Mandatory vs. optional courses

Courses in ahead Learning can be either mandatory or optional, depending on how participants are enrolled.
The same course can be both at the same time — mandatory for some users and optional for others.

Mandatory courses

• Marked with a “Mandatory” label for visibility.

• Prioritized in My Learning › My Courses section and in the Courses to Complete homepage module (if enabled).

• When a user is enrolled in a mandatory course, they receive a notification.

• Course admins can resend notifications to remind participants to complete the training.

Optional courses

• Displayed in the Discover area of My Learning.

• Users can browse and self-enroll in these courses at their own pace.

• Optional courses are ideal for personal development or interest-based learning.

How courses become mandatory or optional

The course requirement depends on who enrolled the participant:

• If a course admin enrolls users (manually or through automated rules), the course is mandatory for those participants.

• If users self-enroll from the Discover area, the course is optional for them.

As a result, the same course can have both mandatory and optional participants.

Viewing course requirement status

In the Participants tab of a course, admins can view each user’s requirement status — shown as either Mandatory or Optional in the table.
This information also appears in the exportable Excel file.

Changing the requirement status

Admins can change a participant’s course requirement at any time from the Participants tab.

From mandatory to optional:

• Select Make course optional from the More menu.

• Available after the course is published and works regardless of user status (Not started, In progress, or Completed).

• This change does not affect progress — users simply stop seeing the Mandatory label.

Note: If the user matches an automated enrollment rule, they will be re-enrolled as mandatory in the next synchronization cycle. Exclude them from the rule to prevent this. Learn more

From optional to mandatory:

• Select Make course mandatory from the More menu.

• This also does not affect progress.

• Users are not automatically notified, but you can use Resend notification to alert them.

Changing the requirement

Course admins can change the course requirement from mandatory to optional and viceversa. This can be done also in the 'Participants' tab of the course.

From mandatory to optional

• Click 'Make course optional' in the 'more' menu
• Can be done when the course has been already published, and with users in any status (not started, in progress, completed)
• It does not affect user's progress. Users will no longer see the 'mandatory' label in that course.
• Note: If the user is matching the rule in auto enrollment, they will be re-enrolled as mandatory. To prevent this, you need to also exclude the user from the rule by clicking 'Exclude drom rule0

From optional to mandatory

• Click 'Make course mandatory' in the 'more' menu
• It does not affect user's progress. Users will now see the course labeled as mandatory
• Users don't get notified, but you can user the 'resend notification¡ action to let them now proactively.