This guide provides an overview of Journeys in Bridge, including scheduling best practices, use cases, and behavioral considerations when building and managing learning pathways.

What Is a Journey?

A Journey in Bridge is an automated learning path mechanism that uses imported user data to align learners with specific groups. By combining various learning activities into a cohesive path, Journeys automate content delivery and streamline administrative reporting.

Unlike courses or programs (which are limited), Journeys allow you to mix and match multiple content types into a single path, including:

• Courses and Programs
• Live Trainings
• Checkpoints
• Perform Actions (e.g., 1on1s and skill feedback requests)

Journeys support targeted relevance for individuals or smart groups. Learners enter in an Active state, while optional enrollments can be facilitated via shareable links.

Core Journeys Completion Strategies

Bridge offers customizable completion rules, giving administrators the flexibility to build everything from strict linear pathways to dynamic, branched learning tracks.

Completion Rule Types

Nested Journeys: How Branched Pathways Work

By nesting Journeys inside other Journeys, you can build branched pathways without creating cluttered or duplicated structures.

How this works for the learner:

1. Completes general orientation and IT setup.
2. Reaches the Track Selection nested Journey and picks their role pathway.
3. Completes their specific role Journey, automatically marking the Track Selection step as complete.
4. With all top-level requirements satisfied, the parent Onboarding Journey completes.

Scheduling Options and Delayed Activation

When adding steps to a Journey, administrators can control content pacing using three primary scheduling options in the Settings menu.

Scheduling Types

1. Available Immediately: The step unlocks as soon as the prior step is completed.
2. Available on a Specific Date: Unlocks after the prior step is completed, but not before a fixed calendar date.
3. Available After a Delay: Unlocks after the previous step is completed and a specific duration (days, weeks, or months) has elapsed.

How Delayed Activation Timing Works

All delayed steps activate automatically at 00:00 in the account's designated time zone.

• Day-Based Delays: Activates at 00:00 the next day after the prior step is completed.
• Week-Based Delays: Activates one week later, on the same day of the week, at 00:00.
• Month-Based Delays: Activates on the same calendar date of the following month at 00:00.

Schedule Editing and Advanced Rules

• Editing Active Schedules: Toggling Advanced Scheduling allows you to modify the release date of any step. Learners who have already activated a step keep access even if you extend the delay; all other learners follow the updated schedule moving forward.
• Delaying the First Step: Use Advanced Scheduling on the first step to delay when a learner starts the entire Journey after being added to a group.
• Reordering Steps: Steps retain their original individual scheduling configurations even if moved up or down the path.
• Prior Completions: If a learner reaches a step containing a Program / Journey they have already completed elsewhere in Bridge, that step is immediately marked as complete.

How Do Journeys Appear to Learners

Understanding how Journeys display across the learner experience ensures a smooth user journey:

My Learning and Required Section

When a Journey is assigned, only the parent Journey displays in the Required section. Individual steps do not appear separately unless they were assigned independently (e.g., via a direct group assignment) or have become overdue.

If no steps are currently available due to scheduling delays, the Journey will not appear in My Learning. Learners can still locate it via search, where it shows the date on which the next step will unlock.

Completed Journeys remain visible in My Learning for reference.

Needs My Attention

Live Training sessions embedded within a Journey still surface in the learner’s Needs My Attention feed.

Overdue steps also appear in Needs My Attention.

How Due Dates Are Displayed

When an item inside a Journey has an assigned due date, that due date reflects on the top-level parent Journey in My Learning.

Best Practices for Using Journeys in Bridge 

1. New Hire Onboarding

Journeys create an experience for learners in which time-synced content is released in manageable chunks, avoiding an immediate deluge of coursework and emails that could overwhelm new hires.

Best Practices: 

• Delay the delivery of the first step of the Journey by three days after the learner is added to the new hire group.
• Schedule a checkpoint nested within a Journey as a reminder for new hires to complete the onboarding Journey.

Sample Sequence:

• Course: Welcome to Company ABC
• Program / Journey:  Let’s Get Acquainted (Executive Team, Roles, Culture)
• Live Training: New Hire Meet and Greet
• Checkpoint: Benefits Open Enrollment
• Program / Journey: Best Practices (Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Remote Work)
• Checkpoint (60-Day Delay): Confirm Onboarding Completion and Survey

2. Compliance Training

Compliance courses often require annual completion, but pairing Journeys with automatic re-enrollment logic can create conflicts because re-enrollment triggers on the completion date rather than the enrollment date.

• Best Practices:
• Name courses and Journeys with the current version year (e.g., 2026 Cybersecurity Journey).
• Do not enable standard course-level re-enrollment.
• Duplicate and update content yearly, updating the nomenclature for each annual release.
• Set specific completion due dates directly at the course or program level (e.g., complete within seven days).

Sample Sequence:

• Course: Non-Harassment in the Workplace (2026)
• Program / Journey: Cybersecurity Awareness (Phishing, Mobile, Malware)
• Courses: Active Shooter, Avoiding Bias, First Aid

3. Department Or Role Ongoing Education (Non-Linear)

Keep teams up to date on industry trends and internal initiatives without enforcing a rigid order.

Best Practices: 

• Structure the Journey in a non-linear way so anyone in the group can access the full collection of content. 
• Explore Categories if you’d prefer learners to view and enroll in a chunk of visible content at their discretion.

Sample Sequence:

1. Courses: Marketing Best Practices, Color Theory
2. Program / Journey:  Photoshop Tips and Tricks
3. Courses: Inbound Marketing

4. Leadership and Manager Training

Upskill employees for vertical growth using cohort-based, multi-touchpoint learning.

Best Practices: 

• Force sequential step progression. 
• Combine instructional programs with live cohort meetings and mandatory social learning (e.g., Teams/Slack discussion checkpoints).

Sample Sequence:

1. Program / Journey:  Leading at Company ABC
2. Live Training: Leading at Company ABC (Cohort #)
3. Checkpoint: Participate in Slack Channel [Leading-Company-ABC]
4. Program / Journey:  Conscious Leader and Performance Coaching
5. Live Training and Checkpoint: Cohort Meeting and Slack Discussion

5. Continuous Culture Development

Maintain ongoing alignment with company values using non-linear Journeys while tracking organization-wide completion percentages via Analytics.

• Sample Sequence:
  1. Program / Journey: Company North Stars (Mission, Vision, Values)
  2. Checkpoint: Career Drivers Assessment
  3. Updates: Culture Updates and ERG Overview

Journeys Technical Considerations

Smart Group Migration Behaviors

When learners move between Journeys because they change smart groups affiliated with different Journeys, you can expect the following enrollment behaviors:

• Historical Retain: Any historically completed item within a Journey remains in a completed state.
• Unenrollment Handling: If a user leaves a smart group, they are unenrolled from the associated Journey. If they were actively in progress on an item, that item moves to their "Added by You" section and is no longer required.

• Re-Enrollment Rules: If an item inside a Journey is configured for re-enrollment, the learner re-enrolls based on that specific item's logic relative to their original completion date.

Technical and Administrative Limitations

• Terminated Enrollments: Terminated enrollments are hard-deleted. Restoring a user account will not restore lost Journey enrollments.
• Data and Analytics Limits: Journeys currently do not support raw data exports/dumps, and Journey Analytics cannot be filtered or sorted by Learner Custom Fields.