Managing training material settings and prerequisites

Introduction

Once you've added training material to a course, you can manage the settings.

To do so, access the Training material tab of a course in which you are enrolled as an instructor or Superadmin. On this page, click on the menu icon in the training material's row in the list, then press Settings from the dropdown menu. In the pop-up box, you can manage a handful of settings for training material.

Please note: The settings available in the Settings menu depend on the type of training material. Some settings will not be displayed, as they are not relevant to the training material. Also, note that the Bookmark option has been moved to the course properties, Score & credits tab.

Hidden material

In the Hidden section, you can select the option to hide the training material from learners enrolled in the course. This may be necessary if the training material is no longer relevant to your training needs. Perhaps your company has modified its training plan, or you've uploaded new content. In these scenarios, deleting the material from your platform means you will delete all of the tracking data, thus changing the data and the status of completion for some users. It may be useful to simply hide the material from learners instead.

Additionally, please note that hidden training material will not be counted towards course completion for learners who never view the material. If you have updated a course's content and hidden a training material, it will only count towards course completion if a user completed it before it was hidden. Otherwise, users who are accessing the course after you hid the material will not need to complete this material to complete the course.

Publish (publishing time)

If the training material is only relevant to your training plan for a certain period, you can set for which dates you want it to be published. Using the From and To boxes in this section, press the calendar icons and choose the publication dates for the training material. After the final date for the publication has passed, the material will then be hidden in the course. Dates and times are in UTC format.

Number of views

This section allows you to set how many times a learner can view this training material: an infinite amount of times until the learner has completed or passed the training material, or only once.

If you select the option for a learner to view the training material just one time since the number of views is not displayed in the course player, it may be useful to notify your learners about this option before they begin the training material, so they know to pay close attention and take notes, if necessary. In this case, learners cannot go back to view the training material, even if they failed the exam or the course. You will have to manually go into a course's report to reset the training material tracking for that user.

When limiting the number of views, make sure that the number of views is aligned with the maximum number of attempts set in the course properties, Navigation tab.

End object marker

The end object marker is the last mandatory training material of a course: when a user completes this material, the whole course will be marked as completed, which will be reflected as such in the status and reports. The end object marker is commonly used for courses with a list of mandatory training material in addition to optional training materials, to mark the course as completed even if the optional training materials have not been terminated. 

For Instructor-Led Training (ILT) courses, the session will be marked as completed when the user completes the end object marker independently from the selected Session completion option.

Please Note! When configuring this setting, remember that it is not retroactive.

Tip: A course can have more than one end object marker. By setting two end object markers, a "test-out" process can be created in the course. For example, two tests can be placed in a course and each test can be set as an end object marker. If the first test is passed, the course is marked as completed for the user. However, if the first test fails, the user will need to complete additional training material and pass the second test so that the course can be marked as completed for them.

Autoplay

As for SCORM training materials, you can set the autoplay option, so that the next chapter of the Training Material will automatically be launched when the previous one has been completed (for multi-chapter SCORM files).

Dimensions

You can set custom dimensions of video and file training material, as necessary. Simply type in the numerical value of pixels into the text boxes.

Please note! Dimensions are only applied if the material is set to play in inline mode.

View mode

For some training materials, you can choose the view mode to control how learners access the content. Select one of the following options:

• Inline: Opens the training material inside the player. This option is suggested for content that requires the context of the page or the learner's interaction. 
  • This view mode is available on desktop only.
• Theater mode (Lightbox): Opens the training material in a window at the front or center of the page and dims the rest of the page while the content is playing. 
  • This play mode is not recommended for Flash packages and is available on desktop only.
• Stand-alone mode: Displays only the training material on the course page, helping limit distractions and allowing learners to quickly switch to other content.
  • This option cannot be selected for Creator lessons. 
  • This view mode is available on desktops, tablets, and mobile.
  • When using this view mode for AICC, LTI, and Elucidat training material, you are responsible for ensuring that the content sends tracking data to the platform at intervals shorter than five minutes. Otherwise, the platform will not be able to save the tracking data for the training material.
• New window: Opens the material in a new window or new tab in your browser (depending on your browser settings). 
  • This play mode is available on desktops and tablets.

Notes on view modes

• If you have enabled the possibility to share the course and the training material link, when the training material is either played in stand-alone or in theater modes, the Get shareable link option is not visible, since the content overlaps the whole page.
• You can change the view mode of xAPI training materials from both the Settings page and the Edit menu. However, only changes saved on the Settings page are applied; changes made in the Edit menu are ignored.
• Starting with version 92 of Chrome (opens in a new tab), released on July 20, 2021, the browser prevents iframes from triggering prompts (opens in a new tab) (window.alert, window.confirm, window.prompt) if an iframe comes from a different origin than the top-level page.
  This can cause malfunctions in the execution of some training materials if they make use of the commands mentioned above and are played in Theater Mode or Inline view mode. If you experience malfunctions in your training materials, you can restore the correct functioning in two ways:
  • In the training material Settings panel, change the View Mode option to Stand-Alone or New Window
  • Using the temporary enterprise policy SuppressDifferentOriginSubframeDialogs (opens in a new tab) to revert to the behavior before Chrome 92 (this will be possible until Chrome 95 release)

Prerequisites (e-learning courses only)

In e-learning courses only, training material can be set as prerequisites for other training materials to ensure learners follow a structured and logical learning path within the course. This means that a learner must complete or view a specific training material before being granted access to the next related material. For example, a learner might need to read a policy document or complete an introductory video before they can begin a related assessment or advanced topic.

To set up prerequisites, go to the Training material tab of the course. Click the menu icon next to the training material you want to configure, then select Prerequisites from the dropdown menu.

A pop-up window will appear, displaying the title of the selected training material at the top, followed by a list of all training materials available in the course. Use the checkboxes next to each title to identify which items must be completed before the selected training material becomes accessible. Click Save changes.

The training materials with prerequisites are identified by a padlock icon.