Tutor LMS 1.3.4 Comes with Frontend Course Builder, Spotlight Mode & Exciting Features You’ll Love!

Get ready to create courses like never before. Ever since the beginning of Tutor LMS, we promised a brand new experience while building your dream eLearning platform. This update takes us one step closer to fulfilling that promise. Tutor 1.3.4 comes with the most hyped frontend course builder. Creating courses is now as easy as publishing a blog on Medium. You can see how your courses will be displayed on your site as you craft them. But with our ambitious developers, that’s not all the updates we bring for you.

So let’s get to know all the perks of today’s update in this changelog:

• New: Frontend drag and drop course builder with quiz and assignment creation options (pro)
• New: Create and attach products to a course while creating/editing the course from the frontend (pro)
• New: Spotlight Mode, students now can learn any lesson in full-screen mode without any interruption.
• New: 2 new video sources added: Embedded Video & External to lessons/courses
• New: Enable/disable settings for YouTube and Vimeo video default player
• New: Lifetime deal license checking and validation to get regular updates and pro features in the pro version
• New: Added new instructor action hook and filter hook 
• New: Dashboard subpage and dashboard menu item load permission basis
• New: Topic toggle in lesson single page and information about toggle icon added

• New: A Template Filters in `tutor_load_template()` function 
• New: Two action hooks in `tutor_load_template()` function
• New helper functions called `tutils()`, it’s alies of `tutor_utils()`
• New: Course content is now linkable on the enrolled course page
• Fix: Complete lesson button in the mobile view.
• Fix: Tutor frontend dashboard menu title now could be a string or array with the `show_ui` key in the`array()`, show_ui key will be true or false to show it in the menu item visible or not
• Fix: Total Enrolled count in course detail page
• Fix: Course content looping count, lesson exact count by course content in the lesson
• Fix: Some addon loading issues, Tutor pro classes autoloading issue
• Fix: Delete video meta when select none from the video source in the course and lesson option

Frontend Course Builder with Quiz & Assignment Creation Options

If you want to create sites on the go without separately having to check how it looks in reality then you’d love Tutor LMS frontend course builder in the pro version. Absolutely anything you were able to do on the backend during course creation, is now enabled in the frontend course builder. This is the first time any plugin in the history of WordPress LMS plugins has had a frontend course builder. It’s literally one of a kind. 

So let’s see how you can create courses, quizzes and assignments all on the frontend.

• Go to your site and select Dashboard. Then click on “Add a New Course”.

• Once you select the button, you’re taken to the frontend course builder. Here you can create courses just like you did on the backend.

• Insert all the course details in their fields.
  > Add a course description & excerpt
  > Include course topics
  > Define the course duration
  > Determine the difficulty level
  > Tell about the course benefits
  > Provide instructions
  > Specify the target audiences
  There are also other useful fields that you can fill up and use to represent on the front-end.

• Add attachments, videos and featured image.

You can add a course featured image, upload course attachments, include videos and even course thumbnail all from the frontend.

Select videos to upload with each individual lessons and course trailers as well in your preferred favorite format.

It’s really awesome that you can add all of your multimedia files from the frontend. You can literally publish courses in minutes.

• Create quizzes with the quiz creator in the frontend course builder.

You can even add quizzes right from the frontend. Go to the lesson where you want to add a quiz and select “Add Topic Quiz”.

Build your quiz like you normally would with Tutor LMS. Randomize quiz order, set time limits, show passing grade- anything you want with your frontend course builder.

• Create assignments and attach assignment materials. Select the “Create Assignments” option.

Complete all the fields such as time to complete the assignment, marks for the assignment & more and then select “Update Assignment.”

You have just created an assignment completely on the frontend with absolutely no coding, no technical hassle- just a plain & simple process.

The frontend course builder is truly one of a kind. Simplicity and UI is the core aim of Tutor LMS and nothing makes it simpler than a frontend course builder. Explore all the possibilities of the frontend course builder today.

Spotlight Mode – Uninterrupted Learning with Tutor LMS

Give students an absolutely complete learning experience with Tutor LMS. With the Spotlight mode enabled, you can offer them an uninterrupted high-focus learning environment.

You can let your course content speak for itself when you remove the screen distractions. Therefore students have higher concentration, retention which lead to better results. 

But that’s not all! For students who learn on the go, the focus mode lets them view lessons full-screen on smaller devices such as smartphones, tabs, etc. That way it will improve the overall UX and let the students be in more control of their learning experience.

