# Gates
When you create your learning design you can determine stop points or gates that will allow you to control how the student advanced within your lessson.
For instance, if you are planning to run a synchronous lessons (all the students in the lesson at the same time), then you can use gates to ensure that students start a particular part of the lesson at the same time.
Gates have to states: closed: or open: and as a teacher in the lesson you can decide to open and close these.
Now, there are different types of gates depending on what might trigger the gate (time, event or condition) to open or close them.
## Gate Types
These Gates or stop points halt the progress of students through a lesson, until certain outcomes, time or other condition is achieved.
There are several types of gates:
* [**Permission Gates**](/lams/tools/gates.md#permission-gates) require a teacher during the lesson to manually open the gate before students can pass continue.
* [**Synchronise Gates**](/lams/tools/gates.md#synchronise-gates) require all learners actively participating in the lesson to reach the gate before it opens automatically.
* [**Scheduled Gates**](/lams/tools/gates.md#scheduled-gates) open at a specified date and time.
* [**Condition Gates**](/lams/tools/gates.md#condition-gates) allow a gate to open based on the student's outputs of a previous activity.
* [**Password Gates**](/lams/tools/gates.md#password-gates), allows teachers to setup a password that only if students enter it correctly, they can continue with the lesson. Additionally, password can be generated automatically by LAMS at seconds intervals.
## Creating Gates
You can create Gates from the [**Flow** menu](/lams/getting-started/authoring-designs.md#design-and-management-options):
* Click the **Flow** Menu, then select **Gate.**
* Click on the canvas to place the Gate in the design.
* Create transition lines to and from the Gate.
Gates properties and type options can be edited by using the [Properties Inspector](/lams/getting-started/authoring-designs.md#property-inspector).
Gates' properties
## Permission Gates
As the name suggests, permission gates let you open or close access whenever you want, allowing you to control how students move from one activity to the next.
When you **add a Permission Gate** to your lesson, you can **configure the following properties**
* **Title**: this is the name of the gate shown to students.\
\
Use a **clear and meaningful title** to indicate what students are waiting for, for example:
* *“Waiting for instructor to continue”*
* *“Next stage release”*
* **Description**: this text provides additional instructions or context for students while they are waiting at the gate.\
\
You can use this space to:
* Explain what will happen next
* Let students know how long they might wait
* Provide instructions (e.g. “Please wait for further guidance from your lecturer”)
* **Stop students at preceding activity?**
When you enable this option, students will not proceed to the gate itself. Instead, they will be held at the previous activity until you open the gate.
**Important behaviour:**
* Students **will not see the gate Title or Description**
* The gate becomes **invisible to students**
* Students remain on the previous activity until you allow them to continue
This option is useful when you want to:
* Keep students focused on the current activity
* Prevent premature progression
* Control the exact pacing of the lesson without revealing upcoming steps
While the gate is closed and the option to "*Stop students at the preceding activity"* is not ON, **students will be stopped at the gate activity** with a screen as follows:
### Open Permission Gates manually
Teachers can open the gates in monitor
{% embed url="" %}
### Close Gates
Once a gate it is open, the teacher can also close it, preventing students from continue advancing in the lesson.
## Synchronise Gates
Synchronise gates requires **all the students in the lesson to have reached the gate in order to open** automatically. This means that the gate will not open by itself until the last student in the lesson reach the gate.
The rationale behind this gate is for activities in which all students have to commence at once. So in order to ensure that this occurs, you can use the Synchronise gates.
The Synchronise gate will distinguish between students who are **assigned** to the lesson, and students who are **active** in the lesson. This means that if there are learners who have not yet started the lesson, the gate will open for the **active learners**, rather than waiting for the late students to join.
Also, a Sync gate now requires **at least two students** to be waiting before it opens. This means a Sync gate in a lesson available to only 1 student will need a teacher to manually open the gate. But then again, a sync gate in a lesson for 1 doesn't make sense.
And of course, you can always overwrite any synch gate and open/close them just as you do [Permission gates](/lams/tools/gates.md#permission-gates)
Synchronise gate properties
## Scheduled Gates
Scheduled gates allow you to use time to open a gate.
When creating a **scheduled gate** in Authoring, you can decide when the gate should be opened **from the moment you create the lesson** or **alternatively, from the moment the student finished the preceding activity**.
In its Property inspector, you can set up the days, hours and minutes to open the gate.
If the option **"Since student finished previous activity?"** is **not checked**, then the time will elapse from the moment the lesson is created.
For instance, you can specify that a gate should open 2 days and 4 hours and 30 minutes after the lesson was created.
While the gate is closed and the option to "*Stop students at the preceding activity"* is not ON, **students will be stopped at the gate activity** with a screen as follows:
### Reschedule a scheduled gate
However, if you need a gate that open on a specific date, once you create the lesson you are able to set a specific date for the gate to open.
## Condition Gates
This type of gate allows you to setup a condition for the gate to open only if students have fulfil the condition.
In a way, you are setting up a condition for students to *achieve individually* before they can continue to the rest of the lesson.
### Authoring condition gates
As condition gates open automatically when a condition is met, there's no need for you to manually open the gates.
However, you can still overrule and open the gate for an individual or the whole class manually even if they don't meet the passing condition.
## Password Gates
Password gates allow you to set up a password that the students must enter correctly to get through the gate and continue with the lesson.
One typical case that this type of gate is used for is -for instance, if you only want people that are in your classroom to continue. In that case, the teacher can write the password in the whiteboard and all the students in lesson will enter it and continue with their lesson. Students that cannot see the whiteboard (and aren't present in the classroom), wont' be able to continue.
When students get to the gate, they are prompted to enter the password. Only if they enter it correctly, they will be able to continue.
If a student is struggling for some reason, you can always overwrite and allow him/her to continue.
And of course, you can always overwrite any gate and open/close them just as you do [Permission gates](/lams/tools/gates.md#permission-gates).
#### Dynamic Passwords
{% hint style="success" %}
**New feature**
{% endhint %}
Dynamic Password Gates are an enhanced version of standard Password Gates. Instead of using a fixed password set by the teacher, LAMS automatically generates a password that changes at regular, configurable time intervals.
Dynamic password setup
This feature is particularly useful for ensuring real-time presence in a physical or synchronous teaching environment. For example, during a face-to-face session, the teacher can display the dynamically changing password on a screen or whiteboard. Only students who are present and actively following the session will be able to enter the correct password before it changes and proceed with the lesson.
When students reach a Dynamic Password Gate, they are prompted to enter the current password. If the password is entered correctly within the active time window, they are allowed to continue. If the password changes before they enter it, they must use the updated password.
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