A Blended Teaching course can have free access until a set date. Until then, your students can open the course and start working before they pay or before their access code arrives. When they redeem a code or pay, nothing they have done is lost.
What your students see
When a student opens the course from your LMS or the Library before the date, they see Free until and the date, with a Get access button. There is no checkout and no card.
While they're on free access, every course page shows "Free access ends on [date]. Redeem your access code to keep your place." with a Redeem a code or buy button.
They can redeem an access code from the bookstore, VitalSource or Kortext, or pay us directly, at any time.
Seven free days in every new course
Every new course has free access until seven days after its Start Date, the date in the Course Details section of your Settings tab. You don't need to do anything to switch it on. This includes courses you copy from an earlier course: each gets its own date.
So if your Start Date is 12 January, your students can open the course without paying until the end of 19 January, ET. If you change your Start Date, the free access date moves with it, unless we've set a date for your course by hand. Free access never lasts longer than the course.
To find your Start Date, see Setting the Start Date and End Date for your Course.
When free access ends
Free access lasts until the end of the date, Eastern time (ET), and ends by itself at midnight ET.
After that, a student who hasn't redeemed a code or paid sees the payment page the next time they open the course, with a note that their work is saved. Once they redeem a code or pay, they're back in the same section with their attempts, grades and progress. There is nothing for you to do.
Grades for students who haven't paid
Students on free access can do everything in your course. Their graded work is saved with the time they submitted it, but their scores are held until they redeem a code or pay. This includes students whose free access has ended without paying.
A student who hasn't paid has a Not paid label on your Students page, Gradebook and Student Progress. It doesn't show their free access date. Use the Haven't paid filter on the Students page to see them all.
In your Gradebook, their graded work shows a lock and Held. You can't open, regrade, excuse or override a held grade. Written answers on held work join your grading list once the student pays.
The student sees Graded · score held and no score. Practice quizzes and knowledge checks show feedback as normal.
Held grades are left out of averages, and exports show Held where the score would be. Held grades are not sent to your LMS: in Canvas and Blackboard the work shows as submitted, with no grade yet. When the student redeems a code or pays, all their held grades are released and sent at once.
If a student is refunded later, their grades are not held again.
Changing the free access date
Only the Blended Teaching team can change the free access date. You can't change it in your Control Center. To ask for a later date, or no free access, for your course, message us from the chat in Educators.
What to tell your students
If your course has free access, you can paste this into your syllabus or an announcement:
You can start using our Blended Teaching course now. Access is free until [date]. Before then, add your access code from the bookstore, or pay, by selecting Redeem a code or buy on any course page. You won't lose any of your work.
For students, the step-by-step guide is Getting into your course before your access code arrives.