How to Offer Cohort-Based Online Courses — WordPress Group Learning

When students take an online course alone, it’s easy for motivation to fade. Lessons get skipped, discussion dries up, and many never make it to the final module.

That’s why group learning is gaining traction; it creates momentum.

Students move through the material together, support one another, and are more likely to complete the course.

If you’re building your course on WordPress, the right tools can help you turn this collaborative model into a reality. After testing dozens of LMS plugins, MemberPress and AccessAlly stood out for their powerful features built for group learning.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to create a cohort-based experience that keeps learners engaged from start to finish. 🧑‍🎓

What Are Cohort-Based Online Courses, and Why Should You Offer One?

Cohort-based online courses, also called group learning, are a structured way to deliver learning to multiple students. Participants progress through the course together as a group, often with set start and end dates.

Here’s an example of a cohort-based online course by WordPress.org. Notice how it has a specific start date and a limited number of spots:

This type of online course creates a sense of community and encourages accountability. Students also get the chance to interact with instructors and fellow learners, which makes the learning experience more engaging and collaborative.

Offering a group course has these perks:

• 🗓️ It’s perfect for learners who thrive on group interaction and want the structure of a schedule.
• 🧑‍🏫 It helps you create a more intimate learning environment where you can offer personalized, 1:1 support and encourage stronger relationships between students.
• 🎯 The group dynamic motivates students to stay on track, ensuring they get the most out of your course.

You may also find that group courses command higher prices than self-paced ones because of the added support, structure, and perceived value.

How Do You Make a Cohort Syllabus?

When designing a group-based online course syllabus, you should focus on encouraging collaboration and teamwork. Unlike self-paced courses, this type of learning thrives on shared experiences, shared deadlines, and regular touchpoints with you (or your team).

You can start by outlining key learning objectives for the group. Then, think about including activities like group projects or peer reviews to help students interact and give feedback on each other’s work.

Regular discussion opportunities, like live sessions, forums, or group chats, also help students stay engaged and connected.

Why Use WordPress to Offer Group Learning?

If you want to offer a group course that stands out and creates a strong, supportive community for learners, then you’ll need the right platform to build it on.

I recommend building your group course on self-hosted WordPress.org.

WordPress is one of the best platforms for creating and managing group learning courses. It gives you all the tools and flexibility you need to design your course exactly how you want.

With WordPress, you can use powerful LMS plugins like MemberPress or AccessAlly to set up your courses, handle student registrations, and even create interactive lessons.

Plus, you’re in full control of your content and revenue. Unlike third-party platforms, WordPress doesn’t take a cut of your earnings or restrict how you run your course, and you own your member data and email list 100%.

Another big perk? Customization.

Whether you want to add discussion forums, private messaging, or live video sessions, WordPress makes it easy to tailor your site to fit your group learning needs.

📝 Note: When I talk about WordPress, we mean the self-hosted WordPress.org platform. It gives you complete ownership of your site and the ability to customize it without limitations.

For more information, see our article on WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.

With that in mind, I’ll now share how you can create WordPress group learning on your site.

You can simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use:

Let’s get started.

Method 1: Offer WordPress Group Learning Using MemberPress CoachKit™ (Best for Coaches and Small Businesses)

If you want to create group learning with a central hub for live discussions and membership access control, then MemberPress with the CoachKit™ addon is a great choice.

• MemberPress – the best all-in-one membership and LMS plugin for WordPress. It really simplifies creating paid courses and communities. You get everything you need to create, sell, and manage any membership program.
• The CoachKit™ addon – adds cohort-focused features on top of that. You can create group programs, set milestones and habits, track progress, host live discussions or consultations, and organize each cohort inside its own Program.

We trust MemberPress to run our own popular free video membership site here at WPBeginner. For details, you can check out our in-depth MemberPress review.

Creating Memberships using MemberPress

To start, you’ll need to sign up for a MemberPress account.

On the MemberPress website, you can click ‘Get MemberPress for WordPress’ and pick a plan that includes the CoachKit™ addon (typically the Pro or Elite plans).

