AutomatorWP LearnDash Addon

A rule that gives progress needs another that takes it away

You automate enrollment: when someone pays, they enter the course. It works, and you forget about it. Months later, a student should no longer be there and nobody removed them, because the rule only knew how to enroll.

In a LearnDash automation, what one rule gives that same rule does not take away: every rule that grants access needs another one, with its own event, to withdraw it.

This add-on connects AutomatorWP to LearnDash and brings both halves of almost everything. There is an action to enroll and another to unenroll. There is one to mark a lesson as completed and another to mark it as not completed. There are also actions to reset a course's progress and to reset a quiz's attempts. Mind the split: enrolling is free, but unenrolling, marking as not completed, resetting and removing from a group are Pro level, as are the four filters. If you build only the half that gives, the site accumulates permissions nobody withdraws.

What it listens to and what it changes in your courses

The triggers cover what a student does:

• Quizzes: attempting, passing or failing, and completing with a grade greater than, less than or equal to a percentage, or between two percentages. Also submitting an essay.
• Content: viewing or completing a topic, a lesson or a course, and completing them within a category or a tag.
• Enrollment and groups: enrolling in a course, or in one of a certain category or tag, and being added to a group.
• Assignments and feedback: uploading an assignment, having an assignment approved, reviewing a course, or marking a topic or lesson as incomplete.

The actions let you mark topics, lessons and courses as completed or not completed, enroll and unenroll, create groups, add or remove users from a group and name a leader. They also approve or disapprove the assignments of a lesson or a course, extend access to a course by a number of days and change its enrollment mode.

Other actions send an email to the leaders of the user's group or send a certificate by email. And there are four filters: being enrolled or not in a course, and being in a group or not.

An idea to test: enroll on payment and unenroll on completion

This pair of rules is our own and should be tested before you use it with real students. The first uses a trigger from another plugin, for example a purchase, and the action to enroll in a course. The second uses the trigger for completing that course and the action to unenroll.

Test with a dummy account that buys, studies and finishes. Check whether in the end it keeps or loses access to the materials, and whether the certificate, if you send one, arrives before access is lost.

Completing a course can also fire an action from another plugin, such as sending data to Zapier.

Functions it does not include

The add-on does not bring the courses: it needs LearnDash to have topics, lessons, quizzes and groups to act on. Among its functions there is no screen of its own for reports; rules are created and reviewed in AutomatorWP.

There are four filters and all of them are about enrollments and groups. If you need a condition of another kind, you will have to solve it with the right trigger or with another integration.

Building the first rule

You need AutomatorWP and LearnDash active on the site. Then:

1. Install and activate the add-on with the WordPress plugin installer.
2. Open AutomatorWP in the side menu and create an automation.
3. Choose a LearnDash trigger, for example completing a course.
4. Add the action, for example marking a lesson as completed or sending a certificate.
5. Activate the automation and test it with a test student account.

Courses and automation in the catalog

For the plugin that runs the automations, see AutomatorWP Pro. For another add-on in the LearnDash ecosystem, review LearnDash ProPanel. You can also look at LearnDash Notifications.

Answers about AutomatorWP LearnDash

Can it enroll and unenroll a student?

Yes. It has one action for each, plus one to extend access by a number of days.

Does it react to quiz grades?

Yes. One trigger checks whether the grade is greater than, less than or equal to a percentage, and another whether it falls between two percentages.

Can it send certificates?

Yes, it has an action that sends a certificate by email.

Does it work with LearnDash groups?

Yes. It can create groups, add or remove users and name a leader.