Escape Creative

Dave Warfel

<p>Widget Areas for LearnDash simply gives you more places to add custom content in LearnDash. By utilizing built-in LearnDash action hooks, we assign widget areas (also known as “sidebars”) to various locations throughout your LearnDash pages.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="Widget Areas for LearnDash - Plugin Overview" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WoR177xks_k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h3>Available LearnDash Widget Areas</h3>
<ul>
<li>Focus Mode: Sidebar: Above Navigation</li>
<li>Focus Mode: Sidebar: Below Navigation</li>
<li>Focus Mode: Content: Start</li>
<li>Focus Mode: Below Content</li>
<li>Course Page: Content: Start</li>
<li>Course Page: Content: End</li>
<li>Group Page: Content: Start</li>
<li>Group Page: Content: End</li>
</ul>
<p>Requires the “LearnDash 3.0” Active Template. Tested with LearnDash 4.23.</p>
<h3>How to Use</h3>
<p>Upon activating the plugin, new widget areas will appear on the <strong>Appearance > Widgets</strong> screen in your WordPress admin area. You can also access them via the Customizer (<strong>Appearance > Customize > Widgets</strong>).</p>
<p>Simply add the blocks/widgets you’d like to insert into the corresponding widget areas. Be sure to click the “Save” button at the bottom.</p>
<p>Navigate to a page that contains that widget area, refresh, and your new widgets will be there.</p>
<h3>Types of Content to Add</h3>
<p>WordPress comes with a set of default widgets, several of which might be useful. If you’re using the new block editor, all blocks will also be available to you.</p>
<ul>
<li>Add a simple <strong>Paragraph</strong> block with some basic text</li>
<li>Add an <strong>Image</strong> or <strong>Video/Embed</strong> block for more visual content</li>
<li>Add a <strong>Navigation Menu</strong> widget to insert a custom menu you’ve created</li>
<li>Add your own <strong>Custom HTML</strong> widget to embed an <code><iframe></code> or write your own code</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>TIP:</strong> You can use the <strong>LearnDash Student</strong> and <strong>LearnDash Visitor</strong> blocks to display a block’s contents only to enrolled students or unenrolled visitors.</p>
<h4>LearnDash Widgets</h4>
<p>LearnDash comes prepackaged with a few widgets, but there’s probably only one that makes sense in these widget areas.</p>
<ul>
<li>Add a <strong>Course Progress Bar</strong> to the top or bottom of your Focus Mode sidebar</li>
</ul>
<p>Feel free to experiment with the other <a href="https://learndash.com/support/kb/core/design/widgets/" rel="nofollow ugc">LearnDash widgets</a>.</p>
<h4>Elementor Templates</h4>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="How to Add Elementor Templates to LearnDash Widget Areas" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5x3Uzcs2Oz4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>If you’re using Elementor Pro, you can create a custom section and embed it anywhere on your site, including in your new LearnDash widget areas. There are two ways to do this:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>When you go to insert a block/widget, select the <strong>Elementor Library</strong> widget. Choose a template from the dropdown menu. Click “Save.”</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Navigate to <strong>Templates > Saved Templates</strong>. Copy the shortcode next to the template you want to insert. Now you’ll insert a <strong>Shortcode</strong> block into the widget area, and paste the shortcode.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>For more information, see the article in <a href="https://elementor.com/help/how-to-use-shortcodes/" rel="nofollow ugc">Elementor’s knowledge base</a>.</p>