Then, follow the on-screen instructions to complete checkout.

With that done, you’ll get access to your MemberPress dashboard. Here, you should download the plugin .zip file and copy your license key to a safe place, like a password manager. Keep this tab open as you’ll need the key in a few seconds.

Next, you can install and activate MemberPress on your site.

Go to Plugins » Add Plugin from your WordPress admin area.

Next, you can hit the ‘Upload Plugin’ button.

Click the ‘Choose File’ button to upload your MemberPress zip file from your local computer, and hit ‘Install Now.’

Once installation completes, don’t forget to click ‘Activate.’ If you need help, then you can see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Next, you’ll need to verify your license key.

Go to MemberPress » Settings, paste your license key into the respective field, and click the ‘Activate License Key’ button.

Upon activation, you’ll see the MemberPress setup wizard. Just follow the steps to configure your basic settings, including currency and key pages, before moving on to payments.

Next, in your MemberPress » Settings page, let’s switch to the ‘Payments’ tab to set up your payment methods.

Click the ‘+ Add Payment Method’ button to add your preferred payment gateway.

MemberPress lets you connect to PayPal and Stripe. This also means that you can easily accept credit card payments for your WordPress group learning programs.

To complete the setup, simply enter your payment gateway account details. When you’re done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update Options’ button.

The next step is creating membership plans for your group learning website. These are the paid plans that students will sign up for to access your online courses.

To get started, you can go to the MemberPress » Memberships page and click ‘Add New.’

On the next screen, you’ll enter a title and details for the membership plan.

Then, you can set the pricing, billing type, and expiration for the plan under the ‘Membership Terms’ section.

If you scroll down the editor, you’ll find more customization options.

For example, in the ‘Price Box’ tab, you can add details to your pricing page, such as a headline and plan benefits.

For details on how to do this, you can follow our ultimate guide to creating a membership site.

Creating Your Online Courses

After you’ve set up your membership plans, it’s time to prepare your online course materials.

In this step, you’ll use the MemberPress Courses add-on to create and store your online courses, which will be helpful when adding resources for your group learning in CoachKit™.

To start, head over to the MemberPress » Courses page and click the button to install and activate the Courses Addon.

After you activate the MemberPress Courses add-on, you’ll land on the course builder. Here, you’ll notice that it uses the WordPress block editor, making it easy to create your course.

To get started, you can click the ‘Add New’ button.

On the ‘Course Page,’ let’s first add the course title and description in the available space.

In the ‘Curriculum’ tab, you can click on the ‘Add Section’ button to create a new course outline. To be clear, a section is like a module.

Then, you can click on the ‘Add Lesson’ button under the section. Feel free to list as many lessons as you want, as long as they’re relevant to the parent section.

For each lesson, you can hover over it and click ‘Edit’.

This will take you to the lesson editor, where you can add your learning materials for the lesson.

With MemberPress Courses, you can use the Quizzes and Assignments addons to test knowledge and encourage active participation for each lesson. When it comes to tracking students’ progress, everything is neatly organized in the Gradebook.

For a detailed guide, you can check out our guide on how to create and sell online courses.

Installing and Configuring the CoachKit™ Addon

Now, you are ready to install the CoachKit™ addon, so let’s navigate to MemberPress » CoachKit™.

You’ll then see the button to install and activate the addon. Go ahead and give it a click.

This will add an ‘MP CoachKit™’ menu item to your WordPress dashboard.

Before you start creating your first WordPress group learning programs, you’ll need to configure a few settings.

MemberPress automatically generates a ‘Coaching’ page where you can manage clients and monitor their progress. To review this, you can go to MemberPress » Settings and navigate to the ‘Pages’ tab.

In the ‘MemberPress Coaching Page*’ field, you’ll find that ‘Auto Create New Page’ is selected by default in the dropdown menu.

From here, you’ll need to click on the option to create the page. Remember to click on the ‘Update Option’ button at the bottom.

Once you do that, you’ll see the ‘Edit’ and ‘View’ buttons for your MemberPress coaching page like this:

After this, you can switch to the ‘CoachKit™’ tab.

