How to Use OSCampus, the Joomla LMS

: Written by Steve Burge Steve Burge; Published: 02 October 2019 02 October 2019

OSCampus is our popular Learning Management System (LMS) for Joomla. This Joomla extensions is incredibly robust and is already used by 1,000's of people every week.

In this getting started guide, I'll show you how to add OSCampus to your site.

OSCampus is organized in a very simple way: Classes contain Lessons. Everything is a secondary feature, so we'll focus on setting up those core elements.

Video guide to OSCampus

Step #1. Download and install OSCampus

Click here to download OSCampus.

If you want to test the videos or media embeds in lessons, download and install one of these extensions:

This is a beta version and anyone can download and test. However, Extension Club members at Joomlashack will have access to updates and the upcoming stable versions.

Step #2. Create a class

Go to Components > OSCampus and you'll find the main screen.

Let's start by creating our first class:

Make sure "Classes" is selected in the left menu.
Click "New".

Creating a new class in OSCampus

You can now set up your class. The main settings will be on the first page:

Title: your class title
Teacher: you can add these via the main OSCampus page in the image above
Image: you can upload a main class image here
Pathways: these work in a very similar way to core Joomla categories
Tags: these work in a very similar way to core Joomla tags
Length: you can tell people how long the class will take to complete
Difficulty: Currently set to Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Release: The publication date of the class
Description: Click the tab and enter a class description

The new class creation page in OSCampus

Step #3. Create lessons

Now we can create lessons for this class.

Click "Lessons" in the left menu.
Click "New".

Here are the key things to enter:

Title: The name of this lesson
Class: Choose the class you created earlier
Module: Use this to divide up the lessons into shorter modules.
Lesson Type: This will depend on the video extensions you have installed. If you have OSEmbed, choose "URL Embed".

lesson type

If you choose "URL Embed", and click "Save", you'll then be asked to enter a Video URL under the "Content" tab.

osembed field

Here's how a YouTube video looks inside that field:

youtube in oscampus

If you create several lessons, you'll see them organized on the "Lessons" page, as in the image below:

A list of lessons in OSCampus

Step #4. Create a menu link

Now let's see the class in action.

Go to Menus > Main Menu > New.
Choose OSCampus > New Classes.

OSCampus menu links

Save the menu link and visit the front of your site. You'll see a preview of the class. Click the title to see the full class overview, or click "Start this class" to go directly to the first video.

New classes created in OSCampus