Pathways using Pre-requisite Steps (Direct) -- auto "awards"

[AdrGau_Suffolk]

Hi all! We're trying to clear up confusion on how to use the Prerequisite Step feature in a Badging Pathway and how it should work and/or we want it to work.

In the example below, there are 5 direct steps (one "thing" from Course A, B, C, D, E) and students have to complete 3 of the 5 Prerequisite steps in order to get the Badge (here, it's shown as a Milestone badge). When a Group of students are added to this Pathway, Credentials automatically shows the Direct Steps complete, awards the Milestone Badge (red AB) and then awards the Completion Badge (multi-color blue ribbon).

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Question: How do we 'stop' this auto-completing? We don't see anywhere in Credentials or in how the Canvas integration works to set a Canvas assignment, Module, or Course Grade to a "Direct Step". We only see that badges can be connected. We don't want to have individual badges for Course A, B, C, D, E if we can help it, though for sure if we add badges then this Pathway works. We also don't see anywhere within Credentials where we can say, "this Direct Step is complete" to even do it manually.

Is it possible to use Direct Pre-requisites in this way or are we destined to use actual Badges that get awarded in each course?

Thank you for insight! The full context of this is that this is part of a larger Pathway leading to Fundamental, Intermediate, and Advanced "Completion" badges that will end up having some 4-5 dozen options for the Pre-requs over the course of the entire Pathway (i.e. 4-5 dozen toss-away pre-req badges and dozens of courses).

[cstrikwerda · Accepted solution]

Hello @AdrGau_Suffolk 

Thanks for posting in the Community!

I was able to take a look at the AJG Test 2 - Instructure Help (Play) Pathway, and see what is causing the auto awarding of badges.

It looks like those prerequisite steps do not have badges in them so they are being marked complete automatically. 

We removed the badge requirement to add flexibility to the Pathways, for example for steps that are being completed externally from Canvas. Here is a link to those release notes: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Badges-Credentials-Releases/Canvas-Badges-Credentials-Release-Not...

How do we 'stop' this auto-completing? - We would suggest to add badges to those initial steps as 'Required Badges'

Is it possible to use Direct Pre-requisites in this way or are we destined to use actual Badges that get awarded in each course?

Right now there is not a way to setup a Pathway having steps without Badges and avoiding the steps being marked completed. 

We are working to have added functionality in Pathways to be able to manually mark these as completed, and to be able to connect Canvas Assignments as the requirements instead of Badges within steps. We are currently working on these features and I would suggest checking our product blog communicating these updates.

Please let me know if there are any questions and thanks so much for reaching out to us in the Community!

[AdrGau_Suffolk]

Hi Chase - Thank you for confirming what we found while exploring our use cases. We were wanting to not use badges for everything, however we do have a back-up plan for creating 'check-mark' type badges for the "pre-req" steps. It will still be a lot to manage and we're thinking around other designs and possibilities to help.