Using The Classes Module

The Classes module is a powerful and flexible way to present your classes or other recurring events online so that people can pay for them and register to join. You can also bundle any products you have saved in the system along with your classes if it has required materials or items the students will need. As with other data-entry modules (e.g. Products, Calendar, FAQ, etc.), you will enter the data for your classes, and the system will lay them out on the page and automate the content for you.

You should be reading this:

• If you need to set up classes or other training events for your organization.
• If you run club events that you would like to detail fully and automate for scheduling through your website.
• If you have any recurring events that you want website visitors to be able to pay for online.

Calendar Preview

Your Classes module integrates with the system Calendar, and will display upcoming classes as pictured above. Your classes will also display on the full month Calendar view, and visitors will be able to click to view the full details, and pay for the class.

How to Set Up Your Classes

You can get to this part of the system by clicking on Website in the blue Admin Toolbar and then clicking Classes. (You can also get there from POS > Classes)

The first part of this process is to make sure you have the Calendar Categories you will need for all of your classes. If you run a relatively small number of classes monthly (i.e. twenty or so), you will probably only need a single Classes category in your Calendar. If you run larger numbers of classes, you might want to split them up into more specific categories.

Help Is Available: If you are unsure what the best setup might be for your classes, please give us a call! We have seven years of experience in helping clients set up for online class sales. (877) 909-6699.

Here is how to create your Calendar Categories:

1. After logging into the system and clicking on the word Website in the Admin toolbar, find the Modules button and hover your cursor over it. In the droplist menu, click on Calendar.
2. You will need to set up your Categories in the calendar in order to have your classes appear on the calendar. Click on the New Calendar Category button to add your first Category.
3. Enter the Calendar Category Name of the category and click Save.

Once you have created the Categories you need, you will be ready to begin creating your Classes.

Creating Classes

Here is how to create a Class:

1. To create a Class, click on either POS or Website in the Admin Toolbar, and then click on Classes.
2. You will see any classes you might have already created in the list. To create a new one, click the New Class button.
   
3. After you have clicked the New Class button, you will see a blank version of the Edit Class screen below. You will start with the Details Tab. Class Title and Short Description are required on this tab, and we highly recommend adding an image (large is good, around 1000 pixels). Add it to the appropriate Calendar Category if you want it to appear on your Calendar. Class ID in this area can serve as a SKU number for the class. In the Long Description, you can promote your class by describing what participants will gain from the experience, and even by loading additional images. You should NOT click the Save button at the bottom until you have worked your way through all of the tabs for the class: other info will be required in order to save it.
   
4. In the Dates & Times Tab, you can set up the scheduling for upcoming sessions of the class. The optional Class ID in this area serves to identify individual class entries for a specific group of students, and is not a required field. You can set the number of Seats or spots in the class, and this number reduces automatically as people sign up, until the class is full. Set the Date & Time for the class: if it has more than one session, with the same group of students attending and paying a single price for all session, you can click Add Additional Session to set as many as you like. Remember that everything in a blue box is one unified price for one group of students. If a class will repeat for a new group of students, you can click Repeat Class, set the date for the first session, and the system will copy the setup of your first entry based on that new date.
   
   When scheduling how a class repeats, you have several options. You will see a sidebar open up for scheduling after you click Repeat Class:
   
   Repeat Once: This option will set the class for a single repeat date only, so it won't be recurring. This one is also useful for irregular scheduling setups that don't repeat well (please call us if you experience issues with the Repeat function).
   
   
   
   Repeat Weekly: You can select one or more days for the class to repeat in the week, but understand that the student will be paying one price for whatever you select. If you need the same class to happen on the same day for different groups of students, you will need to do a separate entry for each. For example, you could have a Mountain Climbing 101 - Morning and another one for Afternoon or Evening.
   Repeat Every Two Weeks: If a class happens every other week, this is the option you will use, so it will be a single session with an empty week between the repeated classes.
   Repeat on a Day of the Month: If you hold your class or event on a certain day each month (e.g. "The 13th of each month, rain or shine!"), you can pick the day of the Repeat and set it to go monthly with this option.
   Repeat on a Weekday of the Month: So if you do your class every Second Saturday of the month, for example, you can use this option.
   
