Building a Course
A course is a container of units with rules about order and completion.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → eLearning:
- Courses & Assignments — the course console — courses, units, assignments
- Learner Records — a learner’s registration against a package
- Course Attempts — each attempt at a package
- Course Sessions — individual launches
- Learning Objectives — objective-level results
Units
Each unit is either a package or a link, with a name, description, order, and two flags: whether it is required and whether it gates the next unit.
A link unit can never be required
And the platform refuses the combination outright. A link records nothing, so it can never complete — and a required unit that can never complete is a course nobody can finish.
Use links for supporting material: a policy to read, a video, a reference page. Leave them optional and put the assessed content in packages.
Sequencing: free or enforced
- Free — the learner takes units in any order.
- Enforced — units are taken in order, and a unit that gates the next holds it closed until completed.
Enforced for anything where order matters — an assessment that should follow the material, a briefing that must precede a practical. Free for a set of independent modules.
Completion rule
- All required units — the course completes when every required unit is done.
- A percentage — the course completes at a stated proportion, between one and a hundred.
The percentage rule suits a catalogue where a learner picks from several modules. For compliance, use all-required and mark the right things required.
Validity in months
How long a completion counts for. Zero means it never expires. Twelve means annual refresher, and the platform knows when somebody is due again.
This is what turns a training record into a compliance position.
Certificate template
A course can name a certificate template issued on completion. Worth setting where learners need evidence — and worth not setting where they do not, because certificates for trivial modules devalue the ones that matter.
Self-enrolment
Whether learners can enrol themselves. Right for a development catalogue; usually wrong for mandatory training, which should be assigned so the gaps are visible.
Draft, published, retired
A course starts as a draft. Publishing makes it available to learners; retiring takes it out of the catalogue without destroying the records. Learners see only published, enabled courses that have not been superseded.
Worked example
A compliance course has three units in enforced order — a briefing package, a policy link left optional, and an assessment package that is required and gates nothing after it. Completion requires all required units, validity is twelve months, and a certificate is issued.
Recommendations
- Links optional, always — the platform will insist.
- Enforced sequencing where order genuinely matters.
- All-required completion for compliance.
- Set validity months so refreshers are visible.