MapArc LMS

MapArc LMS is a lightweight WordPress learning management system originally created by Bob Stanley Gardner in 2026.

It provides a focused course-delivery experience without requiring an external LMS service. Site owners can use their own institutional branding across the learner experience.

Current functionality includes:

• Courses, modules, lessons, and assessments
• Dedicated course builder
• YouTube lesson delivery
• Student registration and login
• Course enrollment and learner management
• Lesson and assessment progress tracking
• Certificate completion rules
• Configurable certificate signatories
• Public certificate verification
• Self-paced courses, scheduled cohorts, and enrollment-relative drip
• Multilingual course/lesson/assessment variants with shared progress
• Public enrollment and completion statistics
• CSV learner export
• White-label institution branding
• WordPress personal-data export/erasure integration and configurable certificate retention

External Services

MapArc LMS itself does not require an external LMS service. Optional course content can, however, connect a visitor’s browser to third-party services when a course author deliberately configures that content.

YouTube

When a course author adds a YouTube video URL, MapArc LMS may request a video thumbnail from i.ytimg.com and may load an embedded YouTube player from YouTube or youtube-nocookie.com when the visitor chooses to play the video. In those circumstances the visitor’s browser communicates directly with Google/YouTube and data such as the visitor’s IP address and browser/device information may be processed by that service according to its policies. MapArc LMS does not send learner enrollment, assessment, certificate, or profile records to YouTube.

YouTube Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

YouTube integration is optional and is used only when a site/course author supplies YouTube-hosted content.

Source Code and Build Process

MapArc LMS ships its human-readable source code directly in the plugin package. No JavaScript or CSS build/minification step is required to recreate the distributed assets.

• assets/js/admin.js is the editable administrator JavaScript source.
• assets/js/maparc-lms.js is the editable learner-facing JavaScript source.
• Files in assets/css/ are the editable stylesheet sources used directly by WordPress.
• The plugin does not bundle third-party JavaScript or CSS libraries. It uses WordPress-provided dependencies such as jQuery and the WordPress media library where needed.
• No npm, webpack, Vite, Rollup, Gulp, Grunt, Composer, or other asset compilation process is required for the distributed plugin.

The JavaScript and CSS files shipped with MapArc LMS are the human-readable editable source. No separate compilation or minification step is required, and the plugin does not bundle third-party JavaScript or CSS libraries.

Credits

• Bob Stanley Gardner — Original Creator and Lead Developer.
• Shalomin Gardner — Contributor.