Best WordPress Plugins for Teachers and Online Educators

Best WordPress Plugins for Educators

If you’re in the education space, then you’re probably looking for more effective means of using your website to teach and organize your materials.

If you’re using WordPress, then there are a variety of plugins that can help you do just that. Whether you’re looking for a way to build and sell courses or turn your website into an educational hub, the plugins profiled below will help you get there.

Here are six of the best WordPress plugins for educators.

1. BadgeOS

BadgeOS is a plugin that can help to add gamification to the learning process. With this free plugin, you can do things like create assignments, award points, display leaderboards for your top students, administer badges for certain levels, and much more.

Awarding your students with badges is a great way to incentivize the learning process and help your students complete their assignments.

This plugin also has a series of add-ons that can let you do things like:

•    Create various learning groups
•    Display a visual progress map that depicts accomplishments and goals
•    A pop-up congratulations menu that displays once accomplishments are reached
•    Integrate with other plugins like LearnDash and Sensei

 

2. LearnPress

LearnPress is an incredibly feature-packed free plugin. It allows you to create both free and paid courses through WooCommerce and Stripe integration. This plugin is very easy to use, and comes with a ton of features and additional integrations that will take this plugin even further.

Creating a course is quite simple; you can create an outline composed of various course sections, and then create lessons and quizzes that make up each section. The lessons are displayed in pop-up light boxes, which is a very cool effect.

With their easy-to-use visual editor, you’ll be able to do things like set enrollment numbers, permit the number of retakes, set the duration of the source, and define what it takes to pass the course.

There are also several integrations and extensions available both free and paid, which will greatly extend the features of the plugin, like:

•    bbPress and BuddyPress integration to create a forum for student and teacher integration
•    Ability to have students upload their assignments for grading
•    Ability to bring up multiple instructors
•    Can assign badges and progress points for course completion

If you’re looking to build out your site with the sole focus of creating courses, then you can choose one of their themes they’ve developed to highlight the functionality of this plugin.

 

3. WP Courseware

WP Courseware is one of the most powerful learning management solutions out there. It’s currently being used by a ton of big names like CNN and Verizon.

This plugin packs a ton of different features, but it truly shines in how easy it is for you to create courses. Its drag-and-drop functionality lets you create beautiful and engaging courses that progress in a logical manner without any previous design experience.

You can even create quizzes that have time limits and a certain number of permitted retakes. It includes additional features like:

•    Multiple question types, including multiple-choice and open ended
•    Ability to upload files to accompany your lessons
•    A course outline widget to easily switch between lessons
•    A progress widget to help visualize course progress
•    Drip-feed course delivery
•    Module and course completion certificates
•    And much more

They even offer integration options with existing software you might be using, like OptimzePress, Slack, OntraPort, Visual Composer, and more.

 

4. LearnDash

LearnDash is another incredible all-in-one learning management platform. With this plugin, you can create courses that include multiple lessons and quizzes. Their extensive quiz functionality offers seven different question types in multiple multimedia formats. The quizzes have built-in features that include certificates based on performance, and even a leaderboard for your top students.

There’s an analytics feature so teachers can get a detailed breakdown of each student’s performance, and even renew the answers they’ve submitted.

Plus, you can drop feed your courses content to students, and even create prerequisites your students will have to complete before moving on to other courses and lessons.

There are a variety of integrations which extend its functionality even further, like:

•    Free payment integration with Stripe, WooCommerce, 2Checkout and more
•    Integration with Even Espresso to integrate live events and online courses
•    Visual Customizer to easily create beautiful courses
•    Dedicated forum creation, so students can socialize and support each other
•    Front-end course creation to let your visitors easily create custom courses

 

5. Sensei

Sensei is a plugin developed by WooThemes and allows you to create online quizzes and courses. You have tons of customization options, like having students pass a quiz before they can progress with a course, create a question bank for random question generation, create multiple choice quizzes, and much more.

Each student will be given their own dashboard that allows them to track their own progress throughout the course. Plus, you can even package and sell your courses as individual productions through WooCommerce integration.

There are also several extensions, which enhance the overall features of this plugin:

•    The ability to drip feed content to your students
•    Create certificates for course completion
•    Attach PDF and other media files to lessons
•    Student sharing of grades through social media
•    And more

 

6. LifterLMS

LifterLMS lets you easily create, sell, and protect a variety of online courses. You can create media-rich courses that induce text, audio, and video, so you can better cater to a wide range of learning styles.

Some other features of this plugin include:

•    Shopping cart functionality to help sell your courses
•    Content drip feature
•    Gamification to improve student engagement
•    Analytics to track course progress
•    Automatic email integration
•    And more

There are multiple version of this plugin, and if you’re looking for greater functionality, then you can upgrade to the Pro version. There are also multiple integrations and extensions, so you can combine this plugin with the likes of Stripe, WooCommerce, ConvertKit, and MailChimp.

Whether you’re a teacher, or you’re selling courses online, the plugins above will greatly help your education-based website. You don’t need to install every plugin above, but just the ones that will help you achieve your goals.

 

Any plugins we forget to mention in the list above? Please share your favorites in the comments below.