Ever built a beautiful piece of content, only to have nobody see it? Nine times out of ten, that is not a content problem. It is a building blocks problem.
Your platform runs on four building blocks: content, widgets, the stream, and automations. Get how they connect, and you will always know exactly why something is (or is not) showing up for a learner.
What you will be able to do after this
Identify the different types of content and their role in the learning experience
Explain how widgets shape what a learner sees
Explain how the stream turns widgets into a sequence
Describe how automations unlock content and trigger other actions
The four building blocks
Content, what learners interact with
Widgets, containers that display that content
Stream, the order widgets appear in
Automations, the rules that make it all unlock at the right time
đ Four blocks sounds like a lot. Once you see how they connect, it clicks fast. Let's go through each one.
Content
Content is what learners actually interact with. You already know this part.
Activities are the smallest pieces: a single lesson, video, or quiz
Journeys group activities in order, guiding learners step by step
Programmes group journeys and standalone activities into something bigger
đ In short
Content is the what. It does not control who sees it or when. That job belongs to widgets, the stream, and automations.
Widgets
Widgets decide how content is displayed. They do not decide who sees it.
Go to Behaviour > Stream > + to add one. A few examples:
Activities widget: shows a group of activities together
Spotlighted activity widget: highlights one key activity
See the full list in Widget overview. Widgets can also display content in grid or sliding form, depending on the type.
đ§ Be careful
Each widget is only a container, so adding one controls display, not who gets to see it. Without an automation the container is visible to everyone. An automation that unlocks the widget limits it to an audience, and a second automation unlocks the content inside it. More on both below.
Step-by-step instructions: How to add a widget to the stream
Stream
The stream is a learner's personal timeline. Find it in Behaviour > Stream. Every widget sits somewhere on that timeline, so learners move through content in a structured order.
For example:
A spotlighted welcome activity appears first
Two onboarding journeys follow
đ§ Be careful
The stream only arranges widgets. It does not unlock anything on its own. That is always the automation's job.
Automations
Automations are the rules that make everything run on its own. They all follow the same formula:
đ When [event] and if [conditions], then [action].
You need automations for two things:
Widgets: unlock the widget for a specific group, for example Belgium, Netherlands, or Germany. This makes the widget visible to that group, not its content.
Content: unlock the activities, journeys, or programmes sitting inside that widget.
Set up both, and the right learners see the right content. Automations do more than unlocking too. Use them to:
Send reminders or nudges
Move learners into a new group
Assign a programme or activity automatically
Trigger a follow-up action after completion
đ§ Be careful
A widget with no enabled unlock automation is shown to every learner, because the automation is what limits it to an audience. If you switch off the only automation that unlocks a widget, everyone will see it. To keep a widget from everyone, keep an enabled automation on it that matches nobody, or remove it from the stream.
Activities work the same way. If the setting that hides content without an automation is switched off, every user gets an activity without an unlock automation in My progress. See the Automations FAQ for details.
âď¸ Tip
Unlocking content runs on the Check periodically event. Set your conditions (completion status, group membership) and the platform checks them for you every hour. Full details in Automation practice: Unlock content.
Recap
You can now:
Tell activities, journeys, and programmes apart
Explain that widgets shape display, not access
Explain that the stream puts widgets in order
Explain that automations unlock both widgets and content, and that content without an automation is visible to everyone