How to Build an Online Course Website with LifterLMS from Scratch

How to Build an Online Course Website with LifterLMS from Scratch

by | Aug 8, 2019 | e-Learning, Learning Management System, LifterLMS

Are you looking for a quick and simple way to build an online course website based on WordPress? This article is for you.

There are many free and paid WordPress LMS (Learning Management System) plugins you can look for, which offer great help in building online courses with multiple features such as managing courses, creating lessons and quizzes and accepting payments, etc.

Among these, LifterLMS is one of the most powerful and popular LMS plugins. It also has a free version so you would not have to invest too much when you are just getting started. It is built in a very scalable way.

In this guide, we will show you how to easily create an online course website in WordPress with LifterLMS. 

Here are the steps we will cover to help you create an online course website in WordPress by using the free version of LifterLMS:

  1. Installing & Configuring LifterLMS.
  2. Creating Your First Course.
  3. Creating Your First Lesson.
  4. Using the Course Builder.
  5. Add a Quiz.
  6. Create a Certificate and Achievements.
  7. Memberships.
  8. Sidebar Widgets.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

Step 1: Installing and Configuring LifterLMS

LifterLMS is available in the WordPress plugin repo, so simply navigate to WP Dashboard > Plugins > Add New and search for it, install and activate it.

New LifterLMS menu will be added at WP Dashboard.

First of all, you have to create these necessary pages:

  • Course Catalog:

This page is where your visitors will find a list of all your available courses. Create a new page and use the [lifterlms_courses] shortcode to output the catalog content.

  • Memberships Catalog:

This page is where your visitors will find a list of all your available memberships. Create a new page and use the [lifterlms_memberships]  shortcode.

  • Student Dashboard Page:

The page where students can view and manage their current enrollments, earned certificates and achievements, account information, and purchase history. This page is extremely dynamic and outputs content for many uses. You must add the shortcode [lifterlms_my_account] to the content of this page. 

When a logged-out user visits the Student Dashboard page, they will see a login form and, if Open Registration is enabled, they will also see the registration form.

After logging in, the user will see their dashboard.

  • Checkout Page:

Page used for displaying the checkout form. Create a new page and add the shortcode [lifterlms_checkout].

After creating these necessary pages, you have to select them into the LifterLMS Settings. To do so, you have to navigate to LifterLMS > Settings from your WP Dashboard.

Now visit each setting tabs and select these pages accordingly. Save the changes.

Note: You have to add these newly created pages in the main menu.

Step 2: Creating Your First Course

LifterLMS Plugin provides an excellent user interface to create a course with the options you need. You can find it easy to make a full curriculum layout as well as edit and maintain it. 

To create a course, go to the Dashboard > LifterLMS > Add Course. You can then add/edit its title, description, and edit the settings easily.

  • Course Options Section:

From the Course Options section, you can edit the course settings such as Sale Page (Page for visitors and students who are not enrolled in the course), Course Difficulty Category, Featured Video/Audio, Restrictions (i.e Course Prerequisite)

 

Access Plan Section:

The next section is the Access Plan, here you can set up the access plans such as Free, One-Time, and Recurring Payments. You can also add the Plan Description here plus you can also select the Checkout Redirect Page.

 

Instructor Section:

From the Instructor section, you can edit the current course instructor plus you can also add multiple instructors as well. This is a very cool feature provided by the LifterLMS team in the free version of the LifterLMS plugin.

 

Student Management Section:

Here you can manage the existing enrollments. You can also enroll a new student manually here.

 

Featured Image:

If you want to add a featured image instead of featured audio/video, use featured image meta-box (on the right side of the edit/add course page).

Publish the course.

 

Step 3: Creating Your First Lesson

Now that you have created your first course. It’s time to create lessons for the course. LifterLMS allows you to create highly interactive lessons and then add them to your online course.

To create a lesson, go to the Dashboard > LifterLMS > Course > Lesson > Add Lesson. You can then add/edit its title, description, and edit the settings.

 Lesson Setting:

From the Lesson setting section, you can edit the lesson settings. Here you can add Video /Audio Embed URL for the lesson. You can also allow guests to view the content of this lesson without registering or signing up for the course.

You can choose a prerequisite lesson.

One another amazing feature in the LifterLMS is Content Dripping. Yes, you can show your lesson on any specific date/time, after completion of the prerequisite lesson or after course enrollment, etc.

