Let learners choose their path with a decision point

A quiz routes learners by how well they did. A decision point routes them by what they want: "Basics first, or straight to advanced?", "Are you managing a team yet?". It asks one question, offers two or more answers, and there is no wrong one.

Admins and editors can add decision points to a course.

Adding a decision point

On the course's content page, choose Add Decision.
Fill in the Title. It becomes the email's subject line and the heading of the answer page.
Write the Question. Line breaks are kept, so you can add a sentence of context above the question itself.
Add the Answers, at least two. Use Add answer for more, and the arrows to reorder them. Learners see the answers in exactly this order.
Set the Send Delay, and choose its Track if your course has tracks.
Choose a Deadline, or leave it with no deadline and set a Reminder Interval Days instead.
Choose Save Decision.

Keep answers short and clearly different from each other. A learner should be able to pick one at a glance, without wondering which of two similar answers fits them.

Routing learners by their answer

Once the decision point is saved, open it again and go to its Branching tab. Add a rule for each answer that should lead somewhere different:

Answered "Straight to advanced"→ Advanced track
Otherwise → carry on along the main path

Rules are checked in order, and the first one that matches wins. An answer no rule matches continues to the next content, the same as a decision point with no rules at all. The answer is still recorded either way.

The tracks themselves need to exist first. See Create a track.

What your learners see

An email with your question and an Answer button.
A page listing your answers. They choose one and select Submit.
The next piece of content, on whichever path their answer leads to. Its Send Delay counts from the moment they answer.

Nothing after the decision point is sent until the learner answers, because until then there is no way to know which path comes next.

The first answer is final. Once it is submitted, the link stops working. Opening it again says the question has already been answered. If a learner picks the wrong answer by mistake, there is no way to change it.

Answering inside Gmail

In Gmail, learners can pick their answer right inside the email, without opening a page. This works when your course sends from Inbox Academy's default address. Emails sent from your organization's name show the Answer button only, which works in every inbox. See Where your course emails are sent from.

Deadlines and reminders

A decision point is never blocking. There is no wrong answer to fail, so missing a deadline never ends a learner's enrollment.

You choose	What happens
A deadline	One reminder shortly before it runs out. If the deadline passes without an answer, the learner moves on (see below).
No deadline, with reminders	A reminder every so many days until they answer, up to three reminders.
No deadline, no reminders	Nothing more is sent until the learner answers.

A missed deadline skips your rules, including Otherwise

When the deadline passes without an answer, no routing rule applies. The learner receives the content that comes straight after the decision point on its own track, even if you have an Otherwise rule pointing somewhere else.

So put the path you want for learners who don't answer directly after the decision point. Usually that is the main path, with the answer rules sending learners away from it.

Changing a decision point later

Rewording or reordering answers is safe. Rules keep matching the same answer.
Removing an answer also removes the rules that match it.
An answer a learner has already picked can't be removed, so the record of what learners chose stays true. Reword it instead.
A decision point that has reached learners can't be deleted. Unpublish it instead, and learners who haven't reached it yet will skip it.

Decision point or quiz?

	Decision point	Quiz
Routes by	The answer the learner picks	Their score, or whether they passed
Questions	One	One or more
Right answers	None	Yes, and it is scored
Missed deadline	Moves on, never ends the enrollment	Can end the enrollment if the quiz is blocking

Use a quiz when you want to check what learners know. Use a decision point when you want to ask what they want. See Route learners by their quiz result.

What decision points can't do yet

Show a report of how many learners picked each answer
Accept an answer by replying to the email
Ask more than one question, or take a free-text answer