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
Open your course to the Source Path or open to a particular Cohort path and make sure you're in "Design" mode. Editing the Step Settings from the Source will allow you to sync your changes to all Cohorts, while editing the settings in one particular Cohort will customize that particular Cohort and not affect any other Cohorts taking the course.
From the Path, open a step and then select Settings (the gear icon in the upper right corner).
To make this step optional, toggle "Require completion" to the "off" position.
Be sure to sync the changes using the Sync icon 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 course will register as completed, and if you have provided a certification 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 course 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.