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LearnDash is one of the most popular WordPress-based learning management systems out there today. With its robust core features and plentiful add-ons to integrate additional functionalities into the website, it is now on par with LMS giants like Sensei and WP Courseware.
However, when it comes to deciding which LearnDash Themes or plugins to choose for your LMS, it might get a little complicated. So we’ve collected 10 plugins you can consider for your LearnDash website, that add a beautiful interface and out-of-the-box functionalities to your online course making it one of a kind!
Why extend LearnDash?
While building an e-learning website with LearnDash, i.e., the plugins you can choose for extending the functionality of your website. As we have mentioned before, LearnDash has plenty of default features in the core package.
Having said that, it is not possible to include everything in the main plugin as all functionalities might not be useful for all course authors, and might lead to unnecessary code bloat. This is where the add-ons come in handy.
Here we shortlist 12+ add-ons that can enrich your LearnDash website adding knick-knacks to ease course creation and management.
Disclaimer: WPExplorer is an affiliate for one or more products listed below. If you click a link and complete a purchase we could make a commission.
1. WooCommerce/EDD
Every e-learning system needs and e-commerce module. Not only does it help monetize your website, but it also makes keeping track of your transactions easier. To this end, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are both great options, useful for selling course online. Strictly speaking, as most of the courses are digital, you tend to consider EDD as the platform of choice, and that is good. When it comes to selling purely digital goods, no other plugin can hold a candle to EDD.
However, if you have substantial expansion on your mind, WooCommerce is the way to go. The latter supports physical and digital products both and has a ton of additional resources which can be used to leverage features like product bundling and enquiry systems to the maximum possible extent. LearnDash has free integration add-ons for WooCommerce and EDD both, available on the official add-ons page.
2. Advanced Course Manager
Although LearnDash is mostly user-friendly, course building is still a bit of a chore. You have to keep going back and forth between the courses, lessons, topics, and quizzes to add the content to the topics and arrange the flow in the course. The Advanced Course Manager extension eliminates this to-and-fro travel by providing a drag-and-drop course builder on the Course Edit page. In addition, it also has extensive options for students to connect easily to the instructors and vice versa, for quicker doubt clearing.
The add-on also integrates a functionality for students to resume the course from the lesson where they have left off or the page they were on.
3. LearnDash Dashboard With Frontend Course Builder
The LearnDash Dashboard provides an Individual frontend dashboard for Students, instructors, and group leaders to monitor and manage anything related to their LearnDash account. You can monitor all the course statistics from the dashboard itself. You will get a complete overview of completed courses, the number of enrollments, the total number of students, entire earnings, and much more. Course instructors will be able to monitor the course and student progress details in their frontend dashboard. This data can also be exported in the CSV format.
The plugin provides a new and advanced feature that is instructor commission and withdrawal. In this feature instructors can request the withdrawal of their income and the admin will approve or reject it accordingly. This plugin also provides Zoom integration, instructors can now schedule meetings with their students and have one-on-one interactions with them.
4. BadgeOS Integration
Gamification is not a new concept in elearning. The idea of addition of various certifications and badges to make online learning more fun and competitive has been in vogue for a long time. the BadgeOS integration lets you add this feature to your course painlessly, making your course literally a thing of beauty!
5. Reports for LearnDash
Reports for LearnDash is a FREE plugin from WisdmLabs that simplifies data for LearnDash LMS owners and instructors. It is the most comprehensive LearnDash reporting solution which can help you monitor and analyze LMS related stats.
This robust plugin tracks metrics such as course/quiz completion rates, learner reports, revenue data, average time spent on various modules, number of enrollments, etc. It also allows you to drill down by dates, course category, lesson, etc. You can also export any report you want. It focuses on evaluating the performance of all learners with other customized reporting needs.
Furthermore, the Reports for LearnDash plugin has separate dashboards for admins, group leaders, and instructors. This plugin simplifies your data, and the insights you need to understand your LMS is immediately made clear
6. Adaptive Learning with LearnDash
Adaptive Learning with LearnDash is a nifty little add-on that lets you add child courses for a student depending on his/her performance in the main course. For instance, if you observe that a student is performing below average in a particular segment, you could assign a couple of basic courses to brush up the related principles, making it mandatory for the student to complete the prerequisite courses before he/she can resume the main course.
Or on the other hand, if a student performs exceptionally well in a segment of the course, you could encourage him/her to complete an additional mini-course for extra credit.
Default course flows can be set up for Quizzes, with the minimum passing percentage being the criteria for student segmentation.
7. Instructor Role for LearnDash
Instructor Role for LearnDash lets you add multiple instructors to your e-learning website. By default, LearnDash allows only Administrators to act as course authors. However, it is hardly feasible to provide admin access to numerous people as it would compromise the security of the website. Neither can you manage all courses via a single or even two administrators.
And what if somebody was interested in giving a guest lecture? To avoid this can of worms, Instructor Role lets you create Instructors who can access and manage everything related to the courses they have authored, but cannot access the main backend, keeping all your core information safe and secure.
8. LearnDash Notes
With the advent of lecture transcripts and unlimited downloads, note-taking is a lost art. Not on your LearnDash website though. LearnDash Notes is the add-on that lets your students take notes in real time, without having to switch between the course website and regular writing tools like MS Word or Notepad.
9. Front End Course Creation
Front End Course Creation is the advanced stage of Instructor Role. It adds instructors to your course as well but allows only front-end access to it. That is, they can essentially create and conduct the course, but they have no access whatsoever to the student enrollment, management, or monetary side of the spectrum.
10. BuddyPress Integration
Man is a social animal. It is a proven fact that people learn better in a group. And I am done with platitudes. Seriously though, BuddyPress is a great way of creating social profiles for your students and creating a sense of group identity amongst your students in a particular course. LearnDash’s BuddyPress integration lets you leverage all the social networking advantages offered by the plugin with ease.
11. Content Cloner
Content Cloner is a lifesaver for course authors who have a series of courses relating to a specific subject. As the name indicates, the add-on lets you duplicate your course in one click, and customize it as necessary either. It is a huge time-saver for authors who can simply duplicate the skeleton course multiple times and then proceed to add all relevant data, making it by far the easiest option for maintaining conformity.
12. Ratings, Reviews, and Feedback for LearnDash
When it comes to online courses, there is an unspoken agreement between the course author and the student to provide quality content and put in best efforts respectively. Ratings and reviews help validate this mutual trust, encouraging other people to enroll into the course as well. Human nature equals quality with ratings and hence, having a course rating system for your website can go a long way in building a trustworthy reputation.
Ratings, Reviews, and Feedback lets students who have enrolled into the course rate and review the course but only after they have completed it partially or completely. It is the author’s prerogative to set up when reviews can be added, thus ensuring that only genuine reviews are obtained. Student feedback is also a part of the functionality, which lets the author know what are the positives of the course and its shortcomings as well.
13. Uncanny Automator
Lastly, a helpful tool for LearnDash is the Uncanny Automator. This plugin allow you to create recipes to automate tasks on your WordPress site, and it just so happens to have a LearnDash integration with a number of awesome features. This includes the ability to automatically enroll students upon product purchase (via WooCommerce), moving students to lower level courses upon failing a test, bumping them up a level based on good grades, resetting Gravity Forms quiz attempts and more.
This concludes our list of great plugins you can use for your LearnDash website. What is your opinion? Any other recommendation you would like to add? Or perhaps a review of any of these plugins you might have used? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section
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