Pathways are a learning outline you can create for students to guide them through defined activities to demonstrate their learning. Pathways are made of milestones and requirements, which are activities designed for students to provide evidence of competencies. Reviewers will evaluate student work based on a strategy defined by the coordinator. Pathways can only be created by admins and instructional designers.
All the work students submit for the pathway, and badges they receive upon completion, can be added to their Canvas Student ePortfolio.
As soon as students start submitting work for the pathway, you may no longer be able to edit portions of the pathway. The following restrictions apply:
- Requirements are locked once the first student submits work for the requirement.
- Milestones are locked once the first student completes the work required for the milestone.
- Pathways are locked once the first student completes the pathway.
Locked requirements, milestones, and pathways are not editable. Additionally, students are not able to submit additional work to a locked requirement, milestone, or pathway. Once a pathway locks, you cannot change the reviewers or review strategy.
Open Pathways
In the toolbar, click the Pathways icon.
Add New Pathway
Click the Add New Pathway button.
Enter Pathway Details
In the Pathway Details pane, enter a name in the Pathway Name field [1] and description fo the pathway in the Description field [2].
If you have Badges added to your assessment library, you can add a completion badge to the pathway [3].
To save the pathway details and move to the next step, click the Next button [4].
Note: The Pathway Name field has a 50 character limit.
Define Milestones
In the Milestone and Requirements section, you can define milestones for the pathway and the requirements to define a milestone's completion. Enter a name in the Milestone field [1] and description in the Description field [2] .
To add additional milestones, click the Add another milestone link [3].
Note: The Milestone Name field has a 50 character limit.
Add Requirements
In the Requirements section, you can add specific requirements for students to complete the milestone. To add a requirement, click the Add a Requirement link.
Select Requirement Type
To set a requirement, click the desired requirement type. A requirement can be one of five types:
- Project [1]: Students are required to create a new project or submit a project they previously created for their portfolio. Learn more about the project requirement type.
- Experience [2]: Students are required to attend one or more specific activities. This requirement type does not allow for student submissions, so a requirement reviewer is required to mark the requirement complete. Learn more about the experience requirement type.
- Existing Assignment [3]: Students are required to submit an artifact from a class they are currently enrolled in or were previously enrolled in. An assignment linked to Canvas can also be set as a requirement. Learn more about the existing assignment requirement type.
- Earned Badge [4]: Students are required to display a specific, previously earned badge in their portfolio. Learn more about the earned badge requirement type.
- Pathway Completion [5]: Students are required to have previously completed a specific pathway. Learn more about the pathway completion requirement type.
Add Badges
If you have Badges added to your Assessment Library, you can add a completion badge to the milestone.
Set Reviewers and Coordinators
On the Reviewers and Coordinators tab, you can assign specific users to be a coordinator or reviewer for the pathway. Coordinators can create and edit the pathway, and reviewers will be able to review and score submissions.
As the pathway creator, you will automatically be added as a coordinator to the pathway. To change your role or the role of another user, select Coordinator, Pathway Reviewer, or Both from the Role drop-down menu [1] next to the user's name.
To add a user to the pathway, type their name or email address in the search field [2].
Note: Requirement reviewers can be defined for project and experience requirement types. Adding a requirement reviewer only allows the reviewer access to their specified requirement. Requirement reviewers do not display in the Reviewers & Coordinators tab.
Define Review Strategy
After you have defined your reviewers, you can define the review strategy for the pathway. Click the Review Strategy tab [1]. You can set how many reviews are required for each submission [2] and how the submissions should be distributed among the reviewers [3].
The review strategy can be configured in the following combinations:
- Single review, First come, first served distributions: In this strategy, a single review will be performed for each requirement, and the reviews will not be automatically evenly distributed among reviewers. In this strategy, one reviewer might review 10 requirements and another reviewer might review 2 requirements.
- Single review, Even distribution: In this strategy, a single review will be performed for each requirement, and the reviews will be automatically evenly divided among reviewers.
- Multiple reviews, First come, first served distribution: In this strategy, every reviewer in the pathway can review every requirement in every milestone. Reviews will not automatically be divided evenly among reviewers.
- Multiple reviews, Even distribution: In this strategy, the pathway coordinator set the number of required reviews for each requirement, and then the total number of reviews are divided equally amongst the reviewers. In this strategy, if there are 100 requirements, 2 reviews per requirement, and 5 reviewers, the total of 200 reviews will automatically be divided evenly among the reviewers, and each reviewer will have to complete 40 reviews.
Note: Submissions with multiple reviews are scored on the average of all the reviews.
Review Pathway
When you have entered the pathway details, you will be prompted to review any incomplete steps before you can publish the pathway. To review and complete a step, click the Open Step link.
Publish Pathway
When you have reviewed and completed all the steps of the pathway, you can publish the pathway. To publish the pathway, click the Publish Now button [1]. To save the pathway to publish later, click the Save and exit to publish later link [2].
