The MasterStudy LMS Course Builder is a tool that helps users create online courses. With this tool, users can create courses that are both attractive and useful for their students. The tool can be used in both the Backend and Front-end of a website, making it easy to build courses from either perspective.
How to add a new course and set it up? Look for the answers in this manual and learn how to add and maintain courses with the easy-to-use Course Builder.
To begin creating a new course in MS LMS, navigate to the MS LMS > Courses from the Wordpress Dashboard. Click the Add New button and start creating content for your new course.
If you encounter a blank page when accessing the Course Builder or Courses, first ensure that your Permalinks settings are correctly configured.
After that, you will be redirected to the main page of the Course Builder to add Course information:
Instructors registered on a platform can utilize the front-end course builder. Each instructor will have their own personal Admin panel or Profile page, which is user-friendly. To create a new course, an instructor simply needs to go to their profile and click the Add New Course button.
The "Add Course" button can be accessed from two different locations on the website - the User account dropdown and the Floating Side Profile Menu. This provides instructors with multiple options to easily add a new course to their account.
Once the instructor has clicked the "Add Course" button, they will be automatically directed to the main page of the Course Builder, where they can input all relevant information about the course they are creating.
The Course Builder includes important information about a course such as its name, URL, category, level, and image. This information is essential as it gives potential students a clear understanding of what the course is about and helps them make an informed decision about whether to enroll or not.
To allow instructors of a website to add new categories, the website admin needs to enable the option "Allow instructors to create new categories" under the "Course" section of the LMS settings. This will give instructors the permission to create and add new categories to the website's course structure.
Read more about Course categories from the link below:
After filling out the course information, click the "Create" button to manage Course Curriculum and lessons.
A curriculum is a collection of lessons and assessments that will be taught by an instructor. As soon as a new course is created on the left side of the screen course curriculum section appears.
Dividing a course curriculum into sections helps in organizing the content in a logical and structured manner. This makes it easier for learners to navigate the content, understand the flow of the course, and identify the topics that are most relevant to their learning goals.
Instructors can add as many sections as they want to a course curriculum, and they can customize the section titles to reflect the content covered in each section.
By clicking on the "Add lessons" button, Instructors can create new lessons:
This action adds a new lesson to the existing list of lessons. It's a simple and convenient way to add more lessons to the course curriculum.
To add previously created lessons to the curriculum, simply click on the "Search materials" button.
This feature allows you to easily locate and incorporate relevant materials into your curriculum without having to recreate them from scratch.
The Lessons section of this manual contains detailed information about the different types of lessons available.
Drip content is a method of releasing educational material gradually and unlocks lessons only after the student has passed the required lesson or assessment.
Drip content is available in the Pro Plus version of the plugin and requires the Drip Content addon enabled:
To create a new dependency between lessons in the Drip tab of the course builder, the "Create new dependency" button can be clicked:
Next, drag lessons, quizzes, and assignments to the right side to create drip content:
The "Settings" tab in a course builder allows you to configure various settings for your course, such as the course name, description, enrollment options, access, and pricing. You can also set up course completion certificates for students.
The main settings of a course builder refer to the general options that define a course, such as a course's title, URL, description, and status:
The Access tab allows limited access to the course based on the student’s enrollment date, manages the Upcoming Course Status, and can make the course Trial.
The trial course and Upcoming Course Status options require the Trial Courses and Upcoming Course status addons.
Enabling the Time Limit option allows for setting a specific expiration date for a course, which means that the course will no longer be accessible after a certain number of days.
This can be useful in situations where access to the course needs to be restricted to a certain timeframe or when the course material is time-sensitive.
When users enroll in the course, they will see how many days are left until the course becomes inaccessible. Additionally, after enrolling, students will receive notifications about the course's expiration.
This feature helps students better manage their time and stay on track to complete the course before it expires.
Check the following documentation to learn more about Trial Courses and Upcoming Course Status Features:
Prerequisites are the required courses that students must complete before they are able to enroll in the next course of a higher level.
The Prerequisites is available in the Pro Plus version of the plugin and requires the Prerequisite addon enabled:
If students are interested in taking the course, they will discover that there is a requirement they must meet before enrolling.
This prerequisite must be completed before they can register for the course.
This section of the platform provides the ability to upload course materials in any file format. To do so, simply click on the "Select file" button and choose the files you wish to upload.
Once uploaded, the file will be available for students to access as part of the course materials.
The certificate tab is a feature that allows instructors to choose from a selection of pre-made certificates that students will receive upon completing a course.
Essentially, it's a way for users to showcase their achievements and completion of the course. Learn more about Certificates:
Using this feature of the MasterStudy LMS you can set the Course Page style for this course only. If you do not indicate the course page style here, the course page style that has been set to the course category will be applied. If the course page style is set as none for the course category as well, the global Course Page style will be applied to this course that you have set in MS LMS Settings > Course > Course Page Style.
