On July 14, 2020, CN added a new course type: Pathway LMS Course (or Pathway courses).
Pathway courses allow for a more streamlined learning experience. They best suit self-paced online training.
Watch Pathway Tutorial Video
Experience a Sample Course
If you would like to explore a CN Pathway course as a student, feel free to self-enroll in this public sample course: http://www.thecn.com/2512369
Create a Pathway Course
Create an Institutional Pathway Course
To use a Pathway course as part of the course offerings from your institution/program, your institution/program admin should create the course for you from CN Channel. Read how.
Create a Personal Pathway Course
*Zoom users may create a personal Pathway from the CN Zoom App. Regular CN users can create a personal Pathway course on the CN platform (after logging in to thecn.com) following the steps below:
STEP 1: To create a personal Pathway course, first click on the "Create a Course/Network" link from the "Courses" dropdown, or click on "Build Online Course/Training" from the bottom of the left menu on the home page.
STEP 2: Then on the "Create a Course" page, select the second option, "Pathway LMS Course". Then you can continue the steps to create your personal Pathway course. You are allowed to create one free and one paid personal Pathway course. Read this article to know more about CN personal course pricing and payment.
Read this article to complete the rest of the course settings
Setting Up a Pathway Course
Pathway courses are built on "activities" (watch a video, take a quiz, create a post, etc.) that learners take one at a time. You can then group these activities together under "lessons".
STEP 1: After you've created your course, you first need to add a Course Introduction Message.
STEP 2: Next, you can add the first lesson by clicking on the "Add a Lesson" link.
STEP 3: After adding the lesson, you can add an activity from the "Add an Activity" button.
A variety of activity types will then show up for you to select one to use:
Here is how to fill out the activity form:
First, choose the Activity Type. There are quite a few content types to choose from.
| Activity Type | Description | Completion Requirements |
| Rich Text Editor | This is for when you want to provide some instructional/informational content to the learners. The HTML editor supports advanced format options (such as tables). You can also embed media and external widgets to enrich your content. | As soon as learners click and view this activity, it will be marked as complete. |
| Video | Here, you can add a YouTube video, record a new video, or upload a video file. | Learners need to watch the majority of video to complete this activity. |
| File | You can upload a file in any format for your learners to view and download. | Once learners click "View File", this activity will be marked as complete. |
| Hyperlink | Provide a hyperlink to direct learners to an external webpage. | As soon as learners click "Visit Link", it will be marked as complete. |
| Zoom | Use this to provide a link to a Zoom room for online lectures. | As soon as learners click on the Zoom button to access the Zoom room, this activity will be marked as complete. |
| Prompt Learners to Create a Post/Poll |
Use this for when you want learners to reflect on what they've learned by creating a post/poll. All posts/polls created under this activity will be displayed below the activity, so learners can read each other's posts/polls and comment on them. *If you use the Groups tool to put learners into groups, then learners make their posts visible to their own groups, this activity can support group discussions. |
Complete upon post creation or minimum points reach (connect this activity with a GradeBook item), depending on how the activity is set up by the instructor. |
| Quiz | Have learners take a quiz. Instructors now can create a quiz during the activity creation process and can link to an unpublished quiz. Learn how to create a quiz. | Learners must earn the minimum points to complete this activity. The minimum points can be 0. |
| Assignment Submission | Guide learners to complete an assignment in various submission formats. The difference between this activity and "Prompt Learners to Create a Post" is that a submission made through this activity is not visible to other learners, and more submission types (no submission, file/text entry, Google Drive Assignment, LTI tool) are supported here. | Complete upon assignment submission, instructor approval, or minimum points reached (connect this activity with a GradeBook item), depending on how the activity is set up by the instructor. |
| Show a Post, Poll or Event | Here, you can show learners any post, poll, or event that has been created in the course. |
For post and event, as soon as learners click and view the activity, it will be marked as complete. For poll, learners must answer at least one question in the poll to complete the activity. |
| External Tool | Through this activity type, learners get on an integrated third-party platform to engage with content or with each other. You or your institution's CN admin need to configure the external tools you would like to use based on instructions provided by the tool providers. |
Typically, this activity is marked complete after learners successfully launch the external tool. |
| SCORM | This activity type supports eLearning content in the SCORM format. When learners click View Content, the SCORM file will be displayed in a new browser window. |
When the implemented SCORM package sends back completion status. Make sure you set up completion properly in your SCORM files. |
| Custom Activities | CN develops custom activities, such as activities integrated with other platforms, for specific clients based on their requests. These activities are made available only to licensing institutions who request them. | Based on specifically defined logic |
After you've selected the Activity Type, the form will expand to provide more fields to fill out. On all activity types, you need to enter the name of the activity and write a brief description or provide some instructions for the activity.