<h3>Widget Area CSS Class Names</h3>
<p>If you need to target the widget areas to apply custom styles using CSS, you can use the following class names.</p>
<p>All widget areas have the <code>.ldx-widget-area</code> class.</p>
<ul>
<li>Focus Mode: Sidebar: Above Navigation – <code>.ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-before</code></li>
<li>Focus Mode: Sidebar: After Navigation – <code>.ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-after</code></li>
<li>Focus Mode: Content: Start – <code>.ldx-widget-area.fm-content-start</code></li>
<li>Focus Mode: Below Content – <code>.ldx-widget-area.fm-content-bottom</code></li>
<li>Course Page: Content: Start – <code>.ldx-widget-area.course-content-start</code></li>
<li>Course Page: Content: End – <code>.ldx-widget-area.course-content-end</code></li>
<li>Group Page: Content: Start – <code>.ldx-widget-area.group-content-start</code></li>
<li>Group Page: Content: End – <code>.ldx-widget-area.group-content-end</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Example Usage:</p>
<pre><code>.ldx-widget-area.fm-nav-before {
    margin: 1em;
}
</code></pre>
<p>This would add 1em of spacing around the widget area that appears above the navigation in the Focus Mode sidebar.</p>
<p>In addition, all widgets placed inside of a widget area have a class of <code>.ldx-widget</code>.</p>
<h3>Show/Hide Widgets on Certain Devices</h3>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="How to Conditionally Show/Hide Widgets in LearnDash" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X-5I_JqB3NU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>While not a direct feature of this plugin, you can show/hide widgets on different devices using another free plugin.</p>
<ol>
<li>Install & activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-options/" rel="ugc">Widget Options</a> plugin</li>
<li>Navigate to the widget that you’d like to adjust the visibility on</li>
<li>Scroll to the bottom and click on the tab with the mobile phone</li>
<li>Choose to either show or hide on the checked devices</li>
<li>Check the appropriate devices</li>
<li>Click “Save”</li>
</ol>
<h3>Show/Hide Widgets on Specific Course/Lesson/Topic Pages</h3>
<p>Another feature of the free Widget Options plugin (mentioned above) is to only show widgets on specific course, lesson, topic or quiz pages.</p>
<ol>
<li>Install & activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-options/" rel="ugc">Widget Options</a> plugin</li>
<li>Navigate to the widget that you’d like to adjust the visibility on</li>
<li>Scroll to the bottom and click on the settings cog icon</li>
<li>Click on the <strong>Logic</strong> tab</li>
<li>In the text box, you can use the <code>is_single()</code> conditional tag to only display that widget on a specific page</li>
<li>Use the ID of the course, lesson, topic or quiz</li>
</ol>
<p><a href="https://ldx.design/find-learndash-course-id/" rel="nofollow ugc">👉 How to find the ID of LearnDash content</a></p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>This would only display the widget on the page with an ID of <code>7</code>:</p>
<pre><code>is_single( '7' )
</code></pre>
<p>If you wanted to display a widget on multiple pages (with IDs of 1, 2 and 3), your code would look like this:</p>
<pre><code>is_single( array( 1, 2, 3 ) )
</code></pre>
<p>There are many more <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress conditional tags</a> you can use.</p>
<h3>From within WordPress</h3>
<ol>
<li>Visit “Plugins > Add New”</li>
<li>Search for “Widget Areas for LearnDash”</li>
<li>Click the “Install” button</li>
<li>Click the “Activate” button</li>
<li>Navigate to “Appearance > Widgets” or open the Customizer to start adding blocks/widgets to your new widget areas</li>
</ol>


