Setting Soft Deadlines for Courses and Learning Plans

 The course or learning plan shows as overdue on users' dashboards when they reach the deadline, but they can still access and complete it. This is useful for compliance training or onboarding where you want to set expectations without hard-blocking access. 

1. Enable a soft deadline on a course
2. Enable a soft deadline on a learning plan
3. What learners see
4. Validity periods

 
 1. Enable a soft deadline on a course

• Admin menu → Content and delivery menu → Courses
• Click the course description to open edit mode
• Properties tab → Time options (vertical tab on the left)
• Under Course validity period, set an End date — this is required for the soft deadline to work
• Toggle on Soft deadline
• Click Save changes

Note: When soft deadline is enabled, the enrollment expiration date is not calculated for that course.

2. Enable a soft deadline on a learning plan

Learning plans have two soft deadline options:

• Use course soft deadline settings (default) — each e-learning course follows its own individual soft deadline configuration. Face-to-face (ILT) courses are not affected by this setting.
• Enable soft deadlines for all courses in the learning plan — applies a soft deadline to every course in the plan including face-to-face courses, regardless of their individual settings.

To configure:

• Admin menu → Content and delivery menu → Learning Plans
• Click the learning plan title → Properties tab → Time options
• Set an Enrollment validity period (required)
• Under Soft deadline, select your preferred option
• Click Save changes

Note: If a course belongs to multiple learning plans with different soft deadline settings, enabling a soft deadline on one plan may affect how that course behaves across all plans it is part of. Contact helpdesk@allaraglobal.com if you are unsure.

3. What learners see

When a soft deadline is active, learners will see:

• The expiry date displayed on their course or learning plan card
• An Overdue status once that date passes — the content remains accessible
• Without a soft deadline, the content locks and shows as Expired instead

Note: When a soft deadline is enabled, the platform's automated expiry notifications (such as "course has expired") do not trigger. If your learners or managers rely on these notifications, be aware of this before enabling soft deadlines.

4. Validity periods

A validity period sets the end date that the soft deadline acts on — without it, there is nothing for the soft deadline to apply to.

For a course, set this under Properties → Time options → Course validity period (End date). You can also use the Enrollment validity period (number of days from enrolment or first access date) — the soft deadline will apply to whichever end date is configured.

For a learning plan, set this under Properties → Time options → Enrollment validity period.

If you don't have access to course or learning plan properties and need a deadline configured, contact helpdesk@allaraglobal.com.