WordPress has become one of the leading CMSs for e-learning sites throughout the years. This was possible because of so many factors such as its easiness to merge with other plugins. WordPress led to the development of LearnDash. LearnDash is a corporate training and skill development learning management system. LearnDash development has facilitated and relished e-learning for everybody. The future for e-learning is bright as advancements in fields like artificial intelligence and virtual reality are increasing.
Pre-requisites
To follow this tutorial, it is crucial that you already know how to:
– Set up WordPress on your site.
– Install LearnDash on your WordPress site.
Firstly, the nature of WordPress as a content management system offers a unique benefit in terms of course administration. Secondly, WordPress offers an easy place for employees to train and improve business skills through the website of a firm. Thirdly, for organizational training, WordPress makes it easy to include custom plugins such as LearnDash. Lastly, the combination of WordPress and LearnDash is better than open-source and cloud-based LMSs because of its easiness to bring the e-Learning experience to an organization.
How to set up an Employee Training And Management Platform with LearnDash
The following steps are to be followed carefully to set up your employee training and management platform with LearnDash on WordPress.
- Step #1 Pick an eLearning theme.
- Step #2 Set up Instructors to create and manage courses with WISDM Instructor Role.
- Step #3 Import Demo content for initial courses set up.
- Step #4 Set up student groups with designated group leaders, with WISDM GR.
- Step #5 Set up a learner-instructor networking system with BuddyPress.
- Step #6 Set up forums for group discussions with bbPress.
- Step #7 Set up your payment gateway integration plugin.
- Step #8 Set up any additional Plugins you might need.
- Membership plugin
- Quiz/assignment reporting plugin
- Email marketing integration plugin
#1 Pick an eLearning theme
After installing WordPress and the LearnDash plugin, it’s now time to install an appropriate theme for your site. A theme is a WordPress package that beautifies your site and enables you to do further customization on the looks of your website.
We will be using the eLumine theme which is a LearnDash theme focused and equipped with a Unyson page builder. The eLumine theme is both recommended and advantage to corporate training for the reasons below:
– It comes with a ready-to-use starting site template.
– It is simple to modify to meet the needs of your company.
– It gives several layouts to focus on the details of the LearnDash course page.
– It offers an advanced course and quiz module for LearnDash, as well as a complete gamification experience.
– It has a responsive layout that adapts to all device screen sizes.
– It improves the readability of your courses and provides a fantastic look and feel for your students to appreciate by encouraging student involvement.
– It also offers a variety of color options from which to pick or use a new one by importing easy CSS custom color files.
Theme Installation and Activation
- Go to the Admin Dashboard of your website.
- Navigate to Appearance > Themes.
- Click Add New button.
- Now click on the Upload Theme button.
- Upload the zip file and click Install Now.
Please note that this method requires certain conditions to be met, such as the PHP Memory limit should be 256M and Max upload file size should be 64M. Refer to this link for more details.
Next, you will need to activate the eLumine theme and you do that with the following steps:
- Once the theme is active, you should see a new menu item called WisdmLabs License Options.
- Open this page and enter the license key against eLumine theme.
- Now, click Activate.
- You are now ready to use eLumine and will see notifications on the website whenever an update is released.
- Please remember to take a full backup of your website before updating the theme.
- Having issues activating the theme? Connect with us here.
You’re fine to go if you follow the procedures outlined above. If you are having trouble installing the theme, please see our theme installation guide here.
#2 Set up Instructors to create and manage courses with WISDM Instructor Role
Your e-Learning business will need instructors with different privileges, especially for corporate training. The instructor will manage the entire course modules and reduce workloads for the admin.
WISDM Instructor Role for LearnDash handles instructorship allocation. It lets you set up Course Instructors who can create, manage, and sell courses, without sharing admin privileges. The instructor role reduces, the workload of managing the entire e-Learning platform for the admin. By doing this saves you time and energy that you can use to focus on other vital aspects like marketing, growth, etc. of your LearnDash website.
To set up an instructor who can create and manage all your courses within your LearnDash you have to follow the steps below:
Creating the Registration Form
– To create a new registration form, click on Add New button.
You will find yourself on a page which looks like the picture below. Give a suitable title and choose for your instructor’s registration form the relevant form fields.
Click on the Form Settings tab to set user registration settings once all the fields have been added.
On this page, Set the Default User Role setting to Instructor and click on the Create Form button.
Deploying the Instructor Registration Form
Again when the form has been generated, copy the shortcode by clicking on the clipboard icon next to the Update Form and Preview button.
After this, create a WordPress Page or edit an existing one, depending on where you want to display your Instructor Registration Form.
Now, insert a new shortcode block to the page and paste the copied shortcode in the shortcode block on that page.
Then hit Publish or update the page.
Test your LearnDash Instructor Registration Form
After completing the above steps, visit your page and you will find your Instructor’s registration form with the fields you set up.
Fill all the essential fields and click on Submit.
