How To Set Up LearnDash ProPanel – Tips & Tricks

LearnDash is one of the most popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) out there, allowing users to host, deliver, and manage online educational courses for paying students all around the world.

Acting as a WordPress plugin, it only works through WordPress, but it’s a fantastic software application full of features that will allow you to deliver online teaching.

One of its additional features that users can pay extra for is ProPanel, which is an add-on that adds all sorts of ways for you to track the progress of your students.

This kind of reporting and assignment management is essential to learning because it improves learning and makes it easier for you to not let any learners fall behind, since you’ll know if they’re struggling with certain topics.

But how do you set up LearnDash ProPanel?

Thankfully, it’s easy! The simple answer is that you subscribe to the ProPanel, then download its plugin. After that, you can install Propanel from the WordPress dashboard, allowing you to then use it with your online learning platform.

There’s plenty more to learn about setting up LearnDash ProPanel, though, and we’ve got all the answers in our useful guide below!

We’re going to explain all the steps to downloading and installing ProPanel, the countless features you’ll get from it, the different ways that you can get access to this add-on, and much more. Read on!

What Is LearnDash?

Before we go into greater detail about the ProPanel add-on for LearnDash, it’s worth looking at what LearnDash actually is so that you can better understand why ProPanel is such a useful tool for it. 

LearnDash is a Learning Management System (LMS) that works exclusively through WordPress – so anybody wishing to use it will need a WordPress account and will only be able to use it with a WordPress website.

An LMS is a software application that gives you the framework to host and deliver educational content over the internet, providing access to self-made lessons to students all around the world. 

LearnDash is one of the most popular and trusted LMS’s out there, thanks to its ease of use and its variety of features.

With the plugin, you’ll be able to create courses on WordPress, charge students for access, deliver lessons, create quizzes, and even track how your students have been interacting with the content. 

It manages to do all this by adding new features and tools to WordPress itself, bringing new four reporting widgets, menu items, custom posts, database tables, and more to the platform and transforming it far beyond the features it had originally. See also: review of LearnDash.

What Is LearnDash ProPanel?

Analytics are essential on the internet because tracking is always key to see how your platform is performing.

Analytics are the basis of digital success since you need to see where your platform is succeeding and where it’s falling down. Once you know those things, you’ll be able to build on what’s working – and fix what isn’t. 

Naturally, analytics are essential to education too.

LearnDash ProPanel is an analytical tool add-on that you can get with LearnDash, providing you with all sorts of extra features that allow you to track progress with your courses and students. 

Tracking performance is key to educational success. Why? Well, you always need to know how each student is doing.

It’s important to know what lessons they’re completing, how they’re scoring on quizzes, and so on. After all, this gives you insight into where the student’s strengths and weaknesses lie. 

Weaknesses are particularly important to identify because you don’t want a student to be left behind.

If they’re struggling with a specific aspect of your course, then you need to identify it as quickly as possible and help them. That way, they can continue with the online course and will learn everything they signed up for.

How To Set Up LearnDash ProPanel

Setting up ProPanel is thankfully very simple, so you can greatly improve your online learning platform in moments by signing up for this handy add-on and installing it. We’re going to explain the steps for setting it up below – be sure to follow them!

Step One: Get LearnDash ProPanel

First off, you need to get access to LearnDash ProPanel. This can be done in a few different ways, and we’re going to cover them all in-depth later on in the article.

However, the most typical way to get access to ProPanel is by subscribing to it as a separate add-on, while you’ve also got your main LearnDash subscription outside of that.

Like a subscription to LearnDash LMS, there are different subscription tiers, which allow you to use it with a certain number of websites.

The more websites you can use ProPanel with, the more the yearly subscription to the add-on costs. The tiers offer 1 website, 10 websites, or unlimited websites.

Pick whichever subscription tier is best for your use (it’ll likely be in line with which subscription tier you’ve got for LearnDash) and pay your annual fee.

Step Two: Download ProPanel From Your Account

Once you’ve paid for a subscription to LearnDash ProPanel, log in to your LearnDash account and find the download for the add-on. 

Download it! When it’s done, you’ll find that it’s in the form of a zip file. Don’t worry, you won’t need to unzip the file yourself, so just leave the downloaded zip file as it is for now.

Step Three: Add The ProPanel Plugin

Now you need to go to WordPress and log in to the account that your LearnDash account is connected to. On the WordPress Dashboard, find the “Plugins” heading on the left-hand side of the screen. 

A sub-menu should appear from “Plugins”, where you’ll have a few different options. Select the “Add New” option.

A page will appear entitled “Add Plugins”, and you’ll be able to see plenty of featured and recommended plugins here. Click on the “Upload Plugin” button that’s next to “Add Plugins”. 

Step Four: Installing The ProPanel Plugin File

An option to “Choose File” will appear – click on it.

