Want to know how to create LMS website in WordPress? Looking to create an online course using WordPress? Hop in; you’re at the right place.
Creating an online course website lets you share your expertise with others and, at the same time, earn money from it.
Online learning is quite popular nowadays, as it provides a wide variety of content and the convenience of learning from anywhere and at any time.
This is the perfect time to start your LMS website. Although creating an online course might seem like an uphill task, WordPress makes it quite easy.
In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to creating a learning management system with WordPress. So, make sure you read the article till the end.
Why Build LMS Website with WordPress?
These days, you’ll easily find several online course platforms and website builders. Then, why create an online course using WordPress?
First of all, WordPress is the most popular and powerful website builder, empowering more than 41% of websites alone. It’s the most flexible Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to customize your site as per your desires and requirements.
Secondly, the availability of plugins and themes further helps you make your dream website come true. Hence, you can also find the best Learning Management System (LMS) themes and plugins for your online course website.
Third, after using WordPress as an LMS, you retain full control over your LMS website. This means you’ll be able to create, manage, and sell your course content without any problems.
The open-source nature of WordPress software and self-hosting provide flexibility, whereas already-hosted online course platforms like Udemy, Thinkific, Teachable, etc. don’t allow as much control.
Unlike Udemy, Thinkific, Teachable, and others, WordPress does not require a subscription or platform charge.
How to Create LMS Website in WordPress? (Step-by-Step)
Having talked about why you should create LMS website with WordPress, let’s move on to the step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Setting Up Your WordPress to Build LMS Website
You should set up your WordPress site before beginning your online course creation journey. You’ll need a domain name and web hosting to set up WordPress for this. Here’s how:
1. Buy a Domain Name for Your LMS Website
To put it simply, a domain name is your identity on the web, through which people will recognize and find you. For instance, our site’s domain name is themegrill.com.
You must be wondering where to buy a domain name. Once you have chosen a domain name for your LMS website, you can register it with domain name providers.
Namecheap and Domain.com are among the best domain registrar companies worth checking out.
Choose a suitable domain name for your LMS website, and then register it with your favorite domain registrars.
2. Purchase Web Hosting
Likewise, web hosting means the space on the web server where your site and all the files are located. You can buy hosting plans from top WordPress hosting providers such as Bluehost, SiteGround, and Dreamhost, to name a few.
However, to make your task easier, we suggest using Bluehost. It’s officially recommended by WordPress and offers a reasonable price for hosting and a free domain.
Not only that, but it also comes with the WordPress Auto-install option when purchasing it. You can still use the One-Click WordPress Install option if it’s missing.
3. Install and Set Up WordPress for Your LMS Website
After purchasing hosting, you should install WordPress. But if you checked Auto-install when buying hosting, then WordPress is already installed on your site.
You’ll receive your login credentials in your email. Using them, log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Thereafter, you can start making the necessary settings and customizing your site to suit your needs.
Check our detailed guide on how to create a WordPress website here.
Step 2: Choose the Best Theme and Plugin for Your LMS Website
The next step in our tutorial on how to create an online course on WordPress is to choose the LMS plugin and theme.
By default, WordPress comes with some default themes pre-installed. However, you can install several other free or premium WordPress themes as you need.
1. Choose a Powerful WordPress Theme for Your LMS Website
You need to choose a theme that best complements the purpose of your site. We’ll use Zakra here.
Zakra is the leading multipurpose WordPress theme used by over 50,000 websites online. With this flexible theme, you can create any kind of website, including online course sites.
Since it’s built with popular page builders, creating stunning landing pages is a breeze. Features like responsive design, tons of customization options, speed optimization, SEO optimization, etc. make it the best choice.
Besides, it eliminates the pain of creating a website from the ground up, as it offers 100+ starter templates, including a demo for an online course site.
2. Find an LMS WordPress Plugin Compatible with Your Theme
Apart from the theme, you need to choose the right LMS plugin that seamlessly integrates with your theme. A WordPress LMS plugin provides you with the features and functionalities you need to create a full-fledged educational website.
Here, we’ll be using Masteriyo as it fully supports our Zakra theme.
Masteriyo is a powerful yet free WordPress LMS plugin built with much love and care for successful eLearning websites.
It’s a modern React JS-based plugin that provides you with a whole new experience of building unlimited online courses with interactive learning pages for learners.
