Requiring students to move thru module contents in sequential order - but how can I differentiate for an individual student?

[AngelaMRary]

As we near the end of the year our schedule gets super weird. I might see my 2nd period once in a week for 84 minutes, and see my 3rd period 3x/week for 84 minutes. I decided to take some inspiration from the "flipped classroom" and let each student work at their own pace. It's not a truly "flipped" class as all work is done in the room (no homework) but I've stopped delivering direct instruction to the whole class and instead recorded myself giving instruction. 

To make this work I set the module so students must work through it in sequential order. Most tasks have a requirement like "score 5 out of 6" or they have to submit before they can move on. If one class meets fewer times that week, they just start where they left off. It's working great so far. Many of my really bright students are finishing tasks as quickly as I can assign them, so I'm creating a lot of content to keep them busy and extend their learning.

Here's the problem. Students who work slowly like my multilingual learners or students with frequent absences fall behind. They can still work sequentially at their own pace to catch up, but I need a way to remove some of the less necessary assignments so they can concentrate on essential tasks. I might tell them to skip a video and move on to a graded assignment, but the way the module is set up they can't skip anything. I don't want to remove the requirements for all students, just a select few. How can I do this? Is there a way I can manually move them forward past a required assignment, or exempt them?

[JeffCampbell]

You might look into the concept of Mastery Paths. This would require some setup, but you could tailor it for what you want to do. Essentially, you would make two different modules, defined by a criteria you set. Traditionally, this might be done by administering a pre-assessment. Their score then determines which path they are assigned. I have not explored this concept enough to know if you could just assign students a different path, but it might be something to look into.

One advantage of this is that you could easily give the same assignments, but give the lower group a modified form (less questions, easier questions, etc) that better fits their level of understanding. This way the same number of assignments are given in both groups.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-use-Mastery-Paths-in-course-modules/ta-...

[AngelaMRary]

I thought about that and it won't work. Setting a mastery path at the start would require me to be psychic. How can I predict with a pre-test who will be absent and miss a lot of school days? I want to be able to move these students through the requirements, skipping some of the "fluff." And some of my ML students and struggling readers are very bright. They might score highly on the pre-assessment, but it will take them 1 hour just to complete a pre-assessment that other students finish in 5 minutes. I need to remove some requirements for them so that they have a shot at getting to the end of the module eventually. But I don't want to pare the module down to the "bare basics" for everyone, as my early finishers will finish the module weeks early and have nothing to do. 

Other ideas? I really just want a way to manually advance students past a module requirement, or manually exempt them.

[JeffCampbell]

That makes sense. It sounds like that might not be the path to pursue.