Teaching on Flexible Timelines with Self-paced Plans

In many classrooms, teaching follows a fixed schedule: lessons happen at the same time, everyone works through the same material, and students are expected to reach milestones together. But what if your learners don’t all start at the same time? What if some join a course mid-term, while others are already close to finishing?

This is the everyday reality in adult education, vocational training, and online or hybrid courses. Learners enrol continuously, progress at different speeds and may complete the same program on completely different timelines. For teachers and trainers, this can be challenging to manage.

That’s where self-paced plans in itslearning come in. They allow learners to progress independently while ensuring they cover the right content in the right order.

What are Self-Paced Plans?

Self-paced plans let learners move through activities at their own speed. Instead of being tied to group deadlines, each person controls their progression while you, as the teacher, stay in control of the overall structure.

You decide how much flexibility to allow:

• One plan at a time keeps learning structured. A learner must complete one plan before unlocking the next — perfect when skills build on each other.
• All plans at once gives access to everything from the start, so learners can choose their own path and set their own pace.
  
  

When Self-Paced Plans are most useful

The most common — and powerful — use case is in asynchronous courses:

• Adult education: Learners often begin at different points in the year. A self-paced plan means a student starting in March can follow the exact same progression as one who started in January.
• Vocational training: Some learners may already have industry experience, while others are complete beginners. Self-paced plans let everyone start at the right level, without slowing down or holding back the group.
• Internal training: In workplace learning, staff members often need to complete the same training but at different times. With self-paced plans, each employee can move through modules when it suits their schedule, while HR or trainers track progress.
• Online and hybrid courses: With flexible schedules, students can log in and learn at the times that suit them, while you track their progress and ensure all competencies are met.

What about K-12?

In regular classrooms, teachers usually need to keep learners on the same timeline — which is why planning with dates or using Learning Paths often works better. But self-paced plans can still be useful in specific situations, such as:

• Exam preparation or revision units where students need freedom to focus on their weakest areas.
• Project-based learning where learners benefit from exploring optional activities at their own speed
  
  

Why Self-Paced learning works

Research consistently shows that giving learners more control improves motivation and retention. A 2023 review published on ResearchGate found that self-regulated learning strategies — such as allowing learners to progress at their own pace — are strongly linked to higher engagement and better long-term outcomes.

Read the full review by ResearchGate

Making the most of Self-Paced Plans

If you’re new to the concept, here are three simple steps:

1. Begin with a single course or topic to test the workflow.
2. Match the plan structure to your teaching goals.
3. Combine both approaches — for example, guide learners through mandatory modules step by step, then offer optional enrichment activities all at once.
   
   

Give it a try

Self-paced Plans are designed for learning environments where flexibility is essential — especially when learners start and finish on different dates. They make it easier to support varied experience levels, offer personalised learning, and reduce your workload as a teacher or trainer.

Try setting up your first self-paced plan in itslearning today. Explore both workflows, see what works best for your learners, and discover how it can help your teaching practice.

Read more about self-paced plans in itslearning