Entries by Ryan

xAPI Quiz Reporting: Beta

May 31, 2019 /0 Comments/in , /by

Today’s release of Tin Canny LearnDash Reporting added some extremely significant new features for anyone working with xAPI modules inside LearnDash. Because they are big changes and have not yet been tested extensively on live sites, for now we’re considering them “beta” additions and we recommend caution when trying them out. Track xAPI Quiz Scores The biggest change is that we now support collecting quiz data from xAPI records. For our current Tin Canny users, you know that in previous releases we collected scores and verbs from xAPI and SCORM records only. There were several reasons for this, but an important one was that earlier Tin Canny releases were not as efficient with very large sets of data and in early development we decided to capture and report on the most important data only so that we kept database records down and performance up. We estimate that around 10% of Tin Canny users requested that we add quiz data as well though, so now, in beta form, we’re making that option available. Here’s what we came up with as a starting point: This is going to be hugely beneficial to sites that offer quiz questions inside uploaded modules, because it now makes […]

Site Check

May 31, 2019 /0 Comments/in /by

Having some trouble with Tin Canny? Before you file a support ticket, versions 3.2 and higher of Tin Canny include a Site Check tool to quickly diagnose common problems. If you experience issues related to modules not loading, the Mark Complete button not unlocking, or xAPI not being tracked, start with this. Using the check is as easy as visiting the Site Check tab in the Tin Canny section of /wp-admin/. If you’ve made changes, click the Re-check button to validate the new settings. Anything that doesn’t pass suggests that you will have problems with Tin Canny operations and the system will suggest possible causes. If you can’t resolve them on your own, reach out to Uncanny Owl support and we can lend a hand.

Pro Updates: Faster Learndash and a New Dashboard

May 24, 2019 /3 Comments/in , /by

Every time we make a blog post about one of our plugin updates it’s because it’s a huge update with new features, and for today’s Uncanny Learndash Toolkit Pro 3.2 update that’s especially true. This one has been in development for quite some time, and the new features are going to make a huge difference to LearnDash sites, especially ones with a lot of content. Faster LearnDash Lesson & Topic Performance We’re most excited about adding a new Lazy Loading Course Navigation tool. We get inquiries all the time about how to improve LearnDash site performance at the enterprise level. This includes sites with potentially hundreds of courses and thousands of LearnDash lessons and topics. On those sites, things can really get slowed down just because of the volume of content; queries get really heavy just to check course content relationships and progress within courses. On larger sites, we’ve seen these queries add seconds (yes, plural) to every page load that students make inside a course. You can’t really take away navigation aids from inside courses—but you can now load them after the rest of the page loads. That’s what our new [uo-course-navigation] shortcode does. Use it in place of the normal […]

Lazy Loading Course Navigation

May 24, 2019 /0 Comments/in /by

Note: This module requires version 3.2 or higher of the Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit Pro plugin. The Lazy Loading Course Navigation module adds a very simple feature to LearnDash sites: it replaces the default Course Navigation widget with one that loads after the rest of the page loads. On sites with a lot of LearnDash posts (courses, lessons, topics and quizzes), this behaviour change can result in pages inside courses loading in up to 25% faster than with the standard Course Navigation widget. To use the Lazy Loading Course Navigation tool, turn on the module in the Toolkit settings, then add this shortcode to wherever you want to use it (typically in a widget area for a sidebar): [uo-course-navigation] The Lazy Loading Navigation module will inherit styles used for the standard Course Navigation widget in LearnDash. You can also add an extra title above the navigation widget using the module Settings, but in most cases we recommend leaving it blank. Please note that this module is intended primarily for sites with a lot of LearnDash courses, lessons, topics and/or quizzes. Smaller sites won’t see much benefit from this tool and may prefer to continue using the standard LearnDash Course Navigation widget instead.

Introducing Automatic Template Overrides

April 23, 2019 /0 Comments/in , /by

We’re in the middle of another big round of plugin updates and perhaps one of the most exciting addition to our plugins is support for template overrides. Basically, this feature allows you to take key HTML elements from our plugins, copy the templates into your child theme, make modifications to them, and not be worried about your customizations disappearing when you update the plugins. Last week’s Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit Pro (3.1) and LearnDash Groups (3.0.4) and this week’s Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit (3.1) updates are the first to support this new behavior. Using the overrides is really easy; find something you want to override in the /src/templates folders of our plugins, copy that file to your child theme (into an /uncanny-toolkit/ folder for the Toolkit plugins, /uncanny-groups/ for the Groups plugin), and then apply your changes to the new file.  If the file is in a subfolder of the /src/templates folder, replicate the same folder structure inside the override folder (e.g. /src/templates/frontend-login/default-login.php would go in /your-child-theme/uncanny-toolkit/templates/frontend-login/default-login.php). Certainly this feature is intended primarily for developers, who can build some very powerful features using our plugins as a base. Perhaps you want to add a new field to our Enhanced Course Grid, like an […]

