Simple Course Creator
Organize WordPress posts into courses and display a course listing within each post.
Use with caution
Simple Course Creator works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 5 months ago, and scores 58/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Simple Course Creator stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| course | #45 |
| lesson | #96 |
| posts | >100 |
| series | #81 |
| taxonomy | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
About Simple Course Creator
From the official readme · v2.1.1Description
Simple Course Creator lets you group WordPress posts into courses using a custom taxonomy, then automatically displays a linked list of all posts in the same course within each post’s content.
Features
- Create unlimited courses from the Posts menu — just like categories and tags
- Assign posts to a course from the edit post screen or the manage posts screen
- Display the course listing above content, below, or both
- Choose between numbered list, bullet list, or no list indicator
- Sort the listing by date, title, author, last modified, comment count, or random
- Style the current post in the listing as bold, italic, or strikethrough
- Optionally collapse the listing behind a toggle link (JavaScript)
Post Meta
Show author and publish date beneath each item in the course listing. Both are enabled by default and can be toggled from the settings page.
Front Display
On the blog home, archive pages, and search results, indicate that a post belongs to a course. Enabled by default and can be toggled from the settings page.
Customization
Style the course box, post meta output, and front display indicator directly from the WordPress Customizer — no custom CSS required. For deeper customization, override the plugin’s template files in your active theme.
Create a directory called scc_templates in the root of your active theme and copy any files from the plugin’s includes/scc_templates/ directory into it. Theme files take priority over plugin files.
Installation
- Upload
simple-course-creatorto the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
- Create courses under Posts > Courses
- Assign posts to a course from the edit post screen or the manage posts screen
- Optionally configure display settings under Settings > Course Settings
Upgrading from v1.x with add-on plugins
If you were using the separate SCC Customizer, SCC Front Display, or SCC Post Meta plugins, deactivate and delete them after updating to v2.0.0. All functionality is now built into this plugin. Your existing Customizer settings and display preferences carry over automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Can a post be assigned to more than one course?
Yes. If a post belongs to multiple courses, a separate course listing is displayed for each one. The position setting (above, below, both) applies to all listings.
Can I customize the course listing output?
Yes, several ways. Hooks — Add actions in your theme’s functions.php to insert content at specific points in the output. Available hooks, in order of appearance: scc_before_container scc_container_top scc_below_title scc_below_description scc_before_toggle scc_after_toggle scc_above_list scc_before_list_item — receives $post_id scc_after_list_item — receives $post_id scc_below_list scc_container_bottom scc_after_container The toggle link text is filterable via the course_toggle filter (default: “full course”). The front display leading and trailing text are filterable via course_leading_text…
Can I add my own styles to the Customizer output?
Yes. The scc_add_to_styles action fires inside the generated block. Hook into it to append additional CSS without opening a new style tag.
Changelog
2.1.1
- Fixed: Toggle button CSS specificity increased to prevent broad theme button selectors from overriding the subtle reset styles on base and interaction states
- Tested: Confirmed compatible with WordPress 7.0
2.1.0
- Added: Multiple course support — a post can now belong to more than one course; a separate listing is rendered for each
- Added:
scc_post_typesfilter — register the course taxonomy on custom post types without touching the plugin - Added:
scc-single-courseclass on course boxes that belong to a single-course post;scc-multiple-coursesclass on boxes that belong to a multi-course post - Added:
.scc-course-groupwrapper around all listings when a post belongs to more than one course - Added: Customizer “Bottom Margin” control for the course box; applies to both standalone boxes and the group wrapper
- Changed: Customizer reorganized into a panel with three sections — Course Box, Post Meta, and Front Display
- Changed: Course listing container changed from
#scc-wrapto.scc-post-list(breaking change — update any custom CSS targeting#scc-wrap) - Changed: Each listing carries a
data-course-id="{term_id}"attribute for targeting individual courses with CSS ([data-course-id="5"]) - Changed:
scc.cssrestructured as a self-documenting reference — every selector the plugin outputs is listed with plain-language comments - Fixed: Duplicate element ID when
display_positionwas set to “both” — IDs are not used on the container element - Fixed: Front display sentence grammar — “course.” vs. “courses.” now matches the actual count
- Fixed: JS toggle addClass/removeClass was targeting all toggle links on the page instead of only the clicked one
- Fixed:
is_single()replaced withis_singular()throughout so the plugin works correctly on custom post type singular views - Fixed: Toggle element changed from
<a href="#">to<button type="button">for correct semantics and accessibility; CSS reset inscc.cssneutralizes theme button styles - Fixed:
return falsein toggle JS replaced withe.preventDefault()— avoids unintendedstopPropagation()side effect - Changed: Toggle button now displays a chevron indicator (▾) that rotates when the list is open; style or remove via
.scc-toggle-post-list::after - Changed:
scc-output.phpandscc-post-listing.jsfully documented — hook reference, template variables, inline comments explaining each conditional block
2.0.0
- Consolidated: SCC Customizer, SCC Front Display, and SCC Post Meta are now built into this plugin
- Added: Post Meta settings (show/hide author and date) on the settings page
- Added: Front Display toggle on the settings page
- Added: Unified Customizer section — all settings stored in a single scc_customizer option, independent of the active theme
- Added: Upgrade routine to migrate all settings from the former add-on plugins
- Added: Auto-deactivation of retired add-on plugins (SCC Customizer, SCC Front Display, SCC Post Meta) with admin notice on first admin load after upgrade
- Changed: All plugin option keys prefixed with scc_ (course_display_settings → scc_display_settings, taxonomy_{id} → scc_term_{id})
- Fixed: Customizer integer settings were stored as theme_mods — now stored as options so they persist across theme switches
- Fixed: Missing nonce verification and input sanitization on term meta save
- Fixed: Unescaped output throughout the frontend template and display classes
- Fixed: Missing sanitize_callback on all Customizer color settings
- Fixed: Whitelist validation on all settings page select fields
- Fixed: Incorrect WP_Query orderby value (‘random’ → ‘rand’)
- Fixed: Duplicate element ID on current post style select field
- Fixed: Logic bug in columns() causing undefined variable on first load
- Updated: Requires at least WordPress 5.0, PHP 7.4
1.0.7
- Added: Setting for ordering the post listing using the “order” parameter (ascending or descending)
- Removed: “scc_order” filter, replaced by the above setting
- Tweaked: Default border and padding on the post listing display
1.0.6
- Added: Setting for ordering the post listing using the “orderby” parameter
- Added: “scc_order” filter to control ascending or descending order
- Fixed: PHP notices
- Fixed: Database settings value inconsistencies
1.0.5
- Tweaked: Code formatting
Screenshots
For developers
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FAQ
Simple Course Creator: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 21, 2026
Is Simple Course Creator free?
Yes. Simple Course Creator is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Simple Course Creator safe to use in 2026?
Simple Course Creator works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 5 months ago, and scores 58/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Simple Course Creator?
Simple Course Creator is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 6,742 times since it launched in April 2014. It was downloaded 64 times in the last 30 days.
Does Simple Course Creator work with WordPress 7.1?
Simple Course Creator is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.7, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Simple Course Creator need?
Simple Course Creator requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Simple Course Creator last updated?
The latest version, 2.1.1, was released on May 28, 2026 (5 months ago).
Who makes Simple Course Creator?
Simple Course Creator is developed and maintained by Sean Davis.
What are the best alternatives to Simple Course Creator?
The most popular alternatives to Simple Course Creator are Tutor LMS (100K+ installs), LearnPress (70K+ installs) and MasterStudy LMS WordPress P… (10K+ installs).
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