Other notable features offered by the Masteriyo are easy navigation, distraction-free mode, a progress bar, an advanced quiz builder, questions and answers for interaction between students and instructors, and more.
Apart from these incredible course-building features, the plugin has an in-built order system supporting WooCommerce payment gateway like PayPal. Thus, you can also sell your courses to generate good revenue.
Step 3: Install the Zakra Theme and Customize
Once you’ve decided which theme to use for your site, you need to install the theme. Here, we’ll walk you through the steps to install both the free and pro versions of Zakra and customize them. Let’s start!
1. Installing Free Zakra WordPress Theme
First, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then, navigate to Appearance >>Themes >> Add New.
Then, you’ll be directed to the Add Themes page, where you can easily download the free themes from the WordPress repository. Just type Zakra in the search box, and it’ll be displayed on your screen.
Finally, hit the Install button and activate it by clicking the Activate button.
Bravo! You’ve successfully installed the Zakra theme onto your site.
2. Installing Zakra Pro
The steps to install Zakra Premium are different from those for the free version. First, you need to purchase Zakra Pro by visiting its official site.
Interestingly, the premium version costs only $55/year and $199 for a lifetime. It sounds like a good deal!
You may also purchase the ThemeGrill Agency plan at $299/year and $999 for a lifetime. This includes all the premium products from ThemeGrill.
And believe us, that plan contains everything you need for a proper website.
Once you buy the suitable plan for your site, you’ll be able to download the two zip files, i.e., Zakra Pro and Companion Addons for Elementor.
The free Zakra theme and Zakra Pro plugin create a premium Zakra theme. Therefore, you need to install Zakra Pro as a plugin, not a theme.
From your dashboard, navigate to Plugins >> Add New >> Upload Plugin.
Now, choose a Zakra Pro zip file you downloaded before and click the Install Now button.
Then click on the Activate button. Soon after that, you’ll be asked for the License Key. You can get the license key on your account page on the Zakra theme website. It’s a unique code given to you after you purchase the theme.
Enter that key and click on the Agree & Activate License button to continue.
Congrats! You’ve succeeded in installing Zakra Pro on your site.
You also need to install the Companion Addons for Elementor the same way you did for Zakra Pro.
Most of the demos for this plugin are made with Elementor, so you won’t be able to access the demo without it.
3. Import an Online Course Demo Website
Since you’ve successfully installed Zakra Pro, you can now get access to all the free and premium Zakra starter templates. Hence, you can import the required demo using the one-click demo importer.
After you’ve activated the theme, you’ll see a dialogue box at the top that says, Get started with Zakra.
Clicking on it automatically installs and activates the ThemeGrill Demo Importer plugin.
Soon after that, you’ll land on the Demo Importer page with free and premium demos.
In this article, we’ll use the premium “Online Course” template. However, if you’re on a tight budget, there are free WordPress LMS themes.
After choosing the suitable demo for you, hover over it and click on the Import button.
Also, you need to click on the CONFIRM button in the modal box that opens up once you press import.
In no time, you’ll see that your LMS website demo site has been successfully imported. Now, you can start customizing your online course website as required.
4. Customize Your Online Course Website Pages
The next step of our tutorial on how to create an online course using WordPress is customizing the pages of your website using the WordPress Customizer.
To do this, go to Appearance >> Customize.
Now, you can experiment with several customization options to make your site more appealing to users. Best of all, you can preview your changes before publishing them.
- Global: From this section, you may customize every option affecting your site, such as color, background, typography, etc.
- Header & Navigation: Here, you can edit site logos, site titles, taglines, and much more related to navigation around your site.
- Content: You’ll surely want to modify the design and layout of your blog, single post, meta information on articles, and more. Make those changes from here.
- Footer: Choose from pre-made footer layouts, style it, add widgets, HTML, or text, customize the Scroll to Top button, and so on.
- Additional: Load Google fonts locally by enabling a simple option.
In addition to all these sections, you can also set the appearance of your content, customize the colors, add menus and widgets, and even manually add CSS codes to further customize your site.
Once you have completed all the necessary settings, hit the Publish button at the top.
Step 4: Install the Masteriyo LMS Plugin and Configure the Settings
The next step is to install the best LMS for WordPress on your site and configure the necessary settings so you can create an online course to get started.
