Student Access
How students get into a course they have bought, why access is tied to their account, and how to help someone who cannot get in.
Selling the course is the easy half. Getting the student into it, on the phone they are holding, six weeks after they bought, is the half that generates support emails. This page explains exactly how access works so you can answer those in one line.
What happens right after somebody buys
As soon as a purchase is confirmed, TribeNest emails the student. Which email they get depends on whether they already have an account with you:
- They already have an account. They get an "Access to [course]" email with an Access Your Course button that takes them straight into the lessons.
- They are new. They get a "Claim your access to [course]" email with a Claim Course Access button. That link takes them to a short form where they set a First name, Last name and a Password of at least 8 characters, then click Claim access. They land in the course, already signed in.
The claim link is good for 14 days and is sent to the address they bought with.
Free courses work the same way. There is no payment step, but the student still gets their access email.
Access belongs to the account, not the email
Once a student has claimed their access, the course is tied to their TribeNest account. It is not tied to the email address they happened to type at checkout, and it is not tied to the link in the email.
That is the right thing for everybody:
- The student can sign in on any device and find their course, instead of hunting through their inbox for the original link.
- A link forwarded to a friend, or leaked into a group chat, does not hand out your course.
- Their progress, their place in the video and their certificate all follow them, because they follow the account.
What a student sees if they are signed out
They see a screen titled Sign in to open this course, with two buttons: Sign in and Create an account. Whichever they pick, they are brought right back to the course afterwards. Nobody dead-ends.
What a student sees if they are signed in as somebody else
This is the case worth knowing by heart, because it is the one that reaches your inbox.
If a student buys with one email address and then signs in with another, they see This enrolment belongs to a different account. The screen names the address they are currently signed in as, and offers one button: Sign out and switch account.
The fix is always the same: sign in with the address the enrollment was sent to. That address is the one the course is attached to. Signing in with a different one, even one that belongs to the same person, is a different account as far as anything can tell.
The one-line answer for support
"Sign out, then sign back in with the email address you bought the course with." That resolves nearly every "I cannot get into my course" message.
If a student cannot remember which address they used, look them up on the Students page. Their email is right there in the Customer column.
Older links still work
If somebody bought a course before access was tied to accounts, their original link keeps working. Nobody was locked out.
When they open the course from that link, a friendly bar appears at the top inviting them to Secure my access: add a password to the address they bought with, so they can reach the course any time without digging out the email. They can also Sign in if they already have an account, or dismiss the bar and carry on watching. It is an invitation, not a gate, and the dismissal sticks.
Why encourage students to secure it
Until access is tied to an account, anyone holding that link can watch. Once a student secures it, the course is theirs alone, and their progress is saved reliably.
Resending access
If a student has lost their email, you can send them a fresh one.
- Go to Courses, then Students.
- Find the student's row. (Only Confirmed enrollments can be resent.)
- Click the three-dot menu at the end of the row and choose Resend access.
- Confirm. The dialog names the exact address and course, so you can double-check before it goes.
The previous link stops working
Sending a fresh access link invalidates the old one. If a student is mid-course on the original link, resending will make them use the new one, so only do it when they have asked.
Occasionally nothing is sent, and TribeNest tells you why:
- The student's access was revoked.
- There is no access record for that course.
- The course itself is no longer available.
Progress and access
A student's progress is saved against their account. If they are watching on a link that is no longer valid, or signed in as the wrong person, they see: "We could not save your progress. Sign in with the email this course was sent to and we will keep it."
Nothing is lost when they sign in correctly. Their completed lessons and their place in the current video are still there.
Cohort students
In a cohort, the Students tab shows an Account column with one of two labels:
- Claimed, meaning they have set a password and can sign in.
- Pending claim, meaning they have bought a place but have not finished setting up their login yet.
A run with a lot of Pending claim rows a week before it starts is worth a nudge. Those students will not be able to reach the group chat or the cohort page until they claim.
Related guides
- Managing students for the full students table, statuses and filters.
- Cohort courses for the cohort roster and its claim states.
- Live calls for what students need in order to join a session.
- Certificates for what a student gets when they finish.