The Uncanny Owl Blog

2023 – Year in Review

December 21, 2023/0 Comments/in News, Uncanny Automator, Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit/by Ryan Moore

2023 has been a huge year for Uncanny Owl and there’s a lot for our team and customers to celebrate. From plugin releases to WordCamp Europe to customer support, the year was packed with milestones and accomplishments. 🥳🥳 Plugin releases So far in 2023 we have released a total of 90 plugin updates, with 1 or 2 more expected before year-end. (Yes, that does mean we released a plugin update more frequently than once every 3 business days!) Here’s the breakdown: Uncanny LearnDash plugins: 41 releases Uncanny Automator: 30 releases Uncanny Automator Pro: 17 releases New Custom User Fields Addon for Automator: 2 releases New Restrict Content Addon for Automator: 1 release Every single one of our plugins gained new features this year. Here are some of the highlights: Uncanny Automator: Webhook retries and response support, new log system, robust OpenAI support, >30 integrations Uncanny Automator Pro: User Loops, Post Loops, Run Now, the Formatter Uncanny Toolkit Pro: New modules for Drip Topics by Group, Bulk Certificate Download, Autocomplete on Fluent Forms and Formidable Forms submission Tin Canny Reporting: New module upload system, new lesson and topic completion reports Uncanny Groups: Manage group hierarchy relationships in the front end, new front […]

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How to Reset LearnDash Course Progress

November 14, 2023/0 Comments/in Uncanny Automator/by Brendan Da Costa

Let’s go back to the beginning! Reset LearnDash course progress with Uncanny Automator for all of your compliance, education, training and certification needs. Going back to where you started isn’t always a bad thing. Just think of what happens every time you pass “Go” in Monopoly! LearnDash LMS users know, better than most, the value of starting over again. Especially in the realms of compliance training and recertification, the ability to hit the reset button is vital for learners and administrators alike. That’s why so many LearnDash users trust Uncanny Automator. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of resetting your LearnDash users’ progress with the #1 teacher’s assistant, Uncanny Automator. Provide your learners with the chance to start their educational journeys anew while simultaneously streamlining tasks for your busy course administrators. Without further ado, let’s push that reset button! Uncanny Automator for LearnDash LearnDash is the #1 LMS for WordPress users. Likewise, Uncanny Automator is #1 automation and integration tool for WordPress. Together they make an unbeatable elearning platform! Using combinations of triggers and actions, Automator can help you streamline your administrative workflows, save time and reduce costs. Furthermore, Automator seamlessly integrates LearnDash with all […]

Uncanny CEUs: LearnDash Credit Report overhaul

November 8, 2023/0 Comments/in LearnDash, News/by Ryan Moore

WordPress sites offering continuing education credit programs with LearnDash tend to collect a lot of data about course completions. Our Uncanny Continuing Education Credits plugin makes it easy to track and manage CEUs and other credits, but over time, all of the user activity can generate a lot of data, sometimes tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of records. Loading this volume of data in a single report can sometimes be taxing on site resources, so in today’s Uncanny Continuing Education Credits 4.1 release, we’re excited to offer new reporting solutions targeted at performance. Faster LearnDash credit reports In the Uncanny CEUs 4.1 release, you’ll see a new Credit Report Settings section under Uncanny CEUs > Settings in /wp-admin/: Loading avatars for a large volume of users is slow, so you can disable that for better performance. Next we have 3 new options for “Report Mode”: Legacy: The system and queries that existed before 4.1. Should only be used for compatibility, like if you customized report output and credit capture outside of our plugin. Performance: The new default option, captures some data during user updates so some data is effectively “prefetched” and reduces user queries. Ludicrous: Generates cached […]