I suggest turning on the live chat ‘Messaging’ feature so you can communicate directly with learners from your site and vice versa.

You can also send both private and group messages. This means that you can provide personalized feedback to individual students or share general updates and encouragement with the entire group.

Offering Client Consultations (Optional)

Before you jump into creating your group learning course, it’s a good idea to let clients request private consultations with you. This is especially helpful if you want to offer some one-on-one guidance.

The easiest way to do this is by using WPForms, the best form builder on the market. It’s actually the one we use for all our contact forms, surveys, and opt-ins across the Awesome Motive family of sites.

For more information about the plugin, you can check our WPForms review.

To start, you can sign up for a WPForms account. On the WPForms website, click the ‘Get WPForms Now’ button, choose a plan, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete checkout.

With that done, you’ll have your own WPForms account dashboard, where you can download your zip file and get your license key.

Now, you can install the WPForms plugin.

Navigate to Plugins » Add Plugin from your WordPress admin area.

On the next page, use the search bar to quickly find the WPForms plugin.

Click the ‘Install Now’ button in the search result, and then ‘Activate.

If you need help, then you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

From here, you’ll need to go to WPForms » Settings to activate your license key.

Upon activation, let’s head over to WPForms » Add New to create your form.

On the next screen, you can enter the form title and choose how you’ll build your form.

Need it fast? WPForms’ AI Form Builder does the heavy lifting for you. Just type in what you need, like “appointment booking form for group learning,” and get a ready-to-use form in seconds.

For this tutorial, I’ll use a ready-to-use template.

Since WPForms has 2000+ templates, you might want to use the search feature to filter them out. Here, I use the keyword ‘Appointment.’

Once you’ve found a good template, you can hover over it and click ‘Use Template.’

This will take you to the drag-and-drop editor.

From here, you can adjust the form fields and other settings.

Once you’re done, simply hit ‘Embed’ to publish the form on an existing page or a new one. For example, I publish mine on a new page. I recommend you do the same since we will need the URL in the next step.

For detailed instructions, read our guide on how to create a booking form.

Creating Your First WordPress Group Learning Course

In this step, you’ll create your group learning course. You can include interactive elements like group projects, peer reviews, and discussions.

To start, let’s go to MP CoachKit™ » Programs and then click the ‘Add New Program’ button.

On the next screen, start by giving your program a name. For this tutorial, we’ll create a simple cohort-based course called ‘Art for Beginners.’

From here, you’ll then add a new cohort.

To the right of the ‘Milestones/Habits’ tabs, let’s click the ‘New Cohort’ button in the ‘Cohorts’ section.

You can enter the cohort name in the popup that appears. For example, I’ve named ours ‘Program: Art.’

Below that, there’s a configuration setting to limit the number of clients.

If you want to set a limit, click on the check box next to ‘Enrollment Cap.’ Then, simply enter the number in the ‘Client Limit’ field when it appears.

After that, you’ll choose the cohort type: ‘Dynamic’ or ‘Fixed.’

• Dynamic – allows clients to join anytime, and their program will start the day they enroll.
• Fixed – lets you add the start and end dates so that clients can follow a structured timeline. Participants will know exactly when to expect new lessons, activities, and milestones, creating a sense of accountability and commitment through the course.

Since the whole point of a cohort-based course is to encourage users to study together, let’s choose the fixed type.

Go ahead and enter the start and end dates in the available fields.

Then, the ‘Status’ dropdown lets you open or close the cohort for registration.

Here, you’ll want to choose ‘Open’ to make the course accessible. If the start date is still in the future, you can select ‘Close’ instead and set a reminder to open the course closer to the start date.

To the left, you’ll see an option to select the coach. Simply click on the dropdown to select from one of your registered users.

Finally, by checking the ‘Allow Client Appointments’ box, you can attach a link to your client appointment form.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your configuration.

