Online learning has shown significant growth over the last few years. In many ways, the internet has allowed education to become more widely accessible to a greater number of people.
Many top universities are also democratizing education by offering online courses that students can complete at their own pace.
In this post, we’re going to look at the 6 best WordPress plugins for schools and how schools and educational institutions can use these to create learning management systems, student admission platforms, and other e-learning applications.
Let’s get started! 👇
What Kind of Functionality Do School Websites Need?
The WordPress platform can provide solutions for the following use cases and more:
- Student registration
- Event planning
- Document storage
- Online Library
- Teacher database
- Student database
- Student portal
All of these applications are possible to build using WordPress, but you’ll need the right plugins in order to do so.
The 6 Best WordPress Plugins for Schools and Educational Institutions
When building a new website or web app with WordPress, it’s important to choose the right plugins for the job. The plugins you choose will depend on the functionality you need. However, there are several plugins that can be used in a multitude of different ways.
Here are 6 of the best WordPress plugins for schools and educational institutions.
Gravity Forms (The best WordPress form plugin for schools)
Most school websites and education-related applications require forms of one kind or another. This could include admission forms, contact forms, registration forms and more.
Gravity Forms is the ultimate form builder plugin for WordPress, allowing you to create powerful web forms using a visual interface (no code required!).
With Gravity Forms, you can create:
- Student registration forms
- Simple contact forms
- Curriculum submission forms
- Forms for uploading files and documents
- A school admission form
- … And much more!
The team behind Gravity Forms also offers several extensions, allowing you to integrate your forms with other popular applications such as payment gateways and email automation platforms.
Another advantage of using Gravity Forms is that you’ll gain access to a powerful ecosystem of Certified Developers that create and maintain a range of useful add-ons, such as GravityKit!
GravityKit
GravityKit is a Gravity Forms Certified Developer, offering a toolkit of essential Gravity Forms add-ons. GravityKit plugins allow you to extend and enhance Gravity Forms in different ways.
For example, using GravityView, you can display your Gravity Forms data on the front end and build powerful web applications. The different layouts that GravityView provides gives you the ability to create diverse applications for your school or college. This makes GravityView one of the best WordPress plugins for educational websites.
If you’re looking to build a college management system on WordPress, GravityView may be the answer. Here are some examples of what you can build:
- A student registration and management system
- An events calendar
- An event management platform
- A Document library
- A student database
Rochelle Victor, a designer working in education, used GravityKit to build a Student Information Management System (SIS) for her school. The platform includes an online library, a report approval system, and a job application portal!
Other plugins in the GravityKit toolkit allow you to import data from a CSV, configure and send reports, bulk edit entries, create charts, display entries on a calendar, and much more.
💡 Pro tip: See how to create student report cards using GravityView!
LifterLMS
LifterLMS is a plugin for WordPress that turns your website into a powerful learning management system. LifterLMS is an affordable and robust solution for schools looking to move online.
Educational institutions that are planning to conduct online courses are often overwhelmed at the work and expertise it requires to set up an integrated online learning platform. LifterLMS removes these barriers by offering a complete solution. Simply install the plugin and you’re ready to go!
LifterLMS enables you to create online courses, manage student enrollments, maintain security and privacy, and export analytics reports. Another advantage of LifterLMS is that you can start small and scale up as your institution increases in size.
LearnDash
Like LifterLMS above, the LearnDash plugin also provides a learning management solution for WordPress.
LearnDash offers an easy-to-use interface for schools looking to create online classes, enroll students and deliver content dynamically. With the drag-and-drop course builder, you can create new courses in minutes.
Here are some additional features of LearnDash that make it a powerful learning management system for schools:
- An advanced quiz module with eight different question types
- Ability to drip feed content and require videos to be viewed
- Control access to courses and modules through setting prerequisites
- Enabling student communication through adding discussion forums
LearnDash also integrates with several other WordPress plugins and applications, including Gravity Forms, MailChimp and more!
Elementor Page Builder
Elementor is a page builder plugin for WordPress that makes it easy to design attractive websites and construct complex layouts without writing any code. The plugin includes an intuitive, drag and drop interface, allowing you to build page layouts on the front end.
If you’re designing a new website for your school, Elementor may be the tool you need to bring your ideas to life! The Elementor plugin is free and includes over 100 different modules for all different needs.
Yoast SEO (The best WordPress SEO plugin for schools)
Yoast SEO is a plugin for WordPress that helps you improve your website’s search engine optimization.
By installing and configuring the Yoast plugin, you can increase the chances of your website ranking higher in search results. This can lead to more exposure for your school, or online institution.
Yoast SEO includes a feature called “Workouts” which are short tutorials that “guide you through important routine SEO tasks and help you identify optimization opportunities.”
With Yoast SEO you can:
- Create SEO-friendly content targeting important keywords
- Prevent your site visitors from ending up on dead links
- Add structured data to your pages, helping Google to understand your content
- … And more!
While the core Yoast plugin is free, they also offer a premium version with extended features.
Build Your Education App Using the Best WordPress Plugins for Schools
Online education has seen a dramatic rise in recent years. Because of this, more and more schools and educational institutions are looking to build online platforms for their students.
In this post, we introduced you to 6 of the best WordPress plugins for education. Whether you run a school, college or online learning platform, these plugins can help you create online courses, build student information management systems, improve your page designs and more.
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