Courses are the containers that bring your Steps together to create a cohesive learning experience. Just like Steps, Courses move through different lifecycle stages. Knowing how each stage works helps you manage your training effectively—without accidentally breaking links or erasing progress.
📘 The Three States of a Course
1. Draft (Default)
All new Courses begin in Draft mode.
Draft Courses are invisible to learners.
You can freely add, remove, or reorder Steps without affecting analytics—since learners haven’t accessed the Course yet.
2. Published
Publishing a Course makes it visible and accessible to learners.
Completion data begins tracking as soon as learners engage.
✅ You can reorder Steps at any time—this has no impact on completion data.
⚠️ However, if you remove a Step, all completion data tied to that Step is permanently lost.
✅ Best practice: If major content changes are needed, consider retiring the Course first to preserve learner data.
3. Retired
Retiring a Course removes it from learner view, but preserves all completion data.
You can later:
✅ Re-enable the Course—this brings it back in Draft mode for editing or republishing.
🗑️ Remove the Course permanently—this deletes the Course and all associated completion data.
🔁 Note: Removing a Course does not delete its Steps—they stay in your Step Library for reuse.
🔍 Quick Reference Table
Course State | Visible to Learners? | Completion Data Retained? | Step Reordering Safe? | Reversible? |
Draft | No | N/A | ✅ Yes | N/A |
Published | Yes | ✅ Yes (unless Steps are removed) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Can retire |
Retired | No | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Can re-enable or remove |
Removed | No | ❌ No (data deleted) | ❌ N/A | ❌ Permanent |
🧠 Course Stewardship Tips
👀 Audit Before Editing Published Courses: Removing Steps deletes associated data.
🧩 Reorder Freely: Rearranging Steps in a live Course won’t impact learner progress.
🛟 Retire Before Major Changes: This protects learner data while giving you space to revise.
🧼 Keep It Clean: Use retirement and removal to keep your library manageable and relevant.