Why Course Authors Should Have Limited Backend Access And How You Can Achieve That
Several learning organizations and academic centers are taking the digital route with Learning Management Systems.
Learning Management Systems (or LMSs) make learning materials accessible on the go, anytime, anywhere! Undoubtedly, LMSs provide learning administrators a solid platform to craft well-structured learning content.
LearnDash - A Household Name In the LMS Space
In the short time that LearnDash has existed, it has grown in popularity to become a recognized name in eLearning. Considering that it is a WordPress extension, it is easy to set up a LearnDash website and integrate needed features as extensions.
LearnDash is packed with essential as well as premium features to help you set up a single instructor or multiple tutor eLearning website.
Pulling Students In With Good Content
When running your eLearning website, the most important factor that’ll keep learners interested and attract new students is good course content! Sure your website design plays a key role and it’ll help you get students to look at your courses; but the only thing that’ll keep them engaged is your courses.
When you’re the only one running the show, it’s easy to maintain high standards. But what happens when you get multiple course authors on board? How do you make sure the quality of your website and content is maintained? How do you make sure they don’t mess with other parts of your website or your course content?
Well, there is some manual effort involved, but we’ll take a look at some tools that can help us simplify this task.
Holding The Reins On A Multi-Instructor Website
Offering several courses can help you attract a wider student audience. But to be able to offer diverse content you need the help of Subject Matter Experts, and that means multiple course authors.
While there are more pros to running a multi-instructor website as opposed to cons, a major problem here is to maintain course quality. Each course author might have a specific style, they may be good teachers but not good at Instructional Design; worst yet, they may not be good at technology and might not understand how to upload content on your website.
You need to find the means to tackle these problems.
One Plugin, Multiple Solutions
Owing to the popularity of LearnDash, you know that it offers several extensions to address instructor problems. And since your particular problem is quite common when it comes to multi-instructor websites or course marketplaces, there’s a plugin that meets your need.
Meet The Front End Course Creation Plugin
With Front End Course Creation you’ve got 2 important features to get you covered:
1. Restrict Backend Access
The security of your website trumps the quality of your website. Keeping with that, the primary function of this plugin is to restrict backend access for your fellow instructors. Considering that back end is where the sensitive information is, blocking access to it is addressed by the plugin.
All you need to do is create a “Course Author” profile for contributing instructors. With this profile, an instructor can post courses through forms on the frontend and does not have backend access.
Another advantage of keeping course authors on the front end is that they are shielded from the complexities of the back end, and do not need to know WordPress or LearnDash to upload their courses.
2. Review Course Content
Now, maintaining the quality of your courses involves some manual effort. You have to review content before it goes up on your site. With Front End Course Creator, you can set an option to prevent courses from directly being published on your site. Courses can be saved as drafts to be reviewed by you, and then be published.
Surely instructors who you confide in, could definitely be upgraded from “Course Authors” to regular instructors.
Side Note
Now, you could argue that a capability management plugin could be used to address your issues. But Front End Course Creation is more than a capability management plugin. Along with restricting instructor capabilities, it is a management plugin as well.
It allows you, the LearnDash admin, to set and track commissions for paid courses created by course authors. Also, the plugin is BuddyPress-compatible to let you create instructor profiles on the frontend.
A Recap
When building a multi-author LearnDash website, you need to make sure that course content quality and the security of your website are not meddled with. Considering the importance of these two factors, the plugin for the job is Front End Course Creation.
It offers the benefit of creating and managing a multi-author website without worrying about content security.
Next steps? You’re encouraged to check out the plugin in detail and see it working live on the demo site!
