Overview

In the Sequencing Control Choice mode, any child activities are allowed to be navigated to by the learner. But there are times when the Instructional Designer has determined that the learner should not be able to navigate to certain child activities due to instructional aspects of the content. This could be an activity that must be completed before another activity is started or an assessment activity that must only be completed after the content has been completed. The Content Developer has the ability to restrict the child activities by use of Constrained Choice Controls.

Constrained Choice

Constrained Choice allows the Instructional Designer and the Content Developer to limit how the choice navigation requests are applied to the content and the processing of sequencing requests.

Description of Constrained Choice Controls

This table gives a description of the Constrained Choice Control controls. By using the constraints, the Content Developer is able to limit the learner’s ability to exercise choice in certain areas of the content.

Constrained Choice

Constrained Choice is used when the instructional sequencing design determines that only the previous and next child activities will be allowed. Constrained Choice limits the learner from jumping too far in the content and keeps them in the logical flow.

In this example, the sequencing strategy for the learner is to attempt Activity B, Activity 4, Activity 5 and Activity C. If the learner chooses Activity B, then a constrained choice rule is adhered to. The learner must complete the child activities (Activity 1, Activity 2, Activity 3) before attempting other activities. They are constrained from choosing other activities in the tree.

Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM®) does not define any requirements for the learning management system (LMS) user interface. The user interface for LMSs may vary.

Prevent Activation

The Prevent Activation element equals True indicates that an attempt on any descendent activity can not begin until the affected activity has been reached – it is either active or has become the Current Activity. This limits the learner from selecting, through a Choice Navigation Request, the descendent activities before the affected activity has been reached by the learner.

In the example shown, the Instructional Designer has determined that the learner must reach Activity C before they are allowed to choose Activity 3, 4 or 5.

Conclusion

The Constrained Choice Control modes allow the Content Developer to interpret the intentions of the Instructional Designer by implementing the constraints on the content. By using Constrained Choice and Prevent Activation, the learner will be restricted to the areas of content the Instructional Designer has determined. The learner will still have a choice of which content they wish to participate in, but will be restricted to completion of certain aspects of the content before navigating to other sections.