Auto-join students into a course's community

Choose a community on a course once, and every student who enrolls in the course — free, paid, or added by you — is a member of that community automatically. No 'now join the community' second step, no roster to keep by hand.

Last updated Oct 7, 2026

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Choose the course's community

Open the course from Courses. In the right-hand column, find the Community card and choose one of your communities. Students already in the course join straight away, and everyone who enrolls from then on joins as they enroll. You can also set it from the other side: a community's own settings can name a course.

The Community card on a course page with a community chosen, and a line naming the other course that shares it. — The Community card on a course page. Several courses can choose the same community.

What happens when a student enrolls

The student enrolls — a free course, a purchase, a payment link, or you adding them from Students.
They become a member of the course's community. It is in their Communities list the next time it loads, with no join step.
You see them in the community's member list without adding them.
A second course that shares the same community adds the course, not a second community.

Why this matters for retention

Course completion rates are dragged down by 'I'll join the community later' — which almost always means 'never'. Auto-join removes the second sale: every buyer is in the room with the other students from the moment they pay, which means the first lesson question, the first 'hi I'm new' post, the first instructor reply all happen in one place instead of being spread across email threads.

Existing members are never duplicated. If you remove a student from the community yourself, they stay removed even though they are still enrolled; add them back from the community when you want them in again.