Frequently Asked Questions

Requirements and Compatibility

What plugins do I need for the dashboard to work?

Two plugins are required:

LearnDash LMS — the e-learning platform that your courses, students, and progress data live in.
Advanced Custom Fields PRO — the plugin that powers the frontend edit forms for courses, lessons, quizzes, and other content. The free version of ACF is not supported.

Everything else — BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Zoom, Uncanny Groups — is optional.

Can I use the dashboard without LearnDash?

No. LearnDash is a hard requirement. The dashboard reads and writes all course, student, and progress data through LearnDash. Without LearnDash installed and active, the plugin will not activate.

Is WooCommerce required?

No. WooCommerce is only needed if you want instructor commission tracking and earnings reporting. If you do not sell courses through WooCommerce, you can ignore the earnings and commission settings entirely.

Does it work on WordPress Multisite?

Yes, with one important note: activate the plugin on each site individually rather than network-activating it. Each site in your network maintains its own separate dashboard data, settings, and records.

Which version of LearnDash is supported?

LearnDash 4.x and newer. If you are running an older version of LearnDash, upgrade LearnDash before updating this plugin.

Is the dashboard available in other languages?

Yes. The dashboard supports translation into any language. The plugin includes a translation template file that you or a translator can use with tools like Poedit or the Loco Translate plugin. Once translated, place the language files in your WordPress languages folder and the dashboard will display in the correct language based on your site settings.

Setting Up the Dashboard

How do I add the dashboard to my site?

Create a new WordPress page (for example, “My Dashboard”).
Add [ld_dashboard] to the page content.
Publish the page.
Go to WordPress Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > General Settings and set the Dashboard Page to the page you just created.

Your dashboard is now live at that page’s URL.

How do I add the dashboard to my site navigation?

Go to Appearance > Menus.
Select the menu you want to edit.
Find your dashboard page in the Pages list and add it to the menu.
Save the menu.

Can I change the dashboard URL?

Yes. The dashboard URL is simply the URL of the WordPress page that contains the dashboard shortcode. To change it, edit that page and change the page slug under Permalink settings in the editor. After changing it, go to LearnDash Dashboard > General Settings and confirm the Dashboard Page mapping still points to the correct page.

How many tabs can I show in the sidebar?

You can show as many tabs as you need. Go to Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > Menu Options to control which tabs are visible for each user role. The dashboard supports up to 28 different tabs across all user roles.

Instructors and Students

Can students create courses?

No. Only users with the instructor or administrator role can create and edit courses. Students see a read-only view of their enrolled courses, quiz attempts, assignments, and certificates.

How do I make a user an instructor?

You have two options:

Manually: Go to WordPress Admin > Users > All Users, edit the user, and change their role to LD Instructor.
Self-service: Go to Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > General Settings and enable the Apply Instructor Button. This adds a “Become an Instructor” button to the student dashboard. Students submit an application, you review it, and approve or reject it. Approved applicants receive an email and are upgraded to the instructor role automatically.

Can an instructor manage a course they did not create?

Yes, through course sharing. The course owner can share their course with another instructor directly from the course edit form on the dashboard. The co-instructor can then view and edit the course. They cannot delete it.

Shared courses are clearly labelled in the co-instructor’s dashboard so they know at a glance which courses they own and which are shared with them.

What is the difference between a Group and a Course?

A Course is a single LearnDash learning unit — it contains lessons, topics, quizzes, and assignments.

A Group is a container that bundles multiple courses together and assigns them to a set of students. When a student joins a group, they get access to all courses in that group automatically. Group leaders are responsible for managing their groups — adding or removing students, viewing progress, and generating enrollment codes.

Enrollment Codes

How do enrollment codes work?

Enrollment codes let students enroll themselves in a course or group without an admin doing it manually. You generate a batch of codes from Dashboard > Bulk Management > Enrollment Codes. Students enter a code on the dashboard to gain instant access.

Can I limit how many times a code can be used?

Yes. When generating a code batch, set the Maximum Redemptions value. Use 1 for single-use codes (useful for individual invitations). A higher number lets multiple students use the same code — useful for a class or cohort.

Can codes expire?

Yes. When generating codes you can set an expiry date. Codes entered after that date will not work.

Reports and Analytics

How do I view student progress?

Instructors can see student progress from several places:

The Insights tab shows course-level completion rates, top courses by enrollment, and time spent learning.
The Quiz Report tab shows individual student quiz scores and attempts.
The Assignment Report tab shows submitted assignments and their approval status.
The Essay Report tab shows open-ended quiz question submissions.
Click into any course from the Courses tab to see per-student progress for that course.

Why is my statistics data out of date?

Dashboard statistics are cached and refresh automatically several times a day. If you need fresh data right now — for example, after a bulk enrollment — go to Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > General Settings and use the Refresh Statistics option.

Can I export reports?

Yes. The admin report pages for quiz results, assignment status, essay submissions, and course progress each have an Export button. You can export in CSV or Excel format. Apply your filters first, then export — the export matches what is currently displayed.

How many students can the dashboard handle?

The dashboard is designed to scale. Reports load data one page at a time, so even sites with tens of thousands of student records can browse them smoothly. For best performance on large sites, use a hosting plan with Redis caching enabled. See the Performance Tips page for detailed guidance.

Communication

Can instructors email their students from the dashboard?

Yes. The Email tab (when enabled in settings) lets instructors compose and send emails to any or all of their students. Instructors can address a whole course, a specific group, or individual students. There are seven ready-made email templates available — welcome messages, quiz retry prompts, inactivity reminders, and more — to save time.

Do private messages work without BuddyPress?

Yes. The dashboard has its own built-in private messaging system. Students and instructors can exchange private messages from the Private Messages tab without BuddyPress. If BuddyPress is active on your site, you can optionally route messages through BuddyPress messaging instead.

Customisation

Can I change the dashboard colors and design?

Yes. Go to WordPress Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > Design Settings to customize colors, fonts, and layout options to match your brand.

Can I override email templates?

Yes. Copy the email template files from the plugin’s templates folder into a folder called ld-dashboard/emails/ inside your active theme. The dashboard will use your theme copies instead of the built-in templates. Plugin updates will not overwrite your customisations.

Can I add custom fields to courses and lessons?

Yes. You can create custom ACF field groups and configure them to appear on the dashboard’s course or lesson edit forms. This lets you collect any additional information from instructors when they create or edit content. Contact the Wbcom Designs support team if you need guidance on setting this up.

Licensing and Updates

How do I receive automatic updates?

Enter your license key at WordPress Admin > LearnDash Dashboard > Welcome. With an active license, plugin updates appear in the standard WordPress update notifications. Click Update Now to apply them.

What happens if my license expires?

The plugin keeps working. You lose access to automatic updates and priority support until you renew. Renew your license at wbcomdesigns.com to restore both.

Support

How do I report a bug or get help?

Visit wbcomdesigns.com/support/ and open a support ticket. Include:

Your WordPress, PHP, LearnDash, ACF PRO, and LearnDash Dashboard version numbers
A description of what you see and what you expected
Steps to reproduce the problem
Any error messages you have noticed

Where is the full documentation?

Documentation: docs.wbcomdesigns.com/docs/learndash-dashboard/
Support: wbcomdesigns.com/support/