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.
In WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1, it’s easier than ever to remove a learner’s enrollment. No more searching for orders — learners can now be removed with a single click! And restoring their enrollment is just as easy!
With this release, we are also bumping the minimum supported version of WordPress to 5.2 and PHP to 7.0 to match WooCommerce.
Remove Enrollment
For enrolled learners, a new Remove Enrollment link is displayed when hovering over a learner in Learner Management. Clicking this link removes the learner from the course, revoking their access. The status of any order, subscription or membership associated with the learner’s enrollment is unaffected.
Please note that if the course is tied to a product, subscription or membership, and the learner purchases that product / subscription / membership again, they will be re-enrolled in the course:
Restore Enrollment
Unenrolled learners who previously purchased a course can have their enrollment restored by clicking the Restore Enrollment link. This will re-enroll the learner in the course, and enrollment will once again be controlled by the associated order / subscription / membership:
Enroll
Unenrolled learners who do not have an active order / subscription / membership associated with their enrollment (for example, for a free course or one where an administrator enrolled them directly via Learner Management) can be re-enrolled by clicking the Enroll link. Fundamentally it does the same thing as restoring an enrollment — it enrollers the learner in the course — only there is no order / subscription / membership controlling enrollment:
We hope these changes help to streamline the management of your learners!
For Developers
If you’re a developer, here’s what you need to know about WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.1.0.
To update, please head 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.
Today we’re making Sensei LMS Certificates 2.0.4 available on WordPress.org! This is a small release to make the extension compatible with deploying to the plugin directory. We’ve also made a minor change to rename it from Sensei Certificates to Sensei LMS Certificates.
For Developers
Despite this being a small release, there are still a few changes that developers need to be aware of.
Template File Change
templates/single-certificate_template.php – Added escaping for wp_die function call.
Today we’re releasing Sensei LMS 3.0 and WooCommerce Paid Courses 2.0. These are both major releases that overhaul course access and simplify the rules for adding and removing access for learners.
Sensei LMS 3.0 and Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 3.0.0.2.0.0 introduce the concept of course enrollments. When updating to the new version, a migration job will run that enrolls existing learners in courses. This means that any learner who is listed in Learner Management for a particular course prior to the migration will be enrolled in that same course after the migration.
Note: As this is a major release that affects course access, we strongly recommend that you test the update on a staging site before updating your live site. We also recommend that you take a backup of your live site prior to updating.
For sites running Sensei LMS + Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses: For sites that are running both Sensei LMS and Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses, we strongly recommend updating Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses first, followed by Sensei LMS. Updating Sensei LMS first would mean that learners would not have access until Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses was also updated.
Course Enrollments
Course enrollments make it possible to separate course progress from course access. This means that a learner can be unenrolled from a course while still keeping their existing progress intact. If that learner later re-enrolls in the course, they can continue from where they left off.
Learners can be removed from a course by clicking Remove manual enrollment or re-enrolled by clicking Manually enroll learner:
WooCommerce Paid Courses
For paid courses, there is an important distinction between learners who were enrolled in a course because they purchased it, and those who were manually enrolled by an admin or teacher (i.e. a teacher or admin added the learner to the course even though they did not purchase it). There is a filter on the Learner Management page that can be used to view only those learners who were manually enrolled:
Special Considerations for WooCommerce Memberships
Migrating Active Memberships with Cancelled Orders
For those using WooCommerce Memberships to grant access to courses, you may see the following notice after upgrading:
In previous versions of Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses, a learner with an active membership and a cancelled order was not given access to the membership’s courses. This behaviour may be contrary to what you would expect, so as of Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 3.0.0.2.0.0, all learners with an active membership and a cancelled order will have access to the membership’s courses. If you would like to change this behaviour for existing memberships, click the View Active Memberships with Cancelled Orders button and change the status of the memberships on that page to Cancelled.
Migrating Inactive Memberships
The default enrollment migration behaviour for learners who were granted access to a course via a membership is to enroll any learner who is listed in Learner Management for a particular course, regardless of the status of their membership. This means that learners with memberships that are paused, expired, or cancelled, but who had access to the course(s) associated with that membership prior to the migration, will still be enrolled in and have access to the course(s) after the migration.
If this is not the behaviour you desire, and would prefer NOT to enroll learners in courses if their associated membership is paused, expired, or cancelled, then please follow these instructions before updating to Sensei with WooCommerce Paid Courses 3.0.0.2.0.0. It’s important to be aware that this will remove access to courses for learners with memberships that are paused, expired, or cancelled:
