Establishing Course Prerequisites

Learn how to apply prerequisite requirements to a course which must be satisfied prior to enrollment. These are conditions include options like the completion of other courses or accreditations, or the satisfaction of certain membership requirements, such as position groups or user groups. Prerequisites are available for all course delivery methods.

Feature Overview and Requirements

Prerequisites are enrollment eligibility rules enforced by the LMS during the course enrollment process. Portal Administrators can establish rules related to a user’s position, user group membership or training history to specify eligibility requirements. These rules are strict, but can be adjusted at any time. 

The Prerequisite feature can be used separately or in conjunction with Course Series setup, forcing students to complete a series of coursework in consecutive order.

Shortcuts

  • Feature Overview and Requirements
  • Step-by-Step and Field Descriptions
  • Use Cases and Examples
  • FAQs

Step by Step Procedure and Field Description

To create a prerequisite rule:

  1. From the Administration menu, select Courses > Search Courses, then find and edit the course you want to modify.
  2. On the Prerequisites tab, define the Rule Entities. These are the equivalencies you want to establish. You can select more than one.
    [SCREENSHOT]

    • Click Add Courses to open a picker to select any course(s) that must be achieved this course.
    • Click Add Accreditation to open a picker to select any certifications or curricula that must be achieved to take this course.
    • Click Add Position Codes to open a picker and select the position codes a user must have required to allow enrollment.
    • Click Add Position Group to open a picker and select the position group membership required to allow enrollment.
    • Click Add User Group Membership to open a picker and select the user group membership required to meet the prerequisite.
    • For each entity you selected, select the Type from the dropdown (highlighted in green above) to control what is considered in the prerequisite rule established. Use the following to decide:
      Course – Any completed transcript meets the rule, whether achieved by the student or granted by administrative override
      Course by Exact Match – Course completion was achieved by the student
      Course by Equivalency – Student received equivalent credit for the required course
  3. Next, click on the letter labels next to the rule entities above (highlighted in yellow) and click on operators to insert them and build the prerequisite rule.

    &             AND
    |              OR
    ( )            Used for creating groups of entities
    BKSP     Backspace button to remove the last symbol entered
    CLEAR  Clears all rule setup

    The screenshot below shows an example of an “OR” rule.
    [Insert Screenshot]

Additional examples:
A & B  Course A AND Course B are required

Or if using additional entities like (C) Position = Technician or (D) Certification: Service Bronze

(A & B) | D   Courses A and B OR Certification = Service Bronze Achieved

(A | B) & C   Courses A or B AND Position = Technician

To remove a prerequisite rule:

  1. From the Administration menu, select Courses > Search Courses, then find and edit the course you want to modify.
  2. On the Prerequisites tab, to remove a prerequisite completely, click the Operator Clear button to remove them from the Rule box. Then click Remove next to each entity and Submit the change.

    To remove just part of the rule, remove the associated letter from the rule and adjust the logic as necessary. Then click Remove to eliminate that entity from the list.

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