In the previous articles, we covered everything about the Course and Lessons menus in LearnDash, and now it’s time to learn about the Topic menu.
A Topic in LearnDash is simply a class within a module; each class is called a topic.
Check out our full LearnDash guide for beginners.
Editing Topics
Inside a topic, you can add all the content for that class. I’ll admit I find LearnDash’s naming a bit confusing, even though it’s customizable, since a topic is closer to what most people would call a lesson, and a lesson is closer to what most people would call a module.
A topic, then, would be a class with a beginning, middle, and end within a given subject. Of course, you can also split a longer class into several topics.
What should go inside a topic?
That depends on how your course is set up. But the topic is where you add the video lesson for that class (if there’s a video), along with text and images (if any). Students can move from topic to topic until they complete the module, or you can attach a quiz or an assignment to that topic.
In the native LearnDash experience, meaning without addons, you can’t make topics very interactive, but there are addons that let students chat with an AI about the subject, or send questions to the instructor directly from the topic page. If you’d like to let students comment on a class, you can enable WordPress’s native comments under LearnDash LMS → Settings → Custom Post Types → Topics → Comments, or enable comments individually on each topic. Plugins like wpDiscuz can help extend LearnDash’s native comment functionality.
For more fluid discussions and direct messaging, plugins like bbPress and BuddyBoss are useful, giving your course that community/social network feel.
Topic Settings
Now, moving on to the individual settings for each topic, we have some options we’ve already seen in previous articles, such as:
Topic Material: great for adding materials to a specific topic, such as a PDF, images, a document related to a task, or information about an assignment for that class.
Video Progression: forces the student to watch the entire class video before being able to move forward.
Assignment Uploads: here you can add a file upload box, accepting formats like PDF, XLS, ZIP, DOC, etc., set a maximum file size, and choose whether the assignment is auto-approved or manually reviewed by a teacher, instructor, or course admin. You can also award points to students who submit files.
Topic Timer: a timer you can add to a topic so the student can only move on to the next class once a set amount of time has passed on that lesson. The Video Progression, Assignment Upload, and Topic Timer options need to be compatible with each other to work properly. For example, if you enable the option for students to submit an assignment on that class, the Topic Timer is automatically disabled, and the same happens with Video Progression.
Topic Release Schedule: simply choose whether this class will be available immediately when the student enrolls, on an enrollment basis, meaning released a set number of days after enrollment, or on a specific date, where you set an exact day for it to become available.
As we saw in the Lessons settings, there’s also an External Topic option. If enabled, it means this class will take place externally, whether via Zoom or in person. The best and most practical way to share information about a live class, such as a Zoom link or in-person details, is to create a topic called something like “Live Class” and add information there such as the date, location, and live link.
Course Grid Options
As the name suggests, Course Grid options are information blocks you can place throughout your site. For example, if you want to create a page featuring a few specific classes, you can use a shortcode like [ld_topic_list course_id="123"], which will display a box showing information about that topic, including:
- Short description: a short description of this topic.
- Duration: the duration of this topic.
- Custom button text: the button text you’ll choose for the topic’s grid box, something like “See more”.
- Custom ribbon text: used to add a banner on the grid to draw attention to it, such as “New lesson”, “New topic”, “Free”, etc.
Global Topic Settings
Currently, LearnDash only has two global options for topics.
The first is about taxonomies, and “Topic Categories” and “Topic Tags” usually come enabled by default. These options let you organize topics by categories or tags. This is very useful when you want to group different types of classes, for example: prehistory, Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, and so on.
I hope this article helps you understand how topics work. If you need a professional to optimize your LearnDash site, feel free to get in touch.
