LifterLMS Glossary
Access Expiration – The point at which a student loses access to a course or membership, based on a set duration or a fixed date defined in the access plan.
Access Plan – The pricing and purchase option attached to a course or membership. One product can offer several access plans, such as a one-time payment and a monthly subscription.
Achievement – A graphical image with a name and optional description that is earned after completing a milestone in the LMS. Synonym of “Badge.”
Add-on – A plugin, theme, or service that extends the functionality, design, or implementation of LifterLMS.
Advanced Quizzes – A LifterLMS add-on that adds advanced question types such as essay answers and file uploads, plus randomized question banks, to the core quiz engine.
Advanced Videos – A LifterLMS add-on that adds enhanced video features for Vimeo, Wistia, and YouTube, including tracking whether a video has been watched.
AI Course Outliner – A LifterLMS tool that uses AI to generate a starting outline of sections and lessons from a simple topic or prompt.
API Key – A set of credentials that lets an outside application connect securely to your LifterLMS site, most often used with the REST API or an integration.
Assignment – A task a student completes and submits, such as a written response or a file upload, added by the LifterLMS Assignments add-on.
Attempt – A single submission of a quiz by a student. A quiz can allow one attempt or several, and each attempt is graded and recorded.
Badge – A graphical image with a name and optional description that is earned after completing a milestone in the LMS. Synonym of “Achievement.”
Block – A content element in the WordPress block editor. LifterLMS Blocks add course, pricing, and enrollment elements you can place on any page.
Bundle – A package of multiple courses or pieces of content sold together, most often delivered through a LifterLMS membership.
Cart Abandonment Recovery – A LifterLMS add-on that follows up by email with people who start checkout but do not finish, helping recover the sale.
Certificate – A downloadable, personalized award a student earns after completing a course, lesson, quiz, or track. It is delivered through an engagement.
Checkout – The LifterLMS page where a student enters payment and account details to enroll in a course or membership.
Co-Instructor – An additional instructor assigned to a course alongside the primary instructor, who can be granted editing access and a share of the revenue.
Cohort – A group of students who move through a course together on a shared schedule, enabled by the LifterLMS Course Cohorts add-on.
Completion – The state reached when a student finishes a lesson, course, quiz, or track. Completion can trigger engagements such as certificates or emails.
Compliance Training – Education delivered to satisfy a regulatory, legal, or workplace requirement, where tracking, time spent, and proof of completion matter.
Continuing Education Unit (CEU) – A standardized credit awarded for completing professional education. The LifterLMS Continuing Education add-on tracks and issues them.
Coupon – A code that reduces the price at checkout by a percentage or a fixed amount.
Course – A collection of lessons designed to teach something.
Course Builder – The LifterLMS screen for creating and organizing a course, where you add and arrange sections, lessons, and quizzes in one place.
Course Catalog – The page on a LifterLMS powered site that displays all the course tiles. In the language of WordPress users, this is the course archive page.
Course Category – A grouping used to organize related courses and to filter the course catalog.
Course Difficulty – A label such as beginner, intermediate, or advanced applied to a course to signal its level to learners.
Course Tag – A keyword label applied to courses for finer grouping and filtering beyond categories.
Course Tile – An individual course catalog item. It is similar to a “book cover” for online courses.
Course Track – A group of courses that, upon completion in no certain order, can trigger an engagement. The most common use is a degree-style program that delivers a certificate when all courses are finished.
Custom Field – An extra field added to LifterLMS forms to collect or store additional information, added by the LifterLMS Custom Fields add-on.
Drip Content – A release schedule that unlocks lessons over time, either on set dates or a number of days after enrollment, instead of all at once.
Education Entrepreneur – A person who builds a business around teaching through courses, coaching, or memberships. The core audience LifterLMS is built to serve.
Email Engagement – An automated, personalized email sent to a student based on their behavior in the LMS, such as enrolling or completing a lesson.
Email Marketing Integration – A connection between LifterLMS and an email marketing platform, such as Mailchimp or Kit, that adds students to your lists automatically.
Engagement – An automated action triggered by student behavior in the LMS. Engagements can award badges, send personalized emails, send text messages, or award certificates.
Enrollment – The record of a student being granted access to a course or membership, whether by purchase, a voucher, a membership, or manual enrollment.
Event – A scheduled event tied to your courses, lessons, or memberships, with on-site display and an ICS calendar feed. Powered by the LifterLMS Events add-on.
Extension – A zip file of code that adds functionality to your WordPress website. Synonym of Plugin.
Free Course – A course offered at no cost, where students can enroll through open enrollment rather than a purchase.
Free Trial – A trial period on a recurring access plan that lets a student start before the first payment is charged.
Gamification – The use of game-style elements such as badges, achievements, and certificates to motivate learners and reward progress.
Gift – A purchase made on behalf of someone else, letting a buyer give a course or membership to another person. Powered by the LifterLMS Gifts add-on.
Grade – The score a student earns on a quiz, calculated from correct answers and any point weighting.
Gradebook – The student grade and progress records in LifterLMS, found in the Reporting area under the Students and Quizzes tabs.