There is also an option to manage the associated quiz. we will talk about it later.

Featured Image:

If you want to add a featured image instead of featured audio/video, use featured image meta-box (on the right side of the edit/add course page).

Publish the lesson.

Step 4: Using the Course Builder

The LifterLMS Builder allows you to manage the structure and outline of your courses.

You can get to the builder from three different places on the admin panel:

i. From the course’s list screen. Hover over the title of a course and click the Builder link from the displayed actions list.

ii. From the course edit page, locate the Course Builder meta box on the right side of the screen. Click the Launch Course Builder button.
iii. From any lesson edit page, locate the Course Builder meta box on the right side of the screen.
Once you click any of these, it will take you to the LifterLMS Course Builder.

On the LifterLMS Course Builder page, you will see the option to add elements on the right

From here you can add a Section to your LifterLMS course either by clicking the Section button or dragging it into the main course builder section.

Similarly, you can add lessons to your course. You can also add the existing lessons if you want by clicking the Existing Lesson button. Upon selecting Existing Lesson you will be provided with a search bar where you can scroll through your pre-existing lessons or search for them by name.

Changes will be saved automatically.

Step 5: Add a Quiz

You can add the quiz to your lesson by clicking on the quiz icon (question mark) under the desired lesson.

This will open a new popup where you can select the Create New Quiz.
Add quiz title, quiz description, passing percentage, limit attempts and time limit. You can add questions to your quiz by clicking on the Add Question button. This will open a new popup where you can select the type of question.

For the Advanced Questions, you have to add the Advanced Quiz add-on to your LifterLMS site.

You can also add an Assignment to your lesson in a similar way but for that, you need to download and install the Assignment add-on.

Enable the Published option from the top of the pop-up.

Step 6: Create a Certificate and Achievements

LifterLMS has great in-built feature for gamification and engaging your students. You can award certificates to the user on performing a specific event such as scoring 60% in a quiz, completing a lesson or completing a course, etc.

To create a certificate you have to navigate to Engagements > Certificates > Add Certificate.

Add the title, add description/content for the certificate, you can use Merge Code option to add different parameters such as site title, earn date or student name, etc.

 

Certificate Settings:

Enter a title for your certificate. For example Certificate of Completion.

Upload a new background image for your certificate.

To award the certificate to a student, you need to add an engagement trigger. To do so, navigate to Engagements > Add Engagement.
There is also an option to create Achievement Badges for your students. You can award them when they perform specific actions like enrolling in a course, completing a section, passing a quiz, etc.
To award the Achievement Badges to a student, you need to add an engagement trigger. To do so, navigate to Engagements > Add Engagement.
Once the student performed that predefined event/trigger, he/she can view that certificate/achievement badges on the Student Dashboard.

Step 7: Memberships

You can set multiple memberships in LifterLMS. To create membership follow these steps:

  • Navigate to Memberships > Add Membership.
  • Enter the title and description.
  • From Membership Setting section, select Sale Page, edit restriction setting as per need and add courses for this membership. Once the user purchases this membership, he/she will be enrolled in the selected course automatically.
  • Add the access plan for this membership.
  • Add a featured image from the Featured image meta-box.
  • Publish the post.

Step 8: Sidebar Widgets

You can also customize the sidebar for your courses and lessons. Navigate to the Appearance > Widgets. 

Backend:

Frontend:

Another Amazing Thing You Can Do with LifterLMS:

Here is the list of some other cool stuff you can do with the free version of the LifterLMS:

  • You can export or import a course in the LifterLMS.
  • You can also add multiple instructors to a single course for ease.
  • In LifterLMS you can send the customized emails to the user on enrolling to the course, completing the course or earning a certificate, etc (use Notification tab under LifterLMS > Settings). 
  • You can customize the user information fields available on the open registration form, Checkout form, and Account Update form. 
  • There are a lot of powerful and valuable shortcodes you can use in your LifterLMS site. Click here for these shortcodes.
  • LifterLMS can accept payments using PayPal or Stripe or WooCommerce. You have to purchase these extensions.
  • You can sell your LifterLMS course with Easy Digital Downloads by using our amazing product “LifterLMS EDD Integration”. Our article “How to Sell Your LifterLMS Courses with EDD” will help you to do so.

You can use the most popular free theme Astra with the LifterLMS. It will give you very pretty layouts with some additional options.

