How to create an e-learning platform? We need an LMS plugin.
WordPress is a CMS, content management system, by definition, it is software that allows us to easily create websites with the ability to manage content, add pages and make edits.
One of the features of WordPress is the possibility of expanding its functionalities through plugins (extension modules).
Through these plugins we were able to upgrade WordPress from CMS to LMS, learning management system, which is nothing more than our e-learning platform where we can serve courses and classes, among other specific features for online teaching.
LMS is the abbreviation for learning management system, that is, learning management system, the term is the evolution of the CMS, content management system, the type of application that is WordPress.
Very briefly, if you want to create a website to teach your own courses, then the best strategy is to create a professional website with the WordPress platform and install the “Learn Dash” plugin that will transform your website into an authentic virtual classroom.
Before creating your e-learning platform..
The main use-cases for an e-learning platform are coaching, training, tutorials and customer onboarding.
Bear in mind that recent studies show that regardless of the sector, companies and organizations with a strong e-learning culture have, on average, a 46% chance of being the leader in their market!
Employee productivity also increases, which directly impacts ROI and therefore makes you more competitive in your market space – including the ability to attract and retain top talent for your company.
The emerging workforce (and with it new talent) are waiting for online learning opportunities, especially since they have been using them for years!
We are now at the point where not implementing an e-learning program with a more robust learning management system (LMS) can actually harm your organization's ability to compete.
How to create an e-learning platform? With WordPress!
WordPress allows anyone, even if they don't know how to program or draw, the possibility of creating a website that functions as an e-learning platform.
For this, as we already mentioned, we will need some plugins. O LearnDash is one of these plugins and is in the top three, being the Courseware and the Sensei the other two plugins we recommend.
Configure WordPress with LearnDash
In this article we will teach you how to configure LearnDash to work on your WordPress website.
LearnDash has extensive features, and several extensions that give it even more functionality.
To build an LMS with WordPress, the LearnDash is the right choice.
Plugins required to create e-learning platform (LMS)
Unlike Moodle, Blackboard, or Canvas, LearnDash It is not a standalone LMS.
It is a WordPress extension. Of course, it has all the features of a learning management system, but the plugin itself does not give students and learners an e-learning interface.
To do this, you need WordPress to be able to create the e-learning website.
We will explain what you have to do, if you prefer, you can always ask us for a quote and we will create the platform for you.
Find out how much a professional website can cost here.
Step 1: Install a theme
Once the website is up and running, you can proceed to install a theme. The theme is the “skin” of the website. It dictates the look and feel of using the website - not just the colors, but also the entire page view.
O LearnDash It works well with any theme you choose, but the Blue Button that LearnDash adds to your website may still look strange if your site is red or yellow.
Instead, a safer option might be to choose a theme from LearnDash. There are several, with eLumine being the most recent.
Once you choose a theme, installation is very easy, just follow the steps below.
1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel
2. Go to Appearance – Themes, and click Add new.
3. Use the upload option to upload a copy of the theme
4. Activate it
If you want more details, each theme has its installation guide for more details
Now, installing the theme is not everything. You will need to create the menu, homepage, contact page and everything else you want to create.
But that's in step 4.
First we need to configure LearnDash.
Step 2: LearnDash Setup
O LearnDash can be installed like any other WordPress plugin.
1. Once again, you must be logged in to the WordPress administrator panel.
2. Go to Plugins – Add New
3. Upload a copy of the LearnDash plugin, and activate it.
You will notice that a LearnDash LMS menu has been created
Using the options in this menu, you will be able to create your courses, lessons, topics and questions
LearnDash Settings
Below LearnDash LMS – Settings – Lms License, Make sure you write your LearnDash license.
Below PayPal Settings Enter your PayPal details if you want to use payments through Learndash
Now, creating a course/lesson/topic is the same as creating a post or page.
Create a course
To create a course, you must go to LearnDash LMS – Courses – Add New
-Add course name and description.
-If you want to categorize the course, create a new category.
-Under the course settings, the options you should focus on are:
Course Price type – Put the course as
-Open: if you want all students to be automatically enrolled in this course
-Closed: If the course is closed (and cannot be accessed). Selecting this option will reveal a special custom button URL option, which has to be used to enter a link that will allow you to purchase access to the course.
-Free: If the course is free, but only students who want to enter register.
-Buy now: set a price for the course, which can be purchased. This purchase can be made using the base payment option on LearnDash (PayPal).
-Recurring: For courses that can be purchased on a subscription basis.
Course prerequisites- Of course, this will not apply to the first course you create. But for subsequent courses, you can choose the option to choose another course as a prerequisite for the course you are creating. Choosing this option prevents a student from choosing a course without completing the prerequisite course. Once you choose this option, a menu will appear where you can choose the courses you want to delegate as prerequisites. If you choose multiple courses, you have the option of either allowing all courses to be completed, or any one in the group.
Disable lesson progression- If you do not need students to follow the lessons in order, you can choose this option.
Access Expiration- As the title suggests, this option expires a student's access to a course after a pre-determined duration.
Once you've added the details, remember to publish the course
You can then proceed to add lessons and topics, or other courses.
Visual Course Builder
With version 2.5.0, LearnDash now integrates a drag and drop course builder that can be used to create courses, lessons, topics and quizzes visually
Once you've chosen a course name and added content, scroll down to see the Visual Course Builder. To add lessons, choose the name of one and drag and drop it into the respective course.
Create a lesson
Creating lessons is very similar to creating courses. But unlike a course, the definitions are a little different.
