Link a Course to a Forum

There are two places you can create the link. Both write to the same mapping table, so use whichever fits how you think about the task.

• From the forum — best when you are setting up a forum and want to choose which courses it serves and how strict it is.
• From the course — best when you are editing a course and just want to attach or detach forums quickly.

Option A — Link from the wpForo forum edit screen

This screen carries the full set of options (courses, access mode, privacy, no-access message, forum view).

1. Go to Forums → Forums (wpForo) and open a forum for editing. On a multi-board install, open the forum under its board’s Forums screen.
2. Scroll to the LearnDash wpForo Settings box.
3. Under Associated Courses, select one or more courses. A forum can gate several courses at once.
4. Choose the Post Limit Access mode — All or Any (see Privacy and access modes).
5. Choose a Forum Privacy mode — Automatic, Always Private, Public read/members-only posting, or Always Public.
6. Optionally edit the Message shown to users without access (HTML is allowed, so you can link to a sales page).
7. Optionally tick Forum View to let non-enrolled users read topics without being able to reply.
8. Save the forum.

On save, the plugin writes the mapping, creates the course usergroup if needed, rebuilds the forum’s permissions, and backfills every current enrollee into the usergroup.

Option B — Link from the LearnDash course edit screen

The course-side box is intentionally scoped to link and unlink only. Privacy, access mode and the no-access message stay on the forum edit screen, so a forum keeps one consistent access profile even when it is linked to more than one course.

1. Edit a LearnDash course.
2. Open the Settings tab and scroll to Course Forums (on installs where the LearnDash Settings tab is not available, the box appears as a normal Course Forums metabox instead).
3. Under Link a new forum, pick a forum from the dropdown (forums are listed as Board / Forum). Forums already linked to this course are hidden; forums linked to other courses stay selectable.
4. To remove a link, tick Unlink on any row in the Linked forums table.
5. Update the course.

A newly linked forum inherits the access settings already in use on that forum. If the forum has no settings yet, it starts with Any access mode and Automatic privacy.

Verify it worked

• Enroll a test student in the course, then visit the forum as that student — they should be able to read and post.
• Visit as a logged-out or non-enrolled user — depending on the privacy mode, the topic should be replaced with the no-access message, or the reply form should be removed.

Next steps

• Privacy and access modes
• Membership sync