Uncanny Groups 5.4: Front End Group Hierarchy Management

November 1, 2023/0 Comments/in LearnDash/by Ryan Moore

We’re excited to announce the release of Uncanny Groups 5.4, which includes several significant new features for users of the #1 plugin for the sale, management and reporting of LearnDash groups. This release includes 5 key new additions to make group management even easier. Front End Group Hierarchy Management When group hierarchies are enabled in LearnDash settings, the Edit Group and Create Group tools in Uncanny Groups now support the ability to choose a parent for the selected group. To make this option available, just add the parent_selector=”show” attribute to the shortcode, like this: [uo_groups_create_group parent_selector=”show”]. Once that’s done, a new drop-down list for the parent group selection will be added to the form: For Group Leaders, of course, any group parent options must be groups that exist and the user must be a leader of the group. Group Leaders can only see groups that they’re associated with. This new functionality allows scenarios where Group Leaders have more control over their users, access and reporting. With the wizard to create a group enabled, Group Leaders could choose to set up new child groups for more granular access over courses and reporting rather than using a single large, top-level group. Group […]

Uncanny Groups: New Edit Group Wizard

August 15, 2023/0 Comments/in LearnDash/by Ryan Moore

The Uncanny Groups for LearnDash 5.3 release is now available! This update to our popular group management plugin for LearnDash adds 1 key new feature: a way to edit LearnDash groups in the front end. It’s an optional new tool that will make group edits a lot easier for many sites (and reduce the need for admin support). Edit LearnDash Groups in the Front End Uncanny Groups has supported front end LearnDash group creation for several years. Group editing was a much more difficult piece to tackle, as we had to consider implications for groups created via ecommerce, how to limit course access, what fields should and shouldn’t be available for editing, etc. In the 5.3 release, we’re adding a new shortcode and a new Gutenberg block to make group editing possible. Here’s the shortcode and the attributes it supports: [uo_groups_edit_group group_name=”show” total_seats=”show” group_courses=”show” category=”” course_category=””] There’s a lot to explain here, so let’s tackle each attribute. The first attribute, group_name, determines whether or not the user editing the group (i.e. the Group Leader or admin) can modify the group name from the group edit page. If the group supports seats, the total_seats attributes determines whether or not the user […]

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Tin Canny Update: New Uploader

July 24, 2023/0 Comments/in News, Tin Can/by Ryan Moore

Over the years, a common challenge elearning course authors have had with WordPress is uploading and managing really large files. It’s not uncommon to see xAPI and SCORM file sizes in the hundreds of MB, and a few weeks ago, we helped a user with a file that was over 5 GB in size. The WordPress upload system wasn’t really designed for files of this size, so a few months ago we started building a completely different upload system for our Tin Canny users. Introducing the new Tin Canny Uploader We’re excited to include the new uploader in our Tin Canny 4.3 release. This is what it looks like: How it works is very different than the uploader in previous versions. Instead of relying on WordPress to upload a huge file to the website, then unzip and process it, the new uploader uses your browser to inspect files in the zip folder and upload them individually. For large files, they are uploaded in chunks. This approach ensures that all files, regardless of size, and even if the web server doesn’t support unzip extensions, should work without issue. The new uploader works in all editors and page builders we currently support, as […]

Toolkit Pro 4.1: Drip topics & Autocomplete with Formidable Forms

June 1, 2023/0 Comments/in LearnDash, News/by Ryan Moore

We’re excited to announce another big release of our most popular premium plugin, Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash. The 4.1 update adds 3 completely new modules for LearnDash users: Drip Topics by LearnDash Group, Autocomplete Lessons & Topics on Fluent Forms Submission and Autocomplete Lessons & Topics on Formidable Forms Submission. There are also a few enhancements for existing modules that we’re excited to share. Drip Topics by LearnDash Group Current Toolkit Pro users will already be familiar with our popular drip module for lessons, “Drip Lessons by LearnDash Group“. As you might expect, this new module is effectively the same thing as what we offer for lessons–except for topics. The settings will all be familiar, and there’s even support for the LearnDash Notifications plugin. Autocomplete Lessons & Topics on Form Submission The 2 new modules for Formidable Forms and Fluent Forms mirror what we have for Gravity Forms and WPForms. With the new tools, we can detect when a Formidable Form or Fluent Form appears on a lesson or topic page, hide the Mark Complete button, and require the users to submit a form entry. In Formidable Forms (and other other form integrations), the user will be advanced to the […]

