Unlocking the Power of Masteriyo: A New Era for WordPress LMS

Building an eLearning site can be a daunting task. First, there’s the work of getting your course materials together. Then the challenge becomes how to feature it on your site in a way that’s easy for students to access it. Not to mention setting up an account and payment system, tracking progress, creating quizzes, and ensuring it’s secure. Enter Masteriyo WordPress LMS, the comprehensive solution designed to streamline these processes and make your eLearning site creation a seamless experience.

In this review, I’ll introduce you to Masteriyo, a WordPress LMS plugin that literally does it all. You can quickly and easily create and sell your online courses without cobbling together a mishmash of plugins that you must learn and integrate with your learning management system.

Create and Sell Online Courses with Masteriyo WordPress LMS

Masteriyo is a powerful WordPress LMS plugin designed to help educators create and sell online courses on their websites without needing a third-party platform.

The plugin is packed with features such as a quiz builder, course, and certificate builders, grade book, and assignment creator. To make the learning experience even better for students, there’s a distraction-free learning mode and Q & A sections. Students can also rate and review the courses they take. Instructors can view students’ learning progress in one place.

Masteriyo introduced the Single Page Application interface to the WordPress LMS market, which makes course creation a breeze. It’s an efficiently convenient system. With the all-in-one interface, you can create course sections, lessons, quizzes, and assignments in a uniquely structured way. You do not need to worry about whether Masteriyo integrates with your theme; it does.

When it comes time to start selling your courses, you don’t need a third-party plugin. You can use Masteriyo’s built-in order system with support for PayPal and Stripe. It also allows you to create coupons and discount offers to entice students to sign up. And, of course, if you’re already used to WooCommerce, it integrates perfectly with your Masteriyo-built LMS.

Masteriyo is a perfect solution for creating a fully-functional LMS website in WordPress.

Using Masteriyo

The Masteriyo plugin has a ton of features to help you build your eLearning site in WordPress. I’ll walk through installation and setup, then explain the features.

Installation

You can purchase the Masteriyo plugin from their website or try Masteriyo for free. Just search in your WordPress admin under Plugins→Add New. You install and activate the plugin on your WordPress site as you would any other.

Masteriyo offers a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk in purchasing the pro version. Once you purchase Masteriyo, you’ll get a link for downloading the plugin. After activation on your WordPress site, you can enter your license key, and you’re good to go. The cool thing is that if you upgrade from the free version, installing Masteriyo Pro deletes the old version for you.

Setup Wizard

Once you activate the Masteriyo plugin, a handy setup wizard will appear on your screen. While you can skip it, I highly recommend going through the steps because it helps orient you with how Masteriyo works. If you’re a newbie to setting up a WordPress LMS, it will save you a ton of time and head-scratching.

Course Configuration

After the Welcome screen, the first section will help you configure your first course. You can decide things like how many columns, or Courses Per Row, will appear on the main courses page.

Under Course per Page, you’ll choose how many courses should be shown on the course listings page.

Quiz

In the next section, Quiz, you can move the slider to select how many quiz questions should appear per page.

Pages

Next, you can dial in which pages will hold your course content.

While you can select any existing page for the Course List, Learning, Account, and Checkout, I suggest using the default pages that Masteriyo shows in the menu. The Masteriyo plugin will automatically create those pages for you, and it’s a super easy way to get started. You can always set up new pages and select them in future courses.

Payment

Under the Payment menu, select your Currency and Currency Position — whether you want the symbol to appear on the left or right.

Sample Courses

Having never used Masteriyo before, I found this option extremely helpful. The plugin will install sample courses for you, allowing you to see how a typical course might be structured. You can edit the sample courses however you like. 

There’s also an option to skip installing the courses if you prefer.

The next screen, Finish, congratulates you on setting up your first course. You can go back to the dashboard and inspect and edit your new course or create a new one. 

The setup wizard only runs once after activation. It was so helpful; having the setup wizard as an option any time you create a new course would be fantastic.

