Is "course pacing" available to us teachers with free accounts?

[IagoParis]

A sales agent told me I can make self-paced courses (like MOOCs, with due dates dependent on student enrolment date) using the free canvas account. But I can't find "course pacing" in my course settings, as stated in the documentation. My "institution" has to activate it. But in the case of a free account, isn't Canvas the institution?

So, can I use course pacing? If yes, how?

[CampbellMcDermi · Accepted solution]

Once you have the modules set up and things in them - like pages,  quizzes, discussion boards - you can set it so that students have to finish things in Module 1 before they go into Module 2....and then they have to finish things in module 2 before they go to module 3 and so on.

Is that what you are looking for in terms of pacing?

If yes, to control how they go from module to module, you have to click the 3 verticle dots at the end of the name of the module and select "Edit" - below is a screen shot of the module called "Introductions and Information"

Click Edit. 

A small screen called Edit Module Settings will pop up on the right.   At the bottom, you can put in a pre-requisite - click on + Requirement - and select something the student has to do before this module opens up. 

As you look down the pop up window, you will see Complete ALL or Complete One.   Pick whichever one you want them to do (complete all of the activities in the module or pick only one they must do).  If you pick Complete All, it should show you everything that is in the module (the discussion boards, pages, quizzes, assignments, etc.). 

go through each item (page, discussion board, quiz, etc.) and decide if the student should view the item, mark as done, contribute to the page, submit the assignment or score at least... [put in the score they need to complete this]

That way, the module will not be *done* until they do all of these things.   

On the following/subsequent module, do the same but give it a pre-requisite by hitting   + Requirement  - and then select that the student has to do the first module (in this case Introductions and Information)  and complete it before opening up this next module.

Play around with the Edit settings, and you will see how to set the path to open the modules.

[DgmeInsider · Accepted solution]

---

@IagoParis wrote:

A sales agent told me I can make self-paced courses (like MOOCs, with due dates dependent on student enrolment date) using the free canvas account. But I can't find "course pacing" in my course settings, as stated in the documentation. My "institution" has to activate it. But in the case of a free account, isn't Canvas the institution?

So, can I use course pacing? If yes, how?

---

With a free Canvas account, the "course pacing" feature is not available by default. This feature, which allows you to set up self-paced courses with dynamic due dates based on student enrollment, typically requires activation by the institution managing the Canvas account. Since free Canvas accounts don't have an institutional admin to enable it, you won't have access to this feature. However, you can still manually create self-paced courses by setting assignments without due dates or using modules to guide student progress, though it won’t offer automatic pacing tied to enrollment.

[CampbellMcDermi · Accepted solution]

Once you have the modules set up and things in them - like pages,  quizzes, discussion boards - you can set it so that students have to finish things in Module 1 before they go into Module 2....and then they have to finish things in module 2 before they go to module 3 and so on.

Is that what you are looking for in terms of pacing?

If yes, to control how they go from module to module, you have to click the 3 verticle dots at the end of the name of the module and select "Edit" - below is a screen shot of the module called "Introductions and Information"

Click Edit. 

A small screen called Edit Module Settings will pop up on the right.   At the bottom, you can put in a pre-requisite - click on + Requirement - and select something the student has to do before this module opens up. 

As you look down the pop up window, you will see Complete ALL or Complete One.   Pick whichever one you want them to do (complete all of the activities in the module or pick only one they must do).  If you pick Complete All, it should show you everything that is in the module (the discussion boards, pages, quizzes, assignments, etc.). 

go through each item (page, discussion board, quiz, etc.) and decide if the student should view the item, mark as done, contribute to the page, submit the assignment or score at least... [put in the score they need to complete this]

That way, the module will not be *done* until they do all of these things.   

On the following/subsequent module, do the same but give it a pre-requisite by hitting   + Requirement  - and then select that the student has to do the first module (in this case Introductions and Information)  and complete it before opening up this next module.

Play around with the Edit settings, and you will see how to set the path to open the modules.

[IagoParis]

Thank you Campbell! That's nice to know!

What I mean by "course pacing" is this feature:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Course-Pacing-Feature-Preview/How-do-I-use-Course-Pacing/ta-p/539...

So, aside from what you explained to me. I will need also a way to set deadlines dependent on when the student enrolls (or unlocks a module). Like, if I use waht you expained to me, is there a way to set a deadline 15 days after unlocking a module?

[CampbellMcDermi]

My apologies. I didn't realize it was a new feature.  I don't see it in my Free for Teacher Canvas course - I hope someone else can help with that.

I don't see a way to lock or unlock a module based on a date.   You can set deadlines for the activities inside the module...  so that may be what you are looking for.    If you open the course November 1 and you want them to finish Module 1 by Nov 15 before they move on to Module 2 (module 2 would have a pre-requisite, they need to do Module 1 first), you could go into Module 1 and set at least 1 assignment/quiz as due on Nov 15. If they didn't do it by the 15th, they couldn't finish the module, and so couldn't move on to Module 2 (which would remain hidden).  Would that help? 

Again, this is not the new feature you were asking about.  Perhaps Canvas will add it to the Free for Teacher's accounts.

[NoahBoswell · Accepted solution]

Hello @CampbellMcDermi @IagoParis,

Thank you for posting about this topic on the Instructure Community!

@DgmeInsider is correct. Course Pacing is currently not a feature available to Free-For-Teacher (FFT) Canvas Accounts, unless Instructure (Instructure employees are the admins of FFT) enable it in the future. However, with what @CampbellMcDermi mentioned above, you are able to do things such as using module prerequisites, unlocking modules during a specific date and time (there is currently not a feature to lock modules, however you are able to unpublish them whenever you'd like manually), and create requirements for those modules as well. You can also utilize mastery paths, which allows instructors to customize learning paths for all students based off of their performance.

I hope this additional information helps!

Best,
Noah

[DgmeInsider · Accepted solution]

---

@IagoParis wrote:

A sales agent told me I can make self-paced courses (like MOOCs, with due dates dependent on student enrolment date) using the free canvas account. But I can't find "course pacing" in my course settings, as stated in the documentation. My "institution" has to activate it. But in the case of a free account, isn't Canvas the institution?

So, can I use course pacing? If yes, how?

---

With a free Canvas account, the "course pacing" feature is not available by default. This feature, which allows you to set up self-paced courses with dynamic due dates based on student enrollment, typically requires activation by the institution managing the Canvas account. Since free Canvas accounts don't have an institutional admin to enable it, you won't have access to this feature. However, you can still manually create self-paced courses by setting assignments without due dates or using modules to guide student progress, though it won’t offer automatic pacing tied to enrollment.

[IagoParis]

Thank you! I need the automatic pacing tied to enrollment so this is the end of the road for me.