Learning Path Flow Control…. We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way.

I have built a Learning Path with 10 courses. I want the learner to take each in succession. The easy way to do this is by setting up Prerequisite rules and defining that to do the second course you have to have completed the first course in the path. Tied to Auto Enrollment rules the Learner gets each item unlocked as they move through the path. The downside is you have created hard relationships between these courses and set up a chain of relationships that must be respected system wide.

This provides local flow control in your learning path without making any system wide relationships that might be problematic.

Tomorrow you wake up and want to offer the third course as a stand-alone course for Learners to enroll into and you find you can only offer this to those that have done the first two items in that Learning Path you built. This might be a good thing. As an administrator you have defined this chain and now everyone must respect it and that might be pedagogically correct. Or you might have set up relationships that only make sense in the context of the Learning path you were building.

As an alternative think about going into the Learning Path editor and in the settings for any group select “Learners must complete these activity groups in sequential order”. This provides local flow control in your learning path without making any system wide relationships that might be problematic.