Masteriyo Features

Now that we’ve covered the fundamental setup of Masteriyo, let’s delve into its myriad of features. This plugin boasts extensive features and add-ons, all designed to assist you in crafting a robust eLearning website.

If you want to create an eLearning site with many engagement opportunities, several features will help you. A Quiz Builder, Q & A Section, and Review System are included. You can also purchase Content Drip, Course Prerequisites, and Course Attachments addons.

A Quiz Builder

Quizzes play a pivotal role in fostering engagement in an eLearning environment. They serve as an effective tool for assessing a learner’s understanding and progress and add an interactive element to the learning experience. Quizzes stimulate active participation, encouraging learners to apply their knowledge and think critically.

In the context of Masteriyo WordPress LMS, the integration of quizzes becomes even more powerful. The quiz builder allows for easy creation and management of quizzes, providing an intuitive interface for educators to design engaging and effective quizzes.

Question Types

Quiz Results

Having spent many years in the educational industry, I can tell you that one of the more frustrating things I found in various LMSs is the inability to see overall data as well as individual results. Masteriyo has done a great job making this task streamlined.

You will see a list of all submitted quizzes by clicking Quiz Attempts. You can search by students’ usernames or email, as well as search by quiz name.

Q & A Section

The Masteriyo Questions & Answers feature is designed to boost engagement and learning outcomes by fostering an interactive learning environment. This feature allows students to ask questions and receive answers from instructors or peers, promoting collaboration and deeper understanding.

Key features include:

1. Q&A Section: A dedicated space on the learning page where students can ask questions and get answers from instructors or peers. This promotes collaboration and helps learners deepen their understanding.
2. Ask Questions and Get Answers: A textbox appears on the Learn Page for learners to ask questions. Anyone enrolled in the course and instructors can answer these questions.
3. Multiple Questions and Answers: A student can ask multiple questions on a course page, and others can provide answers to each question.
4. Centralized Question and Answer List: All previously asked questions and their corresponding answers are displayed in a list on each course page.
5. Search Question: A search function allows students to check if their question has already been asked and answered.

This feature enhances the learning experience by allowing students to share ideas, ask questions, and cooperate to improve their learning experience.

Content Drip

The Content Drip feature in Masteriyo plays a critical role in student engagement, particularly in a self-guided learning environment. It strategically schedules and releases course content over time rather than making all materials available at once.

This approach has several benefits that set Masteriyo apart from other Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

1. Pacing Learning: Masteriyo helps students manage their learning pace effectively by drip-feeding content. It prevents learners from feeling overwhelmed by a large amount of content all at once, thereby reducing the risk of cognitive overload.
2. Maintaining Engagement: The anticipation of upcoming content keeps students engaged and curious. It creates a sense of continuity and progression, which can motivate learners to interact with the course regularly.
3. Enhancing Knowledge Retention: Spacing out the content allows learners more time to absorb and reflect on each lesson before moving on to the next. This can enhance understanding and long-term knowledge retention.
4. Promoting Consistent Learning Habits: The Content Drip feature encourages learners to develop a regular learning routine, which is crucial for successful self-guided learning.
5. Flexibility and Customization: With four different content flow types (Free, Sequential, Date Selection, X Days from Enrollment), Masteriyo’s Content Drip feature offers a level of flexibility and customization that is not commonly found in other LMSs. This allows educators to tailor the content delivery to their learners’ needs and pace.

Key features include:

1. Four Powerful Content Flow Types: Masteriyo Content Drip offers four content flow types to control when a lesson/quiz is available. These include:
   • Free: Allows students to enroll in any course and randomly start any lesson/quiz. Students can skip lessons and jump to the last lesson without any restrictions.
   • Sequential: Students can only move forward to the next lesson once they complete the current lesson. The upcoming lessons and quizzes are all locked.
   • Date Selection: Releases particular lessons/quizzes on a specified date. When you set the drip date for a lesson, it’ll be available from that date onwards only.
   • X Days from Enrollment: Releases lessons/quizzes after a certain number of days of enrollment. For instance, if you set the drip days as 7 for a lesson or quiz, the content will be unlocked 7 days after the enrollment day.

