Notes are the reading-and-reference activities in CodeHS courses — the pages that explain a concept before students practice it. Most Notes are something a student simply reads. Some newer Notes are interactive: alongside the reading, they include things to do on the page — tabs to explore, quick check-in questions, a short reflection, or a small simulation.
This article covers what Notes activities are, how the newer interactive ones can require students to complete their activities before continuing, and how to turn that requirement off for your sections.
Two kinds of Notes
In your course, Notes activities all look alike — same icon, same place in the lesson. The difference is under the hood:
Standard Notes — a reading page. The student reads it and moves on.
Interactive Notes — a reading page that also includes activities built into it. These are the ones that can require completion (see below).
Activity completion on Interactive Notes
When an Interactive Notes assignment uses activity completion, a student has to actually work through the activities on the page before the assignment is marked done. This keeps students from clicking straight past the reading, and it gives you a record of what each student did.
What students see
The assignment is not marked complete just for opening it.
The Continue button starts disabled, with a live status that reads "0 of N activities complete."
Small "Activity" callouts appear above each thing the student needs to do. Each one turns green as the student finishes it.
As the student works, the status counts up ("2 of 4 activities complete"). When everything is done it reads "All N activities complete!", the assignment is marked complete, and Continue unlocks.
Progress saves as the student goes, so refreshing or returning later keeps their completed activities checked off. There is no code to enter and nothing for you to hand out — the page unlocks on its own once the work is done.
Before completion:
After completion:
What counts as "done"
The activities are specific to each page — the notes page itself defines what a student has to finish, so what "done" means changes from one Interactive Notes assignment to the next. Depending on how the page is built, the activities can include any mix of:
Exploring the material: for example, opening every tab in a group, or reading to the bottom of the page.
Answering check-in questions correctly: students can retry a question until they get it right.
Writing a short response: a minimum number of words in a text box. (Only the word count is recorded; CodeHS does not store what the student typed for this check.)
Working through a built-in activity: using an interactive tool on the page, such as a scenario builder, a sortable, or a short simulation, and finishing the steps it asks for.
Because the activities live in the page, most Interactive Notes ask for real, subject-specific work — not just scrolling. Two students on the same assignment see the same activities.
A few things worth knowing:
It's an engagement check, not a proctor. The gate makes sure honest students actually engage with the material and gives you an audit trail. It is not designed to stop a student who is determined to game it.
Time spent is recorded the same way it is for coding assignments, so these Notes show up in your usual time-on-task data.
You and other teachers are never gated. Previews and the teacher view of a Notes item always behave normally — completion only applies to a student working on their own assignment.
Turning activity completion off for your course
Activity completion is on by default wherever an Interactive Notes page is built to use it. You can turn it off for your own sections of a course from Course Settings — this does not affect any other teachers' classes.
Go to the course from My Courses.
Open Course Settings for that course.
Find the Require Activity Completion on Interactive Notes setting.
Switch it off.
With the setting off, Interactive Notes assignments in your sections of that course behave like standard Notes: students can read them and continue without completing the tracked activities.
The setting is per course, so if you teach more than one course, repeat these steps for each one where you want it off. You can switch it back on at any time. Standard Notes with no activities aren't affected either way — there's nothing to complete on them.
Still have questions? Contact our team at support@codehs.com to learn more!