Drip scheduling: release content gradually

A drip schedule opens the course piece by piece. Module one straight away, module two after a week, module three after two. The participant gets one thing at a time instead of everything at once.

It’s worth doing when the material needs practice between sessions, when you run the course alongside a group, or when the whole course at once would feel like a mountain.

Where it’s set

In the course’s Build tab — not in Settings. The Settings tab has a Scheduling card, but it only reminds you where the control is and links back here.

Per module

Every module has a field where you type a number of days:

1. Open the course under Courses and go to Build.
2. Open the module menu and choose Change release day.
3. Type the number of days after purchase before the module opens. Leave the field empty and the module opens right away.

The module row then shows a small marker: day 7, day 14.

The count starts at the purchase, per person. If Anna buys on 1 March and Erik on 10 March, their schedules sit nine days apart. That’s what you want for a course sold continuously.

A common layout

Module	Opens
1. Welcome	immediately
2. The foundation	day 7
3. Going deeper	day 14
4. Practice	day 21
5. Closing	day 28

Seven days between modules is a good starting point. Shorter if the material is light, longer if it needs her to actually do something in between.

Per lesson

A single lesson can depart from its module. Open the lesson and find the Scheduled release card. Three choices:

• Follow the module’s schedule — the default, and what you want nine times out of ten.
• Custom days after enrollment — the lesson opens its own number of days after purchase, regardless of the module.
• Specific date — the lesson opens on a fixed date. This is the choice for a course where everyone starts together: put dates on the first lesson of each module and the whole group follows the same calendar.

Under the field the condition is stated plainly: “Lesson locked until the condition is met.”

Locked in order

If you only want her to take the lessons in order, without waiting on the calendar, you don’t need a drip schedule. Turn on Require previous lesson completion to unlock on the lesson instead.

What the participant sees

Locked modules and lessons appear in the course list with a padlock. She knows they exist and roughly when they arrive — she just can’t go in yet.

Changing a schedule that’s already running

• Shorten the delay and upcoming content opens earlier. What’s already open isn’t affected.
• Lengthen it and what’s already open stays open. Nobody has anything taken away.
• Remove the schedule and everything becomes available immediately for everyone.

If it doesn’t add up

• The participant can’t see the new module — check when she bought. Days count from there, not from today.
• Everything is open straight away — the fields are empty. Empty means open.
• One lesson behaves differently from its module — it probably has its own schedule. Set it back to Follow the module’s schedule.

Tips

• Say the schedule out loud in the course intro: “a new module every Monday”. Then waiting becomes anticipation rather than confusion.
• Test with a test account. Enroll yourself and check that the right modules are locked.
• Send something between modules. A sequence that matches the schedule brings her back. See Email sequences.