Test the course as a student

An administrator can open almost anything, so an administrator's view proves nothing. This test uses real accounts and answers the only question that matters: does the right person get in, and does the wrong person get a useful message?

Prepare the accounts

You need at least two, neither of them an administrator:

1. A student with access — satisfies the course's rule: has the role, the purchase or the subscription.
2. A student without access — signed in, but does not satisfy it.

Plus a private browser window for the signed-out case.

Create them now. Testing with your own administrator account is the most common reason a gate ships open.

1. Signed out

Open the course URL in a private window.

Then open a lesson URL directly. A signed-out visitor must not be able to reach protected lesson content by typing its address.

2. Signed in, without access

Sign in as the student who should not get in.

• The course shows the Content if no access message.
• The message reads as instructions, not as an error.
• Any link in it works.
• Lessons opened directly show the "Lesson not available" text.
• The outline shows lessons as unavailable rather than opening them.

This is the case that is most often skipped and most often wrong.

3. Signed in, with access

Sign in as the student who should get in.

• The course renders in full.
• The sidebar shows the progress bar and the accordion.
• Lessons open, with their video and content.
• Previous and next navigation moves through the course.
• The back link returns to the course intro.
• The progress percentage changes as lessons are opened or ticked, according to the completion mode.

4. Preview lessons

If any lesson is marked as a preview:

1. Open it in a private window. It should be readable without access.
2. If the course enables Preview lessons also require login, confirm a signed-out visitor is blocked instead and a signed-in student without access can read it.

Previews are the deliberate hole in the gate. Test them, because a preview accidentally left on a paid lesson gives the content away.

5. The account area

If WooCommerce is present, sign in as the student with access and open My courses.

• The course is listed.
• The completion percentage matches what you saw.
• The Access column states a reason — a purchase, a subscription, a permission rule, or a free course.
• Access the course opens it.

Then check it as the student without access: the course must not be listed, and the empty-state text should read sensibly.

6. On a phone

Repeat the core path on a real phone: open the course, open a lesson, use the outline, watch the video, mark a lesson complete.

What this test does not cover

• Emails. POM LMS sends none. A student who buys a course receives WooCommerce's order emails and nothing else.
• Refund behavior. Losing access when an order is refunded is covered in Refunds, cancellations and expiration.

Record the result

Write down which account saw what. When a student later reports a problem, the useful question is which of the three states are they in? — and having tested all three is what makes that question answerable.

Then continue with the Course launch checklist.