Use individual needs and requirements to plan their learning journey
Plan a flexible progressive series of courses based on custom user data, internal and external events, and if/then logic.
Availability: all customers
Overview
Learning journeys is a visual tool to build a series of courses for each learner. On the learning journey canvas you use branching logic, based on:
- String custom user data, where you can enter terms for a single journey to set up branching conditions
- String-Choice custom user data, aka multiple-choice fields, that you set up in Users > Custom user data
- outcomes of previous courses: Completed/Passed, or Failed
Note: learn how to set up and edit String-Choice fields, to understand what data you can and cannot change while custom user data is in use by learning journeys.
See Custom user data: set up custom fields
Learning journeys works with all published courses in a portal, including licensed courses and courses listed in the catalog.
Learning journeys recognizes when learners are already enrolled on a course, or have completed a course. LearnUpon assigns the appropriate completion when learners finish that course, and they don’t need to repeat it to complete the learning journey.
The following screenshot shows a published learning journey:
- everyone starts with a single intro course, that has a certificate attached for successful completion
- if they pass the intro course, learners are filtered by custom user data Driver’s license
- after completing an appropriate course, learners receive a certificate
Enroll, Branch, Schedule and Award explained
Learning journeys uses 4 options to map out a flexible learning journey. You can use up to 100 of these options, called nodes, per learning journey.
The following GIF shows the options available for your first learning journey.
Enroll
Add course enrollments from the published courses in your portal.
You can require that learners complete:
- a series of courses in a specific sequence
- a group of courses in any order
- a minimum number of selected courses, called Complete X of Y courses
By default courses in the journey are mandatory: learners must complete all of them to progress. You can mark a course as optional, as required.
The default setting is for a single course is Course is required. The default setting for a group of courses is All courses are required.
The following screenshot shows the Enroll feature where you Select completion criteria.
Multi-course enrollment, also called Complete X of Y courses
For training that requires completing a minimum set of courses before separating learners into branches, you can enroll learners in a single node using Complete X of Y courses.
This option is effective:
- when your course availability varies through the training year
- when you offer learners some choice over their training
LearnUpon treats the selected courses as required.
The following screenshot shows an enrollment of 3 courses where learners must complete 2 out of 3 courses to progress.
By default, learners can enroll in more than 1 course at a time, and can complete the courses in any order.
To confirm that learners receive certificates upon completion of a journey you have options:
- make the journey sequential, by adding completion nodes following each course. Learners must complete the course in the specific order
- make the journey non-sequential, but include required courses. Learners must complete the required courses to receive their certificates
Branch
Configure conditions with IF/THEN logic, based on previous course results, aka the Completed node, or custom user data. Combine conditions to build custom journeys.
You can build on the default Completed branch, or you can start a new branch.
You can use 2 types of custom user data to build branches:
- String: text and/or numbers, including phone numbers
- String Choice: words or long numbers such as phone numbers, from a list you provide - no free text
See Custom user data: set up custom fields
Branches from String Choice custom user data
When you create branches from String Choice field type, you select the field entries from the drop-down menu that meet the criteria.
The following screenshot shows a branch in process. It includes the course completion condition, and 2 conditions based on custom user data. In this example, it selects learners in named locations, and learners with specific driver’s license statuses.
Alongside this branch, you could create additional branches for other office sites, other driver’s license statuses, or both.
For each branch, you add the next course in the journey for learners.
For journeys where learners need to complete courses in a specific order, you set up a branch with a Completed/Passed condition after every course.
Note: when you add a Completed node, learners must complete their current course before starting the next one. Without the completion requirement, learners can keep multiple courses at In Progress status at the same time.
Branches from String custom user data
When you create branches from String field type, you provide the accepted entries in the learning journey that meet the criteria. This option is more flexible than creating or editing custom user data fields that apply across the portal.
The following screenshot shows a branch in process. It sets conditions based on entries in a custom user data field called State, and and admin has entered the US state codes applicable.
Note: you must select Enter to add the values in the field, and successfully Save the criteria.
The following screenshot shows the same criteria after selecting Enter, and ready to Save, with the instruction highlighted.
Delay/Schedule
This option lets you schedule the beginning of courses on the journey based on:
-
X days after previous course enrollment. This option releases the learner's next course (course B) a set number of days after their enrollment in their current course (course A)
- When course A includes the Completed node: the countdown for course B starts on the enrollment data of course A. Learners must complete course A and allow X days to pass
- X days after previous course completion. This option makes sure course B becomes available only after course A is Completed. The countdown starts on the completion date of course A. This option applies even for optional courses
-
Fixed date. This option relies on a calendar date
- When course A includes the Completed node: course B is scheduled for a calendar date, but learners must complete course A to access course B
The Fixed date option is ideal for cohort training, or annual compliance training when all learners need access to a course on the same day.
Note: when you add a Completed node, learners must complete their current course before starting the next one. Without the completion requirement, learners can keep multiple courses at In Progress status at the same time.
The following screenshot shows the choices for scheduling a course in the journey with Fixed date selected.
Award
Assign certificates for courses, or for journeys.
When courses already include certificates, you see the certificates as part of the course.
