Set up what you ask every new student under The Nonprofit LMS, then Settings, then Profile Fields. Each field has a label, a type and a Required toggle, and you can drag fields into the order you want.
There are eleven field types: text, text area, email, phone, number, date, dropdown, radio buttons, checkbox, address, and name (first and last).
Date fields
Dates show as three dropdowns for month, day and year instead of a browser calendar popup, so they work the same on every device and with screen readers. A student picks all three, or leaves all three blank if the field is optional. A half-filled date, or an impossible one like February 31, is refused with a message that names what’s missing. The year list runs from this year back one hundred years.
Address fields
An address field collects a postal address in five boxes: street, street 2, city, state or province, and postal code. Browser autofill works, so a saved address fills in with one tap. When the field is required, everything but street 2 is required. On the Students screen the address shows as one line with its parts underneath, and in the Pro CSV export each part gets its own column, which is what a mailing list needs.
Name fields
A name field is different from the rest. What a student types becomes the first and last name on their WordPress account, and their display name is set to “First Last” unless they’d already chosen one. WordPress emails, the Students screen and certificates all use that name, so asking for it here means you stop seeing usernames everywhere. A site can have one name field, and it only appears on the registration forms, since the WordPress profile screen already has its own name boxes.
An Other choice
On a dropdown, radio button or checkbox field, tick Add an “Other” choice with a text box. Students who pick it get a text box that only appears while that choice is selected. Text box required decides whether they have to fill it in. Whatever they type is saved as their answer, so it shows as itself on the Students screen and in exports.
Collect what you actually need. Every required field is one more hurdle between a visitor and their first course.