Course Administration
Restricting Content Based on Activity Completion
Instructors have the ability to restrict access to activities in a course until other pre-determined activities or resources are completed by students. For example, access to a quiz can be automatically restricted until a student has viewed a specific file in the course.
This form of advanced activity restriction requires specific settings to be adjusted in all activities connected in the “activity chain.” For those activities that are required to unlock a later activity, an instructor must pre-set what determines completion. Then, once the completion settings have been defined, the activity being restricted needs to be connected to the completion of the required activity. These two key processes of setting completion requirements and restricting access to a separate course activity are outlined below.
Note: The process below is based on the simple example of requiring students access a course file before they can begin a quiz activity.
Adding Completion Requirements
The first step in creating an activity chain entails determining the student actions that will mark the required activity as complete. It is important to pre-set completion requirements for all activities that are included in access restriction to ensure the restricted activity will unlock for students.
Step 1: With Edit mode turned on, click the edit link ( three dots) for the appropriate activity and select Edit settings from the drop-down menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and click the Activity completion heading to expand the options.
Step 3: Click the Completion tracking field and select Show activity as complete when conditions are met.
Step 4: Next to Require view, click students must view this activity to complete it (or other available option).
Tip: The require options appearing in the Activity completion section will vary depending on the activity or resource type being used.
Step 5: If you want the item to be completed by a certain date, click the enable checkbox and adjust the date and time fields. Enabling this optional setting will result in the activity appearing in the Timeline block on the user Dashboard.
Step 6: When finished, click Save and return to course
Repeat this process as needed for any other course activities that will be included as part of a restriction.
Restricting Accessed Based on Student Completion of a Separate Activity
Students can be restricted from accessing course activities until they have met completion requirements for other elements in the course. Depending on your course design, this type of restriction can be set to have students complete one (as shown below) or multiple requirements in the course.
Note: It is critical that completion requirements are setup in all activities or resources that are included in the restriction settings. This is explained in the above section: Adding Completion Requirements.
Step 1: With Edit mode turned on, click the Edit link for the appropriate activity and select Edit settings from the drop-down menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and click the Restrict access heading to expand the options.
Step 3: Click Add restriction…
Step 4: A pop-up window will appear, click Activity completion (or another option as appropriate).
Step 5: Click the Choose field and select the course activity name that will be part of this restriction.
Step 6: Click the completion field and select must be marked complete (or another option as appropriate).
Note: The default setting for a restriction will show the activity to students with a restriction note.:
Step 7: If you wish to completely hide this activity from students until meeting all the restrictions, click the Eye icon.
To add additional completion restrictions for this activity, click Add restriction… and complete steps 4-7 as needed.
Step 8: If this activity is to be completed as part of a later restriction in the course, click Activity completion to expand the section and follow the steps outlined above under: Setting Completion Requirements.
Step 9: When finished, click Save and return to course.
