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Using Module Prerequisites and Requirements

Using Module Prerequisites and Requirements

Description of Function

Canvas uses Module Prerequisites and Requirements as a potential way to adaptively release content to students. Adaptive release can only happen within a module through sequential completion, or to move from one module to the next. This article will demonstrate how this can be employed.

Potential Applications for Course Design & Development

Faculty who want to make sure students have completed one item before they move on to the next, or completed one week before they move on to the next, might want to use this instead of Lock Until. This is also useful for faculty who wish to help students see their progress through the content in the modules.

Pros

Prerequisites:

  • Can control the flow of the course.

  • Can ensure that students achieve a certain point level before moving on to new content (if they are allowed multiple attempts). Only use this on automatically graded content.

  • Can ensure that students submit an assignment before moving forward in the content.

Requirements:

  • Can ensure students complete the module content in order.

  • Can provide a signal to students which items they have already worked on.

Cons

  • This can only be done at the module level, so you cannot rely on a midweek item being locked before students can move on to another item within the module. You would have to create a new module.

  • If you are using 'Mark Done' and have this built-in as a requirement, and then set the previous module as the prerequisite, it will block students from moving on if they do not check 'Mark Done.' It is unfortunately very easy to miss this on a page and may cause confusion for students.

  • ALL content that is marked as a requirement in the module must be done before a student can move on to the next module if the prerequisites are set.

  • There are only the options to Complete ALL content or Complete ONE content item (there is no option to complete something like 2 of 3 items).

Procedure

  1. Create a module with content you want to require students to complete.

  2. Add requirements to that module by clicking the three vertical dots to open up the module’s menu.

    1. The requirement is where you set the level of completion for a quiz (a certain score they have to achieve). They could still proceed in the module without achieving the score (unless you require the items to be done in order), but they would not be able to move on to the next module until the score is achieved.

    2. Choose from the type of completion that will demonstrate the student has interacted with the item - “mark as done,” “submit the assignment,” “view the item,” “contribute to the page,” or “score at least”

  3. Create another module after the first module you created.

  4. Add prerequisites to that module by clicking the three vertical dots to open up the module’s menu. The prerequisites will relate to completing the other module.

  5. You can create a sequence of prerequisites so that modules must be completed in order.

Edit module settings

Caution

Be aware that if an instructor uses “submit the assignment” or “score at least” and uses the hard deadline (until date) on an assignment AND Requirements are set to “complete content in sequential order”, then students will be prevented from continuing through a module if they miss a deadline.

Example:

Suggestion: Choose “view the item” on those assignments instead so that it does not prevent students from progressing if they miss the assignment.

References and Related Information

Here are some resources to learn how to set up Requirements and Prerequisites.

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