Courses have a hierarchy and can be chained together so changes in the master course apply to all its child copies. The highest level from which everything is created is Pearson content. District domains copy courses into their domain directly from Pearson as a derivative course copy. Schools then copy courses into their domains as derivative course copies from the district.
Chaining only occurs down the chain, from master to derivative, not up the chain. When a user edits a derivative course, the changes in the derivative course persist and will not affect the master (or chain up to its master.)
However, some changes made to the master will affect the derivative courses (or chain down to the derivatives). For example, a derivative course was copied from a master course. A user edits a test question to help the students better understand the content. When that test question is changed in the master, the changes will not chain down to the derivative. However, other changes made to the master will chain down to the derivative. For more detailed information on course chaining, please visit Master and Derivative Courses.
The following examples illustrate some of the complexities of chaining:
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A Teacher changes the passing score in the derivative from 80% to 70%. If an Administrator changes the passing score in the master course to 75%, the Teacher-changed passing score will remain 70%.
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If the Teacher changes a passing score for an assessment and a content correction was made to a test item in an assessment, the test item correction will flow to the derivative.
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If the lesson was moved to another module in the derivative, any setting or content changes from the master will chain down to the derivative.
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If the assessment was made timed in the derivative and the master assessment is updated for time and the number of questions per page, the time update will not chain but the number of questions per page change will chain.
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If the teacher edited test items 2 and 6 in the assessment in the derivative copy, and the master is updated for test item corrections for test items 6 and 8, only the test item 8 correction will flow to the derivative.
Please note that even if a specific content item setting was changed, only that setting will not chain; other settings and content corrections will continue to chain from the master.
Changes to titles do not chain.
Note: Pearson makes content corrections using the concept of chaining. As long as the user-copied course is a derivative course, the copied course will receive all corrections, provided the content was not edited by the Teacher.