Science Interactive Instructor Help Guides

Why Does My Student Have Locked Lessons

Updated on

There are five primary reasons why lessons may be locked in an SI Cloud course. See the sections below for help understanding the reasons. These are presented in the order that SI Cloud "gates" content.

Reason 1: Students have not purchased or activated the course's lab kit.

If the "Enter a Code" and "Purchase Kit" buttons appear on the top right-hand corner of the window, that means the lab kit for the course has either not been purchased or the kit code has not been entered. See our guides here for help ordering or activating lab kits.

HOL - Instance - Google Chrome
Reason 2: Students have not finished previous or prerequisite lessons.

Lessons usually have to be completed in order. If a student hasn't finished all previous lessons a course, they won't be able to move to the next one. Make sure they have completed all the lessons above the lesson they're trying to access.

The lesson in the example below is locked because previous lessons have not been completed, and is ready to unlock as soon as its prerequisites are met.

Reason 3: The instructor has set access dates for the lessons.

Instructors can set lessons to unlock on specific dates. If this is the case, clicking on the lock icon will show a message with the date it will unlock. If a lesson is supposed to unlock on a certain day, students won't be able to access it until that date.

HOL - Instance - Google Chrome

If a lesson is locked but the access date shown has already passed, check the requirements in reasons 1 and 2 yet (purchasing a kit/redeeming a kit code and completing all previous lessons.)

Reason 4: Students are not accessing their course through their LMS

1) Make sure your students clicked on the link for this specific lesson in your school's LMS (i.e., Canvas/D2L/Blackboard)

If your school has chosen to restrict lesson access to LMS links, students will need to access each lesson through its unique link in your school's LMS (i.e., Canvas/D2L/Blackboard etc.). 

In this case, students will not be able progress from one lesson to another directly within Cloud. Instead, after completing one lesson in Cloud, students must go back to your LMS and click on the link for the next lesson, rather than using the SI Cloud course menu to change lessons.

This error might also occur if your students signed into Cloud directly via our sign-in page (instead of clicking on a link in Canvas/D2L/Blackboard). In this case, students locate the lesson links found within your LMS and use them to access their lesson content.

This error only applies to students who are supposed to access their course through their school's Learning Management System (LMS).

When your students select a lesson in your LMS, does the lesson list appear? See more information here.

Reason 5: You have not published your custom questions.

SI Cloud includes the option for instructors to add or remove questions from lessons. However, until the questions are saved and published, students are locked out of the lesson. Once you publish your questions, students will no longer be locked out of their lesson for this reason.

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