Next, a file browser window will open. Locate the ProPanel zip file that you downloaded earlier, then select it and hit “Open”. This will add the file to the file selection box, allowing you to then click “Install Now”.

Step Five: Activating ProPanel

Finally, you’ll be taken to a page that should say the zip file has been unpacked and successfully installed. At the bottom of these details, you’ll find the option to “Activate Plugin”. Click it. 

Step Six: Add The ProPanel License Number

Finally, you should go and add your unique ProPanel license number to the WordPress backend dashboard. To do this, go to the WordPress dashboard and click on the “LearnDash LMS” subheading.

After that, go to the settings section, and click on “ProPanel License”. Here, you should have a chance to copy and paste the unique license number that you received when you first bought ProPanel.

And there you have it! ProPanel will be added to your LearnDash websites, allowing you to track the progress of your students in in-depth and useful ways.

How Can You Buy LearnDash ProPanel?

You can buy LearnDash ProPanel in a few different ways, and all will give you access to its handy, progress-tracking features.

Subscribing To The Add-On Separately 

The most common way to get hold of ProPanel is by subscribing to it as a separate add-on, independent of the LearnDash subscription you already have. 

When you subscribe to ProPanel in this way, there are three different subscription tiers that you can take, each with its own prices and advantages.

The first, and cheapest tier, will allow you to use ProPanel with just 1 website. Obviously, this website will need to be one you’re already using LearnDash with. To subscribe to this tier, it’ll cost you $49 a year.

This option is best for teachers who are setting up just one online educational course with LearnDash, rather than a whole network of courses.

The next subscription tier for ProPanel will allow you to use the plugin for up to 10 websites, as long as you’re obviously using LearnDash for those websites too.

This subscription package is great for people who want a small collection of educational websites, offering different courses. To subscribe to this tier, it’ll cost you an annual fee of $99.

Finally, the most expensive subscription tier for ProPanel will allow you to use it on an unlimited number of LearnDash websites.

This is fantastic for users on the similarly unlimited LearnDash plan, who like to create countless educational courses for a large and varied stream of income.

Naturally, this tier costs a lot more, because you’re able to track progress on a seemingly infinite number of sites. As a result, it’ll cost you $199 per year.

Get It Through LearnDash Cloud

There are two different ways to sign up for LearnDash. Singing up to the standard LearnDash LMS, which has a few different subscription tiers, will allow you to use the Learndash plugin on WordPress websites – as many sites as your subscription allows. 

However, users can instead go for the LearnDash Cloud option. This is best for people who don’t want the effort of setting up their LearnDash website, or those who don’t have the technical knowledge to do so.

If you are a LearnDash Cloud user, you get a full website straight out of the box, ready with tools and templates for you to put to work. It even has Onboarding and Design Wizards to help you through the setup process. 

On top of all these features, though, LearnDash Cloud also comes with ProPanel included! You don’t have to subscribe to it separately, because you get it included in the cost of your LearnDash Cloud subscription.

When it comes to LearnDash Cloud subscriptions, there are two to choose from. You can either pay for it annually or each month.

If you pay for it in one annual sum, then it works out at a cheaper month-to-month basis than paying monthly, so it can be a good deal – especially when you consider ProPanel being included free.

What Features Does LearnDash ProPanel Offer?

ProPanel is all about providing you with tracking and analytical tools to help manage your LearnDash educational courses even better, catering to the performance of each individual student.

Explore the details in our Review of LearnDash.

It does this with a wide variety of features and tools.

For example, you’ll get an “Overview Widget” where you get a condensed, easy-to-understand overview of your course and its students.

In these ProPanel widgets, you’ll be able to see the total number of students on the course, how many modules there are, and how many essays and assignments are pending.

This helps you keep on top of your learners, and you can click on each statistic to find out about it in more detail. 

Additionally, you’ll get an “Activity Widget” too. This widget offers a constant stream of activity in your LearnDash course, offering you constant updates on what your students have been completing – and how they’ve been doing with each task.

The widget will supply you with the name of the student, and then information on the specific thing they’ve just completed – whether it’s a lesson, a module, a topic, or a quiz.

With these, you’ll also get information on their results, telling you how much they completed. On top of that, you’ll get a timestamp of when they did it, with the date and time.

ProPanel also offers a “Reporting Widget”, which allows users to filter the analytical statistics by course, group leaders, and/or user.

On top of that, you’ll also be able to filter the information by date. This allows teachers to quickly and easily find the results of how certain people are doing.

With the Reporting Widget, you’ll also be able to view charts displaying the information.

One reflects Progress Distribution and the other offers an In Progress Breakdown, each showing you the filtered information in an understandable, appealing way.

Final Thoughts

LearnDash ProPanel allows users to track the progress of their LearnDash courses and students. Understand ProPanel with our useful guide!