WP Coursework Review: Is it the Best WordPress Plugin to Create Your Online Courses?

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Are you looking to create your own courses with WordPress?

WP Courseware is a leading WordPress course-creation plugin that helps you build and sell your courses with ease.

In this in-depth WP Courseware review, we discuss what this course-building plugin has to offer, how to get started, and how much it costs.

Can WP Courseware be exactly what you’re looking for? Let’s find out.

What is WP Courseware?

WP Courseware logo

WP Courseware is a learning management system plugin for WordPress that allows its users to create and sell online courses.

Developed in 2012, WP Courseware was the first course-creation plugin for WordPress and is still going strong with over 20,000 active online course creators and provides more than 250 features.

But can it be considered one of the best course-building plugins for WordPress?

Since the start of WP Courseware, a variety of new features have been developed and added constantly.

However, the platform was mainly designed around these 4 key concepts:

1. Visual, drag-and-drop course creation

2. Complete control over the way you sell your courses

3. Creating rich, multimedia learning experiences

4. Growing your online course business with multiple integrations

If you want to create online courses with WordPress — whether as a small or moderate-sized e-learning platform — WP Courseware might just be the course-building plugin for you.

Let’s take a look at some WP Courseware pros and cons to see if it continues to be a good fit.

WP Courseware review: pros and cons

Below, we’ve put together a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the WP Courseware plugin as mentioned by active and former customers.

Pros

Intuitive and easy to use

Satisfactory customer support

WP Courseware integrates with dozens of other plugins and tools

Offers a 30-day risk-free guarantee

All subscription plans include an unlimited number of courses and students

Provides a free live demo site

Cons

Platform can be buggy, tedious and frustrating at times

Not advised for larger e-learning businesses

Lack of lesson customization options

No live video conferencing or webinar option

Importing course content from another source can be inconvenient/unnecessarily complex

No free trial, and no forever-free version is available

Requires a third-party plugin for membership program capabilities

With these points in mind, let’s see what WP Courseware offers their WordPress users in terms of features.

WP Courseware’s key features

WP Courseware has an exceptionally large library of features.

Up until now, WP Courseware has provided 271 powerful features and continues to add even more functionality to its platform.

Let’s see how WP Coursewares can help you create, sell, and manage your own online course.

Create courses

Without efficient course-building tools, it’s almost impossible to create and design a successful course with ease.

WP Courseware’s creators took that into account when they started developing the course creator aspect of the plugin.

This WordPress LMS plugin lets you build your courses quickly and smoothly with the following features:

1. Drag-and-drop, visual course builder

WP Courseware’s course builder allows you to create unlimited courses, organize your course content, and structure your course all from the “WP Courseware” tab on the main WordPress dashboard.

WP Courseware’s Courses dashboard

When you start adding content to your courses (modules, course units, quizzes, etc.) you’ll be capable of creating a media-rich learning environment for your students by embedding any type of content (text, images, audio, video, etc.) in it.

WP Courseware automatically creates course listings to display courses on the front end of your site.

This means that your courses will be seen on your course pages.

You can easily customize your courses’ placement, navigation and progress indicators, layout, and display elements with features like shortcodes, widgets, visual block builders, and the styling customizer.

WP Courseware’s course customization tool

Additionally, the WP Courseware plugin can be used with any WordPress theme or page builder.

2. Student enrollment

WP Courseware allows you to host, manage, and evaluate an unlimited number of students.

There are 5 ways that a student can be registered for your online courses:

1. Self-enrollment: Allow your students to register for courses from anywhere on your site with the self-enrollment button

2. Automatic enrollment: Automatically enroll new students into any WP Courseware course

3. Bulk enrollment: Easily enroll large groups of students at once and create user accounts automatically

4. Paid enrollment: Restrict access to users who paid for a course through WP Courseware's shopping cart or any other ecommerce/membership plugin

5. Manual enrollment: WP Courseware includes several convenient options for manually enrolling students quickly and efficiently

WP Courseware’s manual student enrollment tab

Furthermore, you can set up custom messages and notifications for your students when they’re enrolled in your online courses.

3. Student online course access

WP Courseware allows you to effectively manage your enrolled students by:

Restricting course access to students who have completed previous courses
Creating course tracks to guide your students through a complete learning process involving multiple courses
Scheduling course content to be released on specific dates or at intervals from the date of enrollment (drip content)

WP Courseware’s course access settings

With WP Courseware, students are also allowed to upload assignments and download lesson content in any format (such as PDF, text, or media files).

In addition to its course creation features, the WP Courseware plugin also comes with ecommerce capabilities.

Sell courses

The profitability of your course rests upon your marketing and sales efforts.

WP Courseware gives you complete control over the way you choose to sell your online courses.

WP Courseware’s checkout settings

We’ve compiled all these features into 3 categories:

1. Selling

WP Courseware includes complete shopping cart functionality to sell your courses.

