Managing a learning program or multi-session training program often feels like a juggling act—dozens of sessions, overlapping tracks, and a wide variety of learning paths that need to feel cohesive. It is not enough to list individual sessions as standalone courses and hope learners connect the dots. Without structure, the experience becomes fragmented, hard to manage, and even harder to scale. That is where EthosCE's Course Relationships become essential.
Course Relationships allow you to organize and deliver complex learning activities using a parent-child course structure that reflects how your programs actually function. Whether you are building a multi-day annual course, instructor-led certification paths, or recurring curriculum tracks, Course Relationships let you group your learning content into a streamlined, logical hierarchy—both for learners and administrators.
What Are Course Relationships?
Course Relationships allow you to link related courses into a clear hierarchy: a parent course (such as a full curriculum) and child courses (like breakout sessions, workshops, or individual modules). The parent course serves as the container that ties the learning experience together, while the child courses deliver the content in manageable, modular units.
This structure brings order and visibility to large educational programs. It gives you the ability to design learning that is modular, scalable, and organized—all without sacrificing control over how learners register, engage, and receive credit. It also makes administration easier, since you can configure enrollment logic, completion rules, and certificate delivery at both the parent and child levels.
Why Use Course Relationships?
Courses are inherently complex. You may have general courses open to all, concurrent tracks by specialty, optional workshops, and post-course evaluations—all of which can be hard to manage as separate courses. Course Relationships allow you to unify everything under one parent experience.
By grouping courses into a Course Relationship, you gain the flexibility to offer different registration models. Learners can be required to enroll in an entire bundle of sessions or be given the freedom to choose specific activities that meet their needs. This is particularly useful when offering customizable learniing paths or optional paid add-ons.
You can also control how certificates are issued. For some courses, you may want to award a single certificate upon completion of the full program. In others, it might make sense to issue certificates per course. With Course Relationships, you decide how credit is delivered—centralized under the parent course or managed at the session level.
The feature also allows you to support advanced business logic. You can offer discounts for full-track registrations, provide early access to learners who purchase bundles, and ensure users automatically gain access to future sessions added to a track. This adds revenue flexibility while delivering a more cohesive learning experience.
Flexible Options for Real Learning Scenarios
What makes EthosCE's Course Relationships so valuable is how adaptable they are to real-world educational structures. Whether you are managing a simple track or a multi-layered certification series, Course Relationships give you the control you need to customize each learning experience without losing scalability.
- Award a single certificate after learners complete all required child courses.
This setup works perfectly for bundled experiences like a multi-day bootcamp, certification path, or curriculum that is designed to be consumed as a whole. Learners complete every session under the parent and receive a unified credential that reflects the full scope of the program.- Pro Tip: Use this model to emphasize program completion as a milestone, especially when marketing bundled offerings.
- Issue individual certificates for each child course.
Ideal for modular programs, this approach ensures learners get recognized for each session they attend regardless of whether or not they complete the full series. It supports attendees who participate intermittently or choose specific topics relevant to their needs.- Pro Tip: Enable this when offering drop-in webinars or tracks with optional attendance to maximize learner autonomy and session-level reporting.
- Enforce a specific order or allow open sequence learning.
If your content builds logically—like beginner, intermediate, and advanced tracks—you can require learners to complete activities in a designated order. For less structured programs, let them progress through sessions in any sequence they choose.- Pro Tip: Use enforced order for skills-based or credentialed learning and open order for self-paced exploration.
- Control how learners enroll—together or individually.
Course Relationships let you offer full-program enrollment, individual session registration, or both. This flexibility is especially effective when offering premium bundles, member-specific pricing, or building marketing funnels with free and paid tiers.- Pro Tip: Promote the full-track option with early-bird or package pricing to increase upfront enrollment and reduce administrative work.
- Apply bundle pricing automatically for full-track participation.
When learners register for the full set of courses under a parent, EthosCE can apply a discount without needing separate promo codes. This makes the value proposition clear and streamlines the purchasing experience.- Pro Tip: Clearly communicate the savings on your registration page to encourage full bundle purchases
- Grant automatic access to future child courses.
If you plan to add new sessions over time—like monthly webinars or evolving certification content—you can give learners continued access just by enrolling in the parent. This turns one purchase into an ongoing learning pathway.- Pro Tip: Use this for rolling enrollment programs where content is continuously updated or released.
- Allow immediate credit claiming per session.
Let learners earn and view credit as soon as they complete each activity. This supports better transcript accuracy, faster progress tracking, and a sense of momentum across longer programs.- Pro Tip: Immediate credit is ideal for learners who need proof of participation for compliance or time-sensitive reporting.
- Aggregate credit from child to parent courses.
In scenarios where learners complete sessions over time, EthosCE can roll credit totals up to the parent course. This creates a consolidated view of progress while keeping credit tied to each child session.- Pro Tip: This is especially useful when reporting to external boards or institutions that require cumulative learning metrics.
These options give you the power to shape your programs to fit any educational model—without creating separate courses for every variation. Course Relationships are more than a content structure; they are a strategic way to offer better learning at scale.
Course Relationships Are More Than a Feature. They Are a Strategy.
Modern education delivery is complex, but your tools should not make it harder. EthosCE's Course Relationships give you the power to design scalable, flexible, and impactful learning programs that feel unified from start to finish. Whether you are managing a certification pathway or an evolving content library, Course Relationships provide the framework to make everything fit together.
Ready to see Course Relationships in action? Book a demo with our team to learn how to enable this feature and transform the way your organization builds and delivers education.
