Tutorial - Setting Rules Within Course Templates

Blanchard Exchange allows you to set or modify rules within your course templates such as setting automatic deadlines or hiding products/files based on dates of live events or completion of previous activities.

This advanced functionality helps save time when creating projects by automatically setting deadlines on assignments and/or keeping products/files inaccessible based on rules of your choice.

While these rules can be implemented/modified in both individual projects and course templates, it is recommended to use them with your course templates to save you time when creating new projects.

Setting Relative Deadlines

In the course builder, navigate to the first activity that requires a relative deadline:

Figure 1

Figure 2

1. Mouse over the activity's name, followed by selecting the three dots icon to the right of the activity name (Figure 1).
2. Select the Settings option.
3. Click the checkbox next to "Set Complete By date relative to" (Figure 2).
4. Select the name of the live event placeholder that you are using as the reference.
5. Enter the number of days before or after that live event.
   
   This number can be negative or positive. If the deadline should be before the live event, enter the appropriate number of days as a negative number. If the deadline is after the live event, enter the appropriate number of days as a positive number.
   
   Example 1: The assignment deadline should be 2 days before the live event. In this case, you would enter "-2".
   
   Example 2: The assignment deadline is 5 days after the live event. In this case, you would enter "5".
6. Select Save after you've completed your changes.

Repeat the above steps for any additional assignments where the deadline will be automatically calculated.

Additional notes and tips:

• The calculated deadlines are independent on each assignment. In other words, one assignment could have a deadline 3 days before an event, while the next assignment to follow it could have a deadline 1 day before the same event.
• Automatically calculated deadlines can be overridden by you or any other administrators under the "Dates & Details" section of projects to provide you with flexibility.
• Participants will see the time listed next to the deadlines in live projects as 11:59 PM based on the time zone selected by the administrator during the project setup (if a participant has changed their default time zone in their profile, the time will be reflected accordingly). The time can be adjusted under the "Dates & Details" section in live projects, if needed.

Setting Durations

Durations display the approximate length of time an activity should take to complete for most individuals.

Blanchard-provided content will automatically include durations. With that said, these durations can be overridden which is especially useful if you're adding additional content that will take learners more time to complete.

To set or change the duration:

1. Mouse over the activity's name, followed by selecting the three dots icon to the right of the activity name (Figure 1).
2. Select the Settings option.
3. Under the Duration section, select Manually set.
4. Enter the time based on the number of minutes it will take to complete the activity.
5. Select Save after you've completed your changes.

Hiding Products/Files/Assignments/Resources

If you want to prevent access to certain assignments or files, Blanchard Exchange allows you to set rules based on a certain date or based on completion of previous activities. Also known as the "Conditional Design", these features can save you time so that you don't need to manually add files to live projects after certain dates or activities.

See below for examples of how the Conditional Design hides products/files/resources before the condition is met.

1. Mouse over the module's name, followed by selecting the three dots icon to the right of the activity name. This is similar to the step above for setting relative deadlines on assignments.
2. Select the Settings option.
3. Under the Module accessible when drop-down, select one of the following choices:
   
   
   • Always accessible - The content will always be available from the point the learner accesses the course.
   • Previous module completed - The module listed above this module must be completed first before this module's content will be accessible.
   • All previous modules completed - All modules listed above this module must be completed first before this module's content will be accessible.
   • Previous module completed and passed - If the previous module includes a SCORM module with a quiz, the content within the previous module must be completed and the quiz must be passed in the SCORM module for this module's content to be accessible.
   • All previous modules completed and passed - Similar to the above, but all modules above this module must be completed and passed.
   • Set date - When setting up a project using this course, the administrator will be prompted to enter a date and time deciding when to make this module accessible.
   • Days before/after event - Similar to relative deadlines above, but sets accessibility based on the date/time entered for a live event once a project is created that uses this course.
4. Select Save after you've completed your changes.

Conditional Design Examples

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows a conditional design where a module/section of content is not accessible. In this particular instance, the MASTER module will open on the day of the LEARN & PRACTICE session automatically.