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Make steps required or optional
Make steps required or optional

Require learners to complete certain steps, or allow them to skip optional material on the Path.

Laurie Garcia avatar
Written by Laurie Garcia
Updated this week

For administrators, editors, and teachers

Use the "required/optional" setting on a step to give the learner the ability to "skip" over certain assignments that are supplementary or to provide multiple ways to complete an assignment. 

How to make steps optional

If you'd like to edit the step settings for all Cohorts, open your Source Path. If you'd like to edit only the step settings for one particular Cohort, open to that particular Cohort path and make sure you're in "Design" mode.

  1. From the Path, open a step and then select Settings (the gear icon in the upper right corner).

  2. To make this step optional, toggle "Require completion" to the "off" position.

  3. Be sure to Publish the changes using the Publish button in the upper right corner of the page so your learners receive the updates.

The "Require completion" toggle defaults to "on." Drag it to the left to toggle it "off."

How do optional steps work?

If you toggle this button on (the default), learners will need to complete the step in order to finish the Path and receive completion status. 

If you toggle the button off, the step will be marked as "optional." Learners will be able to skip the step and still receive completion for the Path. 

When all required steps are completed, and all optional steps are completed or skipped, the entire Path will register as completed, and if you have provided a certificate of completion, it will become available at this point.

If optional, the learner will have two options: to "Complete" the step, or to "Skip it." Skipping the step allows them to proceed without completing any assessments or other tasks on the step.

Need to complete a step on behalf of a user? See how to skip ahead.

If points are assigned

Learners are not penalized for skipping an optional step that has points assigned. Any completed optional step that has points assigned will be factored into the learner's overall grade, but any skipped optional step that has points will be omitted entirely. Doing well on an optional step will raise the overall grade, and skipping an optional step will not lower the grade.

In other words, the total points for the Path will be calculated as "all points earned from required and optional steps" divided by "all points possible on required steps and completed optional steps." Skipped optional steps have their points omitted from the calculation.

Other optional material

Have other supplementary material that doesn't seem to fit into the flow of a lesson? Consider adding optional material in an attached file or in a Note.
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