Drip Scheduling

Drip scheduling controls when content opens for a learner — and, if you want, when it closes again. Instead of giving everyone everything at once, you can pace a course, line it up with a class schedule, stop learners skipping ahead, or close an exam after a deadline.

What you can do with it

• Release one module per week so learners don't rush ahead.
• Open content on a fixed date that matches your class calendar.
• Open content a set number of days after a learner enrolls.
• Open an item only after an earlier item is finished (this is the prerequisite case — see Prerequisites).
• Close a quiz or assignment after its deadline.

Unlock options (when content opens)

When you set up a schedule, you choose how content unlocks:

Close options (when content locks again)

Each schedule can also have a matching close rule, so content locks again after a point. You can close content:

• On a date — locks at a specific date and time.
• A number of days after enrollment — locks that many days after the learner joined.
• A duration after it opened — for example, "stays open for 7 days, then locks".

This is handy for time-limited tasks, like an exam that's only available during its window.

Three levels — most specific wins

You can set scheduling at three levels. When more than one applies, the most specific one wins:

1. Whole-offering default — applies to everything in the offering.
2. Per-item override — a rule on one specific lesson, quiz, or section.
3. Per-learner override — a rule for one specific learner on one item.

So a per-learner rule beats a per-item rule, and a per-item rule beats the offering-wide default. This lets you, say, release content weekly for everyone but give one learner an earlier start.

How to set it up

1. Open the offering in Admin and go to its Drip Schedule settings.
2. Choose a whole-offering default (for example, "Days after enrollment: 7").
3. To fine-tune, add a per-item override on any lesson or section.
4. To help an individual learner, add a per-learner override on a specific item.
5. Save.

What the learner sees

Locked content isn't hidden — it's shown greyed out with a lock badge that explains why and when it will open. Depending on the rule, the badge says things like:

• "Unlocks on March 3" — for a fixed date.
• A countdown of days — for "days after enrollment".
• "Complete in order" — when items open one after another.
• "Complete [item] first" — when a specific item must be finished first.

When the item opens, the lock disappears and the learner can start.

After a close date

Once a close date passes, items lock again. There's one helpful exception:

• A learner can still review a quiz they already completed — they keep access to their result even after the quiz closes.
• Everything else (and any quiz they didn't finish) locks once the close date passes.

Content reused inside a learning path

A single course can be used on its own and reused inside a learning path. The scheduling you set in each place is independent — a schedule inside the learning path never changes the standalone course, and the standalone course's schedule never leaks into the path.

A couple of things follow from this:

• "Days after enrollment" on an item inside a learning path counts from the learning path's enrollment date (the program the learner actually joined).
• If you set no schedule for an item inside the learning path, that item is simply open there. That's intentional, not a mistake.