Building learning paths and courses
A learning path is a programme: an ordered set of courses, each an ordered set of modules. Building one well is mostly about sequence and scope — the content itself is the easy part.
Where: LMS › Team learning › Learning paths You need: the rights to build LMS content
Before You Start
Decide what completing this path should mean. "Has read some material" and "is competent to do the job" need very different assessments, and the difference should be settled before you write anything.
Sketch the sequence. Order is meaningful — a learner works through courses and modules in the order you set. Reordering after people have started is disruptive and can leave them having done modules out of context.
Decide whether it is mandatory. That determines whether you assign it or let people find it.
Path settings
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Status | Open — available for enrolment; Closed — not |
| Difficulty | Beginner, intermediate or advanced |
| Colour | A visual identifier — blue, teal, gold, purple, green or rose |
Difficulty is a promise to the learner. Someone enrolling in a beginner path expects to be able to follow it without prior knowledge. Labelling an advanced path as beginner produces people who quietly give up.
Closed is how you retire a path without deleting it — existing enrolments keep their history, nobody new can join.
Structuring the content
| Level | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Path | One coherent programme with a clear outcome |
| Course | One subject — a few hours at most |
| Module | One idea, ideally 5–15 minutes |
Small modules are better than large ones for a practical reason: progress is tracked per module, so a learner who has done three of eight modules has visible, motivating progress. One giant module shows as "in progress" for a fortnight.
How to build a path
- Open LMS › Team learning › Learning paths and create the path.
- Set its difficulty, colour and status.
- Add courses in the order learners should take them.
- Add modules to each course, in order.
- Add content and assessments to each module.
- Configure a certificate if completion should be certified.
- Take the whole path yourself before enrolling anyone.
That last step is not optional. Ordering problems, broken links and assessments that cannot be passed are all invisible from the builder and obvious from the learner's seat.
What Happens Next
- An open path can be enrolled in — by assignment or by learners themselves.
- Learners progress module by module, in order.
- Completing every module completes the path, and issues a certificate if one is configured.
- Editing a path affects learners currently taking it, including those mid-way.
Tips
- Build the whole path before opening it. A path that gains modules while people are working through it makes their completion meaningless and their progress bar move backwards.
- Take your own path end to end. Twenty minutes here saves every learner the same confusion.
- Set difficulty honestly. It is the only expectation-setting the learner gets before starting.
- Close rather than delete retired paths, so completion history remains valid.
- Revisit content annually. Training goes stale silently, and nobody reports it — they just stop trusting it.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: Nobody can enrol in a path. Check its status is Open.
Q: A learner's progress went backwards. Modules were added to a path they were already taking. Finish building before opening.
Q: Can I reorder courses after people have started? You can, but learners mid-path may have taken modules out of the new order. Avoid it.
Q: How do I retire a path? Close it. Deleting removes the history of who completed it.
Q: Does difficulty restrict who can enrol? No — it sets expectations, it does not gate access.