Author Content: Mandatory blocks (Beta)

Overview

Mandatory blocks let authors decide exactly what a learner needs to do before an Author Content item counts as complete. Rather than relying on a learner to click Mark complete whenever they feel ready, you can mark specific blocks — a checklist, a set of tabs, a video and more — as required. Once a learner has worked through every required block, the item completes automatically, with no extra click needed.

This is useful anywhere you want to be confident a learner has genuinely engaged with the content, not just skimmed past it — onboarding checklists, compliance walkthroughs, or any item where "read to the bottom" isn't quite enough proof of completion.

This feature is currently in Open Beta — enable or disable it at any time from Company Settings → Beta Features. Items that don't use any required blocks carry on working exactly as before, so turning this on is entirely safe for your existing content.

How It Works

For authors

When editing an Author Content item, selecting a block opens the Options panel on the right-hand side. With this beta enabled, supported blocks show a Require completion checkbox. Tick it, save the item as normal, and that block now forms part of what a learner must complete.

You can mark as many or as few blocks as required as you like. If you don't mark any blocks as required, the item keeps its ordinary manual Mark complete button — nothing changes for it.

Not every block supports this. The table below shows which ones do, and what "completing" that block actually means for a learner:

💡 A required block that's empty — for example, an accordion with no sections added yet — simply contributes no steps. It can never lock a learner out of completing the item.

For learners

Learners see a progress banner at the top of the item, showing something like "3 of 5 steps complete". It's grey while the learner is still working through the content, and turns green with a tick once everything is done.

The Mark complete button is replaced with "Completes automatically" — it isn't clickable, because completion is handled for the learner as they go. If someone tries to force completion early, they'll see the message "Complete every required block before marking this item complete."

As a learner ticks a checklist item, opens a tab, downloads a file and so on, their progress saves in real time. Once the final required step is done, the item completes automatically — celebration and all, just like any other completion.

A couple of things worth knowing:

• Progress is sticky. Once a learner has completed the item, nothing an author does afterwards — including adding more required blocks — will un-complete it for that learner.

• Progress adjusts if content changes. If an author removes a required block after learners have already started, everyone's step count adjusts automatically so it stays accurate.

• Progress is per learner and per item. One learner's progress on an item never affects another's.

⚠️ Translations are tracked separately. Required steps are tracked against the specific language version a learner is viewing. If required blocks only exist in one language version of an item, learners viewing a different language version won't need to complete them before the item finishes.

Completion feeds into the same completion record as any other item, so learnlist progress, tasks, certificates, channel progress and reporting all behave exactly as they always have. There's no separate report of per-step progress — only the learner themselves sees how far through the required steps they are.

Prerequisites

Author Content is available to all customers, so you don't need anything extra to start creating items. Mandatory blocks is the part currently in Open Beta, and needs switching on separately from Company Settings → Beta Features.

Role Requirements

Marking a block as required uses the same permissions as editing the item itself — there's no separate role to manage:

• Owner, Admin and Learning Designer roles can mark blocks as required on any Author Content item

• Curators can do the same on any item they already have permission to edit

• Turning the beta itself on or off is managed by Owners and Admins from Company Settings → Beta Features

• Any learner who can view the item can work through its required steps and trigger automatic completion — no special role needed

Quick Start Guide

1. From Company Settings → Beta Features, switch on the Mandatory blocks beta

2. From the sidebar, create a new Author Content item (Add new → Item → Author Content) or open an existing one in edit mode

3. Select the block you want learners to complete — for example, a checklist or a video

4. In the Options panel on the right, tick Require completion

5. Repeat for any other blocks you want to make mandatory

6. Save the item as usual

7. Preview or publish it — learners will now see the progress banner and complete the item automatically once every required step is done

FAQs

Q: Does ticking a checklist item complete the item?
It can — if that checklist is set to require completion and it's the last required step remaining, ticking it will complete the item automatically.

Q: What happens to items with no required blocks?
Nothing changes. They keep the ordinary manual Mark complete button.

Q: Can a learner be un-completed if I add more required blocks later?
No. Completion is sticky — once a learner has completed the item, later changes never take that completion away.

Q: Do learners see which steps are left?
The progress banner shows how many steps are complete out of the total (for example, "3 of 5 steps complete"), and each required block shows its own completed state in place as the learner works through it.

Q: What if I delete a required block after learners have already started?
Their progress adjusts automatically so the step count stays correct — nobody gets stuck because a block they'd already completed disappeared.

Q: Is there a report showing per-step progress?
Not at this time. Completion reporting works exactly as it does for any other item — at the item level. Learners can see their own step-by-step progress on the item itself.

Troubleshooting