Group – A set of students purchased, enrolled, managed, and reported on together, often for teams or organizations. Powered by the LifterLMS Groups add-on.
Group Seat – A single spot within a group that can be assigned to one member, letting an organization buy access in bulk and distribute it.
Gutenberg – The WordPress block editor used to build pages and posts from blocks, including LifterLMS Blocks.
Helper – The LifterLMS plugin that manages license activation and delivers automatic updates for your LifterLMS add-ons.
Instructor – The person who creates and teaches a course. A course can also have co-instructors.
Integration – A plugin that connects LifterLMS with a different application not made by LifterLMS.
Landing Page – A standalone marketing page built to promote a course or membership and drive visitors toward enrollment.
Learner – A person taking a course. Synonym of “Student.”
Learning Management System (LMS) – A software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses or training programs.
Lesson – A single unit of teaching within a course, grouped under a section. Lessons can hold text, video, audio, downloads, and quizzes.
License Key – A code that activates a LifterLMS add-on on your site and entitles it to updates and support.
Membership – LifterLMS Memberships grant free or paid access to groups of courses, and can bundle in non-LMS content such as pages, forums, or other content on the website.
Membership Catalog – The page on a LifterLMS powered site that displays all the membership tiles. In the language of WordPress users, this is the membership archive page.
Membership Category – A grouping used to organize related memberships and to filter the membership catalog.
Membership Tile – An individual membership catalog item. It is similar to a “book cover” for a membership.
Milestone – A meaningful point of progress, such as finishing a lesson or a course, that can trigger an engagement.
Notes – Student note-taking added directly to your courses, powered by the LifterLMS Notes add-on.
Notification – An on-screen or email alert that keeps students and instructors informed of activity in the LMS.
One-Time Payment – A single up-front charge that grants access, as opposed to a recurring subscription.
Order – The record of a purchase, holding the plan, price, billing terms, and status.
Passing Grade – The minimum score a student must reach to pass a quiz.
Paywall – A barrier that restricts content until a student purchases access or joins a membership.
Payment Gateway – A service that securely processes payments at checkout, such as Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.Net.
Plugin – A zip file of code that adds functionality to your WordPress website. Synonym of Extension.
Points – The weight given to a quiz question or a lesson, controlling how much it counts toward the grade. A question’s points are set in the Course Builder.
Prerequisite – A course or lesson a student must complete before gaining access to another one.
Private Area – A personal, private space for a student to receive tailored content and communicate directly with an instructor or coach. Powered by the LifterLMS Private Areas add-on.
Private Site – A setting that places your entire website behind a login, ideal for internal or team training. Powered by the LifterLMS Private Site add-on.
Product – A course or membership that can be sold on your site.
Progress – How far a student has advanced through a course, tracked by completed lessons, quizzes, and sections.
Question – An individual item within a quiz that a student answers.
Question Bank – An Advanced Quizzes feature that draws a randomized subset of questions from a larger pool, so each student and each attempt receives a different set. Useful for reducing cheating.
Quiz – An assessment attached to a lesson that measures a student’s understanding.
Recurring Payment – A subscription-style charge billed on a repeating schedule, such as monthly or yearly. Also called a subscription.
Reporting – The dashboards and data views that show sales, enrollments, engagement, and student progress across your site.
REST API – A programming interface that lets outside applications read and manage LifterLMS data securely. Provided by the LifterLMS REST API add-on.
Restricted Content – Content locked so that only enrolled students or active members can view it.
Revenue Share – A portion of a course’s earnings paid out to an instructor or co-instructor.
Review – A written testimonial a student can leave on a course.
Sales Page – The page that markets a course or membership and presents its access plans. An access plan can point to a custom sales page.
Section – A group of related lessons within a course, used to organize the course into logical parts.
Self-Paced Course – A course a student moves through on their own schedule, without a fixed timeline or cohort.
Setup Wizard – The guided screens that help you configure the essentials of LifterLMS when you first install it.
Shortcode – A small WordPress code snippet in brackets that places LifterLMS content, such as a login form or course list, onto a page.
Sky Pilot Theme – The official LifterLMS block theme, designed to work seamlessly with courses, memberships, and the WordPress block editor.
SMS Notification – A text message sent to a student based on LMS activity, enabled by connecting LifterLMS to Twilio.
Social Learning – Social media style conversations and shared learning among students, reducing the isolated feel of online courses. Powered by the LifterLMS Social Learning add-on.
Student – A user enrolled in a course or membership. Synonym of “Learner.”
Student Dashboard – The logged-in area where a student sees their courses, progress, grades, certificates, achievements, and account details.
Theme – A zip file of code that adds design to your WordPress website.
Transaction – An individual payment recorded against an order. A recurring order can have many transactions over time.
User Role – The permission level assigned to a user, such as student, instructor, or administrator, that controls what they can access and do.
Voucher – A batch of redeemable codes that grant enrollment into courses or memberships without payment, useful for bulk or offline distribution.
Webhook – An automated message your site sends to another application when an event happens, often used with payment gateways and integrations.
Widget – A small content block you can place in a sidebar or footer, including LifterLMS widgets for courses, memberships, and student information.
WordPress – The open-source software that powers your website and that LifterLMS is built on top of.
