[Online] An Intro to Learning Management Systems: LearnDash & WordPress

Online training can take many forms – videos, webinars, live Zoom meetings all hosted on the web. The last two years have provided the opportunity for teachers to pivot to the web as they present their materials in new ways. Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas and Moodle are now the norm for curriculum development for education.

LearnDash is a robust and capable LMS plugin for WordPress that allows course designers to closely manage, document, and control the student’s progress through the course materials.

LearnDash features include:
· Prerequisites
· Course pathways
· Quizzes
· Exercises
· Gamification
· Grading
· Student Progress reports
· Certificates of completion

Fellene Gaylord teaches WordPress as an Adjunct Instructor at Clark College in addition to building websites for clients through her business Sirius Media in Portland. Fellene will review how to set LearnDash up, how to use it, and compare features with Canvas, the LMS she uses on the job at Clark College.

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Note: This will not be at our usual location, it will be an online event using Zoom. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up for free at https://zoom.us. You can download the desktop software, use a browser extension, or download the mobile app. If you haven't used Zoom before, please get set up and familiar with it in advance. We recommend you upgrade to the latest version. If you're using the desktop software, you may need to check for upgrades manually.

For added security, the Zoom link will not be public. You must RSVP to see it.

Along the bottom of the Zoom window, there are buttons to mute/unmute yourself, enable/disable your video, and access the Participants, Chat, and Reactions panels.

For security and to prevent interruptions, everyone else will be prevented from screen sharing during the meetup. Your audio and video should be off by default when you join the call, but you may want to double-check when you join. You can unmute yourself and turn on your video, but please note that you may be included in the recording. If you unmute yourself, please only do so temporarily, while you're asking your question. This helps reduce background noise in the recording.

If you have a question, please click the button to "raise your hand". Depending on your version of Zoom, this will be located in either the Reactions panel or the Participants panel. Our presenter will take breaks to answer questions, and our moderator will call on whoever has their hand raised. You can unmute yourself while you ask your question, and then mute yourself and lower your hand after you're done.

You can use the Chat panel to introduce yourself and converse with others, but if you have a question for the presenter, remember to "raise your hand". We won't be monitoring the chat as frequently, so questions there may be overlooked.

We'll record the presentation and link to the video in the comments once it's been processed.

If time permits, we'll open up the conversation after the presentation. We encourage people to converse in our Portland Slack group for general WordPress discussion at any time. You can join our Portland Slack Group.