1. Install Masteriyo LMS
As mentioned earlier, Masteriyo is a free LMS plugin; hence, you don’t need to spend a penny installing it on your site. However, there’s a premium version of the plugin as well.
So, if you like what this free LMS plugin has to offer, you can always opt-in to its paid version anytime and unlock more advanced LMS features.
For now, let’s install the free plugin. First, navigate to Plugins >> Add New from your dashboard.
Now, type Masteriyo LMS in the search box and click on the Install Now button.
After installation, hit the Activate button to activate Masteriyo on your LMS Website.
You can check our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin for detailed information.
2. Configure Masteriyo LMS Settings (Learning Management System Development)
Soon after the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll be automatically directed to a short setup wizard. The first thing you’ll see is the Welcome page.
Clicking on the Start Now button helps you quickly set up the plugin or you can also hit Skip to Dashboard for settings later.
For the latter case, you can easily set up the plugin by navigating to Masteriyo >> Tools.
From there, go to the Setup Wizard section.
Once you click on it, the setup wizard is back to aid you!
Click on the Get Started button to continue. This opens the General Settings page, where you can select the primary color for your plugin.
There are more general settings that you can enable or disable as you prefer.
In the second step, there are settings for simple course modification.
The third step requires you to select whether your site is for tutoring people as individuals or a marketplace for different instructors.
From the checkout tab, you have to enter the currency to be used for transactions throughout your site.
The fifth step requires you to either save the dummy articles as drafts or publish them on your live site.
And that was the last step. Let’s move on to creating courses, lessons, and quizzes.
Step 5: Create New Courses, Lessons, and Quizzes
Once you complete the setting process, you can either return to the dashboard or create a new course.
Clicking on Create a new course takes you to the course builder page, from where you can begin adding courses to your LMS site.
The best part is that Masteriyo LMS has a single-page interface. So, you don’t need to go through the hassle of switching between courses, lessons, and quizzes to create a single course.
Thus, making a course is just a breeze with this plugin.
1. Create Your First Course
After completing the setup wizard, a few dummy courses are prepared for you to modify or take reference.
If you want to delete them, click on this icon and select Trash.
To permanently delete it, go to the Trash tab at the top bar and repeat the same process.
Now, let’s create a new course. To do so, click the Add New Course button at the top right corner of your screen.
To begin with, you can add an interesting Course Name. After that, add an appealing Course Description to help the learners understand your course content.
You can even customize the description by making it bold or italics, changing alignments, and uploading images.
Likewise, it lets you add the major Course Highlights and Categories. Further, a Featured Image can be added to make your course appear more attractive. Once you complete everything, click on the Next button at the top.
Now, you can Add New Section to your content.
Firstly, enter your Section Name and hit the Add button.
Then, you can Add New Lessons and Quizzes under a particular section by clicking on the Add New Content option. You can add as many sections as you want by clicking the Add New Section button.
2. Add New Lesson
To create a new lesson, add your Lesson Name first. Now, you can detail your lesson under the Lesson Description. After that, you can add the relevant Featured Image.
Moreover, you can also make your course productive by adding a video lesson. You can either embed the video from YouTube or Vimeo or upload a Self-Hosted Video of a maximum size of 60 MB.
You may proceed to Publish it now or Save To Draft to publish all the course content together.
3. Add New Quiz
To add a quiz, click on Add New Content from the course builder page and press the Add New Quiz option. There are three setting options to create a quiz.
They are Info, Questions, and Settings. Under the Info tab, you can add a Quiz Name. After that, click on the Add New Quiz button.
Now, from the Questions tab, you can add new questions. To do this, click on the Add New Question button.
After that, a new question will be allotted to your quiz, which you can choose to customize as you wish.
You can write the question name and then select from 3 question types: True, False, Single Choice, and multi-choice. You can also assign points for each quiz question.
The answers will be displayed according to the question type you choose. For example, the answer options are true and false.
For Single Choice and Multi Choice, you’ve got to manually add the answer option by clicking on the Add New Answer button. Also, don’t forget to check the right option.
There are several other question types available. To access them, you’ll need to purchase the premium plan that unlocks them.
After adding all the questions you need, hit the Update button at the bottom left. You can also click the Add New Questions button to add more quiz questions.
Likewise, the Settings tab is divided into two parts: General and Display. From the General section, you can set full marks, pass marks, quiz duration, and the number of attempts to answer the quiz.