You can use WP Courseware's integration with Stripe or PayPal to process your course purchases.

Additionally, WP Courseware automatically creates default pages for you to use for your checkout page or order page and your terms and conditions.

2. Pricing

WP Courseware provides a variety of methods you can use to charge your students:

1. One-time pricing: Charge a single, one-time fee to unlock access to any of your courses

2. Payment plans: Charge for courses with any number of installment payments

3. Recurring subscriptions: Sell access to your course as a recurring subscription at any interval

4. Free courses: Offer free courses as a lead magnet or to promote paid courses

5. Memberships: Combine your courses with other non-course content to create membership plans

6. Course bundles: Offer special pricing for groups of courses that are purchased together

7. Coupon codes: Promote your course and increase sales with fixed or percentage discount codes

The WP Courseware plugin even allows you to price your course using any currency.

3. Others

This WordPress plugin allows you to track all the purchases of your courses with WP Courseware’s sales reporting dashboard.

Additionally, you can set up automated emails that’ll automatically be sent to you and your customer after a transaction has taken place.

WP Courseware’s automated emails tab

As a bonus, the WP Courseware WordPress plugin conforms to all current European Union privacy standards.

Now, moving on to the more interactive features WP Courseware has to offer.

Quiz students

By incorporating quizzes into the course content, you may better understand the difficulties your students are facing going through it, learn what is working and what’s not, and act accordingly.

WP Courseware allows you to easily add quizzes to your modules and/or units to test your students knowledge.

WP Courseware’s quiz feature

You have 3 quiz types to choose from:

1. Survey mode: Quizzes that aren’t graded; their sole purpose is to collect information

2. Blocking quiz mode: Quizzes that have a specific passing score that the student must achieve before moving on to the next unit

3. Non-blocking quiz mode: Quizzes placed within a unit that the students must complete, however, you allow them to move to the next unit regardless of how they perform

WP Courseware quizzes can contain 4 different question types:

True/false questions: Include simple true/false questions within your quizzes with automated grading
Multiple choice questions: Multiple choice questions can be automatically graded and answer choices can be randomized
Open-ended questions: Create text-entry style questions with an option to customize the answer field size to guide answer length
Assignment uploads: Require file submissions for complex learning topics and set acceptable file types

All the questions you create are automatically added to the question bank where they’re categorized in related groups for use in multiple quizzes and randomization.

You have the option to add quiz features such as:

Answer hints to guide your students toward the correct answers to questions
Quiz timers to set a specified amount of time that students are allowed to use for a quiz attempt
Retake attempts students are allowed to use to achieve a passing grade or better an existing grade
Passing score requirement which must be met before a student can progress in the course

Additionally, WP Courseware allows you to set either automated feedback or manual feedback, which is sent to students after the completion of a quiz.

Once students have completed a quiz or course, you can access all high-level student performance views and granular quiz details in the Course Gradebook.

Engage students

According to research, involving students in the learning process improves their focus and attention, motivates them to exercise more advanced critical thinking abilities, and fosters meaningful learning experiences.

WP Courseware ensures student engagement with the following features:

Student dashboard: Offers convenient access to course outlines, payment history, account details, and more
Progress reporting: Track the progress of your students as they move through courses
Course classrooms: Use each course's Classroom page to send student feedback and track progress
Automated emails: Customize automated emails triggered by specific course events
Achievements: Award achievements based on specific course events to increase engagement
Certificate builder: Create certificates with WP Courseware’s drag-and-drop certificate builder that’ll be available for students to download upon completion of the course

WP Courseware’s certificate builder

Furthermore, you can integrate your mailing list by sending student enrollments to popular email marketing services for ongoing engagement.

There are currently dozens of integrations between WP Courseware and other services, software, and WordPress plugins that can help you automate the way you manage and sell your courses.

In the next section, we’ve compiled a list of the top 4 integrations for the WP Courseware plugin.

Top WP Courseware add-ons

WP Courseware’s available integrations

When you go to the official WordPress website and search for the "courseware" plugin, you will discover that the search result shows more than 10 Add-ons for the WP Courseware Plugins.

We’ll be looking at the top 4 results based on the number of active installations.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress. It simplifies the creating and making of an online store with crucial features such as tax management, secure payments, and shipping integration.

The WooCommerce for WP Courseware add-on will add full integration with WP Courseware.

You can simply assign your WP Courseware course to a WooCommerce product and when a student purchases the product, they’ll automatically be enrolled in the associated course.

Due to the WooCommerce add-on being free to use, any business or entrepreneur can take advantage of its capabilities without having to commit to expensive support contracts or proprietary software licenses.

WishList Member

The second most popular add-on is WishList Member for WP Courseware.

It currently has more than 500 active installations and is used to assign your courses to multiple membership levels.

