In Schoox, you can set rules for your courses and curricula to be automatically assigned to users. You can create these rules per job position or for all jobs, and narrow it down with units or above units. You can even combine criteria to create more advanced assignment rules to meet your training needs, Combining (Un)Assignment Rules goes into more detail about this.
The process is similar whether you are creating a rule for a course, or for a curriculum.
How to Get There
To set up an assignment rule from within a course or curriculum, go to the management screen of the desired training.
In the left menu, select Students -> Assignment. Then select Advanced Assignment on the top.
You can also set up a rule through the Administration panel. Select Online Training -> Assign, then select the courses or curricula (learning paths), and select Advanced Assignment in the top.
Let's take a closer look at different scenarios of the advanced assignment.
Assign Based on Job and Location
Using Advanced Assignment, you can assign a course to one or more groups of people based on their job, and their unit or above unit. You can then create an assignment rule to assign the course to future employees who fit those same criteria automatically.
How do we do this? It is easier than it looks!
Under Advanced Assignment, select the specific job(s) to which this assignment is associated.
Then, select the desired Above Units and Units in their respective columns, filtering using the drop-down menus, if needed. If you want to select users that are directly associated with an above unit, you need to select the above unit required. If you want to select users associated directly with the unit, you need to select the unit.
Now, logic does come into play here. The academy members selected are everyone who has the selected job and has the selected above unit or unit.
Click for Examples
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Example: Let's say the screenshot above has All Jobs selected under job. This means it selects all users, with or without a job. It also has all Above Units selected, so it will assign it to everyone who has an above unit assigned - even if they don't have a job assigned. It has a few Units assigned. Because All Jobs includes Without Job, it will select every user in these units. Logic: All users with or without a job and with or without a job in any above unit or with or without a job in the select units. Result: All users with or without a job in all above units, or the selected units. Example 2: Let's say the screenshot above has Unit Manager selected under job. This mean it will select all users whose job is Unit Manager. It also has all Above Units selected, so it will assign it to everyone who has Unit Manager as their job, connected to any above unit combination. It has a few Units assigned. Because a job is selected, users without a job don't get selected. You need an above unit or a unit to have a job assigned to you, so all Unit Managers whose job is connected to the selected units will be selected. Logic: All users with Unit Manager as their job and the job is connected to any above unit or the select units. Result: All users with Unit Manager as their job in any Above Unit and all users with Unit Manager as their job in the selected units. Example 3: Let's say the screenshot above has Unit Manager selected under job. This mean it will select all users whose job is Unit Manager. Now pretend that the only Above Unit selected is Greece. No other above units are selected. It will select all Unit Managers where their job as an Unit Manager is connected to Greece as an Above Unit. It has a few Units assigned. Any user with Unit Manager as their job, connected to that unit, will be selected - whether they have Greece as an above unit or not. Logic: All users with Unit Manager as their job and with Greece as their above unit or any of the selected units. Result: All users with Unit Manager as their job, connected to Greece, and all users with Unit Manager as their job connected to the selected units. Jobs are always tied to an above unit or a unit. The selected above units and units only include the user if the selected job is tied to them. Do you want to set up a rule that has everyone with specific jobs in specific above units AND units? Then you would need to combine two rules, as discussed here: Combining (Un)Assignment Rules |
If All Jobs, All Units, or All Above Units are selected, and a new job, unit, or above unit gets added to the Academy, users with this new designation will be assigned through this rule if they fit the other criteria. If there is a specific selection, and a new job, unit, or above unit added needs to be part of this rule, the rule needs to be updated manually to include those.
Notes:
- When you assign users as an advanced assignment, it may show more people than when you set it up as an automated assignment rule. This is because in an advanced assignment, users who were set as "unassign and exclude from rule" are included, but when you set as an automated assignment rule, the numbers decrease because users set as "unassign and exclude from rule" are excluded.
- The Employees to assign option will not show a link to download if the rule is set with a future start date, since it cannot 'guess' which employees will match this in the future. If the rule is active and the future start date has passed, you can remove the future start date - without clicking Assign Now - to see which users it would assign right now. If you select Assign Now in that case, it will assign all those users.
Assign Based on Custom Fields
You can also filter the users based on custom fields that you have set up for your Academy. If the custom attribute you select is of date type then you have two options:
1) Apply rule on selected date in [user] record: This option will allow you to assign the training in question on a future date indicated in the date field attached to each user. If this option is selected then for users with a future date on this attribute the rule will be applied on that date. Please note that the user's date should be within the given time-frame for them to be assigned. If this option is selected then:
- If the user has a past date or today’s date on their date field, they will be assigned immediately.
- If the user has a future date on their date field, they will be assigned on the date indicated by the field.