Note that, selecting the Course Page style in Course Builder ignores any settings, and directly applies this style to the course.
Here you can see the available single Course Page Styles:
The Default course style presents a balanced and user-friendly layout, designed to streamline navigation and deliver course content with clarity and accessibility
The Classic course style offers a clean and straightforward layout for easy navigation and a clear presentation of course content.
The Industrial course page style features a modern and dynamic layout, tailored to accommodate complex course structures and engage learners with its visually immersive design.
The Timeless course style embodies a classic and elegant layout, offering a timeless appeal that prioritizes simplicity and ease of use, ensuring an enduringly enjoyable learning experience.
The Sleek Sidebar course style showcases a contemporary design with a distinctive sticky sidebar feature, enhancing user experience with convenient navigation placed beneath it, providing easy access to course materials and resources.
The Minimalistic course style offers a clean and uncluttered design, focusing on essential course elements for a streamlined learning experience.
The Dynamic course style presents course information in a fluid and interactive manner, utilizing dynamic elements and modern design principles to engage learners effectively.
The Modern with Curriculum course style resembles our modern design but integrates the course curriculum into a sidebar on the left for enhanced accessibility.
The Dynamic with Short Sidebar course page style includes a sticky sidebar for effortless navigation throughout the course content.
The Bold with Full Width Cover course page style prominently features a full-width course photo at the top, creating a visually captivating introduction to the course content.
The Pricing tab is a section within a course builder that allows the instructors to set, adjust, and manage the price of a course.
One-time purchase - Enable One-time purchases to make the course available for purchase not only through the membership plans. Enter the number in the blank to set the course price, or leave the field empty to make the course free.
Enterprise Price - pricing for groups of large organizations or corporations. The option is available in the Pro Plus version of the plugin and requires the Group Copurses addon enabled.
Not included in membership - Excludes the course from the membership level, even if the course category is included in the membership plan. To use the option, it is necessary to have the Paid Membership Pro plugin installed on your website. Additionally, membership plans must be created to fully utilize this feature.
Affiliate this course - The user will go to the link you put instead of buying on your website. Indicate the button label and the link to the designated area.
Points for a course - Indicate the price of the course in terms of coins. Students can buy the course using these coins instead of real money. The setting will be available once Point System Addon is enabled. To learn more, check this documentation:
Price Info - here you can put any text that will be shown with the purchase button as price info
Create the FAQ section to predict possible misunderstandings. Add one by one: items, questions, and answers.
Click on the New FAQ item to add a new question and answer. Enter the question/answer in the spaces provided.
The notices, formerly known as announcements, are used to communicate important course-related information to enrolled students.
Make important announcements for your learners whenever you need to. Write your text in the space provided.
The Course Builder of the MasterStudy is powered by the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. You can see this editor in writing notices, short descriptions of the lesson, and lesson contents:
From left to right:
Undo - undo the last operation, CTRL + Z / Command + Z.
Redo - Redo the last undone operation, CTRL + Y / Command + Shift + Z.
Bold - Make the selected text bold, CTRL + B / Command + B.
Italic - Italicize the selected text, CTRL + I / Command + I.
Underline - Underline the selected text, CTRL + U / Command + U.
Strikethrough - Apply strikethrough to the selected text.
Text Color - Change the color of the selected text.
Highlight - Highlight the selected text with a background color.
Paragraph Format - Change the paragraph format (e.g., heading levels, normal text).
Clear Formatting - Clears all formatting to the selected text.
Align Left - Align the text to the left.
Align Center - Center the text.
Align Right - Align the text to the right.
Subscript - Apply subscript formatting to the selected text.
Superscript - Apply superscript formatting to the selected text.
Bulleted (Unordered) List - Create a bulleted (Unordered) list.
Numbered (Orderd) List - Create a numbered (ordered) list.
Source Code - Shows the source code of the content inside of the editor in HTML. You can make changes and save them using an HTML editor.
Hyperlink - Insert or edit a hyperlink.
Table - Insert a table.
Insert/Edit Media - Insert video and image by uploading / embed code / URL. Once you are inserting via URL make sure your URL ends with the correct media format (e.g .MP4, .JPG, .PNG)
Media Gallery - opens Media File Manager to insert audio/video/image
Fullscreen - Toggle fullscreen mode.
Assigning a custom Text Color will display the text in that color regardless of the Course Player Mode (Dark or Light). If you copy text with a custom black text color, it appears black regardless of the mode, causing visibility issues in dark mode. The same applies to text with white colors.
Therefore, be cautious when working with white and black colors.
When copying text from another website or document, ensure you Clear Formatting first!