#3 Import Demo content for initial courses set up
Doing all the initial setups yourself could be tedious, however, the eLumine theme offers a demo data import advantage. This process installs the essential pages that come with the theme on your site.
Once you initialize the process of importing demo data, you are presented with three styles that you can choose from namely, the Classic LMS Demo, the Single Instructor LMS Demo, and the Master Course LMS Demo. This is the more reason you should buy the eLumine theme for your LearnDash setup.
Things to remember before installing eLumine demo content
– Make a thorough backup of your website before installing the sample content so that you can simply restore it to the previous stage if something goes wrong.
– LearnDash is a premium plugin that is not included with the theme. As a result, before installing the demo material, ensure that LearnDash is installed and enabled.
– If the LearnDash plugin is not active when demo material is installed, LearnDash-related data (such as courses) will not be imported.
– Make sure your upload directory has standard WordPress file and folder permissions, i.e. the theme should be allowed to receive and store files like images and videos in the upload directory.
– If you want to install content linked to a BuddyPress plugin, please make sure the plugin is active before you begin demo installation.
Demo Installation
Minimal: The course, goods, etc. are not actually necessary, but simply the most basic items like menus, thematic settings, sample pages, widgets, etc.
Full Without Website Reset: The whole demo contents will be imported to make it precisely like the demo site of eLumine. If you have an existing website, the current information won’t be removed, but new data is created.
Caution: This is not ideal because the sample material was created for websites with no current content. Because you may encounter various difficulties, such as Course-Lesson associations being lost in demo courses imported and other similar concerns, taking a database backup is strongly advised.
Full With Website Reset: Removes all current material and substitutes it with fresh content.
#4 Set up student groups with designated group leaders, with WISDM GR.
You will need to distribute your students in groups when you start your corporate e-learning program. In addition, you must appoint leaders and instructors to such groups.
The Plugin provides the benefit of handling group student registration, assigning Leaders to Groups, managing class registrations, and seeing progress reports with the premium LearnDash Group registration plugin.
That is why the WISDM GR plugin is necessary and is recommended for you.
A standard group option is available for LearnDash, so why pick our plugin? The WISDM GR Plugin allows you to even register students in a bulk and accelerate course registration using LearnDash LMS’s finest Group management feature.
- To implement this, on the dashboard click on groups and then click on add new.
This would give you the interface to create and assign group leaders to a group.
After creating the group, navigate to groups and you will see the just created group.
Use the edit as block option to add a group leader to a group from the list.
Now the group has a group leader, let us proceed to install other relevant plugins to our learning management system.
#5 Set up a learner-instructor networking system with BuddyPress
- Create fields.
- Map it to the Profile page locations.
- Navigate to the Dashboard > Users > Profile Fields menu page to create the BuddyPress Profile fields.
- Click on the button “Add New Field.”
- Create the 8 fields above (only those you wish to use).
- Proceed to Dashboard > Users > Map Profile Fields Admin Page.
- Choose the fields that match the available options.
- The profile page contains two “special” areas of qualification.
- “Education” and “Achievements” are by default.
- You can use the text input fields available for each of these areas to modify the label displayed on the profile page.
- Also, by clicking on the “Change Image button”, you can change the icons shown in these fields.
- Lastly, click the save button.
#6 Set up forums for group discussions with bbPress
- Option 1: Add-ons Menu (requires an active LearnDash license)
- In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LearnDash LMS > Add-Ons
- Locate the bbPress for LearnDash add-on
- Click Install Now
- Click the Activate Plugin button
- How it Works
- Before you can connect a forum with a course, you must first create a new forum in bbPress. If you’ve previously done this, you may skip this step.
- We’re assuming you’ve previously created a LearnDash course. You will need at least one course for this integration.
- Create a Forum
- Navigate to Forums > New Forum
- Give your forum a title
- (optional) Write an intro message & adjust the forum attributes (type, status, visibility, etc.)
- Associate Forums with Courses
- Now it’s time to link a forum to a course
-
- On the Edit Forum page, scroll down to the LearnDash bbPress Settings box
- Under Associated Course(s), click on a course to associate it with that forum
- NOTE: You may select one or more courses. Hold down the CTRL key (CMD on Mac) to select multiple courses.
- If you select multiple courses by mistake, you can use the “Clear All” button to start over.
- Additional Choices (Post Limit Access)
- This is only true if this forum has been connected with more than one course. You have two options for determining who gets access to the forum:
-
- All (as is the case by default): Users must be able to access all specified courses in order to post to the forum.
- Optional: Users just need access to one of the specified courses to publish on the forum.
- Message Shown to Users with No Access
This is where the message given to users with no access to the forum can be customized. The notification states by default that: This forum is restricted to members of the associated course(s).You can adapt the message to include a link or any other message to purchase the course. Basic HTML is supported.
