How Does Assignment and Progress Tracking Work?

How Does Assignment and Progress Tracking Work in Empath?

Summary

Empath tracks learner progress only for content that has been formally assigned. Your users can still open and view unassigned courses or lessons, but their time and completion will not be recorded. Once something is assigned, Empath uses a combination of timers and content type logic to track how far a learner has progressed and to calculate course and pathway percentages. This article explains how assignment works, how “What’s Next” is prioritized, and how progress is calculated for videos, text lessons, iframes, and knowledge checks.

What Learners See on “What’s Next”

The “What’s Next” area on a normal member’s home screen shows only items assigned to them.

Priority order:

Assignments with due dates
- Anything with a due date appears first.
- Sooner due dates are shown before later ones.
In progress items
- Courses, lessons, or pathways the learner has already started.
- Partially completed content appears ahead of not-yet-started content.
Content types that appear here
- Pathways
- Courses
- Lessons

What does not appear:

Livestreams currently do not appear in the “What’s Next” strip.

All of this is based on assigned items; unassigned material is not included.

Assignments Are Required for Progress Tracking

Empath only tracks progress on content that has been formally assigned.

Key points:

If a learner opens a course they are not assigned, they can still view the content, but:
- Their progress will not be tracked.
- Their completion will not appear in reporting.
When a learner opens an unassigned course:
- They see a message explaining that progress will not be tracked unless they are assigned.
- They can choose to request assignment, which sends a notification to all Managers in the tenant.

This assignment requirement applies to:

Pathways
Courses
Lessons
Knowledge checks
Most other tracked learning objects

At this time, Empath does not track “free browsing” progress for unassigned content.

How Assignment Cascades: Pathways, Courses, and Lessons

When you assign a pathway:

The pathway is assigned to the learner.
Empath also assigns the courses inside that pathway.
For each course, Empath assigns:
- Lessons
- Knowledge checks
- Any associated livestream objects

Because this is layered logic, it is possible for the assignment chain to occasionally miss something.

If you see behavior like:

A learner cannot submit a quiz
A lesson does not appear as assigned
Progress is not recording correctly for one user

Try this:

Go to Members.
Find the specific user.
Find the course in question.
Click the three-dot menu and choose Update assignment.

Update assignment forces Empath to:

Re-check the course
Assign any lesson or quiz that is missing
Fix common assignment gaps caused by earlier changes or content updates

How Progress Is Tracked and Calculated

Empath uses a “heartbeat” system to track progress:

About every few seconds, the learner’s current position or time on a lesson is recorded.
Each lesson’s progress feeds into the course progress calculation.
Course progress then rolls up into pathway progress.

Videos

For video-based lessons:

Total time is based on the length of the video.
As the learner watches, their position is recorded and converted into a percentage.

Text and Iframe Lessons

For text or iframe lessons (for example, embedded guides or external pages):

Empath cannot “see” an exact position within the external content.
Instead, Empath uses:
- Word/character count
- Estimated reading time
- Time spent on the page, plus basic scrolling behavior
The system:
- Tracks whether the learner is still on that page
- Uses time-on-page up to a reasonable limit
- Requires scrolling on longer lessons to avoid “idle on top of the page” counting as completion

Lessons With Both Video and Text

When a lesson contains both a video and text:

Empath does not add video time and reading time together.
The lesson duration is based primarily on the video length.
The text still matters for learning, but the progress estimate uses the video duration as the main time value.

How Knowledge Checks and Quizzes Work

Knowledge checks and quizzes follow the same core rule: they must be assigned.

If a user is not assigned to a course or quiz, they will not see the knowledge check as part of an assignment and it will not track for them.
When they are assigned and complete the knowledge check:
- Empath records their score percentage.
- Retakes and multiple attempts are recorded at the course level for that learner.

Current limitations:

Managers can see that a user completed a quiz and what percentage they achieved.
Managers cannot yet see exactly which questions were missed; if they click into the quiz, they will see their own view, not the user’s detailed answer history.
Deeper question-level reporting is planned for future improvements.

What Happens If a User Opens Unassigned Content

If a standard member opens a course they are not assigned:

They are warned that progress will not be tracked without assignment.
They can still:
- Watch videos
- Read text
- Download attachments (downloads are not tracked)
They can click Request assignment, which notifies all Managers to review and assign if appropriate.

This is an intentional design choice so you can:

Let users browse content
Still ensure your core reporting remains based on formal assignments

Common Troubleshooting Scenarios

If you see issues like:

A user’s progress not matching what they report
A quiz not submitting
A specific lesson not showing as assigned

Check the following:

Confirm the user is assigned to:
- The pathway (if used)
- The course
- The specific lesson or quiz (use Update assignment from the Members screen).
Verify that the user is not only browsing unassigned content.
Remember that:
- Only assigned content is tracked
- Progress can appear inconsistent if assignment chains were incomplete before an update

If problems persist after updating assignments, please contact Empath Support with:

User name
Course name
The specific lesson or quiz in question