–Associated Course– choose the course the lesson is part of.
–Forced Lesson Timer – The minimum time a student needs to spend on a lesson before it is marked as complete.
-Upload Assignment– Check this option if a student must upload work after completing the lesson. The work delivered is made available on LearnDash LMS – Assignments
–Sample Lesson – If you choose this option, then this lesson will be available to students, even if the course is paid.
Lessons can be ordered by using the “Order” attribute
Create a topic
As we know, in LearnDash, lessons contain topics. The options for a topic are the same as for lessons. As with lessons, we can upload mandatory work, force a time, or order topics using the “order” attribute.
Create a certificate
If you want to reward certificates for course completion, you can create certificates in LearnDash and associate them with courses or quizzes.
Creating certificates in LearnDash requires some knowledge of HTML. LearnDash provides certificate samples that may help.
To create and add a new certificate, this is what needs to be done:
1-Create an image measuring 21.5x28cm
2-Go to the WordPress admin panel, LearnDash LMS – Certificates – Add new
3- Add a title, and choose the image we created
4- For the description, switch to the text editor, choose the correct spacing and then show the student's name using the code [usermeta field=”display_name”]
5- To show details such as the title, percentage or score, use the code
[quizinfo] shortcode, for example:
- [quizinfo show=”course_title”] to show the course title
- [quizinfo show=”quiz_title”] to show the title of the quiz
- [quizinfo show=”percentage”]% to show the percentage
- [quizinfo show=”score”] to show the score
6.Preview the changes and publish the certificate.
Associate a certificate with a quiz
As LearnDash, certificates can only be associated with one quiz. To associate a certificate with a quiz
-Go to LearnDash LMS – Quizes, and edit an available quiz
– In the settings choose the option Associate Certificate to the certificate you created
-Update the quiz
Step 3: Configure Access
If you are looking to monetize your website from the beginning, you will need to opt for either the e-commerce plugin or the subscription plugin. There are certain differences between selling courses and selling subscriptions. The option you choose will depend on the number of courses you have.
Use an E-commerce plugin
LearnDash provides WordPress e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. The advantage of both plugins is different. Easy Digital Downloads can be used to sell purely digital products, while WooCommerce can sell physical products in addition to digital ones.
However, integrating each of the plugins with LearnDash is a very similar process.
-You will need to start by installing any of the plugins and configuring it (WooCommerce is easier to install)
-Based on the plugin you choose, you will need to install the LearnDash integration plugin.
-You may want to set up an additional payment method specific to your location or currency. This is the best time to do it. You will need to choose a payment gateway plugin.
Aassociate a course to a product
– The process of creating paid courses begins with creating a product. After you associate them, you will need a LearnDash course to the product.
-For example in WooCommerce, you will need to create a “course” product and then associate one or more LearnDash courses with this product.
-As for the course, you will need to set the “price type” to “closed” and put the product URL as the “Custom Button URL”
Use a subscription plugin
Unlike selling products, if you want to sell subscriptions and control student access, you will need a subscription plugin. Of the many plugins available, we recommend Paid Membership Pro.
The steps for integrating LearnDash with a subscription plugin are the same as integrating with an e-commerce plugin.
– You will need to install the subscription plugin
-And then the LearnDash integration plugin
Link courses to subscriptions
With Paid Membership Pro, you can associate one or more courses with a subscription level. For courses associated with a subscription level, set the “price type” to “closed”, and set the registration page URL to “Custom Button URL”. Now, to access a course, the student has to register as a member.
Step 4: Create pages
There is a lot that can be done to make a website more presentable, but there are some things that are the bare minimum, such as important pages and the menu.
The chosen theme can provide demo content, and installing the demo content can create the necessary pages. For example, as eLumine is a LearnDash theme, it creates generic pages such as the home page, contact page, and pages specific to an e-learning website such as the course archive page and shopping page.
If you want the manual process...
Create the homepage
The homepage is what your visitors will see first
It should send a clear and concise message of what the website wants, and ideally demonstrate the courses available or the form for student registration and login.
Technically, creating a homepage is as simple as creating any other page in WordPress
-Will Pages – Add New
-Define the title (usually “Home”), add the necessary elements and click Publish.
– Now in Settings – Reading – Front Page Displays, select “A static page” and choose the “Front Page” to the page you just created
And then finish with “Save Changes”
Configure Registration and Login
The plugin we want for this task is Theme My Login
-The plugin has a widget to log in to any part of the site
-We may redirect users to log in and out based on their user role
-The best part is, the widgets and pages integrate beautifully with the rest of the website
Add a contact page
The contact page is the most crucial part of any website. It's quite easy to create, simply add a new page to the website with a contact form.
A contact form can be created using the plugin Contact Form 7 or for more advanced features, the plugin Gravity Forms.
Both plugins allow you to create contact forms on pages.
Step 5: Navigation and Menu
Create a Menu
To make it easier for students to navigate the courses, we will need to provide a link to the course archive page.
To do this, you need to create a navigation menu.
-In the admin panel, go to Appearance – Menus
-Create a new menu, let’s call it the “main menu”
-Add pages you created, such as home, contact, blog, from the list of pages.
-And for the course archive page, add a “Custom Link” The "/courses/”
-Set this menu as the “Primary Navigation Menu” and save the
With this, your LMS will be ready to work! These are the steps to create your e-learning platform. Don't forget that you can always request support from Intuitiva to build your website. Find out how much a website costs here.
Did you like this mini course on how to create your e-learning website with WordPress? Share the article! See also our guide on how much it costs create a website.