The Online Course Model Is Broken

I have a lot of clients who sell online courses. So, I’m fully aware that this week’s issue might be… interesting. 🧐

But, I think Learndash (and most other online course platforms) are actually stuck in the past. They’re following an old, dying paradigm. And they haven’t adjusted.

In this issue, I’m going to expand upon that and what I mean.

Basically, I think “modules” and “lessons” are going the way of the dodo bird.

I hope you have a productive week! And with that, let’s dive straight in….

Is The Online Course Model Is Broken?

In last week’s issue, in the News portion, I mentioned how the original founder of Learndash posted on his LinkedIn profile that online course platforms are stuck in an old paradigm and not keeping up. I was asked by a client (Hey Chuck!) to expound on that one. Because…

Yes, things have changed. Learndash is still programmed around the old-school idea of modules and lessons and people consuming courses in a nice, linear way. Even the idea of “consuming” a course has changed. The average completion rate of an online course is only about 15%. People don’t have the time or patience to sit there and watch a bunch of long videos. That kind of thing used to be new and novel, but not anymore.

We live in a world of “content inflation”. Just like with money. Inflation is when you have way more dollars chasing too few goods. The result is the money devalues. The same is happening with online content. There’s simply SOOOOO much of it. And, while demand has gone up as well, it has not kept pace with the production of it. Short-form content people doom-scroll through on social media hasn’t helped with attention spans, either.

So, in my view, the sequential college-style setup for online courses is outdated. Nobody wants “Modules”. If you have a course with “Modules” and “Lessons”, you’re chasing an older approach.

And people don’t really buy content anymore. That trend began ending awhile ago, frankly. Why do you think I pivoted into Concierge services in my own business? 😜

What people buy and really want these days isn’t just a pile of content. What they want is:

• Quick solutions with low friction, targeted to specific outcomes
• Personal connection, peer support, interaction
• Implementation and tangible results

Remember in The Matrix when Trinity could instantly learn how to fly a helicopter just by having that skill downloaded into her in the Matrix? A few seconds… and she was hoppin’ into the chopper. Your customers and students want their life to look as close to that as humanly possible. 😎

So, what kinds of things can you do to embrace these marketplace demands? Well, here’s some ideas (you don’t have to do them all, of course):

• Community learning environments. Yes, while BuddyBoss might be a chore to deal with as a platform, it is there because it fulfills a demand. Learning PLUS community. Personally, I think FluentCommunity is a better option these days.
• Not linear content, but more of a library. Allow people to choose their own path. Organize it around specific solutions and they can tap in in order to get those specific things done.
• Live & interactive group sessions. Co-working sessions, perhaps. Masterminds. Things that provide a human connection.
• Direct implementation help. Remember, people want tangible solutions. So, not only can your content be expressly aimed toward that, but you can even offer “done with you” sessions, or even “done for you” services.
• Video content in much shorter formats. 3-5 minutes (ish). Focused on ONE specific outcome at a time. In a library of searchable, standalone documents. Think Netflix style, but without the commitment of needing to put aside an hour to watch something. They should be able to get in, watch it and follow along, get out… and go do the thing they just learned right then and there.
• Downloadable materials that are checklist style. Worksheets. Not things people READ, but things people will DO.
• Templates. Things they can copy. Shortcuts to quicker results.

Really, these days it is all about removing psychological friction. It is funny that we have to have these thoughts about our own videos, while we all know people can sit there and watch a long video on Youtube or Netflix without an issue. 🤪 Why? Because those are entertaining! While an “online course” feels like school. It feels like homework. It’s boring. So…

You need to remove the psychological friction.

Make every piece standalone. Short and sweet. Very outcome focused. Tell them exactly what they’ll be able to do or have by the end of the video.

Make it searchable. Organize into a repository with categories and make it easy to browse. Mix and match formats. Videos, text, audios, templates, PDFs.

Show, don’t teach.

Remove the pressure to complete. This isn’t school. This isn’t a college syllabus. Instead, it is a library. Backed by access to real people to help you do things, so you never feel alone and you feel a sense of camaraderie.

This is what works better today – in 2026. Unless you NEED a more traditional course (like for a certification program), I’d lean toward this newer, more flexible setup.

And now you can see why I think Learndash is stuck in an old paradigm. Many other online course platforms are as well. People’s brains and attention spans are increasingly rejecting that style of learning. Lot of us didn’t like school much anyway. 😜

Concierge Weekly Update

New server added to Concierge Cloud – and let’s see if I can wrap up the remaining migrations this week. 🥴

WordPress News & Updates

WP Bakery Wins… Best Page Builder? TemplateMonster has been named the best page builder at the 2025 TemplateMonster Awards. This is apparently based on votes from the community. My response = To each their own. 🤪 While I respect what WP Bakery can do, I think it is a dog’s breakfast and I’ve literally had to re-build a handful of clients who were using it because it was so slow and bulky. But, hey, you do you boo. 😉

BigScoots Intros Logged_in User Cache. BigScoots has launched their own proprietary caching solution for logged-in users. Typically, dynamic sites (like membership sites) can’t cache logged-in users because of the risks of showing the wrong thing to the wrong person. Looks like BigScoots has devised a solution. Not sure how much this is hype or not. For instance, Litespeed Cache has the ability to do private logged-in user caches. I usually keep it disabled just to avoid potential issues, but it does exist. I don’t know how the BigScoots solution differs…. except that you need to host with BigScoots to use it. 🤪

WPCode Gets Live Preview. WPCode 2.3.2 has introduced Live Preview for CSS snippets, allowing you to see what it looks like in real-time similar to how the Theme Customizer works. Cool little add, but I still recommend not using WPCode because of the bloat from Awesome Motive. I tend to prefer FluentSnippets or, perhaps even the new snippets manager of PerfMatters.

FluentCart 1.3.4 FluentCart was updated last week and the updated version now supports product bundles, Stripe Hosted checkout, RazorPay integration, and support for a 100% recurring discount. Full update to be found here. They later came out with a maintenance release to 1.3.6 that fixes a few things. Always evolving. One of the things I like about these guys…. they move quickly.

Invoice Manager for SureCart. If you’re a SureCart user, you may find the new Invoice Manager for SureCart plugin interesting. This plugin gives a dedicated admin interface for viewing, downloading, managing, emailing and exporting your store’s invoices. Newly launched.

Changes to WordPress Minimum PHP Support. The minimum supported version of PHP for WordPress is now officially 7.4. Officially support for anything less has been officially dropped. I still see a fair number of sites using PHP 7.4. According to the WordPress guys, that is still 22% of sites. If that includes you, I would begin the process of modernizing the site to work on PHP 8+ if it doesn’t already. Pretty much every single client site I host is running PHP 8.3.

The 2025 Spam Report. OOPSpam has published their 2025 Spam Report with some interesting data. Residential proxies (basically compromised hardware at home) is the main attack vector. The US originates 44% of all Spam. Gmail accounts for 63% of email addresses used in card testing attacks. WordPress remains the top target at 61%.

Building A Modern Learning Platform With WordPress

Now to be clear about what I said up above, this doesn’t mean that I think Learndash is crap or that you shouldn’t use it. 😇 I have many clients who are using Learndash. Just because it is based around the more “old school” method of modules and lessons and progress tracking through big courses…. doesn’t make it a “bad” platform.

But, let’s explore another way to roll…

In my view, most learning sites actually don’t need any online course platform at all. No Learndash. No TutorLMS. Nothing of the sort. Those things impose too much structure.

Instead, I would use custom post types (often just called a CPT).

A lot of people don’t realize how insanely flexible WordPress is. They see pages and posts, but don’t realize how easily they can create any kind of “post” they want. In fact, that’s all Learndash does behind the scenes. It is creating custom post types called “modules” and “lessons” and “topics”.

You can create your own CPTs. You can also create your own custom fields for them. You can also create your own custom category structures so you can group your content any way you please.

So, if you were to create more of a library that students can tap in and out of on demand, find what they want, consume a quickie and then get out and go do that thing…

… then you just create a custom post type. Call it something like “Tutorials” or “Action Plans”. Whatever fits your brand. You can even create multiple CPTS if that fits your goals.

You can create custom fields that suit your purposes. Maybe a field for “Outcome” to state what they’ll get out of the tutorial. Maybe fields for downloadable checklists, cheat cheats, etc.

You can create custom category/tagging structures (called “taxonomies”) to help group and sort your stuff. You can have multiple taxonomies, too.

I personally use Advanced Custom Fields Pro to do all of this stuff. There are others as well, such as Jet Engine, PODS, Metabox, etc.

If you want your stuff to be searchable, you could use a search plugin like Relevanssi because it allows you to also search custom fields and have more control.

You’d need the templates to pump out the output. Personally, I build them with Kadence. You need to use any builder that can dynamically pull in your custom field data. Most of them can.

And so basically, you’re building your own learning platform. One that suits YOUR needs rather than having one imposed on you.

Most of us don’t need “Modules”. In fact, the entire traditional course setup is AGAINST the idea of single-lesson trainings! If you wanted to have a library of resources like this, Learndash literally isn’t even capable of it. That’s how stuck it is in that old school-like setup.

And if you want a community option to go along with all this…. no problem. If you wanted to use Buddyboss, you still could. If you wanted to use FluentCommunity, you can use the “theme compatibility” options to make your custom post type show up within the FluentCommunity framework and it will all jive. And don’t forget good ‘ol blog comments. If you enable comments on your custom post type, you can allow members to ask questions on any of your trainings by simply posting a comment.

Wanna sell access to your custom setup? Easy! Just lock it down with any membership plugin of your choice. Personally, I usually use WP Fusion combined with FluentCRM. WP fusion locks it all down and requires a certain tag to access. When somebody purchases in the store, we add the tag. Boom… instant access. Easy peasy.

In the end, it begins with strategizing about the kind of platform you need and what suits YOUR purposes. Don’t start with the tool and try to abide by it. Instead, start with YOU and then pretty much anything you want to build can be built.

That’s what I help people do all the time. 😎 Here’s how…