Below the "Description or Instructions" field will input specific to the activity type you selected. So for example, if you selected the "Video" activity type, then a "Video" field will appear for you to add your video.
If you'd like to send out a notification to your learners about the creation of this activity, check the box at the bottom.
After you're finished everything on this form, make sure to click "Save Activity".
Note: each activity has a unique URL. It can be copied from the browser URL bar for easy reference and access.
STEP 4 (optional): Once you're done adding activities to the lesson, you'll be prompted to award a badge for when learners complete all the activities on the lesson. Issuing a lesson badge is optional.
If you choose to issue a badge, a window will appear for you to select the badge. You can select from the list of available badges by clicking the checkbox above a badge, or you can create a new badge from the "+" button.
Set Up Course Completion
Once you're done adding all your lessons and activities, you can set up the Course Completion. First, you can write a short message congratulating the learner for completing the course and suggesting the next steps, such as new courses to take.
After writing the Course Completion Message, you can choose the rewards the learners can receive for completing the course. Select the first checkbox to issue a Course Completion Badge. If your course belongs to an institution that has licensed CN, and if that licensed institution has properly set up the Course Completion Certificate in their CN Channel, then the second checkbox will be available for issuing the certificate.
And now the course has successfully been set up! You're ready for learners to start taking the course.
Edit the Pathway
You can hover over the lesson name to see a gear icon. Click on this gear to access the dropdown. Here, you are provided with many different options, such as edit lesson, publish/unpublish all activities, copy lesson, delete lesson, move lesson up or down, set up lesson completion badge, or add another lesson or activity.
You can also find a similar gear dropdown by hovering over an activity.
Student View
To view how your learners will see the course, you can click at the "Student View" tab at the top. You can also use the path in the left menu to view the student view of any activity.
Import Pathway
If you want to reuse a created pathway course and import its course path into a new course, please refer to this guide.
Invite Course Members
There are two easy ways to invite members (other instructors and students) to your course.
Approach 1: click the course settings gear from the top of the course, then click Invite a Member.
Approach 2: simply share the course URL and Access PIN (if you set up one) with the people you would like to invite. You can find the course URL and Access PIN from the About page.
Please note that when people join your course on their own, they are in the student role. You can go to the Roster to change their role and permissions.
View Course and Activity Completion Data
Multiple places provide data on completion:
Roster
The course Roster can be accessed from the left course Menu. 1. In the Course Completion column, course instructors are able to view each course member's course completion percentage (*course members are only able to see their own data). The Roster can be sorted based on course completion--from high to low or low to high. 2. A very detailed Course completion Report can be exported, which does not only contains course completion data but also completion data of each activity for all course members.
Course Path
A number next to each activity on the course path is presented to course instructors to inform them of the number of learners who have completed the activity. The number can be clicked to view who these learners are and when they completed the activity.
On this activity completion pop-up window, instructors can also manually mark activity completion for specific students.
Analytics Dashboard
The Analytics dashboard also offers comprehensive and easy-to-view data reports. It can be accessed from the left course Menu. The dashboard covers:
1. Course information, 2. Discussion topics world cloud, 3. Course visits, 4. Course activities reports of the past 7, 30, 90, 180 days, 5. Grade analysis if a course uses GradeBook, 6-9. various course member analytics, 10. Lesson completion data - a detailed report CSV file can be downloaded from the top-right corner, 11. Assignments analytics.
If you have any questions about the CN Pathway LMS Course, feel free to contact CN Helpdesk help@thecn.com.
Additional Reading: Design Engaging Pathway Course
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