When creating programs with CoachKit™, you’ll have options to add milestones and habits. Here’s a simple explanation of each:

• Milestones are major goals to track progress, like “Finish Module 1” or “Submit Final Project.” You can set as many milestones as needed in a specific order, each with a due date.
• Habits are smaller tasks that repeat regularly, like “Log in Daily” or “Post in the Forum.” These help students build a consistent learning routine.

Let’s start with milestones. To create one, just click the ‘+ New Milestones’ button.

After that, you can start filling out the milestone goal name and due.

For example, I named our first milestone ‘Introduction to Art Basics,’ and the goal is to have it completed 7 days after learners start the program.

Then, enabling the ‘Check-In’ feature will trigger milestone or habit reminder emails. These emails are sent when a client misses a milestone or habit deadline.

Once you check the box for ‘Check In’, you’ll see a ‘Client Question’ field.

Here, you can write a short prompt that will be sent to the learner if they miss a milestone or habit. For example, you can ask them why they fell behind or what support they need.

Next, you’ll want to open the ‘Add New’ dropdown menu. This is where you can add the online course you created using the Courses add-on.

Once you click the button, a popup will appear with a list of all of your courses. Simply check the box next to the relevant one and click ‘Add Course.’

To add more milestones, you can click the ‘+’ icon and repeat the process.

Once you’re done with milestones, you’ll want to switch to the ‘Habits’ tab and click the ‘+ New Habit’ button to start adding habits.

After that, you can add the name of the habit and set up the condition.

Here’s an example:

This means that clients will repeat practicing line work, shading, and proportions on a regular schedule, for example, daily or every 3 days. So, they build a consistent learning habit over time.

Then, you can go ahead and click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button.

Enrolling Clients Through a Membership Program

Once you’ve set up your WordPress group learning courses, it’s time to enroll clients. You can do this through your membership programs.

To get started, you’ll want to head over to MemberPress » Memberships and hover over the membership you want to add your program(s) to.

For example, in this step, I’ll select the ‘Gold’ membership to include in the courses program. So, I’ll hover over it and click ‘Edit’ to open its settings.

In the ‘Membership Options’ section down the page, you’ll need to switch to the ‘CoachKit’ tab.

Then, go ahead and pick the program you want to assign to this membership.

If you want to add more programs to the membership plan, just click the ‘Add New’ button and repeat the previous steps.

Once done, you can click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button.

Now, anyone who signs up for that membership will automatically be enrolled in all the programs you’ve assigned to it.

Also, when clients enroll, they’re randomly placed into one of the available cohorts in each program. CoachKit™ starts filling cohorts by assigning new clients to the one with the most open seats first.

Once you have learners joining, your ‘Coaching’ page will display a list of your clients and the number of programs they are enrolled in.

On the learner’s end, the ‘Clients’ tab is replaced with an ‘Enrollments’ tab. Here, they can access all the milestones and habits associated with the program they’re enrolled in.

Here’s what the learner dashboard looks like:

And that’s it!

You’ve successfully created a full WordPress group learning experience using MemberPress and CoachKit™, complete with memberships, courses, milestones, and cohort enrollment.

Method 2: Offer WordPress Group Learning Using AccessAlly (Best for Powerful Online Communities)

If you’re focused on running advanced cohort programs with enrollment caps, waitlists, and an integrated community space, AccessAlly + CommunityAlly is a great choice.

• AccessAlly – a powerful WordPress LMS and membership plugin to build a more advanced, community-driven learning experience. It really shines when you need features like detailed progress tracking and flexible enrollment options for different cohorts.

• The CommunityAlly addon – adds a private, social-style community area right inside your site. This lets students connect, post updates, join discussions, and message each other without relying on a separate social media or other external platform. 

Together, they give you everything you need to run structured cohort-based courses and foster an active, ongoing learning community.

Installing the AccessAlly Plugin

Since AccessAlly is a premium plugin, you’ll need to purchase a plan before creating your group learning. Keep in mind that if you want to create community and discussion groups for your group learning courses, then you’ll need the AccessAlly Community plan.

Simply click the ‘Get Started Today’ button in your chosen plan and follow the checkout process.