Wrap It Up:

LifterLMS is free and a full-featured LMS plugin. If you are taking your first step in building an online course website, LifterLMS will be a good start for you. This plugin is a powerful plugin with many amazing features and updated regularly by the LifterLMS team. Therefore, if you are just starting to look for a great solution to build an online course platform, LifterLMS is definitely the solution for you. Besides, it’s very easy to use and install with great features and great design right out of the box.

We’d love to hear if you found this article useful. Please comment below with your thoughts so we can continue to create helpful posts. If you need any assistance with the LifterLMS, don’t hesitate to drop us a line here or through our contact form and one of our Ninjas will be in touch ASAP.

Custom Course Sales Page in LifterLMS

Custom Course Sales Page in LifterLMS

by | Jul 26, 2019 | e-Learning, Learning Management System, LifterLMS

Building an online course takes a lot of time and effort, and so does acquiring new students. Just because you’ve created an online course doesn’t mean that people will sign up for it – you need to promote it in clear and compelling language, in a way that makes sense to prospective learners so they’ll purchase access. As a course creator, you may feel that your strength is in teaching, not selling. As such, a sales page for your course is an excellent way to convert prospective students into active learners. Before you can educate students through a course, you have to educate them as per why they’d want to take it at all. Let’s have a look at how.

What Is a Course Sales Page?

The goal of a course sales page is to turn your visitors into buyers by persuading them to enroll. Normally a course sales page is comprised of the course description and marketing copy. To create an outstanding sales page that will optimally convert into sales, structure, and content are equally important. To make your course sales page effective, you should add elements such as a compelling heading to capture visitors attention, an opening story to introduce the problem, bullets to highlight benefits of the solution, an offer to introduce your course, FAQs, clear pricing details, testimonials, images, videos, etc. LifterLMS provides you two options for your course description

  • The un-enrolled view, this is a sales page with your custom content for non-members or visitors of your site.
  • The enrolled view, your course home screen with its default content like syllabus, progress bar, etc.

How to Create Course Sales Page in LifterLMS

Creating a course sales page in LifterLMS is an easy task, we will guide you how you can create a Custom Course Sales Page in LifterLMS. The custom sales page can be any page on the internet or on your site. LifterLMS provides the following four options for the course sales page:

  1. A Default sales page
  2. Show custom content
  3. Redirect to a WordPress page
  4. Redirect to custom URL

Default Sales Page

If you don’t have a custom course sales page LifterLMS provides Default Sales Page option for you. Default sales page will show default course content like course description, course syllabus, progress bar, etc. To display default course content for your sales page, follow these simple steps

  • Go to WordPress Dashboard
  • Navigate to Courses
  • Select a Course
  • Scroll down to Course Options
  • Under Course Options Select Sales Page
  • Under Sales Page Content, click on the dropdown menu
  • Select Display default course content to display your default course content like course description, progress, etc.

Show Custom Content

To set a custom sales page for your course in LifterLMS with custom content, select the Show Custom Content option in the dropdown menu.

 

After selecting “Show Custom Content,” a new dialog box “Sales Page Custom Content” will appear under the Sales Page Content option. Now you can simply create your custom course sales page by adding your custom content.

Redirect to WordPress Page

You can use any page builder of your choice to create your custom sales page. Design a beautiful course sales page and simply select the “Redirect to WordPress Page” option in the dropdown menu.

 

After selecting that option, another option “Select a Page” will appear under it. Click on that option and select your course sales page.By adding a members-only access plan to each course included in a given membership, you will allow a user to browse and discover specific courses included in membership they can purchase.

Restrict Pages and Blog Posts

LifterLMS allows you to restrict page and posts to users with certain memberships. You can easily do this while creating a post or page, via the meta box settings available on the right side.

Redirect to Custom URL

You may have your training or LMS on any other URL or a subdomain and so want to redirect your visitors to that URL. You can do that by simply selecting the “Redirect to custom URL” option in the dropdown menu.

 

After selecting that option a new option “Sales Page Redirect URL” will appear. Enter your sales page URL here to redirect your users to your course sales page.

 

Remember that the course sales page will be only shown to those students and visitors who are non-enrolled in that course. The paid/enrolled one will see the default course content. You can also use custom sales page feature for memberships.

