Course Builder

Course Builder

The LearnDash course builder provides an easy, intuitive way to build out your courses. You can add new sections, lessons, topics & quizzes without ever leaving the page. This article explains how to use every aspect of the course builder to make creating & editing courses a breeze.
NOTE
The course builder is enabled by default, but if you don』t see it when editing your course, double-check that it』s enabled in your global course settings.
Table of Contents [show]1 Access the Course Builder1.1 For Existing Courses1.2 Creating Your First Course?2 Course Builder Overview3 Add Content to Your Course3.1 Section Headings3.2 Lessons3.2.1 Create New Lessons3.2.2 Add Existing Lessons3.2.3 Edit a Lesson Title3.2.4 Edit a Lesson』s Content3.2.5 Remove a Lesson3.3 Topics3.3.1 Create New Topics3.3.2 Add Existing Topics3.3.3 Edit a Topic』s Title3.3.4 Edit a Topic』s Content3.3.5 Remove a Topic3.4 Quizzes3.4.1 Create New Quizzes3.4.2 Add Existing Quizzes3.4.3 Edit a Quiz Title3.4.4 Edit Quiz Settings & Questions3.4.5 Remove a Quiz4 Rearrange Course Content4.1 Drag & drop4.2 「Move」 Arrows4.3 Was this article helpful to you?
Access the Course Builder
There are a few ways you can access the LearnDash course builder.
For Existing Courses
If you』ve already created a course:

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Hover over an existing course
Click the 「Builder」 link

Alternatively, you can click on the course title or 「Edit」 link to bring up the 「Edit Course」 page. Once there, click the 「Builder」 tab in the top navigation bar.

Creating Your First Course?

Navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES
Click the 「Add New」 button at the top of the page
Click the 「Builder」 tab in the top navigation bar

Course Builder Overview
At the top of the course builder, you』ll see:

The total number of steps in the course

This is comprised of all lessons, topics & and the final quiz that have been assigned to the course

An 「Undo」 link, after you』ve made your first edit
A link to 「Expand All」 or 「Collapse All」 course steps

This makes it easier to see all steps at once, and more quickly rearrange, add or remove course steps

Immediately following this, you』ll see all of your course content. This is where you』ll spend the majority of your time building out your course.

Add Content to Your Course
There are multiple ways to add content with the course builder. How you go about adding your content will depend on a few things:

what type of content you』re adding
personal preference

IMPORTANT
All new content created via the Course Builder (i.e. Lessons, Topics, and Quizzes) is automatically published and set to 「Public」 once the changes are saved for the course.
Section Headings
Section headings (requires LearnDash 3.0+) provide a simple way to break your course into sections. They don』t contain any actual content, and are simply a text-only heading that can be placed between any two lessons. They work in a similar fashion to chapters in a book.

Click on the lesson before where you want the section heading to appear
Click the 「New Section Heading」 link
Type your heading
Hit ENTER, or click the 「Add Section Heading」 button

To edit a section heading…

Click on its title
Make your edits
Press ENTER or click the 「Save」 button

To remove a section heading…

Hover over the section heading
Click the red 「Remove」 link

For the remainder of the content we』re going to discuss (lessons, topics & quizzes), you have two options:

create them first, one at a time, and then use the course builder to add them to your course, -or-
create them with the course builder, organize them within the course however you』d like, and then go back later to add content to them

This depends on your own personal preference and how you』ve chosen to develop your course content.
Lessons
Aside from section headings, lessons will likely be the first type of content you』ll want to add to your course. You can create brand new lessons directly from the course builder, or add existing lessons that you』ve already created. Let』s take a look at each.
Create New Lessons

Click the 「New Lesson」 link
Type the name of your lesson
Press ENTER, or click the 「Add Lesson」 button

Add Existing Lessons
Your existing lessons can be found in the 「Lessons」 box in the sidebar. By default, your most recent lessons are shown, but you can click 「View all」 to see all lessons, or use the search box to find a specific lesson by title.
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
NOTE
If you don』t see the lessons box depicted below, click the icon to display the sidebar.

There are multiple ways to add existing lessons.
Add a single lesson: Hover over a lesson in the lesson box and click the 「Add」 button. This will add the lesson to the end of your course.

Add multiple lessons: Select the checkbox next to multiple lessons, and then click the 「Add Selected」 button. This will add all selected lessons to the end of your course.

Drag & drop: If you』d like to add lessons in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the lesson to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the lesson in your specified location within the course.

