Set IQ Thresholds for an Assignment
Every counter and every yellow or red highlight in Skyllful IQ comes from a threshold set on the Assignment itself, and this article covers where those thresholds live, which dashboard figure each one drives, and how to choose numbers that make the dashboard useful.
Why does IQ flag one Learner and not another?
Every counter on the Skyllful IQ dashboard, and every yellow or red highlight on it, comes from a threshold set on the Assignment itself. IQ does not apply a fixed company standard. It applies the numbers configured on the Assignment you are looking at.
This is why the same behaviour can be reported differently in two places. A Learner who has not trained for ten days counts as Inactive on an Assignment where the inactivity threshold is seven days, and does not count on an Assignment where it is fourteen. Neither dashboard is wrong. They were told to watch for different things.
Those numbers live on the IQ Settings tab of the Assignment, and setting them deliberately is what turns the dashboard from a wall of figures into a short list of Learners who need attention.
Where do you set IQ thresholds?
In Skyllful Studio, open the Learning Program, open the Assignment, then click the IQ Settings tab. The panel describes its own job: it controls when the data in IQ from this Assignment highlights yellow or red.
Two things are worth knowing before you go looking for the tab.
- IQ Settings is available on every Assignment Type except Reference. A Reference Assignment reports what is being used rather than whether Learners are keeping pace, so it has no pace thresholds to set.
- You can set thresholds before the Assignment exists. On a new Assignment the Lessons and IQ Settings tabs are both active before you click Create, while Learners, Duration and Automations stay disabled until the Assignment is saved.
On a saved Assignment, click Update to apply your changes, and View in IQ at the bottom of the screen to open that Assignment's dashboard and see the effect.
How do the highlight columns work?
Each threshold has a YELLOW HIGHLIGHT column and a RED HIGHLIGHT column. Enter the point at which the figure should take that colour on the dashboard. Yellow is the early warning and red is the more serious one, so the red value is normally the further from acceptable of the two.
Note: A field set to 0 switches that colour off for that threshold. It does not mean zero tolerance. If you want a figure counted but never coloured red, leave its red field at 0.
A second group of settings adds a third column, SHOW IN IQ. These cover behaviour inside the lesson modes, and the extra column lets a Learner appear on the dashboard without being coloured at all. Set SHOW IN IQ further out than YELLOW HIGHLIGHT and you get a visible list of Learners who are drifting before anything turns a colour.
Which thresholds drive the Overview lens?
Six settings feed the top of the dashboard: the Assignment's schedule status, and five of the counters on the Overview lens.
Setting |
What the field asks for |
Where the result appears |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment Status | Minimum Days Off Schedule to Highlight Assignment Status (Days) | The schedule status band at the top of the dashboard |
| Inactive Learners | Minimum Days between Training to Consider a Learner Inactive (Days) | The Inactive Learners counter |
| Off Pace Learners | Percent Behind to Consider a Learner Off Pace (%) | The Off Pace Learners counter |
| Learners With Low Pass Rates | The pass rate at or below which a Learner is counted (%) | The Learners With Low Pass Rates counter |
| Unresponsive Learners | Minimum Days after Sending Corrective Message (Days) | The Unresponsive Learners counter |
| Brick Wall Lessons | Percent over the Estimated Time to Consider a Lesson Longer-than-expected (%) | The Longer-Than-Expected Lessons counter |
Note: Only a Campaign reports a schedule status, because only a Campaign has one end date shared by every Learner. The Assignment Status threshold has no effect on the other Assignment Types.
Which thresholds drive the Curriculum lens?
The Curriculum lens has four counters and all four are configured here. One sits with the settings above. The other three sit in the group carrying the SHOW IN IQ column, because they describe how a Learner is working through a lesson mode rather than whether they are keeping up.
Setting |
What the field asks for |
Curriculum counter |
|---|---|---|
| High Fail Rate Knowledge Checks | Minimum Percent of Failed Knowledge Check (%) | High Fail Rate Knowledge Checks |
| High Rate of Incorrect Actions on Practice | Minimum Percent of Incorrect Actions (%) | High Rate Of Incorrect Actions on Practices |
| "Sped Through" Walkthroughs | Minimum Difference (in %) Between Actual and Estimated (%) | "Sped Through" Walkthroughs |
| "Fast Forwarded" Videos | Minimum Percent of a Video Being Fast Forwarded (%) | "Fast Forwarded" Videos |
Note: The explanatory sentence beneath each Curriculum counter in IQ is generated from these settings, so it always states the threshold actually in force for that Assignment. When you are reading a Curriculum table and want to know what counts as a high fail rate, that sentence is the answer. There is no fixed product figure to look up.
Best practice: Fast forwarding is behaviour you can measure or prevent. The "Fast Forwarded" Videos threshold tells you it is happening. The Disable Fast Forward for Videos and Talkthroughs control on each Lesson row of the Assignment stops it. Use the threshold when you want to understand the behaviour and the control when you want to end it.
Why is there a Brick Wall Lessons setting when the dashboard says Longer-Than-Expected Lessons?
They are one thing under two names. Brick Wall Lessons is the label on the IQ Settings tab. Longer-Than-Expected Lessons is the counter it drives on the Overview lens. The setting asks how far over a Lesson's estimated time Learners have to go before that Lesson is counted.
This is the one place in IQ where the setting and the figure it produces do not share a name, so it is worth knowing before you go hunting for a Longer-Than-Expected setting that does not exist.
How should you choose your numbers?
Set thresholds against how this particular training is run rather than against a general standard. The same number rarely suits two Assignments.
- Inactivity depends on cadence. An Assignment worked daily through an onboarding week and one worked in occasional shifts need very different inactivity windows.
- Off pace depends on length. A percentage behind means one thing across four Lessons and something quite different across forty.
- Unresponsiveness depends on your own follow-up rhythm. Set the window longer than the gap you normally leave before chasing a Learner, or the counter fills with Learners who have not really had a chance to reply.
- Start wider than feels right, then tighten. Thresholds set too tight put most of the Assignment in red on the first day, and a dashboard where everything is red gives you nowhere to start.
Note: Thresholds belong to the Assignment they are set on. Changing them on one Assignment does not affect any other Assignment, including ones built from the same Lessons.
FAQ
My Assignment has no IQ Settings tab. Why? It is a Reference Assignment. That type reports use rather than pace, so it has no thresholds to set.
What does 0 mean in a threshold field? It switches that colour off for that threshold. A red field set to 0 means nothing on that measure will ever be coloured red.
Nothing on my dashboard is highlighted. Is it broken? Check the thresholds first. Fields left at 0 produce no highlighting, so a dashboard with everything at 0 reports figures without ever colouring them.
What is the difference between Show In IQ and Yellow Highlight? Show In IQ decides when a Learner appears on the dashboard at all for that measure. Yellow Highlight decides when the figure takes a colour. Setting Show In IQ further out gives you an early, uncoloured list.
Why is the same Learner Off Pace on one Assignment and not on another? The two Assignments have different Off Pace thresholds. The Learner has not changed, the measurement has.
Do these settings change anything the Learner sees? No. They control how this Assignment's data is reported and highlighted in Skyllful IQ.
Can I change thresholds after Learners have started working? Yes. Enter the new values and click Update.
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