Category: Release

Without a doubt, the My Courses page is the central hub of your learners’ online course-taking experience. It’s where they go to access their courses, and generally bask in the glory of all the progress they’ve made so far.

And let’s face it…this page was overdue for a little ❤️.

That’s why in Sensei LMS 3.10, My Courses has been updated with a cleaner, fresher look. Not only that, but we’ve also shifted more control over to you by giving you the customization tools you need to really make My Courses sparkle and shine.

So long shortcode, hello blocks!

The My Courses page harnesses the power of three new blocks – Learner Messages Button, Learner Courses and View Results.

Learner Messages Button

The Learner Messages Button block enables learners to view their private messages with the teacher. This block is only displayed if the learner is logged in and private messaging is enabled in Sensei’s settings. Clicking the button takes the learner to a page that shows all of their communication with the teacher.

Learner Courses

The Learner Courses block displays a list of courses the learner is currently enrolled in. There are separate views for filtering by active or completed courses, and the block’s settings enable you to customize colours and select which elements to display.

View Results

The View Results block is added to My Courses automatically once a course has been completed, but it can also be added to any of your individual courses. Clicking the button takes the learner to a page that shows how well they performed in each lesson of the course.

What Happens to My Existing My Courses Page?

Your existing My Courses page is not affected when updating to 3.10. If you’d like to convert it to use the new blocks, you can do that by first deleting the [sensei_users_courses]shortcode, and then adding the desired blocks from the block inserter:

What Else is in This Release?

Here are some other changes you’ll find in 3.10:

• For lessons with prerequisites, display the first prerequisite lesson that needs to be completed in the prerequisite notice.
• Only include questions belonging to the current teacher when adding category questions.

See the full list of changes.

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

For Developers

New Filter

sensei_filter_category_questions_by_author – Whether category questions should be filtered by author.

Deprecated Code

• Sensei_Frontend::sensei_get_user_quiz_answers – Use Sensei_Quiz::get_user_answers instead.
• Sensei_Quiz::stop_quiz_questions_loop – No replacement.
• Sensei_Assets::override_script – No replacement.
• Sensei_Assets::wp_compat – No replacement.

Sensei LMS 3.9 is out and brings with it a brand new way to manage quizzes – right inside the editor!

Introducing the Quiz Block

Both new and existing quizzes are now edited using the Quiz block. This block is automatically added when a new lesson is created, but can be removed if you don’t need it. Existing quizzes are also switched over to automatically use the new block:

The Quiz block supports the same functionality as the old meta boxes, including question types, settings, and selecting existing questions or category questions:

Blocks are also used when editing an individual question residing in the question bank:

The view that the learner sees remains the same, and quizzes are still displayed on a separate page as before.

To learn more about how to use the Quiz block, please see our documentation on quizzes and questions.

What If I Don’t Want to Use the Quiz Block?

If you’d prefer to continue to use the meta boxes to manage quizzes, you can disable the Quiz block by using the following code snippet:

add_filter( 'sensei_quiz_enable_block_based_editor', '__return_false' );

What Else is in This Release?

Here are some other improvements you’ll find in 3.9:

• We added a filter to enable customizing the course and lesson block templates.
• Only courses belonging to the current teacher are shown on the Analysis page.
• Teachers are no longer able to add another teacher’s questions to a quiz.
• When the course teacher is changed, the author of any associated quiz questions is also updated to the new teacher when it makes sense to do so.
• We’ve added the ability to set a question to Draft status.

See the full list of changes.

Developers: For deprecations, please see the beta release post.

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

Sensei LMS 3.8

Sensei LMS 3.8 is available now and introduces two new blocks – Conditional Content and Lesson Actions.

Conditional Content

The Conditional Content block, available on the course page, is very handy when you’d like to display content to a specific group of people. For example, you may want to write some sales copy to entice people to enrol in your course, but not display it to those who are already enrolled. The Conditional Content block makes this possible!

To configure the block, just add some child blocks inside it and set the visibility condition to only display the content when the person is enrolled in the course, is not enrolled in the course, or has completed the course:

Lesson Actions

The Lesson Actions block groups together the actions that can be taken on the lessons page including viewing the quiz, marking the lesson as complete, moving to the next lesson in the course, or resetting the progress of the current lesson. Each of the buttons can be customized by changing its style, color or border.

You can use the dropdown in the toolbar to simulate what the learner will see depending on whether or not they have completed the lesson:

When creating a new lesson, the Lesson Actions block (and Contact Teacher block) are automatically added to the page for you. They are equivalent to the elements that already appear on the lesson page, but because they have been rewritten as blocks, it’s now possible to change how they look, adjust their order, or remove them altogether:

What If I Don’t Want to Use Blocks?

If you’d rather not use blocks for new lessons, you can remove them in the editor and the PHP template will be used to render the lesson as before. This will create a consistent experience for learners until you’re able to update existing lessons to also use blocks.

What Else is in This Release?

Here are some other improvements you’ll find in 3.8:

• We’ve ensured that all Sensei blocks can be properly translated.
• We fixed an issue where the lesson order was changing when a lesson was updated.

See the full list of changes.

Developers: For deprecations, please see the beta release post.

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

Thank you to all our testers and contributors!

Sensei LMS 3.5 has just been released and brings with it the ability to export courses, lessons and questions. This means you can export course content from one site and import it into another one, making it easier than ever to transfer courses between Sensei LMS sites.