After purchasing, log in to your AccessAlly account. From there, you can download the plugin .zip file and copy your license key. If you’re using AccessAlly Pro, download the ProgressAlly zip file as well.

With that done, you can install and activate AccessAlly on your site.

In your WordPress admin area, head over to Plugins » Add Plugin to start.

On the next screen, click ‘Upload File.’

Then, you can upload the AccessAlly zip file to your WordPress site and activate the plugin as usual.

If you need help, follow our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can connect your WordPress site to your AccessAlly account.

In the setup wizard, AccessAlly will ask for your registered email address and license key. Once you’ve filled out the fields, click ‘Next.’

On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a customer relationship manager (CRM) tool to integrate. AccessAlly relies on your CRM to add “tags” to students, which control exactly which content they can see.

AccessAlly has several options, including ActiveCampaign, Kit, Drip, and the built-in AccessAlly Managed CRM.

Simply click ‘Next’ to complete the CRM integration process.

After that, you’ll set up your payment processors. AccessAlly allows you to connect to Stripe, Paypal, or both.

• To use both, simply check the ‘Enable’ boxes for each.
• If you prefer to offer just one option, go ahead and check the ‘I don’t want to integrate with Stripe/PayPal’ box.

After deciding on your payment processing, you can hit the ‘Next’ button.

On the next screen, AccessAlly will ask you to connect your Stripe or PayPal account(s). You can just follow the process to finish the setup.

Once done, you’ll see a ‘Congratulations!’ message.

Here, you can choose to autogenerate key pages or manually configure them. For this tutorial, we’ll choose ‘Yes, please generate my site’s key pages for me. (Recommended)’ for an easier process.

AccessAlly will then auto-generate key pages, which include:

• Log-in page: This is where your members or students can log into your learning website using their credentials.
• The ‘Please login first before accessing the site’ page: If a visitor tries to access restricted content without logging in, they’ll be redirected here. It reminds them to log in before proceeding.
• Dashboard: The central hub for your users. It displays important information, such as progress tracking, available courses, and quick links to different sections of the site.
• My Account/Profile: A personalized page where users can update their profile information, change passwords, and manage account details.
• My Orders: This page has the user’s purchases, subscriptions, or transactions on your site.
• Insufficient Permissions: If someone tries to access the content they don’t have permission for, they’ll land here. This page explains why access is restricted and may include options to upgrade or purchase access.

Here’s how it looks on my screen:

For now, you can leave them as is. You can always adjust later.

If you scroll down the page, you’ll find the ‘What’s Next’ section where you can click ‘Go To Dashboard’ or ‘Re-run Onboarding Steps.’

With that done, you’ve successfully set up AccessAlly on your WordPress website.

Creating an Online Course Using AccessAlly

The next step is to develop your group learning course materials.

You can start by designing a clear curriculum that provides students with an overview and actionable content right from the beginning. Then, you’ll want to deliver your best materials to keep students engaged and make your course stand out.

To start adding your learning materials, let’s click ‘Go to Dashboard’ from the last screen.

Then, you can navigate to the ‘Offerings’ menu and click ‘Create.’

This will open the ‘Create Your Offering’ pop-up window, where you must choose an offering template.

I’ll use the ‘Drip Release Course’ model because it works best for group learning. This simply means you can schedule content to “drip” out over time (like one module per week) so the whole group moves through the material at the same pace.

Simply click the ‘Use Template’ button in the relevant box.

On the next screen, you’ll name your offering in the ‘What would you like to call this offering?’ field. You’ll want to make sure the name is clear, as your potential students will see this on the front end.

For example, I named mine ‘Group-Learning: WordPress for Beginners’

After that, you’ll choose your payment option.

AccessAlly offers various options, including a one-time fee, recurring payment, and a payment plan with a free trial, among others.

For this tutorial, I’ll choose the one-time fee method.

In the screenshot below, I set the price for our course in the ‘Amount’ field.

In this final step, you’ll either go to the content editor or leave it for later.

Let’s select the ‘Yes, I’m ready to add my content’ to start developing your group learning online courses.

