Courses on your platform run on LearnDash, the same LMS used by universities and large course businesses. Here’s the shortest path from nothing to a course your students can take.
The building blocks
- Course: the container students enroll in.
- Lessons: the main units inside a course.
- Topics: optional smaller steps inside a lesson.
- Quizzes: graded checks, attachable to lessons or the whole course.
Create the course
- In WordPress admin, go to LearnDash LMS → Courses → Add New.
- Name the course and write a short description. This becomes the course page.
- Open the Builder tab. Add sections and lessons in the order you want. Drag to rearrange. Nothing is final.
- In the Settings tab, choose the access mode:
- Free: anyone with an account can enroll.
- Buy now / Closed: students get access by purchasing. On your platform, the standard setup is a WooCommerce product linked to the course, so buying the product enrolls the buyer automatically. See Sell your first product.
- Publish.
Fill the lessons
Open each lesson and add your content: text, images, downloads, and video. For video, use the platform’s protected video hosting rather than raw file uploads: Upload and stream course video.
Faster: let your AI build the skeleton
Tell your connected assistant something like: “Create a course called ‘Pricing for Consultants’ with 3 sections and 9 lessons, using this outline…” and it will build the structure for you in LearnDash. You then fill in the content. See Connect your AI.
Watch it as a student
Before announcing anything, open the course in a private browser window (or a non-admin test account) and click through it the way a student would: enrollment, lesson order, video playback. Two minutes of checking saves support emails later.
Next steps
- Release lessons gradually, add quizzes and certificates: Drip content, quizzes and certificates.
- Give your students a home: Set up your private community.
