Submitting a course for approval

Wisteria’s submission flow is course-scoped, not module-scoped. You don’t submit one module at a time — you submit the whole course as a bundle, after marking every module ready.

Step 1 — Mark each module ready

On every module’s Quiz tab, there’s a Ready to Submit button.

Click it to flip the module to “ready.” The button toggles to ✓ Ready to Submit (click to undo). You can un-flip if you change your mind.

What “ready” means: you the trainer think this module is finished and waiting for the rest of the course. It doesn’t submit anything yet.

Two preconditions:

The module must have at least one card.
The module must have at least one quiz question.

If either is missing, the Ready button is disabled with an inline hint.

When you mark the last module in a course as Ready — meaning every module in the course is now ready — a submission modal pops up automatically on the module page. You don’t have to navigate to the course detail page.

The modal asks:

Course title — confirmed (already filled in)
Module count — confirmation that you intended to submit all N modules
Recertification — toggle on if learners need to re-take annually
Recert interval — if recert is on, set the days (365 / 180 / 90 as presets)

Two actions at the bottom:

Save & exit — close the modal, KEEP the Ready flags, defer submission for later
Submit — send the whole course for approval

Step 3 — Submit

Click Submit. What happens server-side:

Wisteria checks every module has a quiz with at least one question (quiz gate).
For each module, Wisteria creates an approval_request row pointing at the current workflow (based on the course’s tags).
Every module’s status flips from draft to pending_approval.
Approvers (the people assigned to step 1 of the workflow) get notified by email + Slack.
The course appears on the approvals kanban under “Pending Approval.”

The flow takes about 2 seconds. You see a confirmation toast and the page redirects back to the course detail view.

Step 4 — Track progress

From the course detail page you can see each module’s individual status. Modules approve / reject per-module — you don’t wait for one big decision at the end.

You’ll get an email when:

A reviewer approves a module
A reviewer rejects a module (with their comment)
A reviewer asks for a query (asks a question without rejecting yet)

If a module is rejected, see Resubmitting after rejection.

”Save & exit” — what it does

If you click Save & exit on the submit modal:

The Ready flags STAY on every module.
No approval_request rows are created.
The course is still in draft status.
A banner appears at the top of every module in the course: “All N modules in [Course Title] are ready. Submit course.” — clicking it re-opens the submit modal.

Use Save & exit when you want to mark modules Ready (so you don’t lose your place) but defer the actual submission — e.g. you want to double-check with someone before submitting, or you want to ship the submission tomorrow morning when reviewers are online.

What if not all modules are ready

You can’t submit a course until every module is marked Ready. The submit modal only auto-pops on the last click that takes the course to N/N ready.

If you have a 3-module course with 2 ready and 1 you’re not happy with yet, you can:

Finish the third module — the modal will pop on the next Ready click.
Delete the third module — the modal will pop the moment N matches the new N.
Submit a partial course — not supported. Wisteria’s model is course-scoped submission. Either the whole course is ready or none of it is.

What if a module changes after Ready is marked

If you edit a flashcard or a quiz question on a module that’s already marked Ready, Wisteria clears the Ready flag for that module — you’ll need to re-mark it Ready before the course can be submitted.

This is intentional: a stale “Ready” flag would mean reviewers might approve content that you’ve since changed.

What if a course doesn’t have a tag

The submit modal won’t open. There’s an inline hint on the course detail page: “This course needs at least one tag before it can be submitted.” Click through to Course Settings → add a tag → come back.

See Tags for the rationale.

After submission

The trainer’s role on a submitted course is to wait and respond to feedback. You can:

Watch each module’s status update on the course detail page
Check the Queries tab at /admin/approvals/queries for any rejections
Respond to queries (see Resubmitting after rejection)

Once every module is approved, you’ll see a banner: “This course is ready to publish.” Click Publish to deliver it to learners.

Notifications

You’ll get notifications for:

Each module approval (email)
Each module rejection (email, with reviewer’s comment)
The whole course is approved (email + Slack, if Slack is configured)
The course has been published (sent to assigned learners, not to you)