Instructor Documentation (Higher Ed)

About Release Conditions

Release conditions allow you to create a custom learning path through the materials in your course. When you attach a release condition to an item, learners cannot see that item until they meet the associated condition. For example, you could attach a release condition to the second topic in your course’s content area that would hide that topic until learners viewed the topic before it. Or you could create a condition that required learners to view a content topic before gaining access to a quiz, or one that required them to post to a discussion topic before they could see a content module.

If you attach multiple conditions to an item, learners must meet all conditions before they can access the item. For example, you could require learners to visit the first three content topics in a unit before gaining access to an associated quiz.

This is the paper note and pencil icon used for notes.

Note: Once a learner meets a release condition, the condition is cleared for that learner and cannot be reset. For example, if you attach a release condition to a discussion topic requiring learners to achieve more than 60% on a quiz before they can access that topic, and one of your participants receives 72% on the quiz but you adjust their grade to 55%, they will be able to access the topic because they did meet the requirement at some point.

Requirements

To see and use release conditions, you must have the required permissions in the associated tools applied to your role. These permissions can only be accessed by your organization administrator. Contact your administrator if you do not have the required permissions.

Tools that support release conditions

You can access release conditions for any of the following course items:

Awards
Checklist
Content modules and topics
Custom widgets
Discussion forums and topics
Assignments
Grade items and categories
Intelligent Agents
Announcements items
Quizzes
Surveys

Best practices for creating release conditions

The following are the best practices for setting up release conditions:

Set up conditions before learners access the course: Create all your course materials and set up your release conditions before the course opens to learners. This gives you a chance to check for mistakes in the conditions or for circular, contradictory, or unnecessary conditions. If you add new release conditions after learners have accessed the course, learners might be confused by resources disappearing. Since conditions cannot be reset, you also risk having learners meet conditions before your resources are ready (for example, accessing a content topic before it is finished).
Avoid unnecessary conditions: Each condition you associate with a tool takes additional time for Brightspace to process. Using as few conditions as possible to set up a learning path minimizes the amount of time that learners spend waiting for pages to load. For example, you set up a content topic, a quiz, and an assignment for the second week of class. You want learners to read the topic before taking the quiz, and you want them to read the topic and attempt the quiz before submitting the week’s work to the assignment. For the assignment, you only need to attach the condition that learners attempt the quiz. Since learners must read the content topic before they can take the quiz, it is not necessary to add this condition to the assignment.
Avoid circular references: A circular reference makes it impossible for learners to satisfy a set of conditions. For example, if you set the condition that learners must view a content topic before they can access an assignment, and then set a condition that they must submit a file to the assignment before they can access the content topic, you have a circular reference. Learners can’t satisfy either condition without satisfying the other one first. Circular references are more likely to occur with long chains of conditions. For example, a content topic that depends on a quiz that depends on an assignment that depends on a checklist that depends on the content topic.
Avoid impossible conditions: Ensure that your conditions are not impossible for learners to satisfy. For example, a condition that learners must achieve greater than 100% on a grade item would be impossible (unless the grade item is set to Can Exceed). If learners are unable to satisfy a condition, they are unable to access the content or tools to which the condition is attached.
Avoid contradictory conditions: Contradictory conditions occur when two or more conditions that cancel each other out are associated with an item. For example, the conditions User must achieve greater than 49.9% on Grade Item 1 and User must achieve less than 50% on Grade Item 1 are contradictory. Learners cannot satisfy both conditions at the same time; they would not be able to see the item associated with these conditions.
Release content based on learning ability and course performance: Include additional content in your course specifically for learners who need extra help and release this content to learners who score below a specified threshold on a quiz or grade item. Alternately, release a special survey to learners who attain a high score.
Release content in stages: To reveal content topics to learners only after they have read prior content, attach release conditions on the subsequent topics or modules that require learners to view earlier topics. This can provide a clear path through the material and prevent learnersfrom becoming overwhelmed by a large table of contents at the start of the course.
Release content based on enrollment date: If your course has rolling enrollment, you can set course materials and assessments to become available relative to learners' enrollment date. This allows you to provide a structured path through the course for every learner regardless of their enrollment date. For learners who have been enrolled more than once in the course, you can choose whether you use the first time or the last time they were enrolled.
Customize content for groups within a course: If your course has group projects and you want to provide different instructions or resources for each group, you can create separate content topics or modules for each project and attach release conditions based on group enrollment. Group members working on one project will see content related to their work without being distracted by content not relevant to them.
Use a checklist to organize activities: You can create a checklist that lists the activities learners should complete throughout the course. For example, a checklist for the first week might include reading the course’s introductory content, posting to an introductory discussion topic, and submitting a list of learning goals for an assignment. You can set release conditions based on learners checking off items from their checklist. For example, you might release an Announcements item on your course’s homepage once learners check off that they have completed the first week’s activities.
Use intelligent agents to monitor learner activity or non-activity: You can set up intelligent agents with release conditions using the not operator to intervene with learners who have not completed course work. For example, create an intelligent agent that sends a reminder email to learners who have not yet completed a quiz attempt or submitted an assignment to an assignment.

