Let learners finish my course without the optional lessons
Some courses carry more than the learner needs to finish. A recorded CPD webinar, a podcast version of a lesson you also wrote down, a bonus lesson for the curious. If finishing means every lesson is done, a learner who passes every knowledge check but skips the extras never finishes, and never gets their certificate.
The prompt
“On my [course name] course, count a learner as finished when they pass every required knowledge check, even if they skip the [webinars / podcast versions / bonus lessons].”
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You decide what finishing means, course by course.
Two ways to finish a course
- Every lesson and every required check. Where every course starts. A learner finishes when every lesson is marked as done and every required knowledge check is passed.
- Every required check. A learner finishes when they pass every required knowledge check. Lessons they have not done do not count against them. This is the one for a course with optional extras.
Say it in your own words, for example “on Level 3, count learners as finished when they pass all the knowledge checks, even if they skip the webinars”, and bernard sets it. An optional knowledge check never holds anyone up under either choice (Make my quizzes count towards a certificate explains required and optional).
What happens when you switch
Nothing is issued by the switch itself. bernard tells you how many current learners have already passed every required check but have not finished. Each of them finishes the next time they submit a knowledge check or finish a lesson, and then their certificate follows the course’s setting: given automatically, or waiting for your approval (Give learners a certificate when they finish my course).
If those learners should have their certificate now, ask bernard to give it to them. It lists the names exactly as they will print and issues nothing until you say yes.
When you can’t choose it
A course with no required knowledge check can only finish on its lessons: otherwise everyone would finish the moment they enrol. bernard says so, and asks you to make at least one check required first.
The course page in bernard shows which rule a course uses, in the Certificates card.
Questions people ask
- What are the two choices?
- Every lesson done and every required knowledge check passed, which is where every course starts. Or every required knowledge check passed, with lessons not counted, for a course whose extras (a webinar, a podcast version of a lesson, a bonus lesson) learners may rightly skip.
- Does changing it give certificates to learners straight away?
- No. The change issues nothing by itself. bernard tells you how many current learners have already passed every required check but have not finished yet. Each of them finishes the next time they submit a knowledge check or finish a lesson, and their certificate follows your usual setting. If you want them to have one now, ask bernard to give them a certificate, and it reads the names back to you first.
- Why can’t I choose ‘knowledge checks only’ on my course?
- Because the course has no required knowledge check, so every learner would finish the moment they enrol. Make at least one check required first, then choose it again.
- Is this a draft I approve, like a page change?
- No. It takes effect at once, because it changes when a learner finishes rather than what a page shows. That is why bernard asks you before it changes it. Nothing on your published pages changes, so there is nothing to approve.
- Do learners who already finished lose anything if I switch back?
- No. A completion and a certificate, once given, stay. Switching back to every lesson only changes what finishing needs from then on.