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How to Require a Learner to Complete Another Course Before Starting This Course?

Overview

Course prerequisites act as academic gateways or path guidelines for your learning platform. By designating Course A as a prerequisite for Course B, you ensure that learners master foundational knowledge before progressing. When a student attempts to access a locked course, the Learning Management System (LMS) checks their profile history to verify that they have achieved a passing grade in the required course.

Tip: Ensure you possess course administration or staff privileges and are logged into Open edX Studio before configuring requirements.

Step-by-Step Implementation

Step 1: Access the Advanced Settings Workspace

  1. Log in to Open edX Studio and click into the course that requires the requirement (the advanced course, e.g., Course B).
  2. From the top horizontal navigation menu, click on the Settings dropdown and select Advanced Settings.

Step 2: Toggle on the Global Prerequisites Engine

  1. On the Advanced Settings page canvas, scroll through the parameter options row or use Ctrl + F to search for Prerequisites.
  2. Locate the global toggle or Boolean field for the prerequisite feature and switch it to True (or toggle it On).
  3. Scroll to the bottom or top of the page workspace and click Save Changes. The page will reload and compile the updated tracking rules.

Step 3: Link the Required Prerequisite Course

With the backend feature activated, a dedicated selection card or section will populate.

  1. Scroll down to the newly visible Prerequisites configuration section on the settings canvas.
  2. Click on the Add Prerequisites button.
  3. A search catalog dropdown field or text parameter box will appear. Select or type the exact Course ID of the foundation block course that must be completed first (e.g., Course A).
  4. Click Save Changes once more to lock the dependency into the platform registry database.

Learner Perspective and System Safeguards

  • The Storefront Gateway: When a learner views your catalog or Discovery Site, they can still view the advanced course description summary page.
  • The LMS Player Block: The moment they enroll and click to enter the course player inside the LMS dashboard, the system evaluates their grade ledger. If they haven't passed the requirement, the core learning units are hidden, and an automated alert banner states: "You must complete [Prerequisite Course Name] with a passing grade before you can access this content."

Critical Administrative Rules

  • The Circular Dependency Error Trap: The validation compiler does not actively prevent you from making mistakes in your sequence maps. Ensure you do not accidentally create a circular chain of prerequisites (e.g., mapping Course A to require Course B, while Course B requires Course A). This logic loop will permanently lock both courses, preventing all student profiles from accessing either course player.
  • Re-run and Export Constraints: Prerequisite course tracking connections are highly specific to system database IDs. If you create a Course Re-run for a new semester or Export/Import your course shell .tar.gz data files into a fresh catalog bucket, these background prerequisite mappings are intentionally cleared out to prevent database errors. You must manually repeat this step-by-step pipeline to establish connections on any newly cloned course run lines.