Migrating LearnDash Courses to SureDash

If you have existing courses in LearnDash, you don’t have to rebuild them from scratch in SureDash. SureDash Pro can migrate your LearnDash courses, including lessons, topics, and quizzes, into native SureDash course spaces. The migration is run through SureDash AI Abilities and is controlled conversationally using any MCP-compatible AI assistant connected to your WordPress site.

Applies to: SureDash Core and Pro 1.10.0 and above (AI Abilities and MCP Server enabled).

Before You Begin

• SureDash and SureDash Pro must be installed and activated. Course spaces are a Pro feature.
• LearnDash must remain active during the migration. The migration only reads LearnDash data; it never modifies or deletes it.
• You need an administrator account, since migration abilities require admin-level permissions.
• AI Abilities must be enabled under SureDash > Settings.
• MCP Server must be enabled so an external AI assistant can connect to your site.

Supported AI Assistants

You can run the migration using:

• Claude
• Any MCP-compatible AI assistant
• Custom AI workflows connected to the SureDash MCP endpoint

Enabling AI Abilities and the MCP Server

1. Go to SureDash > Settings.
2. Enable AI Abilities.
3. Enable MCP Server.

Your MCP endpoint will look like this:

https://your-site.com/wp-json/suredash/v1/mcp

Connect this endpoint to your AI assistant before continuing.

How LearnDash Content Is Converted

SureDash and LearnDash organize courses differently, so the migration needs to figure out the right structure for each part of your course on its own. LearnDash courses are usually built in one of two ways: lessons with topics or lessons grouped under section headings. Many courses actually use a mix of both.

Instead of forcing one fixed mapping on the whole course, the migration looks at each group of lessons separately and decides how to convert it:

• If a group has topics, each lesson becomes a Section in SureDash, and its topics become lesson items inside that Section.
• If a group has no topics, the section heading becomes a Section, and the lessons inside it become lesson items.

Because each group is checked on its own, a single course can end up “mixed,” with some sections using the topics mapping and others using the sections mapping.

Mapping Reference

LearnDash	Converts to (SureDash)
Course	Course Space
Lesson (with topics)	Section
Lesson body (with topics, if not empty)	First lesson item in that Section
Topic	Lesson item
Section heading (no topics)	Section
Lesson (no topics)	Lesson item
Lesson or Topic quiz	Quiz item in the same Section
Course-level quiz	Quiz item in a final “Course Assessments” Section

Example A: Course Using Lessons with Topics

A course called “Web Development Fundamentals” has Lesson 1 (HTML Basics) with a topic and quiz, Lesson 2 (CSS Fundamentals), and a Final Exam. After migration, this becomes a course space with two Sections built from the topics mapping (HTML Basics and CSS Fundamentals), plus a Course Assessments Section holding the Final Exam quiz.

Example B: Course Using Section Headings

A course called “Photography 101” is organized under two section headings, Getting Started and Composition, each containing lessons and one quiz. Since there are no topics here, both headings convert directly into Sections, and the lessons and quiz inside them become lesson items and a quiz item.

Example C: Mixed Course

A course can combine both styles. Groups that contain topics use the topics mapping, and groups that don’t use the sections mapping. When this happens, the dry run will flag the course’s overall structure as “mixed.”

Understanding the Dry Run Report

Every dry run gives you two pieces of information, so you know exactly what will be built before anything is created.

Detected structure, which tells you the course’s overall shape:

• topics, meaning every group maps lessons to Sections and topics to lesson items
• sections, meaning every group maps section headings to Sections and lessons to lesson items
• mixed, meaning the course uses both mappings

Section breakdown, a list showing, for each Section:

• The Section title
• The mapping used (topics or sections)
• The number of items inside that Section

Use this breakdown to confirm the structure looks right, especially for mixed courses, before running the actual migration.

Running a Dry Run

A dry run analyzes your LearnDash course and shows exactly how it would be migrated, without creating any content in SureDash. We recommend always doing this first.

Example prompt to your AI assistant:

Analyze LearnDash course 123 and perform a dry run migration.

Migrating a Course

Once you’re happy with the dry run results, ask your AI assistant to run the actual migration.

Example prompt to your AI assistant:

Migrate LearnDash course 123 to SureDash.

The AI assistant will create the Course Space, Sections, lessons, and quizzes according to the structure detected during the dry run.

Course Status After Migration

Every migrated course is created as a Draft in SureDash. This gives you a chance to review the content, check the structure, and make adjustments before your members can see it.

Note: The migration does not publish courses automatically. You’ll need to publish them yourself once you’re ready.

What Gets Migrated

• Courses
• Lessons
• Topics
• Section headings
• Lesson content
• Topic content
• Lesson quizzes
• Topic quizzes
• Course-level quizzes
• Featured images (if supported in the original content)

What Is Not Migrated

Some LearnDash features don’t have an equivalent in SureDash and are not carried over:

• Certificates
• Assignments
• Essays
• Gradebooks
• Question banks
• Progress data
• User enrollments
• LearnDash groups
• Course pricing
• Access rules
• Drip scheduling
• LearnDash-specific settings

Note: The migration focuses on course content and learning structure only. User progress, enrollments, reporting, certificates, and other LearnDash-specific features are intentionally left out.

Migration Checklist

• LearnDash remains active.
• SureDash Pro is installed and activated.
• AI Abilities is enabled.
• MCP Server is enabled.
• Your AI assistant is connected.
• A dry run has been completed.
• The dry run results have been reviewed.
• The actual migration is only run after the dry run looks correct.

Troubleshooting

Course was not found
Double-check the LearnDash course ID you provided.

LearnDash is inactive
The LearnDash plugin must stay active for the entire migration.

AI cannot access the site
Check that AI Abilities and MCP Server are both enabled, and that your AI assistant is connected to the correct MCP endpoint.

Unexpected course structure
Run a dry run and review the detected_structure and section_breakdown values. These explain exactly how the migration will treat each part of the course.

Tip: If something doesn’t look right during the dry run, don’t proceed with the migration. Review your LearnDash course structure first, then run the dry run again.

If you have any questions or need further help, feel free to reach out to our support team. We’re always happy to help!