Incompatibility with softcourse course format

[SYoung3000]

Subject of the issue/enhancement/features

When using the pulse plugin alongside softcourse format, an error is thrown when trying to save the activity settings.. It appears the plugins interact poorly. As I am unsure where the error resides, I've raised to both parties on their git.

Steps to reproduce

Create a course, set the course to softcourse. Add a Pulse activity. An error will be thrown.

The same error can also be triggered by setting another format, for example topics, then adding a pulse activity, and then switching the course format to softcourse.

Expected behaviour

the pulse activity should be added to the course

Actual behaviour

The following error is thrown

Stack trace:
line 157 of /course/format/softcourse/classes/output/courseformat/content/section.php: Error thrown
line 161 of /course/format/classes/output/local/content.php: call to format_softcourse\output\courseformat\content\section->export_for_template()
line 86 of /course/format/classes/output/local/content.php: call to core_courseformat\output\local\content->export_sections()
line 101 of /course/format/softcourse/classes/output/renderer.php: call to core_courseformat\output\local\content->export_for_template()
line 104 of /course/format/classes/output/section_renderer.php: call to format_softcourse\output\renderer->render_content()
line 49 of /course/format/softcourse/format.php: call to core_courseformat\output\section_renderer->render()
line 276 of /course/view.php: call to require()

[SYoung3000]

softcourse developers have advised they think this is on their side.