Kent Holland is a lawyer specializing in construction issues.  His site is constructionRisk.com.  He publishes a free monthly newsletter described here.

Kent has a gift for explaining complex legal issues in an understandable way.  He created a collection of videos focuses on subjects such as Contracts for Design Professionals, Design / Build Lessons Learned and Jobsite Safety.  My task was to put these classes into an online learning system.

Kent had classes on test.com, which did not offer a good interface for students.  We considered Sensei, WP Courseware and LearnDash.  Here is my comparison from June 2013:

Sensei from WooThemes http://www.woothemes.com/products/sensei/   $99

• Best known company, best e-commerce
• Doesn’t print certificates

WP Courseware http://www.wpcourseware.com/  $47

• Prints certificates
• Not clear that it can charge for classes

And LearnDash http://www.learndash.com/  $99

• Prints certificates
• Can charge for lessons

LearnDash

Justin Ferriman  from LearnDash was very responsive to the questions we had about certificate printing and collecting student fees.

We decided to go with LearnDash as the LMS for Kent’s site.  Course set up was very simple and easy.  Integration with PayPal was also simple.

We tried to set LearnDash up in conjunction with a membership plugin that would collect extra user data.  Most membership plugins were much more complicated that what we needed.  One installation changed the .htaccess file and brought down the site.  Another disadvantage was that the membership plugins protected LearnDash courses from visitors.  We wanted our guests to see the courses and read the class descriptions, just not be able to begin a class without paying.

 Profile Builder Pro

We went instead with a smaller footprint plugin Profile Builder Pro.  Their user profile page was fine for collecting the user’s AIA membership number needed for continuing education credits.  Their login page was also fine as is.

We did have to custom code a “My Courses” page in php to combine information from the user’s profile and their LearnDash course completion records.  If the user is not logged in, they must do so before seeing their profile.  If they are logged in but never entered profile information, they are prompted to do so here.  If they are logged in, with a membership profile, then they are shown their course progress to date.

Future

If we need to give discounts, offer all-course access for a set fee, or offer monthly subscriptions, we may need to revisit the idea of membership plugins in the future.  In October, LearnDash integrated more closely with PaidMembershipsPro.  We will take another look at this if we need extra membership features.

 

If you wish to integrate online learning with your WordPress site, please feel free to contact me.