New Video Course Progression Feature!

By: Justin Ferriman June 20, 2017
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76.2% of LearnDash powered courses contain video. This update will make the learner experience even better!

In early May of this year we administered a “content mix” poll to see what kind of content you had in your courses. The results were clear: video was used in some capacity 76.2% of the time.

Well, today I am pleased to share that we have pushed out a LearnDash update that is based on this feedback.

If you are using videos in your courses then you will really like this, and if you aren’t using videos yet then this update may entice you to start! 🙂

It is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to the new LearnDash Guided Video functionality – an update that not only you will like but your learners will certainly appreciate as it improves their overall course experience.

In short: less clicking, more learning.

How It Works

The settings you see above become visible when you select the Enable Video Progression option on a Lesson or Topic.

All you really have to do now is paste the video URL and you are (pretty much) done!

You can use a URL from YouTube, Vimeo, or any video that is uploaded to your site’s Media folder.

**UPDATE 7-24-2017** – AmazonS3 and Wistia are also now supported in addition to the above.

When the lesson is published the video will display at the top of your Lesson with perfect dimensions according to your theme.

Don’t want it to appear at the top of the Lesson? No problem, you can use a shortcode to place the video anywhere in your content:

[ld_video]

No need to remember this shortcode, we have added it to the Shortcode Wizard.

You then get to decide if you want the video to start automatically. If you want to create a “hands-free” learning experience then this is a setting you will definitely want to use.

But here is where it gets interesting…

If you set the Lesson to auto-complete after the video has played then immediately after the video is finished your learners are brought to the next video where it will start playing.

You can even decide to hide the Mark Complete button altogether to prevent people from skipping ahead.

Oh, and the “play bar” is also hidden on the video player to remove any temptation of skipping to the end of the video. 🙂 It will become visible again once the Lesson is marked complete. [Note: This option can be turned off as well so the play bar is always visible]

You have a few other options on how you want the videos to behave as well. For instance, if you have a video in a Lesson and that Lesson has Topics then you can determine when the video becomes visible (after the topics are complete or before).

Our goal with this update was to improve the course experience for your learners – making it possible for you to create a truly “hands-free” experience.

Your learners literally get to sit-back, relax, and learn!

This functionality is available for you today in LearnDash v2.4.5.

I have a small confession to make…

Last month I posted this:

And I must confess: while this video functionality is certainly useful and in many ways unique to our industry… it is not the game-changing functionality I was referring to.

We wanted to get the new video features in your hands as soon as possible, but at the same time we have been working on a significant update to LearnDash for the last few months.

I am really excited because there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Our next major core update will include these changes.

So, keep an eye out. You’re really going to like it. 🙂

Until next time!

PS: Did you happen to see our most recent webinar where we take you “behind the scenes” to show you exactly how the University of Michigan is using LearnDash

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter