Tutor LMS – Create Quizzes, Lessons, Topics and Courses in a Spreadsheet

In previous posts, we have shown you how to bulk edit Tutor LMS courses:

• Bulk edit courses in a spreadsheet
• Export and import courses with CSV
• Export and import courses with Google Sheets

This applies when you already have existing courses.

But what if you want to create one or more courses using the WP Sheet Editor spreadsheet? How can you connect your courses, topics, lessons and quizzes?

In this tutorial we will show you the step-by-step process to create Tutor LMS courses containing topics, lessons and quizzes.

You just have to follow these steps:

Install the required plugins and extensions

Besides Tutor LMS, make sure to install the WP Sheet Editor – Post Types plugin, which allows you to manage posts, pages and custom post types in a spreadsheet on the WordPress dashboard.

You also need to install and activate the WP Sheet Editor – Tutor LMS extension.

Important – Make sure you have the latest version of all WP Sheet Editor plugins and extensions.

Create and manage courses, topics, lessons and quizzes

If you are going to create Tutor LMS courses from scratch with the normal editor, you should start by creating the course, then the topics, then the lessons and quizzes.

In this tutorial, however, we will follow the opposite process, so that you can correctly connect quizzes, lessons, topics and courses.

WP Sheet Editor allows you to select whether you want to use the IDs or the names of quizzes, lessons, topics and courses in the post parent columns. You can open WP Sheet Editor plugin settings from any spreadsheet.

Just go to Settings > Advanced settings > Misc and check or uncheck the TutorLMS – Use IDs instead of titles for connecting lesson, topic, and tutor quizzes? checkbox. If you tend to use the same names multiple times, IDs might be better.

Step 1. Add the quizzes on the “tutor_quiz” spreadsheet

To generate the Tutor LMS quizzes spreadsheet, follow this tutorial, making sure to select the “tutor_quiz” post type.

As you can see in the screenshot below, we have created five quizzes that are associated with different courses.

If you want to create a new quiz, you can do it by adding a new row to the spreadsheet. Just enter the number of rows that you want to add and click on Add new.

You can see we’ve added a new row and entered the quiz title. You can continue adding other data like URL slug, Content, etc.

You will notice that the tutor_quiz sheet has a set of columns where you can edit all the questions of the quiz and the answers of the questions.

How to add the quiz questions

For every question, you’ll find this set of fields/columns:

• Question X – Question Title – Add the question here.
• Question X – Question Description – Add the question description here.
• Question X – Question Type – In this field, you can select the type of question by entering any of these values:
  • true_false
  • single_choice
  • multiple_choice
  • open_ended
  • fill_in_the_blanks
  • short_answer
  • matching
  • image_matching
  • image_answering
  • ordering
• Question X – Question Mark – Add how many points this question is worth.
• Question X – Question Order – Add the order in which the question will be displayed in the quiz.
• Question X – Answer Explanation – Add any necessary explanation for the question in this field.
• Question X – Answer Required – Determine whether or not the question can remain unanswered. If required, students will not be able to skip that question.
• Question X – Ramdomize Question – Determine whether you want this question’s order to be randomly shuffled among the list of questions.
• Question X – Show Question Mark – Use this field to show or hide the points for this question when the student takes the quiz.
• Question X – Answers – Here you can enter the different answer options that this question may have.
  • Important notes:
    • The way you add answer choices will depend on the type of question you are adding.
    • Example 1: If it is a true or false question, you should add the values in this way: True:true::, False:false::
    • Example 2: If it’s a single choice question, you should add the values in this way: Option 1::text:0, Option 2::text:0
    • Tip: As you can see in the examples above, you need to first add the value and then the type of possible answer. To know how to enter the values correctly, the easiest way is to create a sample quiz manually and select different types of questions and add possible answers. When you view that quiz in the spreadsheet, you will see how the answer values appear in the spreadsheet, and you will be able to copy and modify the values in other questions.
• Question X – Correct Answer – Add the correct answer in this field.

Note – You can leave the “Post parent” column empty for now. The purpose here is to create the quizzes with their questions and answers. You’ll be able to link the quizzes to the topics in the Courses spreadsheet.

Step 2. Add the course lessons on the “Lessons” spreadsheet

To create the lessons for your Tutor LMS courses, you need to generate the lesson spreadsheet following this guide, making sure to select the post type “Lessons”.

Once you generate the spreadsheet, you’ll see any lessons that you had previously created.

If you want to add new lessons, just add new rows to the spreadsheet by adding the number of rows you want to add and clicking Add new.

As you see in the screenshot below, we have added a new lesson, and we can use the spreadsheet columns to complete the data for this new lesson.

Important – You can leave the “post parent” empty here.

Note – You can leave the “Post parent” column empty for now. The purpose here is to create the lessons, and you’ll be able to link the lessons to the topics in the Courses spreadsheet.

Step 3. Add the course topics on the “Topics” spreadsheet

To create the topics for your Tutor LMS courses, you need to generate the Topics spreadsheet following this guide, making sure to select the post type “topics”.

Once you generate the spreadsheet, you’ll see any topics that you had previously created.

If you want to add new topics, just add new rows to the spreadsheet by adding the number of rows you want to add and clicking Add new.

As you see in the screenshot below, we have added a new topic, and we can use the spreadsheet columns to complete the data for this new topic.

Note – You can leave the “Post parent” column empty for now. The purpose here is to create the topics, and you’ll be able to link the topics, lessons, quizzes and courses in the Courses spreadsheet.

Step 4. Add the courses on the “Courses” spreadsheet

To generate the Tutor LMS courses spreadsheet, follow this tutorial, making sure to select the “Courses” post type.

We have created some course, but we will add another course to show you how to link courses to topics, lessons and quizzes.

To add a new course, we need to add a new row in the spreadsheet. Just add the number of rows you want to add and click on Add new.

Now you can start adding the basic course data like Title, URL Slug, Content, Status, etc.

How to connect courses to topics, lessons and quizzes

You’ll notice the spreadsheet has these columns: Topics, Topic X – Items, etc.

You need to link everything together here in the courses sheet.

1. Enter the course topics in the “Topics” column (you can use IDs if you activated our advanced option “TutorLMS – Use IDs instead of titles for connecting lesson, topic, and tutor quizzes?”, or use topic titles otherwise). We’re using IDs.
2. Enter the lessons and quizzes for each topic. For example, “Topic 1 – Items” contains the list of lessons and quizzes by ID (if you enabled our advanced option to use IDs, otherwise use titles) for topic 1.
3. Once you’re done editing the data and adding the topics, lessons and quizzes, click on the Save button.

This is the process you need to follow in order to manage Tutor LMS courses in the spreadsheet. You can easily connect the courses with their topics, lessons, quizzes, and answers.

WP Sheet Editor allows you to manage full courses as you would do it with Excel or Google Sheets. You can also export and import courses, topics, lessons and quizzes using CSV files or using Google Sheets.