You can add certificates for completing a given learning journey, that are not linked to courses.
You create these certificates in the certificate editor to add them to a journey. You can't access the certificate editor from the learning journey canvas.
See Set up certificates for learners
The following screenshot shows the menu for selecting an existing certificate.
The following screenshot shows a sample journey with branches providing Completed nodes that require learners to take the courses in the order shown. The last Completed node awards the certificate at the end of the journey.
Publish a learning journey and enroll learners
After drafting and reviewing a learning journey, you can publish the learning journey and start enrolling learners immediately. The following screenshot shows the Enroll learners dialog.
The following screenshot shows Learner activity, with enrollments from the learning journey sample, current filters, and options to export to CSV or run a report.
Edit a published journey
Make changes to a published journey to add content or correct a flow.
For changes to that do not add new courses, you apply the changes to Not Completed users only, aka learners who are currently on the learning journey.
When you add a new course to a learning journey, you decide who is affected by the changed learning journey with 2 options:
- Not Completed users: learners who are currently on the learning journey
- All users: learners who are currently on the learning journey, and those who have completed the learning journey
Selecting All users potentially returns Completed status learners to the learning journey, so they can take part in the newly added course.
Note: Learners who rejoin a learning journey do not start again from scratch. They return to complete the new content only.
Alerts about issues with enrollment
Through Alerts, Learning journeys notifies you about any issues with a learner’s enrollment, so you can respond to the issue, and retry the enrollment.
Currently, the events that prompt an alert include:
- license capacity reached
- license expired
- training capacity reached
- missing custom user data
- missing previous enrollment
- no conditions satisfied
Journeys created before 24 September 2025: optional courses and completion nodes
The initial release of learning journeys defined courses as optional by default, and used the Completed node to determine the next course. This journey model built a sequence of courses that enrolled learners in one course after another.
These journeys have not changed, and customers can use them as-is indefinitely.
New journeys created from September 2025: all courses are mandatory by default
Based on feedback from customers, LearnUpon is changing the default behaviour of learning journeys:
- for new learning journeys, courses are mandatory by default. Learners need to complete all courses, and the course order does not matter
- you can mark a course Optional as required
- learners can start in multiple courses at once in a journey, and complete them in any order
- on new journeys, to place courses in a specific order, you add a branch after each course with the Completed/passed condition. Use the Completed node to confirm learners complete specific courses before they can proceed
The following screenshot shows a branch set up to require completion of the previous course before progressing to the next.
Edit your existing journeys to make courses required
Journeys you created and published before 24 September 2025 have not changed in function.
In the journey canvas, mandatory courses (default) appear with solid borders, and optional courses have dashed-line borders.
If required, you can review your current journeys to make courses required, following the change in default behavior.
The following screenshot shows a course in a journey, published before 24 September 2025. The course is optional. The admin can change the setting to mandatory by selecting Edit to open the completion criteria for the course.
Discuss this change with your Customer Success Manager to decide if changing these settings could improve your workflows.
See Learning journeys: create and publish a learning journey
Staged releases
Developing learning journeys requires close collaboration with customers. LearnUpon is building this feature in short phases, and is relying on customer feedback to guide its next steps. This agile approach means that LearnUpon can change direction of this feature based on commentary and customer experience.
Currently admins can:
- create learning journeys with courses, and save draft journeys
- schedule the start of courses based on other course starts, course completions or calendar dates
- add a certificate for completing a journey, independent of course certificates
- publish a journey
- edit a published journey to change it, and decide how to handle currently-enrolled learners
- turn on enrollment and completion emails settings for a learning journey
- allow managers to enroll learners on a learning journey. Managers require the corresponding permissions to enroll learners in their User profile
- enroll individual learners and groups on learning journeys, and view the number of enrolled learners
- delete draft and published journeys, and archive published journeys
- download a basic report in CSV file format
Currently, for journeys that allow managers to manage enrollments, managers with the correct permissions can:
- enroll learners on learning journeys
- view the learning journeys from main navigation
Managers with the correct permissions can only see those learning journeys that include Permissions > Manager can enroll.
This permission is similar to the course-level permission to allow managers to enroll learners.
Note: the multiple phases mean many more features are in development. Share your feedback and questions with your Customer Success Manager, and learn more about coming phases.
Prerequisites
To make use of learning journeys you need an active portal that includes:
- custom user data, particularly String and String-Choice fields, to provide conditions for your learners
- published courses for learners to join
- certificates to add to completed journeys
Note: learn how to set up and edit String-Choice fields, to understand what data you can and cannot change while custom user data is in use by learning journeys.
See Custom user data: set up custom fields
Access permissions
- admins with full portal permissions: can turn on learning journeys for a portal
- all admins: can create and publish learning journeys, and enroll learners
-
managers with correct permissions:
- can enroll and unenroll learners
- can view the journeys that allow managers to enroll learners
Confirm learning journeys are available
In new portals, learning journeys are turned on by default.
Admins can turn on learning journeys as required.
- From main navigation, go to Settings > Courses > General Settings.
- From Content Settings, select Enable learning journeys.
- Save to finish.
See: