Understanding Course Ready: What It Measures and What It Doesn’t
TL;DR
Course Ready helps determine whether a learner can realistically engage with online delivery — device access, connectivity, basic navigation, and confidence using an LMS.
It does not assess digital literacy or capability, and it is not intended to inform the LLND digital component under the Standards for RTOs 2025.
It remains useful for short, simple courses with minimal digital requirements, or for RTOs wanting to check online participation before enrolment.
What Course Ready Was Designed to Do
Course Ready was originally introduced to address a simple but important need:
Can this learner participate in online learning?
During the rapid shift to online delivery around 2015–2020 — especially during COVID — many learners were being enrolled without any understanding of whether they could:
- access a device
- connect to the internet reliably
- navigate an online platform
- submit tasks or assessments online
- manage basic digital interactions without frustration
This created challenges for both learners and RTOs.
Course Ready was designed to support RTOs by providing a quick, clear way to identify whether a learner had the minimum practical conditions needed to engage in online components of their training.
What Course Ready Actually Measures
Course Ready focuses on practical online access and participation, not competence or capability.
It looks at things like:
1. Access to appropriate technology
- Laptop, desktop, tablet
- Ability to install or use required software
2. Internet connectivity
- Whether the learner has a stable connection
3. Basic digital interactions
- Logging in
- Navigating learning platforms
- Opening documents
- Uploading documents
4. Confidence and readiness
- Whether the learner feels comfortable participating online
None of these are complete digital competency measures.
They are participation checks, not literacy checks.
Think of Course Ready as the “gateway test” to online learning — not an assessment of skills.
What Course Ready Does NOT Measure
It’s important, especially under the outcome-based Standards for RTOs 2025, to be very clear about what Course Ready is not designed to capture.
1. It does not assess digital literacy.
It does not measure the learner’s skills against DigComp or any other capability framework.
2. It does not assess digital competence relevant to a training product.
Course Ready cannot check whether a learner can perform the digital tasks required by the course content.
3. It does not consider digital expectations implied by industry or job-role context.
If a qualification requires digital reporting, using apps, managing compliance content, or working in online teams, Course Ready does not assess a learner’s ability to do those things.
4. It does not provide support planning or skill-building pathways for complete digital literacy.
Course Ready does not recommend remediation, supports, or interventions for digital literacy mapped to DigComp.
5. It does not completely address the digital literacy element of LLND.
Under the Standards for RTOs 2025, digital literacy forms part of the learner’s LLND considerations — but Course Ready was not built for that purpose.
6. It does not replace the need to consider the digital demands of the training product.
RTOs still need to ensure the learner can succeed in the training. Course Ready alone cannot demonstrate this.
Where Course Ready Fits Under the 2025 Standards
Because the Standards are outcomes-based, RTOs may use any method that demonstrates how they considered LLND and learner suitability.
Course Ready continues to be useful in the following contexts:
1. Short course delivery
Especially single-unit courses with limited digital requirements, such as:
- Food safety
- First aid theory components
- Short compliance units
- Micro-credentials
2. Courses delivered offline
Where only basic online components are required (reading an email).
3. Quick pre-enrolment checks for online access
Where the question is:
“Will this learner be able to access the course content and complete online tasks?”
In these situations, Course Ready can help an RTO show they considered digital access, even though digital literacy is addressed elsewhere (if needed).
Why Course Ready Alone Is Not Sufficient for Digital Literacy Considerations
Digital literacy in the Standards for RTOs 2025 is about:
- whether the learner has the skills needed by the training product,
- how the learner can be supported,
- and whether the learner can participate in decision-making about enrolment.
These outcomes require more than checking login ability or device access.
Course Ready supports RTOs in understanding a different part of the learner experience — the practical logistics of online delivery — and can be used alongside other approaches (including Digital Robot) to meet different parts of the overall LLND considerations.
How Course Ready and Digital Robot Work Together
These tools are designed to support different points of the learner journey.
Course Ready supports:
- online delivery suitability
- pre-enrolment logistics
- identifying access barriers
- ensuring the learner can participate online
Digital Robot supports:
- digital literacy considerations
- comparing the learner’s skills to the training product
- identifying support needs
- helping the learner make an informed decision
- documenting reasoning for enrolment decisions
Where Course Ready ends, Digital Robot begins.
They complement each other — but neither replaces the other.
In Summary
- Course Ready focuses on online access and participation, not digital literacy.
- It remains useful for short courses and training with minimal digital skill requirements.
- It does not assess capability, competence, or the digital demands of a training product.
- It does not address the digital literacy component of LLND.
- It can be used alongside Digital Profiler to help RTOs meet different parts of the outcomes required by the Standards for RTOs 2025.