There are two ways you can allow your learners to experience a course – Linear and Free form.
Linear courses require that a learner take all lessons and topics in the course in the order in which they appear. This creates a linear learning path and will ensure they can’t move forward until they’ve completed the previous lesson
Free form courses allow a learner to take the course in any order they choose. They could start with the last lesson, then a lesson in the middle, and then go to the start.
When to use Linear and when to use Free form #
Both types of courses have their place. For example – Linear courses are best leveraged when lessons have information in them that logically build on one another. For example, an onboarding course that guides a user through a specific path to ensure they’re covering each piece in the right order should be a linear course. Likewise, a course that explains how to leverage a piece of software is typically structured in a linear manner so someone first learns how to log in, then each piece of the task is sequentially laid out through lessons.
On the other hand, courses that cover topics that are more fluid or where the course design has lessons that are each independent and not building on one another can benefit from being free form. This will allow a user to “jump around” in a course. For example the integrated learning series on Customer Service will be free form by default. This is a soft skill, where a learner may be looking to sample one or two specific lessons, then leave again. A freeform course allows for that type of learner behavior – to get in, get their information and get back to what they were doing.
How to set the course progression #
Open your course and at the top you’ll see the following menu. Click “Settings”.
In this setting menu you’ll scroll down to the “Course Navigation Settings”. Here you can toggle the course from Linear to Free form.