2) Apply rule when [user] record is created: If this option is selected then for users with a future date on this attribute the rule will be applied now. With this option, all users whose attribute is within the given time-frame will be assigned the moment they match the rule.
Note: the Hiring Date and Academy Joined Date fields cannot be used with an automated assignment rule.
You have the option of using an extra filter in order to assign the course only to members who have a specific language set as a preferred Content language.
The number of individuals that match the criteria will appear below.
Moreover, you have the choice of either assigning this course to this group this one time and/or setting up a rule that will automatically assign individuals under these parameters in the future.
Check Automated Assignment Rule to make this assignment a rule for future hires.
Note: If an Administrator chooses the "All" option on the above unit or unit, the automated rule checkbox is clickable. If a non-administrator does the same, the automated rule checkbox is not clickable. For Admins, it means "all current and all future units", where's for head of above roles it means "all current units". This is to make sure that if an employee leaves the company or changes roles, the automated rules can be transferred to another user.
Check Exclude existing academy members if you ONLY want this to pertain to future members, as opposed to assigning it now.
Once you check this you can also define from what date and before you need to exclude members. The default one is today's date. All users that join the Academy after that date will be considered as new hires for this rule.
If you have the "Exclude existing academy members" option checked, you will also be able to decide if you want the assignment rule to include any possible reactivations. Just click the Include Reactivations checkbox.
Please note that if Include Reactivations is checked, then all users who are reactivated after the new hire date (which is designated on the Exclude Academy members setting) will be caught by the rule.
The Unassign when criteria are not met anymore checkbox gives you the option to define if courses assigned to users from that rule, should be unassigned from them once they lose their job/ (Above) Units/ Custom fields and they do not meet the criteria anymore. If this option is checked, the users that do not meet the rule's criteria will be unassigned from courses that they haven't completed yet.
If you want to bypass global notifications settings for course/curricula, and
- send a notification for a specific assignment, although no notification should be sent out based on the global settings OR
- not send a notification for a specific assignment, although a notification should be sent out based on the global settings
you can do so by checking/ not checking off the relevant checkbox shown in the screenshot above.
Last but not least, you have the option to set a Rule Start date and a Rule Expiration date per auto-assignment rule which will define until when the rule should be active.
Before finishing the process you have the option to add a due date for this training.
Note: If you add a specific date as a due date, the same date will be copied and locked at the Rule Expiration Date field. Once the date is reached the automated rule will expire.
Note: Once you add value for the due date field, you will be able to see an extra checkbox “Unassign users once due date is missed''. Once selected, each user who is included in this assignment should be automatically unassigned from the course once the due date passes.
If you select the “Unassign users once due date is missed'', another checkbox will appear, which if selected will auto-unassign the users as soon as they reach their due date, regardless of their completion or certificate’s expiration.
If there are items (courses/curricula) that have been deemed as prerequisites, you have the option of assigning those items as well. If the item has already been assigned, it will not be assigned again; this is meant to ensure the user has what they need when assigned this item.
For the final step, note that while setting up your new rule for your academy, excluding the future members (Exclude existing academy members option is unchecked), you have the option to perform two different actions:
- Assign now: Direct assignment to the users that meet the rule's criteria at the time that the rule is being created
- Set rule: Rule's creation
Please note that if Assign Now is not checked, users who fit the criteria before the rule or at the moment of the rules creation will not be assigned at the time of creation. Only users who were added to the academy, or had a change in their organizational structure, after the creation and fit the rule will be assigned.
Select your preferred setup and select Set Rule.
Create Combo-Assignment Rules
You have the option to combine specific assignment rules in order to assign a course to individuals that belong to more than one group, to exclude users who belong to a specific group, etc. for more information, please check the following article:
Combining (Un)Assignment Rules
Calculator Not Appearing
There are some cases in which the Calculator doesn’t show at all. Let’s take the following example:
Rule A:
Original Start Date: 10/22/2023
Apply rule on the selected date in [user] record.
The issue is that the Calculator didn't show:
Reason:
The assignment will happen on the date specified in this custom field, in the future. Because of this, there is no way to predict how many users will be matched, and that is why the Calculator isn't showing.
Rule B:
Original Start Date: 11/06/2023
Apply rule when [user] record is created.
In this case Calculator shows and the numbers are "0":
Reason:
The assignment happens as soon as the users meet the requirements of this field, so it happens immediately and the Calculator is there.
Notes:
- If a user is part of an automated rule with "Unassign when criteria aren't met anymore", but gets assigned the training using another way (oblige to retake, manual assignment), the assignment will be through the latest assignment method. This means that the user will not be unassigned when the criteria aren't met, because their assignment was not done through this rule.
Related Articles
Editing Existing Auto-Assignment Rules