The no-access experience

What a student sees when they cannot open something. Designing it is part of configuring access, not an afterthought — a blocked student is usually a customer who has not bought yet, or one who signed in with the wrong account.

What is shown, where

There is no error page and no redirect. The student stays on the course or lesson, reads a message, and can still use the site.

The four things a message must do

1. State the situation plainly. This course is for enrolled students.
2. Say what is required. A purchase, a plan, a role, an account.
3. Give a route. A link to the product, the plans page, or the sign-in form.
4. Offer the already-purchased fallback. Already enrolled? Sign in with the account you used to buy.

Point four resolves a large share of support requests, because "I paid and it does not work" is usually a second account.

Write both messages

They are read in different situations:

Someone in the second state often has partial access — a preview reader, a lapsed subscriber, someone sent a link. They know what the course is; they need to know why this is closed.

Remember the description is hidden

A blocked student reads the no-access message instead of the course description.

So the persuasive text in the course editor is only seen by people who already have access. If the course has to sell itself to people who cannot open it, that selling happens in the no-access message — or on a public page you link from it.

Use the merge tag and a real link

{related_product_links} prints links to the products associated with the course. It prints nothing when nothing is associated, so write the message to work either way and include a hand-written link as well.

See The related product links merge tag.

What still works while blocked

The rest of the page remains: the outline, the progress bar, the back link. A student with partial access can keep moving; a student with none can still see the shape of the course.

That is deliberate. Showing the outline is itself persuasive — it demonstrates what is behind the gate.

Tone

A blocked student has not done anything wrong. Avoid Access denied, You are not authorized, Forbidden. Write what you would say in person.

The login form is part of the experience

When the obstacle can be solved by signing in, enable Add a login form on top so the solution is on the page. Its three texts are site-wide, under Settings → POM LMS → Account, and the "content if logged in" text is what tells a student which account they are currently using.

Verify

1. Sign in as a student without access and read the course message as they would.
2. Confirm every link works.
3. Open a lesson directly and read that message.
4. Repeat signed out.
5. Confirm the login form appears where you expect, with sensible wording.
6. Read both on a phone.