Learning paths: create a path, add courses, set progression and publish

Summary

Set the order in which learners enroll in your courses and progress through them, using a learning path. Learning paths are an effective option for new employee training, aka onboarding. 

Availability: all customers

Learning path overview

Learning paths group courses together to cover a specific topic. You can set:

• the path completion requirements - this setting applies to the whole path
• the order in which learners access the courses - set the order by dragging and dropping courses within a learning path
• the progression rules - these rules determine how quickly learners can work through courses
• an optional certificate which learners receive when they complete a learning path

You set 1 of 2 ways for learners to complete a learning path:

• by completing all courses, following any individual course rules. Admins set most of the requirements, and set the pace of the course
• by completing or passing a certain number of the courses. Learners can self-enroll in courses, and have more control over their learning pace

To enroll learners you can:

• enroll groups on paths. See Enroll groups on a learning path
• add a learning path to the internal catalog. See Add courses and learning paths to the catalog
• sell a learning path through your online store. See eCommerce: make a course available for sale

You assemble a learning path from published courses only: draft courses don't appear as options in Add Courses dialog.

Tip: when you create a learning path, consider the learners' experience of time and effort in completing the courses. Use learning paths to group related courses together into meaningful sections.
Use multiple paths to break up large topics, and provide natural breaks to review topics before moving to the next one. 

You can run a learning path report, to show learners' progress through the courses, for compliance and quality requirements.  

Learning path settings in sub-portals are independent of settings in the top-level portal. A sub-portal admin can enable learning paths in the sub-portal, even if the top-level portal doesn't use them.

When you create a sub-portal, you can copy the settings of the top-level portal, including those for learning paths. See Create and manage sub-portals.

Enable learning paths for your portal

Learning paths are not enabled by default. As admin you need to enable them for your portal.

1. From main navigation, go to Settings > Courses > General Settings.
2. From Content Settings, select Enable Learning Paths.
3. Save to finish.

Create a new learning path

1. From the learning path's Info page, choose secondary navigation Courses > Path Completion Requirement.
2. For Learning Path is completed by, select one of
   • By completing all courses, as per the rules set below on the courses list
   • By completing or passing certain number of the courses on the list below (learners can self-enroll on courses)
3. If you select the second option, enter a number in Number of courses to complete or pass.
4. Save to finish.

Note: You can change this setting freely while the learning path is in draft status. After you publish the learning path, changing this setting requires archiving the learning path, and creating a new one. See Archive a learning path.

Add courses to your learning path

With the learning path completion logic set, you can assign courses to this learning path.

1. From the learning path, choose Courses from secondary navigation
2. Select Add Courses to Path.
3. In the Add Course dialog, search and select published courses to add to this learning path.
4. Select Add to confirm.

To add more courses after this initial selection, select Add Courses to Path again.

Set progression rules

The progression rules available depend on the requirement you set to complete the path.

These rules determine how quickly learners move from one course to the next. You apply the rules course by course, rather than to the whole learning path.

The following screenshot shows the More > Set Progression menu option for a course.

Complete all courses

If your learning path requires learners to complete all courses, following Path completion requirement, you set progression rules. 

1. From the learning path, select Courses from secondary navigation.
2. Choose a course, then select More > Set Progression.
3. From Enroll in Course, choose one of the following options:
   • Immediately: enroll the learner on this course immediately - default for the first course
   • Only if previous passed, with an option to delay enrollment by a number of days you enter
   • If previous passed or failed/If previous completed, with an option to delay enrollment by a number of days you enter
   • On a specific date: enroll the learner on a specific date, chosen from a calendar
   • Days after path enrollment: enroll the learner a specified number of days after the learning path enrollment is created
4. Save to finish.

By completing or passing certain number of the courses

When your learning path requires learners to complete or pass a set number of courses from the learning path, the progression rules allow learners flexibility in their pace.

1. From the learning path, select Courses from secondary navigation.
2. Choose a course, then select More > Set Progression.
3. From Enroll in Course, choose one of the following options:
   • Learner Chooses When
   • On a Specific Date > for Delay Enrollment, select a date from the date picker
   • Days after Path Enrollment > in Delay Enrollment enter a number of days 
4. Save to finish.

Note: the Learner Chooses When option generates different results in basic vs advanced learning path reports.

For basic learning path reports, learners appear as soon as they are enrolled on the path.

For advanced learning path reports, learners appear only when they choose a course.

See Reports: overview and setup.

Options for sellable courses

If you use eCommerce, you can set an additional enrollment option of Must Purchase (in the store). This option appears only if the first course in the learning path is sellable.

The following screenshot shows the options in Set Progression dialog.

You set course sales options from Courses > your course > Sales. 

See eCommerce: make a course available for sale.

The following screenshot shows an example of the Must Purchase option for a course.

Publish a learning path

The learning path is ready when you have added all the required courses, and set their progression rules.

Note: after publishing you can't edit a learning path. Check the courses, settings and workflow carefully before publishing.

1. From main navigation go to Courses.
2. Learning Paths > your learning path.
3. From the action menu, select Publish Path.
4. Click Save to finish.

Your path is published and ready for enrollments.

Report on learning paths

Admins and managers can run learning path reports. See Reports: run a learning path report.

See:

• Publish a new version of a course
• Set up learning path certificates 
• Enrollments: remove individuals and update user status on courses
• Archive a learning path
• Reports: run a learning path report