Introduction

Thanks to course equivalencies, you can mark one or more courses having the same value as equivalent to one another, so that the learners enrolled in them just need to complete one of them to complete them all. 

Requirements and limitations

• You can set up a maximum of 30 equivalent courses per course. When you try to make a course equivalent to another, if the target course already has 30 equivalences, you cannot save your changes, even for any other courses selected in the Add equivalencies right panel.

Use case scenario

Course A is set as equivalent to Course B and Course C, and a user is enrolled in all three courses. Once Course A is completed, the user will automatically be marked as having completed Course B and Course C as well with no need to go back to complete Course B and Course C later. 

Please note that for Course B and Course C, the training material statuses (not yet started, in progress, or complete), as well as session completion status, will not change, and the user will not receive a final score for these courses. If the user is not enrolled in all the equivalent courses but has completed one of them, once he or she is enrolled in one of the others they will be automatically marked as completed.

Setting up course equivalencies

To configure equivalent courses, access the Admin menu by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner. Then, click on the Course management item in the E-learning section. Find one of the courses you want to create an equivalence for in the list of courses, click on its description and, once in the course area, move to the Properties tab. Click on Advanced settings and select the Equivalencies vertical tab.

Click on Add equivalencies and use the options available in the Equivalence type tab of the right panel to define if the courses that you will select in the Courses tab are the source or the target courses of the course you are configuring, or if there is a mutual equivalence.

Source course

The source course is the origin of the equivalency. When you select this option in the Equivalence type tab of the right panel, the courses you select in the Courses tab will act as source courses for the course you are configuring the equivalence for, which will then become their target course.

When a learner completes the source course, all its target courses are automatically marked as completed. However, completing a target course does not mark the source course as completed.

Example

• Course A is set as the source, and Courses B and C are targets.
• If a learner completes Course A, both Courses B and C will automatically be marked as completed.
• Completing Course B or Course C alone will not mark Course A as completed.

Target course

A target course receives the equivalency from one or more source courses. When you select this option in the Equivalence type tab of the right panel, the courses you choose in the Courses tab will act as target courses for the course you are configuring the equivalence for, which will then become their source course.

When a learner completes a source course, the target is marked as completed. Completing the target course does not affect the status of the source courses.

Please note!

• If a source course is completed before linking it to a target course, the target course is not marked as completed.
• If a learner enrolls or is enrolled in a target course after completing the source course, the target course is marked as completed.

Example

• Course A is set as the target, and Courses B and C are sources.
• If a learner completes Course B, Course A will automatically be marked as completed.
• Completing Course A will not mark Courses B or C as completed.

Mutual equivalence

Courses with a mutual equivalency share a two-way relationship. Completing one of the courses automatically marks the other as completed. When there is a mutual equivalence between two or more courses, once the status of one of the courses is set to Completed, it is no longer possible to change the status of any of the courses to a different value.

Example

• Courses A and B are set as mutually equivalent.
  • If a learner completes Course A, Course B is also marked as completed (and vice versa).
  • If the learner is enrolled in Course A and completes it, and is later enrolled in Course B, Course B will show as completed.
• Once either course is completed, the completion status of both courses becomes final and cannot be altered.

Select the relationship between the courses and click Next to proceed.

Select one or more equivalent courses, then click Select to confirm your choice. 

The equivalent courses are now listed in the Equivalencies table, and, from now on, they are marked as equivalent to the course that you’re configuring. You can change the Equivalence Type by hovering your mouse up to the end of the course row, then clicking on the ellipsis button and selecting the Change equivalence type option. 

To remove an equivalence, select the Remove option of the ellipsis menu. Please note that this action is not retroactive. Once a course is marked as complete, this will not be undone if you delete the equivalence. 

Notes on equivalencies

• If you set two courses as equivalent, and a learner completed one of the two courses before you configured the equivalence, then the equivalent course to the one already completed will not be marked as completed too.
• If you set two courses as equivalent, and Learner A is enrolled in both of them, and Learner A completes one of them (and thus the equivalent course too), and you delete the course actually completed by Learner A, the enrollment in the other course (the one for which the completion has been set by the equivalence) is removed.
• If you set two courses as equivalent and a learner is enrolled in both of them, you can only change the learner enrollment status in the source course. If you change it in the target course, it will not update in any of the courses.
• If a learner completes a course with equivalent courses, and you configured the Learner completed a course notification, the learner will receive a separate notification for each equivalent course.

Power Users and equivalences

Power Users with permissions on courses can configure equivalences only among the courses they manage as resources. If a Superadmin set up an equivalence between a course that the Power User manages as a resource and a course that they don't manage, that Power User will no longer be allowed to configure other equivalences for that course. If so, the Equivalences tab shows a Visibility Restriction banner, and the Add equivalences button is disabled. 

Completion of mutually equivalent courses

Let's say that course A and Course B are marked as equivalent courses with the Mutual Equivalence option. Here follow the possible scenarios leading to the completion of both courses:

• Upon enrollment. If a user is enrolled in Course B after completing Course A, Course B will be automatically set as completed.
• Upon course completion. The user is enrolled both in Course A and in Course B. Whether he/she completes one of the two courses, both of them will be marked as completed.
• When the user accesses one of the training materials in the course. The user is enrolled and has completed both Course A and Course B. If the status of one of the courses is changed to something different than Completed, as the user accesses one of the training materials assigned to the course, the equivalence immediately sets the status of both courses back to Completed.