So let’s see how you can enable full-screen Spotlight Mode as an admin and how it appears on the frontend.

• Navigate to Tutor LMS > Settings> General
• Select “Enable” on Spotlight Mode and save settings.

• Visit the Courses page on your site and see how it looks when you select a lesson.

You have now successfully hidden the header & footer for the course learning interface. And even then, you can override the template completely, to create a personalized and branded learning experience fit for your site.

Note: You need to have both the free & pro versions of Tutor LMS installed & activated to access the frontend course builder.

Create & Attach Product Automatically with Course from the Frontend

When you used to create a course from the backend, you had to select a product each time you created the course. From the backend, it comes up as the below screenshot.

Now with the frontend course builder, you no longer have to select a product at all. Once you set the price tag, the builder recognizes it as a product and WooCommerce/EDD deals with it. 

From the frontend, all you have to do is put the price in the price field.

You are ready to start selling your course just by completing this field and enabling WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.

Two New Video Sources: External URL & Embedded Videos

There are now two new video sources along with all the video sources supported by WordPress. 

The two new video sources are:

• External URL
• Embedded Video

With the External URL video source, you can link videos from absolutely anywhere. Select the “External URL” option and place the link of the video in the required field. You will be able to see the video with your lessons or courses easily.

Now with the Embed option, You can select the video/content source similarly and then place the embed code.

Once you embed the video or content like PDF, slide and so on, you can see them just where you want. Check the following clip for an example where we show embedding content from SlideShare.

Disable Default Video Player for Vimeo & YouTube

For those of you who don’t want the default video player preview for your video lessons, can disable it now. All you have to do is go to the Tutor LMS > Settings on your WordPress dashboard.

Select on the disable options for YouTube or Vimeo from here and you will not have to see the default video player preview on the frontend.

Advanced Tweaks

There are lots of extremely useful tweaks in this new update of Tutor LMS. All of them boost functionality and increase your design flexibility. You can now custom tailor your site according to your needs perfectly.

For starters, for Lifetime Deal Plan users, a never-ending validity of date is seen at the License page. That way any lifetime users will get prompts and updates for as long as they use Tutor LMS.

Developers get more functionality with Tutor LMS as now we have added new instructor action hook and filter hook. Another way we have improved your menu management is through the dashboard subpage and dashboard menu item load permission basis. You’ll also get topic toggle in lesson single page and information about toggle icon.

We added a filter `apply_filters('get_tutor_load_template_variables', $variables);` to `tutor_load_template()` function. New helper functions called `tutils()`, its alies of `tutor_utils()` has also been added.

Also, there are 2 new action hooks `do_action('tutor_load_template_before', $template, $variables);`, `do_action('tutor_load_template_before_after', $template, $variables);` in `tutor_load_template()` function.

Moreover, the course content is now linkable on the enrolled course page with the following prompts: 

`do_action('tutor_add_new_instructor_form_fields_before');` , `do_action('tutor_add_new_instructor_form_fields_after');`, `do_action('tutor_add_new_instructor_before');

`do_action('tutor_add_new_instructor_after', $user_id);`, `apply_filters('add_new_instructor_data', $userdata)

With this plethora of tweaks, if you hire a developer or have minimal development knowledge you can now create a next-level eLearning platform fit for all your needs.

Other Fixes

Alongside the advanced tweaks, we also have some fixes that improve your overall experience with Tutor LMS. You get a complete lesson button in a responsive format for all devices. Anyone accessing your website from any device will see the lesson button beautifully.

Moreover, Tutor LMS frontend dashboard menu title now could be string or array with the `show_ui` key in the`array()`, show_ui key will be true or false to show it in the menu item visible or not.

We’ve also fixed small issues with the total enrolled count in the course details page, the course content looping count, and lesson exact count by course content in the lesson. For users having some addon loading issues, Tutor pro classes autoloading issue has been resolved. Also, the issue of deleting video meta when you select none from the video source in the course and lesson option is now fixed.

Endnote

If you’ve reached the end of this post, you already know how fabulous today’s update is with all its awesome perks. We also want to make sure you know that you guys are the reason why we grow so much. Many of the features we bring in the update are from the feedback we get from you. So try out the most wanted features of Tutor LMS and let us know how you feel about it!

Want to send great ideas to us regarding Tutor LMS? Comment below or buzz us in our social media platforms to share what’s on your mind!

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