This will take you to the ‘Content’ page.

Once inside, you’ll see that AccessAlly has generated the entire course structure for you. You can go through each section one by one and click the brush icon to edit.

For example, I’ll click the brush icon to edit the ‘Base Module’ section.

You’ll then be redirected to the WordPress content editor.

Here, you can start by converting to the block editor if you want.

After that, go ahead and add your content.

For the base module, you might want to write the course description so potential students know what to expect from this course.

You can also add a featured image so it looks more put-together.

You can then preview and publish the post if everything looks good already.

With that done, it’s time to add your learning materials.

You can go through each of the 5-week course outlines and update the content. Just click the brush icon to access the content editor.

Inside the content editor, you can add descriptions, activities, or instructions – anything that’s necessary for the course.

You can also upload multimedia or embed videos to improve the learning experience.

Simply hit the ‘Publish’ button when you’re happy with everything.

You can now repeat this process for all your courses.

Once everything is set, you’ll see the green ‘Published’ label on your dashboard like this:

To see what it looks like on your site’s front end, simply click on the ‘Preview’ icon.

Here’s what my course looks like on my demo site:

Because this is set up as a drip course, you can align each module with a cohort schedule, for example, 1 module per week. This way, every student in the same cohort unlocks the same lessons at the same time.

Building Your Cohort Enrollment Page

The next step is to set up the group learning enrollment page.

But first, you’ll need to decide how you want to manage enrollments. For example, you can set specific start and end dates as well as limit the number of students per cohort.

Then, you can switch to the ‘Forms’ page and click on the ‘+ Add’ button to start.

In the popup that appears, you’ll see a lot of templates for your AccessAlly course. These templates vary from payment and coupon codes to those related to course enrollment.

But for cohort-style enrollments, the one you’ll need is ‘Enrollment Limit.’

On the popup that appears, you’ll see 2 tabs: ‘Settings’ and ‘Order form message.’

In the ‘Settings’ tab, you can add the cohort name, specify the course enrollment time frame, and limit the number of participants.

Setting the ‘Enrollment capacity’ means that once the cohort limit is reached, your order form will automatically turn into a waiting list page.

This automation helps you collect emails from those who missed the current cohort so that you can invite them to the next one.

Next, you can switch to the ‘Order form message’ tab.

Here, you can see that AccessAlly has a ready-made order form message for you.

If you want to create a custom one, then you can take advantage of the available placeholders to add to your message. These placeholders allow you to automate details such as:

• Countdown timer – Add a live timer to show how much time is left before registration closes.
• Total capacity – Display the maximum number of spots available in your course or program.
• Current enrollment count – Automatically show how many people have already signed up.
• Remaining capacity – Highlight the number of spots still open to create urgency for potential signups.

If you scroll down the popup, you can find a preview.

Go ahead and click ‘Save’ to close the window.

Now, if you go to the ‘Forms’ page in your AccessAlly dashboard, you’ll see that your settings are saved under the ‘Enrollment Limit’ section.

And because we set the enrollment capacity, AccessAlly has automatically created the ‘Waitlists‘ settings for you.

Don’t forget to click ‘Save’ in the top right corner to store your settings.

Once saved, you can embed this order form on your sales or enrollment page. AccessAlly will then automatically handle enrollment caps and move extra signups to the waitlist.

Setting Up a Community for Group Discussions

Finally, you can create a private space for your students using CommunityAlly.

Setting up a community for group discussion is a great way to boost students’ engagement. Unlike social media groups, this keeps your students focused on your content without getting distracted by ads or other feeds.

Plus, as the course organizer, you can easily spot where people might need extra help or clarification.

Let’s get started by installing and activating the CommunityAlly plugin. From your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Plugins » Add Plugin.

Then, you can click the ‘Upload Plugin’ button.

You can download the .zip file directly from your AccessAlly dashboard and then upload it to your site. Just hit ‘Choose File’ and then ‘Install Now.’

Don’t forget to click ‘Activate’ to properly enable it. If you need a little help along the way, you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to the ‘Content’ page and click ‘+ Add.’