We’d love to hear if you found this article useful. Please comment below with your thoughts so we can continue to create helpful posts. If you need any assistance with the LifterLMS, don’t hesitate to drop us a line here or through our contact form and one of our Ninjas will be in touch ASAP. Thanks for reading.

LifterLMS Support for Form Designer Plugins

LifterLMS Support for Form Designer Plugins

by | Jul 25, 2019 | e-Learning, LifterLMS, Plugins

In this article, we review the powerful integration of Form Plugins with LifterLMS. Integrating WordPress form technology into WordPress LMS can be a striking combination. LifterLMS form addons integrate with these third-party tools:

  1. Ninja Forms
  2. Formidable Forms
  3. Gravity Forms
  4. WP Forms

Integrating forms into a learning-based membership site or online course can be used for multiple tasks, including:

  • Collecting uploads and diverse information from students
  • Advanced forms that allow you to require the user to complete a form of submission in order to finish a lesson
  • In-person and online event registrations
  • Surveys
  • Testimonials

Here are some further ideas as per how to make use of forms with LifterLMS:

Require a Form of Submission to Complete a Lesson

These four LifterLMS form integrations allow you to create a form submission (optional or required) to mark a lesson complete. Here are some creative ways to integrate forms into your programs:

  • Collect diagnostic data points from the start of the course
  • Allow users to register for events
  • Create surveys to check the needs of your students base
  • Collect learner data to develop effective mastermind or accountability groups within your learning community
  • Create liability and waiver forms
  • Collect testimonials

When a user submits a form within a lesson, you can see the form submission in the admin area of WordPress or in the reporting area for individual students. This helps to make work with a large number of students is manageable. Forms can also be sent on a per-form basis through email.

Custom User Registration Forms

Using a form for registration purposes is a premium feature of all the mentioned forms plugins. So in order to use this feature, you have to buy a premium version of the plugin you choose to use. 

Forms may also be included to LifterLMS quizzes, assignments and lessons.

With LifterLMS add-ons you create user registration forms easily. LifterLMS offers these fields out of the box:

  • Name
  • Email Address
  • Phone
  • Password
  • Phone

However, if you want more information from a user while they create a new account on your LMS site, you can create custom user registration form using these addons. 

Using the powerful LifterLMS forms addon in your LMS site opens a new door of options. It allows you to collect a wide variety of valuable information and create a custom form with custom options of your choosing.

Are you using this addon? We would love to know how you’re utilizing forms in your LifterLMS site! Let us know in the comments or on social media. Find us on Twitter. Thanks for reading.

Gamification: How to Make Your E-Learning Course Interesting

Gamification: How to Make Your E-Learning Course Interesting

by | Mar 18, 2019 | e-Learning, Gamification

As experts say, setting up your e-Learning course is only the half work done. The important part is to grab your students attention. There are hordes of things that can be used to grab user or student’s attention (things we need to do, email, games, social media, etc.), which leads us to the fact that just well-written course is not enough.

What we need is user engagement.

Not the one that includes the promise of love and rings; rather the one that makes them eager to utilize course material and pay attention to it.

Gamification is a technique used to increase user excitement in an otherwise mundane task. The term has gained significant popularity in recent years. With the support of the WordPress open source community, you can now gamify your LMS or e-Learning course using some ready-made plugins!

The application can be used to engage your audience uniquely and creatively. It invests viewers in your site and keeps them coming back for more.

In this blog, we will discuss:

What is gamification?
Why is gamification important?
What are the benefits of adding gamification?
How can gamification make a user interested in your course?

What Is Gamification?

User engagement is a critical aspect of every website. There can be instances where you will be looking to engage your users or increase the traffic to your site.

Keeping a user interested is not an easy task to do. And if you want to retain members for a prolonged period, then it can be an uphill task. But if you follow our guide, we will have you sorted in no time.

Let’s describe what gamification really is. In simple words, Gamification means adding game-like graphics and elements into any website or application. The ingredients are Points, Leaderboards, Rewards, Leveling up, Virtual currencies, Badges, etc.

If we talk about websites and LMSes, then it involves giving a reward to the users on different activities. These can be adding comments, sharing something on social media, answering questions and so on.

There are many different ways you can gamify your site. However, you need to do some proper planning to make such gamification system on your LMS.

Why Is Gamification Important?

Gamification is turning into a trending industry. The area is still new, but the amount of “gamified” sites are dramatically growing.

Gamification works by exploiting fundamental mental desires. For example, competition, goal-setting, and reputation seeking. These features enable a website’s potential to vastly increase user engagement.

