To add a course, go to Sensei LMS > Courses and click the New Course button. You will be presented with the Create your course modal, where you can add some basic information about the course:
After clicking the Continue button, you can choose from some predefined layouts:
After selecting a layout, it will be added to the page:
Course Outline
The most important block on this page is the Course Outline block. In addition to displaying the modules and lessons that make up a course, this block enables you to build your course structure directly inside the editor.
The first step is to decide whether you would like to start with a blank canvas, or create a course outline with the help of AI (Sensei Pro only):
After selecting the Start with blank option, three lessons are added to the course by default:
You can rename the existing lessons, or add more by clicking in the Course Outline block, clicking the + icon, and selecting Lesson from the menu. You can also add an existing lesson to the course, but please note that only lessons that are not already used in another course can be added:
Alternatively you can add a module, which is defined as a group of related lessons, by selecting the Module option and adding as many lessons as you like inside it.
Publishing Lessons
Lessons are automatically published when you publish the course. Note that lessons must be published before they will be visible to students.
If you would prefer not to publish the lessons when the course is published, disable the Publish lessons toggle in the panel that appears after clicking the Publish button:
You can add additional content and blocks, such as images and videos, to the editor, just as you would for any other type of post.
Note: If no Sensei blocks exist on the course page, the course will use a legacy PHP template to provide the same functionality to your site visitors. Since PHP templates can be challenging to customize, we recommend using blocks instead. Learn more.
Course Signup
The Course Signup block displays a Take Course button that enables a registered user to enrol. Once enrolled, the button is no longer visible to them. Because this is such a critical bit of functionality, we recommend leaving this block on the page. It can can be customized by changing its styles, colors or border:
Course Progress
The Course Progress block displays the student’s progress in the course, and is only visible to those who are already enrolled. This block enables you to customize the border radius, progress bar height and colors:
Conditional Content
Although not added to the course page by default, the Conditional Content block is another Sensei block that is available to add to your courses. Any content added inside this block is only displayed if your site visitor is enrolled in the course, is not enrolled in the course, or has completed the course.
The visibility condition can be set by clicking on the block and selecting a value from the toolbar dropdown. You can add as many blocks inside the Conditional Content block as you like:
Block Visibility
When using Sensei Pro, the Conditional Content Block is replaced by a more fully-featured Block Visibility panel:
Course Settings
Teachers & Co-Teachers
Courses must be assigned a teacher and, optionally, a co-teacher. You can do that by choosing a user from the Teacher (and Co-Teachers) dropdown(s):
You will first need to go to Users > All Users and change the user’s role to Teacher to give someone access as a Co-Teacher.
Co-Teachers can edit course settings, lessons, and quizzes.
Course Prerequisite
If you would like students to complete another course before taking this one, you can set a Course Prerequisite. Students will not be able to start taking this course until they complete the prerequisite course first:
If a student tries to view this course without having first completed the prerequisite course, they will see a notice similar to the following:
Enrollment
In Course Settings > Enrollment, enabling the Don’t allow self-enrollment setting will restrict course enrollment. This means that students can only be enrolled manually by teachers or administrators.
In paid courses, students can enroll exclusively by purchasing the associated WooCommerce products. Therefore, if you intend to enable this setting for a paid course, you must also detach any associated WooCommerce products.
Open Access (Guest Students)
In Course Settings > Access, enabling the Open Access setting will make the course available to any site visitor without any registration or sign-in requirements.
The open access feature tracks course progress by considering visitors as guest students, made possible by setting a session cookie through their browser. Course progress may not be retained if the user blocks cookies or if the student switches to a different device or browser.
Also, note that the Open Access setting is unavailable for paid courses.
Featured Course
To feature a course, select the Feature this course box. The course will then be displayed under Featured Courses on the course archive page and in the course component widget:
Course Notifications
A Course Notifications panel on the course edit screen gives you the option to disable all email notifications for just that course. This option overrides the global email options in Sensei LMS > Settings > Email Notifications:
Course Categories
A course can be assigned to one or more categories. You can select an existing category or click the Add New Course Category link to create a new one:
Course categories can be managed by going to Courses > Course Categories.
Featured Image
A featured image can be added to a course by uploading an image from your computer or selecting an existing image from the Media Library. The image displays on the course archive and course pages, depending on the settings configured in Sensei LMS > Settings > Courses:
Excerpt
If you like, you can enter a brief description of the course in the Excerpt field:
Duplicate a Course
- Go to Courses > All Courses.
- Hover over a course.
- Click the Duplicate link to duplicate just the course, or Duplicate (with lessons) to duplicate it and all its lessons.
Edit a Course
Once your course is published and people have started taking it, we recommend against making major changes such as adding or removing lessons, editing quizzes, etc. Doing so will affect the grades and completion status of students who are already taking (or have already completed) the course. Minor text edits are fine, but anything that will affect the overall completion status should be avoided.
If you decide that your course needs a refresh with new lessons or more quizzes, the best solution would be to either create a new version of the course from scratch or duplicate the existing course and make the required updates before publishing.