Academy Starter Templates gives you a finished eLearning site in one import. Instead of building a header, a banner, course grids and a footer from scratch, you pick a ready-made design, import it, and then change the parts you want.
Note: Academy Starter Templates is a separate free plugin from WordPress.org. It needs Academy LMS installed first, and the templates are built with Elementor.
What you get
Before you start
Part 1: Install and import
Step 1: Install Academy LMS
Go to Plugins → Add New and search for Academy LMS. Install and activate it. The templates depend on it, so this comes first.
Step 2: Install Academy Starter Templates
Search for Academy Starter Templates on the same screen. Click Install Now, then Activate.
Step 3: Open the template library
A Academy Starter item appears in the dashboard menu. Open it to see the templates, grouped by category across the top: All Demos, LMS, Marketplace, University and Instructor.
Step 4: Pick a template
Hover a template to reveal its Import Demo button. Each card shows the design you will get, so pick the one closest to the site you want and change the details later.
Step 5: Check the requirements and import
A Required Plugins panel lists what the demo needs, typically Elementor Website Builder, Elementor Header & Footer Builder, Essential Addons for Elementor, Contact Form 7, MC4WP and the demo content itself. Anything missing is installed and activated for you.
Click Import Now and leave the tab open. A full import usually takes five to ten minutes.
Step 6: View the site
When the import finishes, choose View Site. The header, banner, category grid, courses, counters, testimonials, blog section and footer are all in place and working.
Part 2: Import the demo content by hand
If the one click import does not finish, you can bring the content in yourself with the WordPress importer.
Step 7: Download the plugin
Download the Academy Starter Templates plugin from WordPress.org so you have the zip on your computer.
Step 8: Find the XML files
Unzip it and open the demo-data folder. Each template has its own XML file, named after the design, such as marketplace, single-instructor or university.
Step 9: Open the WordPress importer
In the dashboard go to Tools → Import and find WordPress at the bottom of the list. Install the importer if you have not used it before, then click Run Importer.
Step 10: Upload the XML
Choose the XML file for your template and click Upload file and import. When it completes, reload the site.
Part 3: Make it yours
Everything the template created is a normal WordPress page or Elementor template, so you edit it the same way you edit anything else.
Step 11: Open the header and footer builder
Go to Appearance → Header and Footer Builder. The header, the footer and any other site-wide templates are listed here.
Step 12: Edit the header
Find the header template and choose Edit with Elementor.
Step 13: Select the logo
In Elementor, click the Academy LMS logo in the header to select that widget.
Step 14: Upload your own logo
Upload your logo in the widget’s settings, then use the Style and Advanced tabs to set its size, spacing and alignment. Update when you are done.
Step 15: Edit the homepage and other pages
Go to Pages and find the page the template set as your front page, for example Marketplace. Choose Edit with Elementor and change the sections, text and images. Every other page the template created works the same way.
Step 16: Edit the footer
Back in Appearance → Header and Footer Builder, open the footer template with Edit with Elementor.
Step 17: Change the footer content
Edit, remove or replace anything in the footer, such as the contact details, link columns and social icons.
Step 18: Open the menus screen
Go to Appearance → Edit to change navigation. The template builds a menu from its demo pages, which will not match your own pages exactly.
Step 19: Add and remove menu items
To add: tick the pages, posts or links you want on the left, click Add to Menu, then drag them into the order and nesting you want.
To remove: expand the item in Menu structure and click Remove.
Click Save Menu when you are finished. Nothing changes on the site until you do.
Troubleshooting
The import stops partway or times out. Large imports can exceed the PHP time limit on shared hosting. Use the manual XML route in Part 2, which imports in one pass and is less sensitive to timeouts.
The site looks unstyled after importing. One of the required plugins did not activate. Check the list from Step 5 under Plugins and activate anything missing, then reload.
The menu points at pages that do not exist. The demo menu refers to demo pages. Rebuild it from your own pages as in Step 19.
Editing a page does not change the header or footer. Those are separate templates. Edit them from Appearance → Header and Footer Builder, not from the page.