Uncanny Owl Turns 10

May 22, 2023/6 Comments/in News/by Ryan Moore

Ten long years ago, on May 29, 2013, Ken and I (Ryan) cofounded Uncanny Owl. With absolutely no experience starting or managing a business, no clear direction, and 4 children under the age of 3 between us, walking away from our stable, mid-level jobs at great companies somehow seemed like a good idea. Here we are in our Toronto office in June 2013 (we ended up abandoning a physical office in 2018): The first 3 years of the company largely consisted of experimenting with a lot of elearning ideas and taking on any consulting projects we could find. We had grand visions and aspirations, and we worked hard trying to build Uncanny Owl’s reputation in the elearning space. It wasn’t until almost a year after we started the company that we began focusing on WordPress and LearnDash. That journey started when we built a website to showcase our course development expertise, but instead of asking us to build courses for them, visitors wanted us to build a copy of the website. We started showing a “Want us to build a site like this for you?” banner for visitors from LearnDash and our website, and the rest is history. Uncanny Owl Timeline […]

Customize Your Uncanny Groups + LearnDash Course Reports

May 18, 2023/0 Comments/in LearnDash, Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit/by Brendan Da Costa

Add your own columns and data to Uncanny Groups and LearnDash course reports and empower your Group Leaders with the tools they need. As an e-learning educator or administrator, you know how important it is to have accurate and detailed course reports. And while LearnDash has some built-in reporting tools, oftentimes, you need additional information. Custom data fields such as a user’s job title, age, department/organization or even last login date can be invaluable for administrators, instructors and LearnDash Group Leaders. So, if you’ve been looking for a way to add more columns and custom data to your Uncanny Groups and LearnDash course reports, then you’ve found the right page. In this article, we’ll show you a few simple ways to customize your Uncanny Groups and LearnDash course reports. We’ll also show you how to make those reports visible right from your WordPress dashboard so that Group Leaders can access them. Trust us, this will be the easiest course you take all day. Custom Columns in CSV Files for Administrators For WordPress and LearnDash administrators, one of the simplest reporting tools available are LearnDash’s native CSV reports. These reports provide administrators with the ability to export basic information on users’ […]

Tin Canny 4.2: LearnDash Lesson & Topic Reports

April 19, 2023/0 Comments/in News, Tin Can/by Ryan Moore

We’re excited to announce that Tin Canny 4.2 is now available. It’s a big release with several new reports, performance improvements, new options for SCORM and xAPI users and some behind-the-scenes enhancements. Lesson and Topic Completion Reports We know that LearnDash site owners have faced challenges for years getting consolidated records for lesson and topic completions. For course completions, there are reports everywhere; we have different types of course completion reports in 3 of our plugins alone (Uncanny Groups, Tin Canny and Uncanny Continuing Education Credits). There’s no shortage of ways to find out whether or not a student has completed a course. For lessons and topics, we offered a few ways to look up completions by user, but never for a group of users or all users. That’s what we’re adding in today’s Tin Canny 4.2 release. To use the reports, just drop [uotc_lesson_report] or [uotc_topic_report] shortcodes onto a new page. Once that’s done, you’ll see something like this: It’s as easy to use as it seems. Administrators or Group Leaders can just select a group, course and lesson (or topic) to see a list of everyone that has access to that lesson or topic and their completion status. Need […]

The Uncanny Blog

2023 – Year in Review

How to Reset LearnDash Course Progress

Uncanny CEUs: LearnDash Credit Report overhaul

Uncanny Groups 5.4: Front End Group Hierarchy Management

Uncanny Groups: New Edit Group Wizard

Tin Canny Update: New Uploader

Toolkit Pro 4.1: Drip topics & Autocomplete with Formidable Forms

Uncanny Owl Turns 10

Customize Your Uncanny Groups + LearnDash Course Reports

Tin Canny 4.2: LearnDash Lesson & Topic Reports

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