SNEAK PEAK: Upcoming LearnDash Features

By: Justin Ferriman • February 15, 2013
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[notification style=”success” font_size=”12px” closeable=”false”] Versions 1.1.0 will be released on 2/25/13. Our apologies for the additional wait – we promise to make it worth it! [/notification]

 

Next week marks a big week for our WordPress LMS – we are officially launching the first round of major updates, less than a month from opening the LearnDash doors! Truth is, we expected this to happen. We wanted to get the LearnDash product into your hands so we could get relevant feedback for what was working, what wasn’t, and what you would like to see improved. We have been listening.

Cousre-Progress-Widget

This first batch of major updates is a combination of bug fixes, new functionality, and enhancement in some of the current functionality. We really tried to squash most the bugs on our first release, and we thank you for hanging in there with us as we sorted them out. Luckily, these small blips in the code haven’t stopped the vast majority of you from continuing onward and upward with your LMS!

One new feature we are really excited about is the linear progression of lessons. Essentially this feature allows you to determine a “lesson order” that makes sense for your courses. Your LMS users will be unable to view content in future lessons until completing the prerequisites. Using some key integrations with LearnDash, you can even “drip feed” the lessons so that they become available exactly when you want them to!  If you want, you can “hide” the mark complete button until your users successfully pass a lesson quiz.  Once the quiz is passed, the button becomes available so that they can mark it complete and move on.

mark-complete

 

Another nice little feature is the Course Status widget. All you have to do is activate this widget and your users will have a visual representation of where they are in the course. As each lesson is closed out (by pressing Mark Complete), their course progress will update accordingly. If your users are part of multiple courses, then the dynamic course progress bar will show the progress of the course they are currently viewing.  Once Mark Complete has been pressed, then navigation to the next lesson will become accessible.

Besides these two updates to the core plugin, we are also closing out the coding of two add-ons: an additional payment processor (2Checkout), as well as a one-click upload feature for Articulate Studio and Storyline courses. This second add-on also comes with enhanced user reporting capabilities utilizing Tin-Can API (which can be used in conjunction with your integrated learning records store).

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Navigation becomes available

We are dedicated to our offering, and are consstantly looking for ways to improve. Thank you for all your suggestions as the LearnDash WordPress LMS is ultimately a product of your feedback.

Look for these features to come out next week!

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