Tin Canny 3.0

March 6, 2019 /0 Comments/in , /by

We’ve had some big 3.0 plugin releases over the last few weeks, but today’s Tin Canny release is the biggest overhaul yet. It’s basically a complete rewrite of the reporting engine to improve performance and scalability on larger sites, with lots of smaller improvements and new features thrown in to round things out. Almost everything about reporting is now different, so if you’re an existing user, we highly recommend testing on a Staging site first. Beyond the improvements behind the scenes, there’s a lot different on the front end too—starting with a complete redesign of all reports and charts. They’re far more mobile-friendly and easy to use. Breadcrumb links are new, and now individual user reports include Gravatar images if available for your users. This helps to personalize reports and make them more visually appealing. Tin Canny hadn’t yet fully supported Adobe Captivate 2019, but now it does! The 3.0 release of Tin Canny will help you get more out of Captivate on your LearnDash sites—as will even more controls over resetting Tin Canny SCORM and xAPI records. Tin Canny 3.0 supports purging records for individual users. For testing purposes or clearing bad data, this is going to be a big help […]

Uncanny LearnDash Groups 3.0

February 12, 2019 /5 Comments/in /by

It’s time for another 3.0 plugin release! We’ve had some big 3.0 releases over the last few weeks, but today’s Uncanny LearnDash Groups 3.0 update is really in a class of its own with new features. If you use LearnDash Groups, you should be very excited. One thing that really set our Groups plugin apart was the flexible ecommerce offerings it made possible. You could create and sell course bundles to organizations, let people pick and choose their own courses to create groups, even set up all of that with subscription support. But it never offered a way for learners to add themselves to groups with a purchase. Well, now it does. Learners can buy a WooCommerce product that adds them to a LearnDash Group automatically. Just create a product, map it to a LearnDash Group, and anyone that buys it gets added to the group. No codes, no changing the user to a Group Leader, the learner just gets instantly added to the group. And did we mention full support for subscriptions with the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin? That’s right, set up a subscription product, map it to a group, and the user gets access to the group but only for as long as they […]

Uncanny LearnDash Codes 3.0

February 1, 2019 /0 Comments/in /by

Following up on our recent Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit, Pro and Continuing Education Credits 3.0 releases, today we’re excited to announce the 3.0 version of our popular Codes plugin for LearnDash! The Uncanny LearnDash Enrollment Codes plugin makes it easy to add learners to LearnDash courses and groups using codes you can generate on your website. It’s often used to sell access to LearnDash courses and groups from another website (such as from Shopify), completely offline (a popular use is bundling codes in book sales or posting codes at trade shows), or even shared in newsletters. It opens up a world of opportunities for getting people onto your WordPress site and into LearnDash courses. In the 3.0 release we’re adding some frequently requested features that make it even easier to manage large sets of codes. A recent client project that required generating and managing over one million codes inspired us to add powerful code search capabilities and a way to expire coupon codes by date and time—automatically. As with all of our 3.0 releases, the new Codes update also includes some Gutenberg blocks as well as the new Uncanny 3.0 architecture. This includes easier access to support resources and our help desk. For […]

Continuing Education Credits 3.0

January 23, 2019 /0 Comments/in , /by

As part of our series of 3.0 releases for our LearnDash plugins, today marks the release of the 3.0 update for Uncanny Continuing Education Credits. While Pro, Tin Canny and Groups tend to get all the attention, the Continuing Education Credits plugin is one that has been invaluable for some of our own projects, especially for the permanent record it creates of LearnDash course completions. With the latest changes, we’re confident it will be an even bigger asset to sites offering continuing education credits and compliance training. Here’s some of what’s changing in the 3.0 release: New Report Designs: We’ve completely redesigned both admin and front end reports so that everything is modern, responsive, and more intuitive. New Report Filters: Filter admin reports by date range, user or group. It’s even easier to get to the specific data you need. Gutenberg Block Support: We’re adding eight new Gutenberg blocks for shortcodes and reports to make it easier to incorporate credit reporting into the front end of your LearnDash site. Uncanny 3.0 Plugin Architecture: Now it’s even easier to get support right from your WordPress site and the control panel is aligned with our other plugins. The 3.0 release also includes a number […]

Annual Compliance Programs with WordPress

January 21, 2019 /6 Comments/in , /by

It seems like a simple scenario: Staff need to complete the same courses every year and those completions need to be tracked. Yet, if you deliver your elearning programs with WordPress, you probably know how difficult this is to achieve. Here’s where things with a WordPress-based LMS start to break down: WordPress LMS plugins don’t track historical completions. Once a learner completes the course once, that’s it. They can’t trigger a second completion. If you reset course progress, it resets everything. That’s probably why plugins make it difficult or impossible to reset progress. With the help of some addon plugins, however, it is absolutely possible to use WordPress as a platform to deliver annual compliance training. This article outlines how you can do it with the popular LearnDash LMS plugin for WordPress. Create a Permanent Record of Course Completions This is really the most important step. If you can’t track historical completions, you can’t offer annual compliance programs. Fortunately, one of our commercial LearnDash plugins makes this easy. The Uncanny Continuing Education Credits plugin automatically creates a permanent record of completions as users finish courses. Don’t let the name fool you; the plugin does far more than award credits for completing courses. And, […]