How to customize the learning activities completion rules

LearnWorlds provides the flexibility to either use default completion rules or create custom for each learning activity, ensuring that course designers can effectively align learning objectives with student engagement.

Customizable completion rules can also help in accurately tracking student progress and ensuring that the learning outcomes are met.

In this article, we will review the available learning activity completion rules and explore methods for tailoring them to specific needs.

To see the available completion rules, navigate to Courses → Course manager, navigate to your desired course, and click on Course settings → User progress.

If you haven't created any learning activities within the course yet, you will see the "The most commonly used learning activities" message at the top and the "Show remaining activity types" at the bottom of the setting. Essentially, they will show the 5 most commonly used learning activities based on our statistics and the other activities that can be used.

If you have created at least one learning activity, you will see the learning activities that you currently use in the specific course

Overview of learning activity completion rules

There are 4 columns, each column shows a different value. 

Learning activity type: The learning activity you wish to edit.

Default: Depending on the learning activity, you can see the "When visited", "When joined", "Successfully passed", "When claimed", and "When submitted" default completion rules.

Custom rule: If you set a custom completion rule, you will be able to see the rule you have set.

Actions: You can see whether you are able or not to customize the completion rules of the learning activity. If the completion rule of a learning activity is not customizable, you will see the "Non-customizable" indication.  If you have set a custom completion rule in a learning activity, you can click on "Restore" to restore to the default one or "Edit" it.

• Some learning activities are non-customizable. They have only the default rule; thus, they have the indication “Non-customizable”. 
• Custom completion rules for videos apply only if you have selected the LearnWorlds interactive video player on your Player Appearance page.

Customize the completion rules

To set the custom completion rule per learning activity, you need to click on Customize further option (the pencil widget) under the Actions tab for the sideform to open so you can set the rules you wish. You can see the: 

• Default option
• Set up a global learning activity rule (these are different depending on the learning activity)
• Set up your custom rule for each learning activity type by clicking on Settings by hovering over the specific learning activity.

-When you pick a default completion rule for a learning activity type (let's say an ebook), that setting will apply to all ebook learning activities within the course. If you wish to set different completion rules for a specific learning activity within a course, you will need to set up Custom completion rules. So, you need to go to the Course outline, find the activity you wish to set a unique completion rule to, and click on the Settings option to set a unique Completion rule for the activity.

-When configuring a custom completion rule for a video, we recommend using a percentage-based threshold—preferably set close to 100%, such as 90–95%, to ensure meaningful engagement.

Here is an example of customizing an ebook completion rule. 

To customize the completion rule for an ebook, find the Ebook learning activity you want, click settings, and click Set custom rule.

You'll be taken to the Learning activity completion rules tab. Locate the Ebook row, then, under the Actions column, click Settings.

The side panel includes four completion rule options:

• When visited: The default rule for ebook learning activities. The activity is marked as complete when the learner opens it
• Percentage of the auto-calculated reading time: The activity is marked as complete when the learner spends the selected percentage of the estimated reading time on the ebook. Reading time is calculated at 180 words per minute
• Stays at least X seconds: The activity is marked as complete when the learner remains on it for the specified number of seconds after opening it
• Custom: Uses the completion rule set in the individual ebook’s Settings. This lets you apply a different rule to each ebook. By default, the custom rule marks the activity as complete five seconds after it loads, unless you change this in the activity’s settings

For example, if you select 20% of the auto-calculated reading time, the ebook will be marked as complete once the learner spends 20% of its estimated reading time on the activity.

If new learning activities are added to a course after a user has completed it, the following occurs:

1. In the admin analytics, the course appears as completed, but the newly added activity will show as not completed.

2. The learner will see the course as incomplete, with the new activity impacting their overall progress, reducing it from 100%.

To ensure the course appears completed in the user experience, the learner must complete the new activity, or the admin must manually update the progress for users in the Learning Center plan and above.