Creating your Pathway comes in a series of steps, outlined below. Let’s get started with the
first step:
Within the Studio, select the Pathways icon from the content type cards.
This will open a new window taking you to the Pathways editor. Inside the editor, are three main sections, each with their own icons to help build your Pathway, so let’s take a look at these…
Adding Content
Organisations with the HowNow Pro Plan, will be able to use the AI-generated Pathways feature. Learn more about using HowNow AI-generated Pathways.
Title and Short Description
The title and short description for your Pathway can be changed at any time, and has a maximum character limit of 150 characters. The number of characters will increase, as you type, to remind you. The same applies if including a Short Description.
This also allows for the content name to fit nicely on the content card, once you Publish your Pathway, later.
Edit Creators (Profile pic option)
You can open the Creators screen to manage the Verification details and Collaborators of your content. This behaves in the same way as editing these same fields for other content types.
Once you’ve confirmed your Collaborator(s) they will receive both an email and web-app notification.
Note✨: Just underneath the Author profile, you will also see a reminder of how many Steps you’ve added to the Pathway (see New Section, below), and the Pathway’s Duration.
The overall Duration consists of each Duration time given, for each content item. If a content item doesn’t have Duration added, then it won’t be part of this overall calculation. For example:
Your Pathway has 10 content items
Of these, only 5 have their own Durations
20 minutes, 5 mins, 2 mins, 15 minutes and 7 minutes
Your Pathway Duration = 49 minutes
New Section
Click on the New Section option to open the Section edit box. From here you can add a Section title and description.
Select Add Step to open the options to add 3 different forms of content: My Content, HowNow+ and My integrations. Let's take a look at these further below.
Note✨: Two points to note include…
The Steps added to this section, can be added to your Pathway without needing to add a Section first. The Section is an optional component of a Pathway, designed to help make different topics clearer for your Users, when navigating through it.
You can add up to a maximum of 100 Steps to a Pathway.
My Content
Select My Content to open the slide out featuring all the content types that you are an Author or Collaborator of.
Your content will be shown in the list by date order (latest to oldest). You can also search for it, or use the following filters:
Created by
My Collaborations - content that you are a Collaborator on.
Only Me - content that you are the Author of exclusively.
Language - content that has been tagged with one of the pre-set languages
Duration - content that has been tagged with a specific Duration.
To add the desired content item, click the (+) sign next to it, and this will tick the content and change the icon green, to confirm selection. Your content will then be added to the Pathway, in the background.
To continue adding more content, select the green plus (+) icon, and select My Content again.
You can complete this process from any content item already in the Pathway.
Note✨: When other content types (Nuggets, Courses, etc.) are being created by other Authors. They’ll see the Content Visibility options to choose from. The Author may decide to only make the content featured within the Pathway visible from within it.
All Users assigned to your Pathway will appear in the Content insights for that Nugget (although won’t appear as assigned in the Add Learners step of the original content).
To understand more about Content Visibility, check out our article: How to control Content Visibility.
Once the original Author decides to make their content visible in a Pathway, this cannot be undone.
Useful Tip🧠: All original content - used as Steps - must have an assignee in order to remain published, and accessible in a Pathway. Therefore...
If Authors don't want any Users to have access to a content item, but still want it to feature in a Pathway, they must assign only themselves to the original content.
It’s also possible to rearrange the order of content you add, by selecting the 6-dots icon and dragging to re-position.
To delete the content, select the dustbin icon.
You can view a content item (in Preview Mode if you aren’t also assigned to it) by clicking on the card, where a new tab will open.
From the Web
You can add third-party content to your Pathway, to include podcasts, audios, articles, etc., from any of the providers made available on your work space (from the Dashboard’s Apps page).
HowNow+
You can include any imported HowNow+ content into your Pathway, by selecting the HowNow+ option. This will open the slide out screen where you'll be able to add the course of your choice, into the desired Section.
My Integrations
To add any Integrated content to the Pathway, select My Integrations, and follow the same process as when adding your internal content.
Integrated content includes content from your Content Libraries (LinkedIn, Coursera, etc.)
Note✨: After your Pathway has been successfully published, you may want to add more content to a Step. Adding your latest content to the Pathway, will label it - via the thumbnail - as New Step. This help Users to identify which content has been added, which they can complete.
Users will receive a notification via the web app.
