Your cart is currently empty!
The Top Three WordPress LMS Plugins, with Example Themes
With online education becoming an ever-more-widespread channelfor learning, creating online courses has never been more necessary. When youuse learning management system (LMS) plugins, you can create accessible andwell-organized courses on your WordPress site, along with follow-up quizzes andthe ability to grade learners and keep track of their progress.
These plugins enable delivery of courses and follow-upmaterials to your students, and they can help you manage all aspects of onlinelearning. You need a powerful tool to create an effortless learning processbecause people perceive online learning as something that should be easy andaccessible. Such a tool will enable you to deliver your courses in the mostpresentable way, and will give you the ability to create any learning contentthat suits your students. In this article, I will show you the plugins that Iconsider the best.
WordPress as an LMS?
Among the many uses of WordPress that we have seen, its useas a learning management system has risen as a popular application in recent years.Although new to this niche, WordPress has become a serious player and an optionfor creating online learning context that is not as complicated as the previoussolutions have been. In order to effortlessly manage the online learning developmentprocess—creating new courses, adding new lessons, adding quizzes, charging forcourses, etc.—you need a plugin that you can easily integrate into yourWordPress theme. It also needs to be one that provides a number of additionalfeatures that will help you enhance your users’ learning process.
Sensei
One of the plugins that is easy to use and that can providemany different options is Sensei.With its hierarchical organization of content, learners will have no troublefinding their way around the online learning environment. With an interactive interface(Figure 1) tailored to show students their progress and provide the ability to goback and solve quizzes at any given time, this plugin makes your online coursesmore appealing and user friendly. Furthermore, you can create a vast number ofdifferent quizzes: You can choose between gap filling, true/false, multiplechoice, and so on, thus creating the quiz that will best test your students’ knowledge.You can also add prerequisite courses to give students a clear picture of theorder in which they should complete the courses.
Figure 1: The Sensei user interface
One advantage of Sensei is that it is relatively easy to setup and is compatible with your existing WordPress theme. As far as charging foryour courses is concerned, you will need to install the free WooCommerce plugin. After the integration,you will be able to set the desired prices of the courses you offer. What isalso appealing to users is that Sensei’s registration process for courses isvery simple.
With a feature that lets students boast about their success,they will be able to share progress on social media networks and let theirfriends know how far they have come in the learning process. For those who arevisual learners, you can also add videos with visual material to supplementlessons.
Sensei-compatible WordPress theme: Skilled
One of the WordPress themes from the education niche that iscompatible with Sensei is Skilled, by AislinThemes. This theme is suitable for any educational content, as it supports creationand sale of courses from your website. With many great features, the Skilledtheme is perfect for setting up a great online learning context. Learners canfeel comfortable and confident while tracking their progress and completing theprogress quizzes. To create a more personal relationship between students andteachers, Skilled offers a feature for creating teacher or instructor profiles.
The ability to choose between four demo layouts anddifferent color alternatives (Figure 2) will help you make the most of thedesign features and meet the needs of your language school or tutoringplatform. Having an option to choose between different layouts and differentvisual representations lets you decide what you want to emphasize.
Figure 2: Skilled supports a variety of demo layouts and coloralternatives
LearnDash
Another LMS plugin that is compatible with your favoriteWordPress theme is LearnDash (Figure 3).This plugin offers many features for creating the best possible educationalmaterials and organizing your courses according to topics and categories. Itoffers many options for creating quizzes, such as limiting the time foranswering questions. LearnDash supports payment through PayPal and is equippedwith another integrated system for payment, Jigoshop eCommerce. Jigoshop provides other payment options, such as various typesof subscriptions.
Figure 3: LearnDash offers features that increase your flexibilityfor delivery
In order to ensure your students reach the desired level ofknowledge, with LearnDash you can set the minimum time needed (as well as themaximum allowed) to be spent on a certain lesson in order to maximize thelearning process. To help you manage the learning process efficiently, LearnDashadds a feature that enables you to create groups and assign group leaders—forexample, teachers who can manage any group of students, track their progress,and communicate with them via a group email feature.
LearnDash-compatible WordPress theme: Education Center
One of the WordPress themes that is fully compatible with theLearnDash plugin is Education Center (Figure 4). This theme is specifically designed for schools,colleges, and training centers that want to create online courses. With itsgreat design, it will definitely attract students, and they will enjoy spendingtime learning with your courses. To enable creation of courses that areperceived as easy to navigate, this theme offers a human-friendly admininterface. You can make the most of design features such as a great number ofcolor settings, different header styles, premade pages, and multiple blogstyles.
Figure 4: Education Center is specifically designed for schools,colleges, and training centers that want to create online courses
LifterLMS
Another premium WordPress plugin aimed at those who intendto create and sell online courses is LifterLMS. The intuitiveinterface enables you to create courses with lessons that can be text, video,audio, or combined. One of the great features LifterLMS offers is support forgamification by adding badges and achievements to motivate your students toprogress further.
When it comes to selling your courses, LifterLMS providesyou with a pre-built shopping cart. It is also integrated with WooCommerce, andyou can accept payment from PayPal. If you want to attract new students byoffering them discounts, you can easily do that with an integrated couponsystem. LifterLMS can be integrated with BuddyPressto help you create LMS social networks.
If you want to create different membership levels, there isno need for another plugin—with LifterLMS, you can provide access to differentmaterials based on the membership level. In addition to all the mentionedfeatures, LifterLMS helps you keep your students on track by setting when thecourse will start and finish, and by setting delay days.
You can use LifterLMS LaunchPad if you want to create an onlinecourse that works seamlessly with LifterLMS. This theme is also intended forthose who wish to make a business out of selling online courses. LifterLMSLaunchPad comes with a number of options—from the design of your website to thelayout modifications, and the ability to choose between as many as 600 Google fonts.With a great variety of design options, you can create visually appealingcourses that will attract a large number of users.
