With Quick Assignments, an administrator needs to select a specific list of learners, the learning activity/activities, and a specific due date. This is best used for one-time training and if you want all learners to have the same due date. Some examples include annual employee compliance training or new student orientation.

Create a Quick Assignment

1. Click Assignments in the left navigation to see the Manage Assignments page
2. If there is more than one department or user type in your Foundry account, make sure to first select the appropriate audience tab
   
3. Click Create Assignment in the top right corner of the screen
4. Complete the following fields

* = Different for Automated Assignments

Automated Assignments offer more flexibility since the way learners are added to the assignment is based off learner criteria, such as Custom Categories and Labels, Locations, and previously completed learning activities. Every night, Foundry will search through the users in your account and pull in all learners who fit the set criteria.

Note: Invitations are sent based on a queue and may not all be sent instantly when the assignment is created. We recommend checking back the next day after the system has fully processed all learners. If learners were not assigned due to an error, they will appear in the Assignment Settings with the status “Error.”

This is best used for assignments need to be completed on a rolling basis without a specific due date. Some examples include courses for sanctions, ongoing new hire training, and assigning post-course surveys (Part 2).

Create an Automated Assignment

1. Click Assignments in the left navigation to see the Manage Assignments page
2. If there is more than one department or user type in your Foundry account, make sure to first select the appropriate audience tab
   
3. Click Create Assignment in the top right corner of the screen
4. Click Create Automated Assignment and confirm
5. Complete the following fields

* = Different for Quick Assignments

When creating assignments, using Custom Categories and Labels is a great tool to help organize learners and ensure the right populations are receiving the right content. There are some nuances and considerations to understand when using these and other filters when creating assignments which are outlined below.

And vs. Or Logic

If you are using any of the filters, understanding the logic behind the scenes is crucial to know who will receive an assignment or not.

• If 2 Labels are selected within the same Category, then OR logic applies.
• If 2 Labels are selected across 2 Categories, Locations, and Roles, then AND logic applies.
• For example, in this case learners who have both Gryffindor and Gryffindor Captain Labels will receive this assignment. Additionally, learners who have both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Captain Labels will receive this assignment.

“Must have already complete all of…”

This filter looks at the historical records of users and excludes those who have completed the selected learning activity at any point in the past. If you decide to use the intersession, then you can specify the number of days after completion when the new assignment goes out.

In the example below, learners who completed AlcoholEdu for College: Primary will receive this assignment 45 days later. This is how we suggest creating Part 2 Assignments.

“Must have never before been assigned any of…”

Foundry looks at previous assignments and whether or not the selected learning activity is currently assigned to a learner. The system will exclude any learner that has an active assignment with the selected learning activity, regardless of the learner’s participation status. If the selected course in this filter was previously “Deactivated” or “Closed” for a learner, that learner will be eligible to receive this course again.

For example, when Bridges | Taking Action is selected for this filter, Foundry will search for all users who do not have an active assignment with that course.

• If a user has never been assigned Bridges | Taking Action, then they are eligible for this assignment.
• If a user was assigned Bridges | Taking Action in the past and the assignment was deactivated or closed, then they are eligible for this assignment.
• If a user was assigned Bridges | Taking Action in the past and the assignment is still active, then the learner will not be eligible for this assignment. An active assignment has the status
  • This will happen regardless of the learner’s progress (can be Not Started, In Progress, Complete, or Past Due).

Prevent Duplicate Assignments

There are times when learners may need to take the same course more than once during their tenure at your organization. The purpose of this section is to explain a few training situations and the recommended steps to set up an assignment correctly.

In 2020, we made several improvements to how Foundry manages and categorizes assignments giving administrators more control over who receives what content. These new features are particularly relevant when it comes to retraining learners on the same content.

If you are interested in learning more about the new assignment logic, you can reach out to Customer Support to turn it on for your account.

Using Quick Assignments to Retrain

If you want to use a Quick Assignment to retrain learners, then we recommend de-selecting the box for “Prevent Duplicate Assignments” in the Advanced Settings menu. This will ensure all learners you picked to receive the training will be included in the assignment.

Using Automated Assignments to Retrain

If you want to retrain learners using Automated Assignments, we first recommend ensuring you understand what each of the filters do and that your Custom Labels are up to date (see above). This way, when you set the “Auto-Selection Criteria” you can understand who is receiving the invitations.

To avoid any confusion or the chance that learners may be excluded from an assignment, we also strongly recommend deactivating any old assignments that are now past due. Not only does this clean up your Foundry account, but it also allows the Foundry filters to operate as expected. In particular, pay attention to any assignments with the same learning activities and the same learners as the new assignment you want to create.