Getting Started

Before you get started, it’s useful to understand a few core concepts of how your LMS works. This will help you navigate and manage your platform more confidently.

This page introduces the key building blocks of your system and some essential LMS terminology. If you need definitions, you can find a full glossary here.

CMS vs LMS

Your platform is made up of two separate systems that work together in a headless setup:

CMS (Content Management System): Powered by Strapi. This is where all your learning content is stored, managed, and structured.
LMS (Learning Management System): This is what your learners see and interact with. It delivers the content, manages access, and tracks progress.

A simple way to think of it:

The CMS is the brain (where content lives)
The LMS is the face (how learners see and experience it)

The LMS doesn’t have its own database or store any content directly. It displays whatever is set up and published in the CMS.

High level content structure

Each client’s structure can differ slightly, but the most common content hierarchy looks like this:

Learning Path (optional): A layer above a Course that groups multiple Courses together. Some clients refer to this as a Path, Group, or Bundle.
Course: A Course consists of a structured curriculum of Modules, which may be delivered in a linear or free form progression. Learners typically receive a certificate upon completion.
Module: A piece of learning content that forms part of the Course. A Module can be a Lesson, Quiz, Survey, Webinar, or SCORM package, depending on how your system is configured.

Users

There are two types of users in the system:

CMS Admins: People who log in to the Strapi admin panel to manage content.
- Managed via Settings > Administration Panel > Users
- Require only basic details (name, email, password)
LMS Users: Learners who have an account in the LMS.
- Managed under Content Manager > User in Strapi
- May require additional information (for example, a profile image or custom fields) depending on how your LMS is configured

CMS Admins and LMS Users are completely separate. Managing an LMS User does not grant access to the CMS.

Enrollments

An enrollment is what connects a learner to a piece of content.

When a learner is enrolled onto a course, the system creates a course enrollment record and, at the same time, individual module enrollment records for each module in that course.

Each module type, such as a Lesson, Quiz, Survey, Webinar, or SCORM package, has its own enrollment record type e.g. Quiz enrollment.

This structure allows you to control what each learner can access and to track their progress at both the course and module level.

Content workflow

By default, Strapi uses a simple Draft and Published workflow.

Items like Courses and Lessons have a Draft/Publish state
Items like Comments, Notes or Users do not

Only published content appears in the LMS, so make sure any Courses or Modules are published before learners are expected to access them.