Please note the Masteriyo Content Drip feature is only available to premium users and requires the Masteriyo core plugin to function.

Review System

The Masteriyo Review System is a feature designed to gather valuable feedback from students about their experiences with a course. This system allows educators to gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of their courses, enabling them to refine their content and enhance the learning experience.

Key features include:

1. Enable Review Feature: This feature allows educators to add a review section to their course page, where logged-in users can leave feedback with a title, star rating, and content.
2. Manage All Reviews: Educators can moderate reviews before they go live on the course page. They can view replies, edit them, trash them, and mark the reviews as spam.
3. Filter Reviews: This feature allows educators to filter and find reviews by title, author of the course, or course category.
4. Approve the Reviews: Only approved reviews will be displayed on the course page. Suspicious reviews can be marked as spam for added security.
5. Reply on the Reviews: Instructors or other participants can reply to the approved reviews, fostering an interactive feedback environment.

Security

Using the Password Strength Checker addon, you can ensure your students register using a strong password — thus keeping your site more secure. There’s also a Google reCAPTCHA addon to help protect your forms.

Course Archive Filter

Hosting several courses in your LMS can make it difficult for students to find exactly what they need. The Course Archive Filter addon makes it much easier. Students can filter courses based on Category, difficulty level, rating, price, and price type.

Page Builders

Masteriyo comes block editor-ready, but you can use the Elementor addon and take advantage of the available widget and components for that page builder.

Zoom Integration

If your students need extra help, you can set up a two-way interactive platform using Zoom.

Advanced Features

With a few advanced add-ons, you can fine-tune your site even further. For example, you can personalize your branding using the White Label add-on. There’s a GDPR compliance addon to help you link privacy policies to consent messages. You can also set up multiple instructors on the same course.

eCommerce

One feature that makes Masteriyo easy to use right out of the box is its built-in order system. You don’t need an external plugin or third-party eCommerce system to begin accepting payments for your courses. The system includes:

• Ready-to-use checkout page
• Pre-built Add to Cart and Wishlist features
• Store location and currency options
• Multiple payment options

You can also use the Masteriyo Coupons addon to set up discounts as incentives to purchase.

Masteriyo also integrates easily with WooCommerce, PayPal, Stripe, and Wishlist. If you want to automate how your students are on-boarded after payment, SureTriggers can help make your user’s onboarding experience unforgettable.

Masteriyo Pricing Tiers

Again, Masteriyo is free to try, and there’s no usage limit on the number of sites you can install. The free version has minimal features — meant to get you started. It includes community support, basic updates, and bug fixes. You also get:

There are two subscription payment tiers: Starter and Growth.

Starter

With Starter, you get a license for one site, Basic Premium Support, one year of Premium Updates, quick bug fixes, and there are new features and Addons monthly. Starter also includes all the free plan features plus:

Growth

Growth gives you a license for use on an unlimited number of sites. You get everything included in the other two tiers, plus:

• Gradebook
• Zoom integration
• Coupons
• Content drip

Build Your LMS with an All-in-One Solution

Masteriyo is truly a “one-stop-shop” solution. You don’t have to struggle to figure out which plugins will integrate well to create your eLearning site. Better still, you don’t have to write any code to build a complete LMS on your WordPress site. Masteriyo has an intuitive interface and plenty of documentation to help you if you get stuck.

In testing Masteriyo for this review, I found it easy to use and powerful. I loved the Setup Wizard, simple course enrollment, and editing of the sample courses. Course editing was just like editing any other post or page in WordPress. If you’re exploring the idea of hosting courses on your website, you can confidently use Masteriyo and know that it will get the job done and be a fun experience.