Hello hello!
I am currently building a learning/membership community, and would love some feedback.
I have been going back and forth with my plugin choices as I built out the design, and basic functionality, but I am not ready to make a decision.
My client originally wanted me to use LearnDash, because he already has a lifetime license, but I am not convinced. I'd rather keep things within the WPMUDEV plugin family, because they are all built to work nicely together.
Here's what I am thinking ...
1.) Membership 2 Pro
I would use Membership 2 Pro for the creation of my Free and Premium membership tiers. All payment and permissions would be controlled by this plugin.
2.) CoursePress Pro
I would create my courses, lessons, topics, certifications, quizzes, etc. with this plugin.
Membership 2 Pro would control the visibility of the courses based on membership tier.
3.) Forums
I have used BuddyPress before, and I am not particularly fond of it. I think it is too complicated, and generally not super user friendly.
I am thinking that WPMU Forums plugin is sufficient for my forum needs.
Again, Membership 2 Pro would lock the forums based on membership level.
4.) I would LOVE to use MyCRED to integrate a points/badge system for when members complete lessons, quizzes, and gain certification.
QUESTIONS:
Okay, so I have a few questions about whether I can implement the way I want to.
1.) When I create my membership levels, is it possible to associate courses, lessons, etc. with the membership levels OR do I have to go to each individual course or lesson or whatever and wrap them all in Membership shortcodes?
2.) When a member joins I want them to be able to become a FREE member, and get the first month worth of lessons (one lesson per week). I also want them to have some other free member access ... that's not important right now. Basically, a person can join free, and get 4 weeks of lessons OR they can join premium and get started at week 1.
A.) Is it possible to have a trickle course that unlocks each week (of a 40 week program) 1 per week until it is done?
B.) If someone joins free, can I have the trickle STOP at week 4 until they have upgraded to premium?
C.) If I trickle the lessons based on the start date of a member, can they pause/start/stop the trickle, and it picks up where they left off? A person might go on vacation or need a break, and they might want to pause it, so they don't come back, and can never catch up to the trickle.
D.) Can I set up email reminders to get sent when a new lesson is unlocked?
3.) I will need to attach CoursePress to MyCRED, so points and badges can be awarded based on CoursePress activity. I'm sure this is custom work, correct? If that's the case, it would help to know where to find out about the most useful CoursePress action hooks, and anything else you think is relevant.
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Any other comments or suggestions would be so appreciated. I'm sure some of you have built things like this before. I'd love some advice from your perspective.
Thanks so much!