Header image / Cover
You can edit your Pathway’s cover image by selecting Add Cover, towards the top. In the pop-up you’ll be presented with the standard options:
Upload - choose any PNG or JPEG image to edit.
Unsplash - choose any image from the Unsplash image library. You can search using keywords that best match your content.
You can choose which area of your image becomes the header, and once happy, click Upload to confirm.
Top Panel: Add Learners, Settings, Channels, Skills, Preview mode
Add Learners
You can add your Users to the Pathway, by clicking the grey user button from the top panel. The slide-out screen will then show both the Learners and Creators tabs.
The options are the same as other content types with the ability to:
Add Users individually
Add Groups
Add Custom Rules
Toggle the email notifications option on/off
Note✨: There are a few points to remember, when assigning Learners…
If you use one form of assignment in a content item (e.g, a Nugget), this will be completely separate from the assignment you give the Pathway that features the content. For example:
Finance Nugget is assigned to User A only
Finance Nugget is later added to the Finance Pathway
You assign the Pathway to User B
User B will still have access to the Finance Nugget (by way of the Pathway)
Any content deleted from the Pathway, won't be accessible for the assigned Users of the Pathway. Only if the Users were assigned to the content, prior to it being added to the Pathway, will they still have access, in this case.
In the Assign Learners step of a content item, Authors will always be reminded that the content they’re editing, exists as part of a Pathway.
A pop-up reminder will also appear, when attempting to delete any content made, that sits within a pathway.
Note✨: Once your Pathway is published, you'll be able to quickly assign Users, Custom Rules and Groups, via the Content insights page, using the Assign Learners step shortcut.
Select the 3-dot menu for your Pathway and choose Assign Learners.
This will open the assignment slide-out screen, revealing the same details as shown in the editor. One exception being:
Email notifications toggle: this will need to be controlled within the editor
Select Update Learners to make your changes. A notification will appear in the bottom-right of the screen, confirming your assignment as updated.
Note✨: Once your Pathway is published, you'll be able to quickly assign Users, Custom Rules and Groups, via the Content insights page, using the Assign Learners step shortcut.
Select the 3-dot menu for your Pathway and choose Assign Learners.
This will open the assignment slide-out screen, revealing the same details as shown in the editor. One exception being:
Email notifications toggle: this will need to be controlled within the editor
Select Update Learners to make your changes. A notification will appear in the bottom-right of the screen, confirming your assignment as updated.
Settings
Click the cogwheel icon to open the Settings. From here, you’ll be able to select the following:
Language - this represents the primary language of the Pathway. For example, if your Pathway includes a Course in French, and a Nugget in German, a Live Class held in Japanese:
You’d select whichever of these languages was the most prevalent within your Pathway (highlighting that some content may be in the less frequent languages).
You’d present the Pathway in one language - e.g., English - explaining all the non-English content is has.
Deadline - by when a User must complete all the content items. Once all of these are complete, the Pathway itself will show as completed.
Thumbnails - you can upload your desired thumbnail, the same as you would the Header image.
Sequential Learning - you can set-up your Pathway to guide your Users through each Step - keeping the next Step in the curriculum locked, until the current Step is completed.
Learn more about Sequential Pathways: How to create a Sequential Pathway
Channels and Skills
Click the exclamation mark icon, to open the Channels and Skills tabs.
You can add your Pathway to multiple Channels using the search, or, by selecting the
Recommended Channels
These Recommended Channels are the various Channels assigned to the content items included within your Pathway. For example:
Your Pathway has 1 Nugget
The Nugget was assigned to the #Design Channel
The #Design Channel will appear as a Recommendation
Add multiple Skills related to the topics covered in your Pathway.
Preview Mode
You can Preview the content by clicking the eye icon. This will showcase the Pathway, as your assigned Users would see it. No edits can be made in Preview Mode.
Select Exit View to return to the normal editable view.
Navigating the Pathway
The navigation panel can be found on the left of the screen .When re-ordering your content, the new position will be automatically reflected within the panel.
Once you’ve finished constructing your Pathway and its Settings, click Publish and return to the Studio, or view your Pathway as a Learner.
Note✨: Remember the following points…
A tooltip will always appear on the Publish button, to remind you that your Pathway cannot be set live, without Users assigned to it.
Pathways cannot be duplicated and published as copies.
Currently there are no Reviews, Renewal Cycle options or Rewards for Pathways, nor will a Pathways option appear in Custom Rules created within other content types.
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