- Forum View
For the non-enrolled users, If you want them to see the forum posts & topics but not to be able to post replies, click this option. If this option is used, the above notice will be ignored. Non-registered users will view the forum and all its discussions, but cannot post or answer.
#7 Set up your payment gateway integration plugin
- PayPal is a good thing to consider if you want to start selling courses quickly and easily.
- You provide one course with a simple pricing structure or simply a few courses.
- In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to LearnDash LMS > Settings
- Click on the PayPal Settings tab
USD for United States Dollar
CAD for Canadian Dollar
AUD for Australian Dollar
US for United States
CA for Canada
AU for Australia
https://yoursite.com/sfwd-lms/paypal
- In the WordPress admin area, navigate to Learn Dash LMS > Course
- Click on the course you’d like to sell with PayPal
- Click on Settings at the top
- Scroll down to Course Access Settings
- Set the “Access Mode” to one of two values:
- Buy Now: Use “Buy Now” for one-time payments
- Recurring: Use “Recurring” if you’d like to set up a recurring payment (aka: subscription)
- The currency symbol is added automatically for you.
- You can skip decimal point & cents (ex: ’29’) if your price contains zero cents.
- Credit Card
- Debit Card
- Linked Bank Account
- PayPal Balance
#8 Set up any additional Plugins you might need
- Create membership levels, and assign a course (or courses) to different levels.
- Offer coupons or discount codes for your courses.
- Sell courses in a bundle (i.e. one price provides access to multiple courses).
- Sell access to courses as an ongoing subscription.
- In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to LearnDash LMS > Add-Ons
- Locate the Paid Memberships Pro for LearnDash add-on
- Click Install Now
- Click the Activate Plugin button
- Download the plugin file (must be logged in to download)
- In WordPress, navigate to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
- Click Upload Plugin
- Browse for the .zip file you downloaded in Step 1
- Click Install Now
- Click Activate Plugin
- create a course
- create a membership level
- Navigate to Membership > Settings > Levels
- Click the Create a Membership Level button
- Fill out the required information
- On the Membership > Settings > Levels page
- Scroll down & look for the LearnDash heading
- Next to Courses, choose the course(s) that you want to assign to this membership level
- NOTE: You may link one, or multiple, courses.
- Navigate to LearnDash LMS > Course
- Click on the course you’d like to assign to a membership level
- In the sidebar, look for Require Membership
- Check the box next to the membership level that this course should be assigned to
- Navigate to LearnDash LMS > Courses
- Click on the course that corresponds with a Paid Memberships Pro membership level
- Click the Settings tab at the top
- Under Course Access Settings, look for Access Mode
- Set this to Closed
- In the Button URL field, enter the URL to your Paid Memberships Pro “Levels Page”
- Go to Memberships > LearnDash and press the Run button.
- After the purchase of the Quiz reporting extension, an email with the plugin download link and the buy receipt id will be sent to the registered email id. Use the download link to get the plugin.
- Go to Plugin -> Add New menu in your admin area and click on the ‘Upload’ tab. Choose the ‘quiz-reporting-extension.zip’ file to be uploaded and click on ‘Install Now’.
- After you have installed the plugin successfully, click the Activate Plugin link or activates your plugin’s Quiz Reporting extension via the plugin page.
- Under the Plugins section of your dashboard, a Quiz Reporting extension license sub-menu is created. Enter the purchased product license key by clicking on this option. Click on Activate License. Where a license is valid, the status message of ‘Active’ will appear, otherwise ‘Inactive’ will appear.
- When the appropriate license key is entered and the license activated, the results export option is added to every quiz and quiz entry (at a per quiz level).
- The Question
- The available response options
- The correct answer
- The user’s response
- The maximum number of cpoints which can be scored
- The points scored by the user
- The time taken to answer the question and
- The question type.
- For quiz level reports, the details are grouped on a per-user basis.
- In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LearnDash LMS > Add-Ons
- Locate the LearnDash Notifications add-on
- Click Install Now
- Click the Activate Plugin button
- Download the plugin file (must be logged in to download)
- In WordPress, navigate to PLUGINS > ADD NEW
- Click Upload Plugin
- Browse for the .zip file you downloaded in Step 1
- Click Install Now
- Click Activate Plugin
Status Menu
- Server Cron Setup: Detects whether you have configured a cron job for sending notifications.
- Queued Emails in DB: Number of emails that are scheduled to be sent in the database.
- Last Run: The last time the cron job was successfully triggered.
- Navigate to LearnDash LMS > Notifications
- Click the Add New Notification button
- User enrolls into a group
- User enrolls into a course
- User completes a course
- User completes a lesson
- A scheduled lesson is available to user
- User completes a topic
- User completes a quiz
- User passes a quiz
- User fails a quiz
- User submits a quiz
- An essay has been submitted
- An essay question has been graded
- An assignment is uploaded
- An assignment is approved
- User hasn’t logged in for “X” days
- “X” days before course expires
- “X” days after a course expires