Degreed has a feature that allows groups and companies to create their own custom pathways of content. These pathways allow you to combine any number of resources from anywhere around the web, be it courses, books, articles, or videos. This content can also be from any number of different providers, giving ultimate flexibility in curating the best content to fit the needs of the learners.
Pathways can be used in a number of ways, including:
- Helping employees prepare for a certification
- Onboarding new employees
- Outlining a path to promotion
- Creating a step-by-step guide to learn a new skill
- And many others!
Here’s our full guide to creating and utilizing pathways:
What is a pathway and why would you want to create one?
A pathway is a collection of learning content that can be used for sharing knowledge on a particular topic, like onboarding a new employee, or teaching someone a new skill. A pathway can include a combination of content from any source, including your organization’s proprietary content, (like courses from your LMS), eLearning courses from partners, online videos, articles, podcasts, events, or books. If you have the pathway authoring permission, you can create a pathway and share it with your organization.
To author a pathway:
1. Navigate to your profile, then select “Pathways”. On your Profile, Pathway page, you’ll see a list of pathways you are authoring or collaborating on. To create a new Pathway, select the first tile labeled “Create New Pathway.”
2. Enter a Pathway name, description, and categories that describe what someone will learn about from the pathway. The Pathway name and description will help a user find your pathway in a search.
3.You can add an image to the pathway that will be displayed on the pathway tile.
4. Edit Pathway: If you need to go back and edit the pathway, navigate to your Profile, select the “Pathway” tab, select the menu for the pathway, then select “Edit”. Pathways you are authoring will be presented at the top of this page, while Pathways you are enrolled in will appear at the bottom of this page.
5. Add Collaborators – If you would like other members of your organization to help you build the pathway, select the gear icon next to the pathway name, then select “Add Collaborators,” then enter a name. A pathway can have as many collaborators as you like.
Collaborators will see the pathway in their pathway authoring list and will be able to edit the pathway with the same privileges as the original author. Any member of your organization can be added as a collaborator, regardless of permissions.
6. Use search to add content to your Pathway. When you’re ready to start adding learning material to your pathway, select the “Search” option to search for content in Degreed. If the pathway is being made for the organization, you can search your organization’s internal catalog for content or you can select to search external resources. You can search by book, course, article, or video. You can combine content from external online sources with proprietary content from your intranet. Enter a search term, and hit enter to get a list of content. Use the “Filter” option to filter by type of content, or to switch between the internal or external catalog.
Once you’ve found the content you’re looking for, drag and drop the content to your “bin”, or select the “Add to Bin” button.
7. Add content while authoring. You can also add new content by clicking on the “Add to Bin” button. Then select whether the content you are adding is an article, video, book, course, or event. You’ll be prompted to enter the URL for the item and the additional details.
8. Add Content via the Degreed Extension or Bookmarklet. You can add content directly to your pathway from the Degreed Extension or Bookmarklet while browsing the internet or your internal intranet.
9. Add content to your pathway from anywhere in Degreed you find content. Select the down arrow, then select “Add to Pathway.”
10. Build the Pathway. Once you’ve collected content for the pathway in your bin, you can begin building your pathway. Select the option for “Build” to begin building your pathway. Then drag and drop learning content from the bin to the pathway.
11. Add Lessons and Sections. You can divide up your pathway into lessons and sections. You can edit the title and description of each lesson and section so learners know what to expect in each segment. To add a lesson or section, click on the “Add Lesson” or “Add Section” options at the bottom of the authoring page.
Tip: When users are working on a pathway, sections appear in the left navigation of the pathway, while lessons appear in the right panel. We recommend using sections when the user is switching sub-topics in the pathway.
12. Publish to your organization. When your pathway is complete, don’t forget to publish the pathway to your organization by changing the visibility. Select the “Private to you” link to launch the publish dialog.
13.Pathway Visibility – The pathway will only be visible to you, in draft mode, until you select to publish the pathway to the organization. Only users with the “Author Pathways” permission are able to publish a pathway to the organization.
When you modify the pathway visibility, you are presented with the following options:
- My Profile (private): The pathway is completely private to you. Only you will see this pathway on your Profile Pathway tab.
- My Profile (visible): The pathway is visible to anyone that can view your profile. For example, if your profile is set to “private to the org”, members of your organization can see this pathway on your profile. If your profile is public, any Degreed user can view this pathway on your profile.
- Search results for specific groups: This pathway will be added to your organization’s internal catalog, but only searchable by the groups you specify.
- Search results for anyone at Degreed: This pathway will be added to your organization’s internal catalog, but searchable by anyone in the organization. You can specify groups that can find this pathway using a group filter.
If published to anyone at your organization, your pathway will appear in your organization’s internal catalog of pathways, and visible to other members of your organization.
If published to a specific group, only members of that group will be able to find the pathway in the pathway gallery.
Pathways are a great way to use a collection of learning content for sharing knowledge on a particular topic, like onboarding a new employee, or teaching someone a new skill. Head on over to Degreed to start your own pathway.