When students purchase a membership level, they’ll automatically be enrolled in courses associated with that level.

All you need to do is:

Create your course with WP Courseware
Create a membership level and set a price
Associate your course with the membership
Wait for someone to make a purchase

The WishList Member add-on is free to use for any person who has a WordPress site and is an active WP Courseware member.

MemberPress

MemberPress for WP Courseware is an add-on that allows you to create membership programs or paid subscriptions, and connect them with courses you’ve already created with WP Courseware.

With this add-on, you’ll be able to create a fully automated learning management system and sell your online courses.

Once you’ve installed the add-on and created a MemberPress product, you simply assign your WP Courseware course to that product, and when a student makes a purchase, they’ll automatically be enrolled in the appropriate course.

Paid Memberships Pro

Paid Memberships Pro (PMPro) is another add-on for WP Courseware that gives you all the tools you need to start, manage, and grow your membership site.

You’ll need to add your WP Courseware courses to a PMPro membership program, which students can purchase and become members of your site.

It allows you to decide what content your members can access and when it’ll be available.

Your members are capable of logging into your site, viewing all individual payments, updating their billing and personal information, and/or canceling their membership directly on your site.

By now, you should have a good idea of what the WP Courseware plugin has to offer and which add-ons can be advantageous to your online course business.

While WP Courseware’s features might appeal to your business and individual needs, let’s take a look at whether the user interface is up to your standards.

WP Courseware plugin in action

In this section, we'll cover some of the basic steps in setting up a new course with WP Courseware, how to create and add content to your course, and how to create your students’ course-completion certificates.

How to create an online course

Once you’ve installed WP Courseware on your WordPress site, you can immediately start building your online course.

To create a new course, you’ll begin on the WP Courseware “Courses” page.

This page is also where you’ll be managing all existing courses.

WP Courseware’s Courses page

Next, you want to click on “Add New”.

WP Courseware Add New Course page

The first step is to give your course a title and enter a course description.

After you’ve entered a course title, you can start configuring the course settings by navigating through each tab.

You can find descriptions of each setting within the tabs.

Once you’ve added your new course and changed the course settings, WP Courseware automatically adds a course listing page that will be displayed on your WordPress website.

Additionally, it creates a new course outline page for the course you’ve just created, and this page will be where your students navigate the course.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can add content to your course.

How to create and add content to your course

It’s time to begin adding content!

There are 2 ways that you can add modules to your course:

WP Courseware Add New Modules

1. Directly from the course settings page

The easiest way to add modules is by selecting “+ Add Module” in the course builder above the settings you just configured.

2. From the “Modules” tab in the WP Courseware menu

You can also add modules from WP Courseware’s “Modules” tab and then assign them to your course in the course builder later.

WP Courseware Add New Module title and description

Your next step would be to give the module a title and add a module description.

Next, you’ll want to begin adding units to your modules.

You can also add units in one of 2 ways:

WP Courseware Add New Units

1. Directly from the course settings page

You can add units by selecting “+ Add Unit” in the course builder within the modules you’ve created.

2. From the “Units” tab in the WP Courseware menu

Another way is to add modules from WP Courseware’s “Units” tab and then assign them to your course in the course builder later.

WP Courseware Add New Unit title and content

Here, you want to add your unit’s title and its content.

You can also configure settings such as:

When the unit is made available to your students
Whether you’ll offer the unit involved as a teaser or preview

Finally, you can add quizzes or surveys to the units.

As with modules and units, you can add quizzes and surveys in 2 ways:

WP Courseware Add New Quizzes

1. Directly from the course settings page

The simpler way to add a quiz is by selecting “+ Add Quiz” in the course builder within the units you’ve created.

2. From the “Quizzes” tab in the WP Courseware menu

Additionally, you can add modules from WP Courseware’s “Quizzes” screen and then assign them to your course in the course builder later.

WP Courseware add quiz title and description

After you’ve clicked on “+ Add Quiz”, the above popup will appear, and you’ll need to enter a quiz title as well as a quiz description.

Once you’re done adding and organizing your content in the course builder, be sure to click “Publish” (for a new course) or “Update” (for an existing course) in the upper right-hand corner of the course builder screen.

Next, we’re going to look at how you can create a certificate to give to your students upon completion of your courses.

How to create a course completion certificate

The WP Courseware plugin includes a customizable, visual certificate builder using blocks that you can drag and drop to build the course completion certificate as you want.

First, you’ll need to click on the “Certificates” tab in the WordPress dashboard (see number 1 below).

WP Courseware Add New Certificate

Then click on “Add New” to start building your course completion certificate (number 2 above).

Once you’ve clicked on “Add New," you’ll be redirected to the visual certificate builder.

WP Courseware visual certificate builder

When you reach the builder, you’re given the option to select one of the pre-formatted templates or choose “Blank Template” to start from scratch.

