Knowing how much of the course you've completed

If you would like a visual guide to checking your progress on a course you can watch the below video:

You can see which steps you've completed in a week on your to-do list:

• a blue block around a step number means you've completed it
• a white block around a step number means you haven't completed it
• a pink block around a step number means it's the first uncompleted step of the week

[Image descriptor: The above image shows a view of course step titles with the first 3 steps coloured in blue to denote completion. The fourth step is coloured pink to denote that it's the next uncompleted step of the week. The final four steps are coloured in white to show they are not yet completed. A portrait image of Bonnie Prince Charlie floats on the top right of the image as the example course is on the Stuarts and Jacobites.]

When you've completed every step of a course, your progress will show as 100% in the Progress tab.

[Image descriptor: The above image shows a 'your progress' page which is coloured in shades of blue, purple, and pink. It is titled 'your progress' and underneath the title is a tick box and the words '100% of steps completed' inside a large circle.] 

Completing every step means clicking the 'mark as complete' button at the end of every article, video, exercise and discussion, and taking any quizzes or tests.

If you're struggling to find steps you haven't marked as complete, check the bars underneath the week numbers in your To-do list.

[Image description: The above image shows 6 boxes in blue with a week number in each box in white, for example week 1 in the first box then week 2 in the box next to it, and so on until you get to week 6.]

These bars fill with colour as you complete more steps. White space in these bars mean that you still have steps to mark as complete in that week.

If a course has tests and you're studying it for free, you won't be able to complete it 100%.

Weekly access time

For courses you have joined for free (apart from our sponsored courses) your access to the content of each week of the course will be limited. This means that when you join the course you can only access the content from week 1 of the course, and will need to wait one calendar week to access week 2. The time of opening of each week of your course will depend on the time at which you first joined the course, so if you joined your course on the 18th of March at 11.35 am, then the next week of your course will open up on the 25th March at 11.35 am, and no earlier. 

The weekly release schedule will be shown to you when you join a course like shown below:

[Image description: A screenshot of the opening page of a course, with a table on the right-hand side showing the dates for which each week of the course will open next to a small padlock symbol]

You will be sent an email reminder when each week of the course opens, but please note these are not sent at the exact time that week of your course opens. To find that time, click on to that week of the course (e.g. clicking to go on to week 2). Example shown below:

[Image description: A screenshot of the locked page for week 2 of a course, which advises that "with your current limited access, this content will be unlocked on 25 March 2025 at 11:35"]

Your free access time (again on any non-sponsored courses) will be limited to the exact duration of the course , i.e. 4 weeks free access to a course with 4 weeks of content. You can upgrade or become an Unlimited subscriber in order to get long-term access to all of the course materials from each week of the course straight away.