Again, the Display section lets you display quiz questions per page. You can either choose to display questions per page as defined in your global settings or overwrite to set them individually.
Lastly, make sure to click on the Update button to save all your settings.
4. Individual Course Configuration
Next, in our tutorial on creating an online course using WordPress, it’s time to configure the individual course settings. There are three main setting options: General, Display, and Pricing.
Let’s discuss the options you have on the free version.
Under the General setting, you’ll find the following settings to play around with:.
- Instructor: Assign an instructor to the course.
- Difficulty: Set the difficulty level of your course. You’ve got three options here: Expert, Intermediate, Beginner.
- Duration: Assign a certain duration for students to complete the course.
- Maximum Students: Enable or disable the number of students that are allowed access to the course.
- Static Enrolled Count: Add the additional number of students to the total number of students enrolled in the course.
- End Date: Assign a fixed date for the course to end and restrict any further access.
- Enable Course Retake: Students can start from scratch by deleting any previous progress and enrolling again.
- Password: Set a password for your courses to restrict unauthorized access.
- Restrict Content During Quiz: Restrict students from accessing the course content while they’re participating in a quiz.
- Course Badge: Insert a badge on your course commending it.
From the Display section, you’ll find the following settings:
- Curriculum on a Single Page: Select whether you want the curriculum to be visible to everyone or only to the enrollers.
- Review after completion: Collect reviews from your students after they’ve completed their course and receive feedback.
- Enable Review: Display reviews from the course page and allow people to add theirs without having to complete the course.
- Welcome Message for the User: Add a heartwarming title and description to welcome the newly enrolled users.
From the Pricing section, you can choose whether to make your course curriculum available to the learners free of charge or if they need to pay for it.
If you choose it to be Free, you need to decide further if students need to register for it or not.
Contrarily, if you choose to sell your course, you can mention the Price in USD ($). Masteriyo supports one-time payment with a secured payment gateway like PayPal.
Also, using Masteriyo, you can configure other necessary payment settings to sell your courses online, which we’ll discuss in detail in the next step.
Step 6. Configure Payment Settings to Sell Your Courses
Masteriyo LMS has an in-built payment system to help you sell your courses online without depending on third-party tools. And all you need to do is configure some basic payment settings.
To do this, go to Masteriyo >> Settings.
Then, click on the Payments tab. Soon, it’ll display four different options: Store, Currency, Standard Payment, and Offline Payment.
The store lets you add Country, State, City, and Address.
Likewise, if you haven’t chosen Currency, Currency Position, or other such options, you can do that from the Currency tab just below the store.
From the Checkout Fields tab, there are a bunch of fields that you can enable. This will be displayed during the checkout process and users will have to fill it out.
Enabling Standard PayPal enables you to accept payments via PayPal. Here, you also need to add some details, such as Title, Description, PayPal Email, Recipient Email, and more.
As you can guess from the name, enabling Offline Payment permits you to accept payments offline. Once you enable offline payment, you can also add a Title, Description, and Instructions.
Finally, hit Save Settings once you’re done.
Step 7: Publish Your Course Curriculum
Now that you’ve added courses, lessons, and quizzes and configured the overall course and payment settings for selling courses online, your course is all set to go live to your users.
So, go to Masteriyo >> Courses and click on the course that you’ve created.
But before publishing your course, you can also take a quick preview of how your course looks from the front end.
If you feel like everything is good, you can go ahead and hit the Publish button. However, if you want to do other edits and add lessons, or quizzes, you can click on the Save To Draft button and publish it whenever you feel it’s ready.
And this is exactly how you can create an LMS website in WordPress, create and sell your courses online, and generate a good income.
Wrapping Up with How to Create LMS Website!
This is pretty much it for our article on how to create a learning management system with WordPress.
We hope that you’ll now be able to create an LMS website in WordPress. Creating interactive courses with the Zakra theme and Masteriyo LMS plugin is super easy, smooth, and fast.
However, you can also try Online Education and eLearning themes as an alternative to Zakra, as they also work seamlessly with the Masteriyo LMS plugin.
If you’ve got any questions regarding the article, please feel free to write to us in the comment section below. Also, don’t forget to share it on social media. After all, sharing is caring!
Want to read more of our blogs? Check out the article on how to create and sell video courses on WordPress and an eCommerce website using WordPress.