This will open the ‘Add New Content’ popup.

From here, you can click on ‘Group’ to select it.

On the next screen, CommunityAlly will ask you to create the group name. Simply add the name to the relevant field and click ‘Create Group.’

And that’s all – CommunityAlly will auto-generate the page for you, hassle-free.

Now, if you visit your ‘Content Pages’ section, you’ll see the CommunityAlly group you just created.

Go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button to publish the group.

After that, you can click the ‘Preview’ icon to preview it on your front end, where you’ll find 3 buttons:

• Star: This button lets you mark a group or discussion as a favorite, making it easier to find later.
• Message: This button opens a chat where you can send messages directly to group members or admins.
• Notifications: This button lets you manage your notifications for updates, new messages, or group activities.

Here’s what it might look like on the screen:

Then, if you scroll down the page, you’ll find a few tabs.

The ‘Feed’ tab is where you’ll see all the latest posts and updates from your group members, including discussions, announcements, and shared content.

Then, there’s the ‘Discussion’ tab.

Here, you can provide discussion prompts and set up smaller groups or projects to spark deeper interactions.

The ‘Members’ tab shows a list of all the members in the group, allowing you to connect and see their profiles. Whereas in the ‘Settings’ tab, you can edit the group name and description.

You can also upload a cover image to personalize the look of your group page.

That’s all there is to it! You have successfully added a private community to your group learning platform, complete with feeds, discussions, member profiles, and direct messaging via CommunityAlly.

Bonus Tip: Host Live Q&A Sessions to Boost Engagement

One of the best ways to make your group course feel alive and personal is by scheduling regular live “Office Hours” or Q&A sessions. This gives students direct access to you and helps them feel like part of a real community.

You can use simple conference tools like Zoom or YouTube Live to host these sessions.

Just share the link on your site’s homepage, inside the course dashboard, or in the community area ahead of time so everyone knows when to join.

These live calls are fantastic for answering questions in real-time, clarifying difficult topics, and getting valuable feedback. It’s a small effort that makes a huge difference in student success and satisfaction. 🙌

Want to take your virtual classroom even further? Check out our guide on how to run a virtual class with WordPress.

Cohort-Based Online Courses / WordPress Group Learning FAQs

If you’re considering starting a WordPress group learning website, here are some common questions and answers that can help guide your journey and clear up any remaining doubts.

What is group learning?

Group learning is when a group of students moves through a course together, often with set schedules, assignments, and regular interaction with instructors and peers. This method helps keep everyone on track and encourages teamwork and accountability.

How do you create a group learning course?

To create a group learning course, you can start by choosing the right learning management system (LMS), like MemberPress or AccessAlly, that supports cohorts.

Then, you’ll need to plan your course with a clear start and end date, break it up into modules, and add activities like group discussions or projects to get everyone involved.

When is the best time of year to start a group learning course?

The best time to launch your group learning course really depends on your audience. Many course creators find that starting in January, after the new year, or in the fall works well since people are often more motivated during these times.

Make sure to consider when your target learners are most likely to engage.

What are the main features of LMS for group learning courses?

When using an LMS for group-based courses, you’ll want features like scheduled (drip) content releases, progress tracking, group or cohort management, communication tools for interaction (forums, messaging, or communities), and automatic reminders or check-ins.

These features help keep students on track and make the course experience more interactive.

What is the best platform to upload my group learning online courses?

WordPress, with LMS plugins like MemberPress or AccessAlly, is the perfect platform for uploading group learning courses. These tools give you all the features you need to create and manage courses while keeping everything organized and easy for students to track.

Additional Resources for Your Online Courses

I hope this guide has helped you learn how to set up engaging group learning courses in WordPress using tools like MemberPress CoachKit™ and AccessAlly. To further grow your online education business, you might find these articles helpful:

• How to Create an eLearning Website
• How to Start an Online Coaching Business
• How to Market Your Online Course
• Teachable vs Skillshare vs MemberPress: Which is the Best?
• Best WordPress LMS Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

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