Gamification decreases the number of users who sign up for a service but never take any further action to become engaged. Gamifying your course keep these students motivated to visit the site regularly.

Gamification also impacts on the learning capability of the user positively.

According to Talent LMS Survey:

  • Almost 80% of the learners say that they would be more productive if their university/institution or work were more game-like.
  • Over 60% of learners would be motivated by leaderboards and increased competition between students.
  • 89% would be more engaged in an e-learning application if it had a point system.

What Will Be the Benefits of Adding Gamification?

Implementing gamification in your 3-Learning course presents many advantages and benefits, some of these are:

  • Favors the student’s engagement in your course.
  • Increases student’s motivation to take part in course.
  • Improves productivity.
  • Encourages creativity in your course.
  • The ability to provide instant feedback.
  • An enhanced learning environment for your course member.
  • Strengthens communication processes in the LMS community.
  • Gamification offers promotional opportunities.
  • It’s Fun!
  • Generally, viewers complain about the content on a site. Example: “there is too much reading,” ”It takes too much time,” ”the process is boring”. Sounds familiar? These issues can be resolved through gamification.

How Can Gamification Make a User Interested in Your E-Learning Course?

The promise of gamification is transforming business models by innovating ways to drive customer and employee loyalty, long-term craft engagement and extend relationships.

In other words, gamification enables people to achieve their goals. This raises the question: can you gamify a user’s experience to achieve your goals?

As an example, you can gamify a survey form to enhance a user’s experience. True, they will not start off their day hoping to one day answer the survey, but if done right, you can motivate them into filling a questionnaire for you.

Gamification stands on the pillars of 10 different game mechanics. These are proven to engage and motivate users. Any combination of techniques can be used to accomplish the desired goals.

  • Fast Feedback

Immediate response or feedback can encourage users to continue their activities. Using on-screen notifications like emails or pop-up messages can keep viewers engaged.

Setting up desktop pop-up notifications is a very efficient way of reaching out to your users. It can keep them updated on the progress of your site and will give them a sense of belonging.

  • Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

Setting up quests or challenges can give users a real sense of purpose. This can generate a drive and keep them engaged for a longer duration.

Several brands do giveaways for a limited number of their subscribers. It can motivate users to stay in touch with your course.

  • Transparency

Showing your audience their standing in the metrics can create a healthy competition between them.

User profiles can show their progress while leaderboards can prove who is ahead in the rankings.

  • Badges

It is used to identify expertise and skills within a group. It represents a mastery of skills and is recognized in its respective community.

As your members will progress through a predefined course, they will earn digital badges. These badges can be shared on social media handles.

  • Onboarding

Game mechanics provide an engaging and compelling way to learn. Users learn by doing.

Setting simple quests can engage users to immediately master necessary skills, rather than being daunted by an unfamiliar interface.

A simple example is setting up a tutorial or a guide on the first login. You can rewards users for completing it, and by the end, they will know what they are working with. Win-win!

  • Leveling up

Levels show status within a community. It is an indication of sustained or long-term achievement. It can be used to unlock further badges, rewards, and activities.

This is a promising way of giving your users a sense of accomplishment. Your long-term users would definitely appreciate getting credit for their contributions.  

  • Competition

A little competition would be great to increase viewer engagement. Encouraging competition with the team and individual activities can increase the influx of newer users.

Giveaways or limited deals are prime examples. Setting exclusive goals can generate competition among your viewers.

  • Points

Not to be confused with badges, points are measurable evidence of accomplishments. It can be used to establish status and keep score. They can even be accumulated to purchase goods.

They can be made earnable through sharing, contributing and creating something for others.

  • Collaboration

Accomplish goals by working with others. Users can be connected to encourage knowledge sharing and form a team to accomplish more significant tasks.

This can not only drive a competition but can motivate users to invite newer users to help them in their task.

  • Community

A platform for support and collaboration. Participating in the community can make people aware of the latest trends and discussions.

It can engage users and keep them coming back for not only what is happening right now, but also what things are leading up to.

In conclusion, Gamification in your e-Learning course is a viewer-centric interaction model, designed to serve a higher purpose. The benefits it provides are two-fold. The content you provide serves the intended purpose while being used to the fullest potential. The viewers using the gamified interface are more engaged and will develop a strong loyalty to your brand.