Assignments Overview
An Assignment is what puts finished content in front of people: it selects the Lessons, names the Learners, sets the dates, and decides what Skyllful IQ measures, and the Assignment Type you choose changes all of that, which is why choosing it deliberately matters more than anything else on the screen.
What is an Assignment?
Publishing a Lesson does not put it in front of anybody. It makes the Lesson eligible. The Assignment is what actually delivers it: it chooses the content, names the people, sets the dates, and decides what gets measured.
Everything else in this section is a variation on those four decisions.
An Assignment holds |
Which decides |
|---|---|
| Lessons, and the modes each one offers | What the Learner works through, and how. The same Lesson can appear in two Assignments offering different modes. |
| Learners | Who receives it. People are added per Assignment, not per Learning Program. |
| Dates | When it is open, and, on some types, what each individual Learner's deadline is. |
| IQ Settings | What counts as behind, inactive, or a low pass rate for this Assignment, which is what Skyllful IQ then reports against. |
What has to be true before a Learner can open anything?
Three things, and all three at once. Most "why can't they see it" questions are one of these.
1. The Lesson is published. An Assignment can carry an unpublished Lesson; the Unpublished Lessons counter tells you how many.
2. The Assignment is inside its availability window. Before the start date or after the end date, there is nothing to open.
3. The Learner is in the Assignment. Access follows the Assignment, not the Learning Program.
What are the four Assignment Types?
The type is the most consequential choice on the Assignment screen. It changes which settings you get, and it changes what Skyllful IQ reports.
Type |
Use it when |
What the type changes |
|---|---|---|
| New Hire | People arrive continuously and each one works to their own clock. | The only type with a Duration tab: expected training durations in days, set for the Assignment, a job role, a tag, or one person. |
| Campaign | Everybody trains in the same window. | Runs on the single availability window. IQ reports pace against that shared schedule. Selected by default on a new Assignment. |
| Reference | People look things up rather than work through a course. | No completion to measure, so Duration and IQ Settings are both inactive. IQ reports views, unique Lessons viewed, and time spent. |
| JITT | The deadline belongs to a moment: a job, an incident, an expiry. | Each Learner gets a due date and time of their own, and can be given further ones over time. IQ reports completed, completed late, and not completed. |
Note: Skyllful IQ reads the type, not the name. An Assignment called "New Hire Onboarding" reports as a Campaign if Campaign is what is selected on it. When a dashboard looks wrong, check the radio before anything else.
How do you decide how many Assignments to run?
An Assignment is cheap to create and it is the unit that reporting is built on, so the question is really "what do I want to see separately?"
- One Assignment per audience you want to read separately. Two regions in one Assignment share one set of numbers; two Assignments give each its own.
- One per wave, when timing differs. Rolling intake is what New Hire is for, but a second cohort with genuinely different dates is a second Assignment, and copying makes that quick.
- Keep finished content available by copying it as Reference rather than leaving a completed Campaign in everyone's list.
Best practice: Give every Assignment a Short Title. The Assignments Dashboard shows Assignments as narrow columns headed by that short title, and when there is none it uses the initials of the title instead. A program running a dozen Assignments becomes hard to read without them.
Articles in this section
- Create an Assignment — set it up, choose the type, add the Lessons, add the Learners.
- Edit an Assignment — change anything on it, including the fast forward rule for a single Lesson.
- Copy an Assignment — run the same training again, or turn a finished rollout into reference material.
- Archive an Assignment — remove one, and what to do instead when it only needs to stop.
- Set Expected Training Duration for a New Hire Assignment — how long each Learner is expected to take.
- Add a Lesson to an Assignment from Lesson Builder — put a Lesson into one or more Assignments as you finish building it.
- Read the Assignments Dashboard — every Assignment against every Learner, and who is behind.
- Share an Assignment or Lesson with a Link or QR Code — put content one tap away.
- Review an Assignment as a Learner Sees It — check the whole curriculum the way it will be received.
FAQ
Can the same Lesson be in more than one Assignment?
Yes, and in different modes in each. The modes are chosen per Assignment, on the Lesson's row.
Does publishing a Lesson make it available to Learners?
No. Publishing makes it eligible. An Assignment decides who receives it and when.
Can I change an Assignment's type after it exists?
Yes, but do it deliberately. The type decides what Skyllful IQ reports, so changing it changes the shape of the reporting for that Assignment.
Which type should I use for a one-time rollout?
Campaign. Everyone shares the availability window, and IQ reports pace against it.
Where do I see how it is going?
The Assignments Dashboard for the across-the-board view of who is behind, and Skyllful IQ for pace, attempts, and everything underneath the numbers.
Skyllful Knowledge Base | Administrators