Release condition types

Condition Type	Description
Awards - Awards	The learner must have earned a specific award to fulfill the release condition
Checklist - Completed checklist	The learner must complete all items on the selected checklist to fulfill the release condition
Checklist - Incomplete checklist	The learner must not complete one or more items on the selected checklist to fulfill the release condition
Checklist - Completed checklist item	The learner must complete a specific item on the selected checklist in order to fulfill the release condition
Checklist - Incomplete checklist item	The learner must not complete the specific item on the selected checklist to fulfill the release condition
Classlist - Group enrollment	The learner must be enrolled in a specific group to fulfill the release condition
Classlist - Org unit enrollment	The learner must be enrolled in a specific org unit to fulfill the release condition
Classlist - Section enrollment	The learner must be enrolled in a specific section to fulfill the release condition
Classlist - Role in current org unit	The learner must either: be enrolled as a specific role not be enrolled as a specific role to fulfill the release condition
Classlist - Date of enrollment in current org unit	The learner must be enrolled in the current org unit for a specified number of days to fulfill the release condition. The release condition includes the following options: Use first enrollment date Use last enrollment date
Competencies - Competency achieved	The learner must complete a specific competency to fulfill the release condition
Competencies - Competency not yet achieved	The learner must not complete a specific competency to fulfill the release condition
Competencies - Learning objective achieved	The learner must complete a specific learning objective to fulfill the release condition
Competencies - Learning objective not yet achieved	The learner must not complete a specific learning objective to fulfill the release conditions
Competencies - Score on associated rubric	The learner must achieve a specified Score and Threshold level on a learning objective, based on an associated rubric, to fulfill the release condition
Content - visited content topic	The learner must visit a specific content topic to fulfill the release condition
Content - Not visited content topic	The learner must not visit the specified content topic to fulfill the release condition. Depending on your organization's security configurations, especially if the d2l.Tools.ManageFiles.UseContentRestrictedSecurity configuration variable is set to ON, learners may not be able to access specified content topics at all when this release condition is set
Content - Visited all content topics	The learner must visit all content topics in the course offering to fulfill the release condition
Content - Completed content topic	The learner completes a content topic. The method of completing the topic depends on the type, such as viewing a file or submitting an assignment. This release condition ignores exemptions, meaning that if the learner completes the activity, the release condition can be met, regardless of the activity being required, optional, or exempt.
Content - Not completed content topic	The learner has not completed a content topic.
Discussions - Posts authored in topic	The learner must author a specified number and type of posts in a designated topic to fulfill the release condition. This can specify either No Threads, No Replies, or No Threads or Replies.
Discussions - No posts authored in topic	The learner must not author any number or type of post in a designated topic to fulfill the release condition. This can specify either No Threads, No Replies, or No Threads or Replies.
Discussions - Score on associated rubric	The learner must achieve a specified Score and Threshold level on a discussion topic, based on an associated rubric, to fulfill the release condition
Assignments - Submission to Assignment	The learner must make a submission to a specified assignment to fulfill the release condition
Assignments - No submission to Assignment	The learner must not make a submission to a specified assignment to fulfill the release condition
Assignments - Receive feedback on Assignment submission	The learner must receive feedback on a submission to a specified assignment to fulfill the release condition
Assignments - Score on associated rubric	The learner must achieve a specified Score and Threshold level on an assignment submission, based on an associated rubric, to fulfill the release condition
Grades - Grade value on a grade item	The learner must achieve a specified grade value on a grade item to fulfill the release condition
Grades - No grade received	The learner must not receive a specified grade value on a grade item to fulfill the release condition
Grades - Released final grade score	The learner must have their final grade score set to be released, or set to be released plus the final grade meeting a defined threshold, to fulfill the release condition. Note: This release condition is evaluated beginning from the first time the grade is released, and cannot be revoked once it is fulfilled. Therefore, if your grade book is set up to release final grades throughout a course, and/or drop ungraded items, the release condition may be fulfilled sooner than expected (i.e. before the end of the course). D2L recommends using this release condition in combination with other release conditions or intelligent agents to ensure that the event or content triggered by the released final grade score occurs at the anticipated time.
Grades - Score on associated rubric	The learner must achieve a specified Score and Threshold level on a grade item, based on an associated rubric, to fulfill the release condition.
Learning Outcomes - Overall level of achievement	The learner must be evaluated at an overall achievement level for a given outcome in a course to fulfill the release condition. Select from the following criteria to fulfill the release condition: More than, Less than, Equal to, Not equal to the achievement levels set for a course.
Quizzes - Score on a quiz	The learner must achieve a specified score on a quiz to fulfill the release condition. Score on a quiz is triggered by publishing a score on a quiz attempt or manually overriding a quiz score via Grades.
Quizzes - Completed quiz attempt	The learner must achieve a specified number of attempts of a quiz to fulfill the release condition
Quizzes - Score on selected questions	When a quiz has a learning objective with associated questions and an assessment method attached to it, the learner must achieve a specified grade value on the learning objective to fulfill the release condition
Quizzes - Score on associated rubric	The learner must achieve a specified Score and Threshold level on a quiz, based on an associated rubric, to fulfill the release condition. If no rubric is associated with the quiz, users will see No Rubric Available.
Quizzes - No completed quiz attempt	The learner must not complete any attempt on a quiz to fulfill the release condition
Quizzes - Score on associate outcome	The Quiz field shows a list of quizzes that have questions associated with outcomes. Selecting a quiz with outcomes shows the Outcome, Criterion, and Achievement Level fields. If outcomes are not associated with a quiz, the Quiz field shows No quizzes available.
Surveys - Completed survey attempt	The learner must achieve a specified number of attempts of a survey to fulfill the release condition
Surveys - No completed survey attempt	The learner must not complete any attempt on a survey to fulfill the release condition