   
5. The Materials Tab will only appear if you have the optional Package functionality enabled for your classes, and you can do so by calling us at Support at 877-909-6699. Please note that this function will not work unless you are using our Responsive design that is mobile friendly. This gives you the ability to bundle products with your classes, either as Optional purchases or Required. Click the appropriate button (None, Optional, or Required) and click the +New Component button to add a new component group. You can offer your students options within each component for what they want to buy, or, if you don't want them to pick between different choices, just add single items to each component (for example, if you had four different cuts of fabric and a pattern needed for your class, you would enter each fabric and the pattern as separate Components). This functionality is new for our Classes module, and you can also watch the short video demo below to see how it works.
   
6. The Pricing Tab will give you the ability to set a Cost for class registration and also to Show the Add to Cart Button so that visitors can register online. The Cost Description area allows you to list what the customer is paying for, and you can also set it to be Eligible for Discounts and/or Eligible for Reward Points. If you are not including Materials with your class, the Pricing tab will appear like this:
   
   If you are bundling Materials with your class, the Pricing tab will have this additional functionality:
   
   The tab will list the base price of the class in the Price of Class field, and the total price for the class plus the bundled materials in the Price with Materials field. Your Package deal for the class will always be one set price, and whenever you have optional component items, the student will be able to pick one product for each component group you've made. Please note that the Materials price listed is for ALL Components you created (one product from each Component) and not for individual components, so you need to price appropriately.
7. The Advanced Tab has options for important details about your class. You can set the Skill Level with whatever descriptive text might apply. If the price the students are paying includes any materials or other items, they can be listed in the Materials Included section. The Requirements area allows you to list whatever the student will need for prerequisites and whatever they might need to bring with them for their session(s). You can provide details about the Instructor, and for many organizations it is beneficial to give contact information as well in case the students have questions prior to the class. The Hide Class feature is usually set to 0; this means that the day after the last scheduled session for the class, it will remove itself from your active list automatically. Some organizations like to leave it up for a few weeks afterward, just to see if anyone is interested, and in that case, you would just enter the number of days it would stay on the list after it's finished.
8. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page once you have finished entering the class information. PLEASE NOTE: Your class Image and any content you've loaded into the Long Description may take extra time to upload, so please wait until the upload has completed before moving elsewhere in the system.
   
    
   
   
   
   

Adding Your Classes Module to a Page

It is very easy to add the Classes module to a page, and the module is fully automated, so it will display and manage the data that you have entered for your classes, and will also update in realtime as you add more. Here is how you add the module to your page:

1. After logging into the system, click the Laptop Icon on the left side of the Admin Toolbar and then go to the page where you want your Classes module to display (e.g. your Classes page).
2. In the upper left corner of the page, just under the Admin Toolbar, hover your cursor over the triangle with the Plus and then click on Add Body Content in the drop list.
   
3. From the list of modules, find Classes and click the Add button.
   

You will now see your list of active Classes on the page, and they will be organized by Calendar Category.

If you don't see any classes but you have already created one or more, you need to make sure each class has a future date in the system in the Dates & Times tab.

The title for the Classes module itself will be at the top of the page, and might look redundant with categories below, so you can rename the module by finding its Module Toolbar and clicking the gear-shaped Settings button (see below).

Class Settings

You can get to this part of the system by clicking on the gear-shaped button on the right side of the Admin Toolbar and clicking on Settings in the droplist. Then click the Website Settings tab and the Calendar and Classes settings will load.

You can set to Sort Classes By a variety of methods. If you choose one that doesn't have Category in the title, the Categories will not display, so those options make the most sense if you only have one Category of classes. Please note that with the Custom setting, you can drag and drop the classes into whatever order you like, but Categories will not display.

If you check the Add to Wait List box, whenever a class fills up, a Join Wait List button will appear so the visitor can join the wait list for the class, in case there are cancellations. You can view everyone on your wait lists by viewing the Wait List report.

You also have the option of making each student enter their name by checking the box for Require Attendee Name(s). Before they proceed, they will be required to enter a name for each seat they are purchasing in the class, and that information will come to you by email in the order notification.

We also have a newer version of the way the classes display for your customers on the site. Checking the box for Version 2 Preview will allow this view, which manages the Session dates very efficiently without cluttering up the page. This version will soon become the default view, so this option is temporary, but if you want to activate it now, check the box.

Once you have configured your Classes module to work the way you need, be sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the page.