WP Courseware template options

After selecting a template, you can customize your certificate (background, text fields, visuals, etc.) till you’re happy with what it looks like.

If you’re finished with your certificate’s customization you can click “Publish”.

Now your students will be able to download their certificate upon completion of your course.

Before you settle on WP Courseware based solely on its features, you need to ask yourself: how much does WP Courseware cost?

WP Courseware’s pricing

WP Courseware offers 3 pricing plans:

WP Courseware’s pricing plans

The main difference between the 3 plans is the number of WordPress sites they can be used for.

The plans are similar in that they all include 1 year of support and 1 year of updates.

The current prices (at a discount) of the WP Courseware plans are as follows:

1. Teacher — $129/year

The Teacher plan can be installed on 2 WordPress sites and includes the following features:

Unlimited courses
Unlimited students
All plugin functionality
1 year of support
1 year of updates
30-day risk-free guarantee

It’s best suited for entrepreneurs and small businesses who are just getting their online course business off the ground.

2. Professor — $149/year

The Professor plan includes everything that the Teacher plan does and is WP Coursware’s most popular license.

With this plan, you’re capable of installing the WP Courseware plugin on 10 WordPress sites.

This plan is best suited for medium-sized businesses that are looking to grow their online course business.

3. Guru — $199/year

The Guru plan includes everything that the Professor plan does, and it can be installed on up to 25 WordPress sites.

This plan is a favorite amongst professionals and larger online course businesses.

Unfortunately, WP Courseware doesn’t have a free trial or a forever-free subscription plan.

However, it does provide a free demo mode where you can test out all the features it offers.

You can also use WP Courseware’s 30-day risk-free guarantee to your advantage by joining one of the 3 paid plans, using the platform with all its features, and if for some reason you’re not sure about the plugin you can simply ask for a refund.

But why go through the effort of paying all that money and possibly the struggle of trying to get it back, when you can join a completely free, feature-rich online course platform?

Systeme.io: The perfect all-in-one platform to create your online courses

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is a powerful all-in-one platform that has everything you need to create, launch, market, and sell online courses, memberships, digital products, and webinars.

Our course building features include:

An easy drag-and-drop editor to quickly create courses
Using our sales funnel builder to design a course sales page that’ll stand out from your competitors
Integration with payments from your sales funnels and websites
Creating limited-time access to courses and webinars
Deliver your course content to students at a timed pace (drip content)
Allowing you to upload downloadables for your students
Sell various courses in a single package
Managing your students’ progress

You also won’t need to integrate any third-party tools because we are an all-in-one platform that has every tool for your business.

As an all-in-one platform, we still have more to offer:

systeme.io core features

Systeme.io’s pricing

Systeme.io offers 4 pricing plans:

systeme.io’s pricing plans

Free plan — $0/month for 1 course
Startup plan — $27/month for up to 5 courses
Webinar plan — $47/month for up to 20 courses
Unlimited plan — $97/month for unlimited courses

The Free plan offers you all of the essential features you need to get your online course business fully up and running, and it’s free forever.

If you want value for your money, amazing support, and all the tools you need to grow your online business, systeme.io is the online course platform for you!

You don’t have to take our word for it; take a look at what our customers have to say.

FAQs about WP Courseware

Do you have any other questions about the WP Courseware plugin?

We’ve compiled a list of 4 frequently asked questions and answered them for you.

Do you have to renew the license each year for WP Courseware to work?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: If your license lapses, you’ll still be capable of using the plugin.

However, it’s strongly recommended that you renew your license to ensure that you receive feature updates, bug fixes, and product support.

With so many themes and plugins continually being updated and frequent WordPress core releases, eventually outdated versions of the plugin will stop working properly.

Can you upgrade your license level after purchase?

Yes. You can do this by logging into the WP Courseware member portal, clicking on the “Licenses” tab, and then “View Upgrades”.

From there, you can upgrade your license for the price difference.

Does WP Courseware offer a single-site license?

No. At the moment, the 2-site license is WP Courseware’s lowest license level.

Does WP Courseware support webinars or live training?

WP Courseware itself doesn’t include built-in webinar functionality.

If you’d like to use webinars or live training in addition to your courses, you’ll have to search for and install a third-party WordPress plugin that offers webinar services.

Conclusion

If you want to create, manage, and sell online courses using WordPress, you’ll most likely benefit from what WP Courseware offers.

WP Courseware is a go-to plugin for individuals and businesses looking for ways to kick-start their online teaching careers and turn their knowledge into profits.

Overall, WP Courseware is an effective course creation tool, but it’s still missing functionality in some areas.

Alternatively, systeme.io lets you monitor your whole website from a single platform and gives you more features for no extra cost.

Build, market, and sell your online courses and digital products from one platform.