's Self Enrollment rules.

To sell the Curriculum to visitors who are not signed in, also turn on Allow Public Purchase and set Allow Self Enrollment to All Learners. If Self Enrollment requires a Department, public visitors can only purchase the Curriculum through a deep link that includes that Department. 

See Deep Link Support.

Prerequisites and Allow Enrollment

Prerequisites on a Curriculum also apply to purchases. The Allow Enrollment toggle determines whether Learners can purchase the Curriculum before they meet its Prerequisites:

• OFF: Learners cannot purchase the Curriculum until they meet all Prerequisites.
• ON: Learners can enroll in or purchase the Curriculum before they meet its Prerequisites.

For details about configuring Prerequisites, see Overview of Curriculum Settings.

What Happens After Purchase

Once a payment is approved, Absorb LMS enrolls the Learner in the Curriculum automatically. The following behavior applies to purchased Curricula:

• Approval is bypassed. If the Curriculum requires Approval, purchasing it still grants access immediately.
• The enrollment is recorded as a Self Enrollment. This affects how the enrollment appears in reports.
• Courses are enrolled on first launch. The purchase creates the Curriculum enrollment and an enrollment for each Group. The enrollment for each Course is created when the Learner first launches it from the Curriculum.
• Courses inherit Curriculum dates. Each Course enrollment takes its access date and due date from the Curriculum enrollment.
• Course-level checks are skipped. When a Learner enrolls in a Course through the Curriculum, the Course's own Prerequisites, visibility rules, and price do not apply.
• Existing Course enrollments count. If the Learner is already enrolled in a Course within the Curriculum, that enrollment is linked to the Curriculum and counts toward the Learner's progress.
• Multi-seat purchases generate Enrollment Keys. When a Learner buys more than one seat, Absorb LMS emails Enrollment Keys to the purchaser instead of enrolling them. 
  • See Multi-Seat Purchases.

For more information about how Course enrollments are created within a Curriculum, see Why Aren't Users Enrolled in the Courses When They're Enrolled in a Curriculum? 

For details on how progress rolls up, see How Curriculum Progress is Calculated.

Pricing Curricula and Their Courses

Absorb LMS does not link a Curriculum's price to the prices of the Courses it contains. A Curriculum can cost more or less than the combined price of its Courses, and no warning appears either way. Set the Curriculum price deliberately, based on the value of the full program.

While a Learner is enrolled in a Curriculum, the following pricing rules apply to the Courses it contains:

• The Learner can enroll in these Courses at no additional cost.
• The Learner cannot purchase these Courses separately.
• The Learner cannot purchase Course Extensions for these Courses separately.

An Admin with the required permissions can also enroll a User in a Curriculum without charging them.

Department Pricing and Discounts

If a Variable Price exists for a Learner's Department, the Learner pays that price. Otherwise, the Learner pays the Default Price, minus any applicable Department Discount. The Department Discount does not apply in the following cases:

• The Learner's Department has a Variable Price.
• Exclude from department discount is turned ON for the Curriculum.
• The buyer is not signed in. Public visitors always see the Default Price.

Sub-Departments do not inherit Variable Prices or discounts from their parent Department. 

For details, see Department Creation & Management.

Coupons

A Coupon can target a Curriculum in the same way it targets a Course. The following rules apply when Learners use Coupons on a Curriculum purchase:

• If a Coupon is limited to specific items, at least one of those items must be in the cart.
• A Percentage Coupon applies only to the items it targets, or to the whole cart if it targets no items.
• A Currency Coupon deducts its full amount.
• Only one Coupon can be applied per cart.
• Coupons cannot be used when a Subscription is in the cart.
• A Coupon limited to one use per Learner cannot be applied to a quantity greater than one.

For Coupon configuration details, see Coupons.

Taxes

Taxes are calculated on the Curriculum price after discounts are applied. Tax Rates are configured separately for Payment Gateway and manual payment methods. 

See Setting Up Tax Rates.

Multi-Currency

When Multi-Currency is enabled, Absorb LMS calculates the Curriculum's price in each enabled currency from the Default Price. Keep the following limitations in mind:

• Multi-Currency prices are read-only.
• Variable Price Groups are unavailable while additional currencies are configured.
• Extension pricing applies only when the Learner views the Catalog in the default currency.

See E-Commerce Multi-Currency.

The Learner Experience

A priced Curriculum appears differently to Learners than a Curriculum they can enroll in for free. The following table describes what Learners see:

Important Considerations

Some Curriculum E-Commerce behavior can affect existing Learners or records. Review the following points before you make changes to a Curriculum that is already on sale:

• Price changes are not retroactive. Changes to the Default Price or Variable Price Groups apply only to Learners who are not yet enrolled. 
  • See Retroactive Changes in Absorb LMS.
• Refunds do not remove access. Marking a transaction as refunded only records the refund. It does not unenroll the Learner from the Curriculum or its Courses, and it does not return funds. 
  • See Does Changing 'Mark Refunded' to 'Yes' Issue a Refund? and How Do I Fully Unenroll a User From a Curriculum?
• Saving E-Commerce Settings cancels open checkouts. If you enable a Portal level feature such as Course Repurchase, any checkouts in progress are canceled. Where possible, make these changes during periods of low purchasing activity.

Summary

Before you publish a Curriculum for sale, confirm that the following items are complete:

• E-Commerce and any optional features are enabled for the Portal.
• The Curriculum is Active and its Courses are added.
• Allow Self Enrollment includes the Learners who should be able to purchase the Curriculum.
• Enable E-Commerce is ON and a Default Price is set.
• Allow Public Purchase is ON if public visitors should be able to purchase the Curriculum.
• Prerequisites and Allow Enrollment match how you want Learners to purchase the Curriculum.
• The Curriculum price reflects the full program, since its Courses are included at no extra cost.

If Learners cannot find or purchase the Curriculum, see Troubleshooting E-Commerce.