Introducing New Features in LearnDash Goals: Course Goals, Learning Streaks, and Advanced Analytics

We’re excited to introduce new LearnDash Goals features that give learners more ways to plan their learning, track progress, build consistent study habits, and monitor their achievements.

This update introduces course-specific goals, custom completion deadlines, daily learning streaks, milestone rewards, and an interactive analytics dashboard. Administrators also get more control over individual features through dedicated settings.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s new!

1. Course-Specific Goals with Automatic Progress Tracking

Learners can now create goals for individual LearnDash courses and track their progress automatically.

The new course goals feature includes:

• Dynamic Course Selection: Learners can select the course they want to set a goal for.
• Four Goal Types: Choose from four available goal types to define different learning targets.Deadlines 
• Automatic Progress Tracking: Goal progress updates automatically based on LearnDash lesson, topic, and course completion events.

This lets learners set specific targets for individual courses and track progress without manually updating their achievements.

2. Custom Goal Deadlines and Study Workload Calculations

Learners can now assign custom completion deadlines to their goals and get a clearer picture of the study effort required to achieve them.

The new deadline feature includes:

• Custom Completion Deadlines: Set a target date for completing individual goals.
• Dynamic Workload Calculations: Automatically calculate the remaining workload based on the goal and its deadline.
• Recommended Daily and Weekly Targets: Display suggested study targets to help learners distribute their workload.
• Pacing Status Indicators: Show whether learners are on track, falling behind, or ahead of their expected progress.
• Real-Time Completion Forecasts: Provide estimated completion timelines based on current progress and the remaining workload.

These additions help learners plan their study schedules and stay on track with their learning goals.

3. Daily Learning Streaks with Animated Badges

LearnDash Goals now includes daily learning streak tracking to encourage consistent study habits.

The new streak functionality includes:

• Timezone-Aware Tracking: Track daily learning activity based on the learner’s timezone.
• Animated Streak Badges: Display animated badges to highlight ongoing learning streaks.
• Standalone Streak Shortcode: Use [ld_goals_streak] to display learning streak information independently on your website.
• Streak Freeze Protection: Protect learning streaks using the streak freeze feature.

These features give learners a visual way to track their consistency and maintain regular study habits.

4. Learning Streak Milestone Rewards

Learners can now unlock milestone rewards as they maintain their daily learning streaks.

The plugin introduces milestone rewards for:

• 3-Day Streak
• 7-Day Streak
• 14-Day Streak
• 30-Day Streak
• 100-Day Streak

When learners reach these milestones, celebration popups recognize their achievements.

The update also introduces the learndash_streak_milestone_reached action hook, allowing integration with LearnDash Achievements to connect streak milestones with the achievement system.

This provides additional opportunities to recognize learners for maintaining consistent study habits.

5. Interactive Learning Analytics Dashboard

A new interactive analytics dashboard is available through the [ld_goals_analytics] shortcode.

The dashboard provides insights into learners’ study activities, progress, and goal outcomes.

It includes:

• Study Activity KPIs: Display key performance indicators related to learning activity.
• Daily Study Time Charts: Visualize daily study time to help learners understand their study patterns.
• Lesson Completion Charts: Track lesson completion activity over time.
• Date Filters: Switch between 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day views to review learning activity across different periods.
• Goal Outcome Visualizations: View visual representations of goal results and progress.

The dashboard gives learners a clearer overview of their learning activity and helps them understand their progress over time.

6. Optimized Analytics Data Retrieval

The update introduces pre-aggregated daily activity logging through the ld_user_daily_activity database table.

This system records daily learning activity in an aggregated format, helping improve analytics data retrieval.

The improvements include:

• Pre-Aggregated Activity Records: Store daily learning activity for more efficient reporting.
• Faster Analytics Retrieval: Use aggregated activity data instead of repeatedly processing raw activity records.
• Reduced Database Overhead: Minimize the database workload associated with retrieving analytics information.

This supports the analytics dashboard while keeping data retrieval efficient.

7. Independent Administrative Controls for Goals Features

Administrators now have independent controls for managing the main LearnDash Goals features.

These settings are available under LearnDash LMS > Goals > General Settings.

Administrators can independently control:

• Course Goals: Enable or disable course-specific goal functionality.
• Custom Deadlines: Manage whether custom goal deadlines are available.
• Learning Streaks: Control daily learning streak functionality.
• Analytics Dashboard: Manage access to the learning analytics dashboard.

These controls let administrators enable only the features they want available on their LearnDash websites.

8. Configurable Minimum Daily Study Duration

Administrators can now configure the minimum daily study duration required for a learning streak to qualify.

The default minimum duration is 5 minutes.

This setting determines how much study activity learners must complete in a day for that day to count toward their learning streak.

Administrators can adjust this requirement based on their learning program’s needs.

9. Backward Compatibility with Existing Weekly Goals

The update maintains backward compatibility with existing weekly goals and legacy metadata.

Existing goal configurations and associated metadata continue to work without requiring database migrations.

This lets websites already using LearnDash Goals benefit from the new features while keeping their existing weekly goal data.

Build Better Learning Habits with LearnDash Goals

LearnDash Goals now includes course-specific goals, deadline-based pacing, daily streaks with milestone rewards, and an analytics dashboard. Admins can switch each feature on or off. Existing weekly goals keep working, so you don’t need to migrate anything.

If your learners tend to stall halfway through a course, these features give them a reason to come back tomorrow. Pick the ones that fit your program and turn them on today.

Try the new LearnDash Goals features and follow the documentation for setup steps. Want help with a custom setup? Contact Our Team, and we’ll sort it out.   

FAQs   

Do I need to migrate my data after updating LearnDash Goals?

No. Your existing weekly goals and their data keep working after the update. You don’t need to run any database migration.

Can I turn off LearnDash Goals features I don’t need?

Yes. Go to LearnDash LMS > Goals > General Settings. You can switch course goals, custom deadlines, learning streaks, and the analytics dashboard on or off one by one.

How do learning streaks work in LearnDash Goals?

A day counts toward a learner’s streak once they study for the minimum time. The default is 5 minutes, and admins can change it. Streaks also follow each learner’s timezone.

How do I display LearnDash Goals streaks and analytics on my site?

Add the [ld_goals_streak] shortcode to show learning streaks. Add [ld_goals_analytics] to show the analytics dashboard. Both work on any page.

How does LearnDash Goals track course progress?

Goal progress updates automatically when learners complete lessons, topics, and courses. Learners don’t need to update anything by hand.