Update pathways to allow for off-ramps or multiple destinations

[jared-diener]

Users are indicating a need to describe pathways that have clearly identified "off ramps" or multiple destination components. Currently, a pathway can only have one destination.

This computer science pathway at Heriot-Watt is a good example of a pathway with off-ramps that end in credentials. It's important to note that these off-ramps are not consolation prizes, but valid and valuable credentials in their own right.

We may be able to accomplish this using pathway sets that share essential pathway components.

To implement with current CTDL & tools:

• Model off-ramps as terminal components of separate pathways
• Create a Pathway Set:
  • may need to add properties to contextualize the role of each pathway in the set;
  • may need to associate the pathway set with a program.

[jeannekitchens]

These are the three scenarios we talked about:

• Intent of pathway design is to have one or more destinations within a single pathway.
• Pathway can have components that do not link to a destination. We’ve discussed these as “off ramps.”
• Need to be able to link from a component in 1 pathway to a component in another pathway. This is documented with the most recent pathway pilot. @sedula27 please include an example and how components are linked from 1 pathway to a component in another pathway here.

[philbarker]

@jeannekitchens Yes we discussed those and disagreed on the first two; the third seems already accounted for, if it is relevant to this issue. I think Jared's description accurately describes the conclusion of the discussion, at least as far and he and I were concerned. Do you want to go over it again?

[jeannekitchens]

Possibly......pathways are multiple years of work deserving of scrutiny of changes while being open to improvements. We can look at some of the recent pathway pictures being interpreted. This is a folder with pathways that are being interpreted as CTDL https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iqvDar3bKGSBQCNF7-Nbu_B7RDBmGVj-?usp=drive_link

[philbarker]

Anyway, here is a sketch of what a pathway set with pathways for off-ramp destination would look like

It's a bit small in github, so here is the original Start at the bottom.

[...to be continued]

[philbarker]

[/...cont]

For clarity, the full four-stage pathway looks like this:

And the stage 3 off ramp looks like this:

You'll see not all the stage 3 pathway is in the stage 4 pathway, because the Credential Component that is the off-ramp from stage 3 is not in the pathway to stage 4...which really is what you would expect.

...and similar for stages 2 and 1 pathways.