Exporter

Sensei’s new export functionality is available from the Sensei LMS > Export menu. This first iteration supports exporting courses, lessons and questions in zip format. The downloaded zip file contains individual CSV files, one per selected content type:

Sample Course

We’ve also added a new option to the setup wizard to install a sample course. This course is created in draft status so that it’s not publicly available, and walks you through how to get started with Sensei LMS:

You can reach the setup wizard at any time by going to Courses > All Courses, clicking the Help tab at the top, and then clicking the Setup wizard button:

What Else is in this Release?

• Courses with any status are displayed in the Course Prerequisite dropdown. Previously, only published courses were listed.
• We fixed an issue with duplicate content sometimes being imported.
• We fixed an error in the setup wizard that occurred when navigating to a previous step.

For Developers

If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.5.

Deprecated Code

• includes/3rd-party/wordpress-importer.php – Deprecated the entire file.

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

Sensei LMS 3.3 has just been released and brings with it the ability to import courses, lessons and questions! You can also use the importer to update existing course content en masse.

Importer

Sensei’s new import functionality is available from the Sensei LMS > Import menu. This first iteration supports importing courses, lessons and questions in CSV file format:

A future release will add export functionality, making it even easier to transfer course content between Sensei LMS sites!

To download CSV files with sample data, or to learn more about the expected file format, please see our import documentation.

What Else is in this Release?

• Appended random text to the file name of file upload questions to make it more difficult for external users to view them.
• Added new CSS classes for preview and completed lessons not in a module to allow for easier element targeting.
• Fixed an issue with the setup wizard Features step not saving if nothing was selected.

For Developers

If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.3.

New Filters

• sensei_import_attachment_request_timeout – Filter the HTTP request timeout value when retrieving an external attachment.
• sensei_import_csv_delimiter – Set the default delimiter to use when importing CSV files.
• sensei_import_csv_delimiter_options – Specify the different delimiters that will be tried when importing CSV files.
• sensei_learner_enrolled_courses_args – Customize the query arguments used to fetch the courses a learner is enrolled in.

New Action

• sensei_data_port_complete – Fires when the import job completes.

Deprecated Code

• Sensei_Grading::load_data_object – Use new Sensei_Grading_Main or new Sensei_Grading_User_Quiz

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

Sensei LMS 3.2 was released this week. In addition to fixing several bugs, it adds WooCommerce Paid Courses and Sensei Content Drip to the Features step of the setup wizard.

What’s in this Release?

• Both admins and the lesson author can now view a quiz for a lesson with an unmet prerequisite.
• Added the sensei CSS class to the course results, learner profile and teacher archive pages.
• Switched to a more semantic heading structure on the course results page.
• Added missing taxonomy labels.
• Fixed an incorrect parameter being passed to the has_term function.
• Added paid extensions to the setup wizard.

For Developers

If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.2:

Template File Changes

• templates/course-results/lessons.php – Use a more semantic heading structure.

Deprecated Code

• sensei_the_excerpt

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.

Sensei LMS 3.1 has just been released. The primary focus of this release is a new setup wizard to help users get started creating courses straight away.

With this release, we are bumping the minimum supported version of WordPress to 5.0. This means we will no longer be actively supporting the classic editor.

Setup Wizard

The setup wizard has 4 simple steps that can be completed in just a few minutes:

• Welcome – Brief overview of the wizard and an opportunity to opt in to usage tracking.
• Purpose – We’d love to learn more about why you’re interested in offering online courses.
• Features – Facilitates the installation of Sensei LMS’s most popular extensions.
• Ready – Basic setup is complete. From here, we provide a few recommendations on what to do next.

The setup wizard is displayed as soon as Sensei LMS is activated, but it’s also available to administrators at any time from the new Help tab on the Courses page:

What Else is in this Release?

• Added some missing translations
• Added the Date Completed field to the Learner Management page
• Added a filter for enabling/disabling enrolment related background jobs
• Change “Lessons” to “Lesson” for single lessons in a course or module
• Removed the Most Used tab from Course Modules
• Fixed the course dropdown width on the lessons page
• Fixed a PHP warning on the single course page

For Developers

If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about Sensei LMS 3.1.

Template File Changes

• templates/course-results/lessons.php – Display “Lesson” if there is only one lesson in the course.
• templates/single-course/modules.php – Display “Lesson” if there is only one lesson in the module.
• templates/single-course.php – Initialize the loop.

New Filter

• sensei_is_enrolment_background_job_enabled – Check if a specific enrolment background job is enabled.

Deprecated Code

• includes/email-signup/template.php
• Sensei_Email_Signup_Form – Entire class has been deprecated
• Sensei_Admin::admin_install_notice – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Admin::admin_installed_notice – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Admin::admin_notices_styles – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Admin::create_page – Use Sensei_Onboarding_Pages::create_page
• Sensei_Admin::create_pages – Use Sensei_Onboarding_Pages::create_pages
• Sensei_Admin::install_pages – Use Sensei_Onboarding_Pages::create_pages
• Sensei_Admin::install_pages_output – Use Sensei_Onboarding_Pages::create_pages
• Sensei_Main::load_email_signup_modal
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::enqueue_script_deps
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::handle_tracking_opt_in – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::hide_tracking_opt_in – Use Sensei_Onboarding::skip_setup_wizard
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::is_opt_in_hidden – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::maybe_display_tracking_opt_in – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::opt_in_dialog_text_allowed_html – Use Sensei_Onboarding::setup_wizard_notice
• Sensei_Usage_Tracking_Base::output_opt_in_js

To update, please head on over to Dashboard → Updates in the WordPress admin.

Please note: While we have thoroughly tested this release, it’s always possible that we’ve missed something. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site.