Edit a Lesson Title

Click on the title of the lesson
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the 「Save」 button

Edit a Lesson』s Content
If you』d like to edit the content within a lesson, you can click the blue 「Edit」 link that appears when you hover over a lesson.

NOTE
This will open the 「Edit Lesson」 page in the same window. Be sure to save any edits to your course first.
Remove a Lesson
Hover over the lesson you』d like to remove from the course, and click the red 「Remove」 link.
Topics
Topics are completely optional, but are great for breaking up content within a lesson. A course must contain at least one lesson in order to add a topic. Let』s walk through how to create new topics, as well as add existing ones, with the course builder.
Create New Topics

Make sure your course has at least one lesson. Follow the instructions above to add your first lesson.
You need to expand the lesson by either clicking 「Expand all」 at the top of the builder, or click the down arrow to the right of the lesson
Click the 「New Topic」 link
Type the name of your topic
Hit ENTER, or click the 「Add Topic」 button

Add Existing Topics
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
Your existing topics can be found in the 「Topics」 box next to the course builder. By default, your most recent topics are shown, but you can click 「View all」 to see all topics, or use the search box to find a specific topic by title.

There are multiple ways to add existing topics.
NOTE
Before adding topics, you should click on the lesson where you want to insert a topic. This will select the lesson, highlighting it with a grey background & blue border.
Add a single topic: Hover over a topic in the topic box and click the 「Add」 button. This will add the topic to the end of whichever lesson you currently have selected.

Add multiple topics: Select the checkbox next to multiple topics, and then click the 「Add Selected」 button. This will add all selected topics to the end of your currently selected lesson.

Drag & drop: If you』d like to add topics in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the topic to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the topic in your specified location within the course.
Edit a Topic』s Title

Click on the title of the topic
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the 「Save」 button

Edit a Topic』s Content
If you』d like to edit the content within a topic, you can click the blue 「Edit」 link that appears when you hover over a topic.

NOTE
You can open this link in a new tab so you can easily return to the course builder without losing your place.
Remove a Topic
Hover over the topic you』d like to remove, and click the red 「Remove」 link.
Quizzes
Quizzes can be added to lessons & topics, or as a final quiz to the course itself. Any combination of these will work. You can create new quizzes directly from the course builder, or pull in existing quizzes you』ve already created.
Course quizzes are located at the bottom of the course builder, under the 「FINAL QUIZZES」 heading. Lesson & topic quizzes can be found within the lesson/topic that they belong to.
Create New Quizzes

Navigate to the lesson/topic where you want to add a quiz (or simply scroll to the 「FINAL QUIZZES」 section at the bottom)
Click the 「New Quiz」 link
Type the name of your quiz
Hit ENTER, or click the 「Add Quiz」 button

Add Existing Quizzes
IMPORTANT
Shared Course Steps must be enabled or existing lessons, topics, and quizzes will not be available for selection.
Your existing quizzes can be found in the 「Quizzes」 box in the sidebar. By default, your most recent quizzes are shown, but you can click 「View all」 to see all quizzes, or use the search box to find a specific quiz by title.
There are multiple ways to add existing quizzes.
Add a single quiz: Hover over a quiz in the quiz box and click the 「Add」 button.

Add multiple quizzes: Select the checkbox next to multiple quizzes, and then click the 「Add Selected」 button.

Drag & drop: If you』d like to add quizzes in a particular spot within your course, you can click & hold down your mouse, drag the quiz to the course builder in the spot you want it, and then release. This will place the quiz in your desired location within the course.
Edit a Quiz Title

Click on the title of the quiz
Make your edits
Hit ENTER or click the 「Save」 button

Edit Quiz Settings & Questions
If you』d like to edit the quiz settings and/or quiz questions, click the blue 「Edit」 link that appears when you hover over a quiz.

NOTE
You can open this link in a new tab so you can easily return to the course builder without losing your place.
Remove a Quiz
Hover over the quiz you』d like to remove, and click the red 「Remove」 link.
Rearrange Course Content
In addition to adding content, you can also use the course builder to rearrange lessons, topics & quizzes. There are two ways to move content around.
Drag & drop
Immediately before each section heading, lesson, topic & quiz, you』ll find an icon with 6 dots. When you hover over this icon, your cursor will turn into a hand. This means you can click, hold down, and drag that piece of content to another place within your course.

「Move」 Arrows
Also located before each section heading & lesson, you』ll find up and down arrows above and below the drag & drop icon. Clicking these arrows will move the content either up or down.
NOTE
At this time, the move arrows are only available for section headings & lessons, not topics or quizzes.

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