How to build an education platform in Bubble

To build an education platform in Bubble, you set up Users, Courses, Lessons, and Progress in the database, design pages for browsing and watching lessons, and rely on Bubble’s built‑in features like Privacy Rules, backend workflows, and optional integrations (Stripe for payments, Zapier/webhooks for automation). The core is simple: create the right data types, link them with fields, and build repeating groups and workflows that show courses, enroll the user, and track what lesson they finished.

Core Database Structure

These data types are enough for a basic, working education platform:

• User: Built‑in. Add fields like “Enrolled Courses (list of Courses)” and “Completed Lessons (list of Lessons)”.
• Course: Fields: Title (text), Description (text), Lessons (list of Lessons), Thumbnail (image), Price (number).
• Lesson: Fields: Title (text), Video (file or video URL), Course (Course), Order (number).
• Progress: Optional. Instead of storing completed lessons on the User, you can store User, Lesson, and Completed (yes/no).

Key Pages

• Course List Page: A Repeating Group showing all Courses. Data source: “Search for Courses”. Clicking a cell sends “Current cell’s Course” to the Course page.
• Course Detail Page: Shows course info and a button “Enroll”. Workflow: Make changes to Current User → add Course to Enrolled Courses.
• Lesson Player Page: Type of content: Lesson. Display the video. Add a button “Mark as Completed”. Workflow: Make changes to Current User → add Current Lesson to Completed Lessons.

Payments (Stripe)

Install Bubble’s Stripe plugin. On the enroll button, instead of directly adding the course to User, trigger “Stripe Checkout Session”. On the successful redirect page, run a workflow: Make changes to Current User → add Result of Checkout’s Course.

Privacy Rules

• Course: Everyone can view basic fields.
• Lesson: Only when “This Lesson’s Course is in Current User’s Enrolled Courses”.
• User: Protect email and progress with “Current User is This User”.

Backend Workflows (Optional)

Use backend workflows to automate certificates, emails, or progress summaries. Example: when Lesson completed, call a backend API workflow to send an email via SendGrid plugin.

// Example backend workflow parameter
// API Workflow: "mark_lesson_complete"
// Params: user_id (text), lesson_id (text)

Video Hosting

Do not upload large video files directly to Bubble. Use Vimeo or YouTube embed links stored in the Lesson’s Video field, then display with an HTML element.

Final Flow

User browses courses → opens a course → enrolls → watches lessons → Bubble tracks completions → optional payment gates and emails. This uses only real, stable Bubble features without plugins you don’t need.