Widget Areas for LearnDash

Add unlimited blocks/widgets to several areas of LearnDash Focus Mode, plus course & group pages.

Automattic

Alex Sanford

Donna Peplinskie (a11n)

Jake Morrison (a11n)

Renatho

Aarón

Miroslav Mitev (a11n)

Andrei (a11n)

Giannis

Fernando Jorge Mota

Peter Kiss

Imran Hossain (a11n)

Dmitry Merkushin (a11n)

lavagolem

Ronnie Burt

nurguly (a11n)

Gabriel Caire (a11n)

Bogdan Nikolic

Onu Abah

<p><strong>Create beautiful and engaging online courses, lessons, and quizzes.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://senseilms.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Sensei LMS</a>  is a powerful learning management plugin from Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack. At Automattic, we use Sensei LMS to power all our employee training courses.</p>
<p>Share your knowledge and teach freely with Sensei LMS!</p>
<h3>Powerful LMS Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Seamlessly integrate Sensei LMS into your WordPress site. Sensei LMS looks great with any theme and can be customized to match your branding and style.</li>
<li>Create engaging courses with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/wordpress-block-editor/" rel="ugc">WordPress Block Editor</a>, fully utilized by Sensei’s free <a href="https://senseilms.com/meet-course-a-new-free-block-theme-by-sensei/" rel="nofollow ugc">Course Theme</a>.</li>
<li>Enable <a href="https://senseilms.com/learning-mode/" rel="nofollow ugc">Learning Mode</a> for an immersive distraction-free learning experience.</li>
<li>Track student progress and performance with detailed reports.</li>
<li>Embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and VideoPress for video-based courses.</li>
<li>Add the Course List block to any page or post to display available courses.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Create effective quizzes</h3>
<p>Quizzes are a powerful way to improve your students’ understanding of key concepts and track their progress. Select from various quiz question types and settings, such as multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, free response, file uploads, and more.</p>
<h3>Showcase your courses</h3>
<p>Submit your course to Sensei LMS’ public course showcase at <a href="https://senseilms.com/showcase/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://senseilms.com/showcase/</a>. Sensei LMS’ course showcase allows you to reach new audiences to expand your course’s visibility.</p>
<h3>Discover the power of Sensei Pro</h3>
<p>Realize the full potential of your courses with Sensei Pro.</p>
<p><strong>WooCommerce Integration:</strong> Effortlessly set a price and sell courses in just a few clicks. Sensei Pro seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce Subscriptions, Payments, Memberships, and Affiliates extensions.</p>
<p><strong>Scheduled Content Drip:</strong> Control the pacing of lessons in your courses by specifying when students can access lesson content at fixed intervals after starting the course or on a particular date.</p>
<p><strong>Immersive Interactive Blocks:</strong> Enrich your lessons, pages, or posts with engaging videos, flashcards, image hotspots, and task lists.</p>
<p><iframe title="VideoPress Video Player" aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='750' height='422' src='https://videopress.com/embed/tLYw7R27?hd=0&cover=1' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen allow='clipboard-write'></iframe><script src='https://v0.wordpress.com/js/next/videopress-iframe.js?m=1674852142'></script></p>
<p><strong>Enhanced Quiz Features:</strong> Set a quiz timer and incorporate an ordering quiz question type. With Sensei LMS Pro, you can include individual quiz questions in any WordPress content, not just quizzes.</p>
<p><strong>Easy Groups & Cohorts:</strong> Organize students into groups and cohorts to manage access and customize learning experiences.</p>
<p><strong>Course Access Periods:</strong> Define a start date, end date, or a set amount of time that courses will remain accessible to students.</p>
<p><strong>Conditional Content:</strong> Personalize the learning journey by hiding or showing lessons and content based on groups, enrollment status, and date.</p>
<p><strong>Dedicated Priority Support:</strong> Our team of expert and friendly engineers is always available to provide assistance and ensure your success!</p>
<p><strong>Flashcards:</strong> Add text, videos, images, embeds, and more to both sides of the flashcard block type.</p>
<p><strong>Co-Teachers:</strong> Share course ownership with co-teachers who can edit course settings, lessons, and quizzes.</p>
<p><a href="https://senseilms.com/sensei-pro/" rel="nofollow ugc">Learn more about Sensei Pro</a>.</p>
<h3>Free Extensions</h3>
<p><strong>Certificates:</strong> Automatically generate beautiful downloadable PDF certificates for students when they complete a course.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sensei-certificates/" rel="ugc">Learn more about Sensei LMS Certificates.</a></p>
<p><strong>Post To Course Creator:</strong> Create courses quickly by converting existing blog posts into course lessons in just a few clicks.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sensei-post-to-course/" rel="ugc">Learn more about Sensei LMS Post To Course Creator.</a></p>


Sensei LMS – Online Courses, Quizzes, & Learning

<p>The basic LMS actually works: Users can take courses.</p>
<p>But:</p>

The administration via the courses does not work error-free (News lessions and modules are not saved) and the separate setup is not user-friendly
Learning mode styles and settings are not saved, you can't overwrite them because they are programmed with !important
Quizzes do not appear at all on the frontend in learning mode
Documentation is ultra-weak and does not provide any detailed information, which could help bugfixing – two senior developers of us meanwhile advise against sensei, because the plugin is so modestly developed
Support tickets from premium users are not responded to


Completely overrated and not worth investing a second or a dime in


I'm testing Sensei for a client, the basic features are good for a beginner user.


Nice plugin

Create beautiful and engaging online courses, lessons, and quizzes.

Widget Areas for LearnDash vs Sensei LMS – Online Courses, Quizzes, & Learning