Exercises
Overview
Exercises are structured activities that help reinforce learning by prompting users to reflect, apply knowledge, or complete a practical task. They can be linked to both online items (content) and offline activities (actions), making them a flexible way to deepen engagement and improve knowledge retention.
By encouraging users to recall information, share insights, or produce new ideas, exercises add variety and interactivity to the learning experience.
Functionality Breakdown
What is an Exercise?
An exercise is an activity linked to an item. The type of item determines how the exercise behaves:
Content — items hosted on the platform (e.g., articles, videos).
Actions — offline items that happen outside the platform (e.g., meetings, workshops).
Exercises can be paired with assessments or scoring rubrics to measure understanding and track performance.
Scoring Options
Exercises can be scored in several ways:
No assessment — learners complete the Exercise without scoring
Manual pass/fail — an assessor reviews the submission and passes or fails the exercise
Simple Scoring — learners receive a numerical score within a defined range
Scoring rubric — a predefined scoring matrix is applied. You can select an existing rubric or create a new one, which will then appear in the rubric dropdown when adding an assessment
Viewing Exercises
Exercises can be viewed in different contexts depending on your role and needs:
Company — view all exercises in your company
Team — view exercises assigned to specific teams (managers can see exercises for their teams)
Managed — view exercises for users you manage (if you have managed user override)
Advanced Grouping — view exercises for users in specific advanced groupings
Score Exercises — view submissions that need to be scored or signed off
Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises in the sidebar navigation and use the tabs or filters to switch between views.
Exercise Logs
Learners can view their complete exercise submission history through Exercise Logs. This provides a centralised view of all past submissions, including:
Submission dates and content
Scores and pass/fail status
Feedback and comments from reviewers
Multiple attempts for exercises that allow retries
Filtering options to find specific submissions
Exercise logs help learners track their progress, review feedback, and see how their performance has improved over time. For more information, see the Viewing Exercise Logs article.
Pre-requisites
Before creating an Exercise, ensure:
You have permission to create exercises
You know which content or action the Exercise will relate to
Any scoring rubrics you plan to use have already been created
Required User Roles
Creating Exercises
Users with the following roles can create exercises:
Owner — Full access within their company
Admin — Administrative access within their company
Learning Designer — Can create and manage learning content
Curator — Can curate and manage content
Editing Exercises
To edit an existing exercise, users must:
Hold one of the roles listed above and be in the same company as the exercise, or
Be explicitly granted access as an editor via the item's Who can edit? field
Viewing Exercises
Users who can view exercises in lists and reports include:
Any of the roles permitted to create exercises
Reporter — May view but not create
HR with assessment override enabled
Managers — Can view exercises for their teams (Team view)
Users with managed user override — Can view exercises for their managed users (Managed view)
Deleting or Archiving Exercises
Only these roles can delete or archive exercises:
Super Admin
Owner
Admin
How to Use an Exercise
Exercises can be added to both online content and offline actions to deepen engagement and support learning. You can attach an exercise to an item directly from the item menu or include one during the Learner Engagement step when building new content.
Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises in the sidebar navigation to view and manage exercises. Use the different views (Company, Team, Managed, Advanced Grouping) to filter exercises based on your needs.
Tip: Pair exercises with content and assessments for a powerful learning flow: content/action → exercise → assessment.
FAQs
Q: Can I associate an exercise with both content and actions?
A: No. You will choose one association when creating the exercise.
Q: Can I reuse an exercise across multiple items?
A: Yes. Exercises can be linked to different items where appropriate.
Q: Do exercises always require a submission?
A: Yes. Submission settings must be defined as part of the creation process.
Q: Why doesn't an exercise submission show as failed when the user scores below the passing score?
A: This can happen if the exercise allows unlimited attempts. Because users can retry as many times as they like, the system does not mark any attempt as failed.
Q: How are users informed that they failed an attempt?
A: Users get a notification when their exercise is scored. Scorers can also leave a comment on the submission, which appears in the user's notifications. When the user submits a new attempt, the scorer receives a new notification.
Q: Can exercises be recovered once deleted?
A: No, deleted exercises cannot be retrieved. To avoid losing content, it's best to archive exercises instead of deleting them.
Q: How do I archive an exercise?
A: Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises in the sidebar navigation, search for the exercise name using the filters, click the three dots next to the item, and select "Archive exercise/item".
Q: Can I sort exercise submissions by status?
A: Yes. You can sort the status column, and you can also filter by status.
Q: How do I filter by exercise status?
A: Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises → Score Exercises in the sidebar navigation, open Filters, select Scoring Status, then choose Passed, Failed or Pending. This makes it easy to find the submissions you need to review.
Q: Who is excluded from scoring an exercise when 'Exclude secondary managers' is selected?
A: This option excludes secondary managers of the submitter's primary team, and both primary and secondary managers of the submitter's secondary teams.
Q: Who is still able to score the exercise?
A: Managers of parent teams can still sign it off, in case the submitter's direct manager is unavailable.
Q: What happens to an exercise attempt when a task recurs?
A: If a task recurs (or is newly created) with the setting "If learner has completed this content, ask them to complete it again," the user's previous attempt is expired, even if it was completed.
Q: What does expiry mean in this case?
A:
The attempt is no longer visible to the user on the item
The attempt can no longer be scored
The attempt still appears on the user's profile and in the exercise log
Q: What's the difference between Company, Team, Managed, and Advanced Grouping views?
A: Company view shows all exercises in your company. Team view shows exercises for specific teams (managers see their teams). Managed view shows exercises for users you manage. Advanced Grouping view shows exercises for users in specific advanced groupings. Each view filters exercises based on assignments and permissions.
Q: How can learners view their exercise submission history?
A: Learners can access their exercise log to view all past submissions, scores, feedback, and multiple attempts. See the Viewing Exercise Logs article for detailed information.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
Can't find exercises | Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises in the sidebar navigation. Check you have the correct role permissions. Use the different view tabs (Company, Team, Managed) to filter exercises. |
Can't create an exercise | Ensure you have Owner, Admin, Learning Designer, or Curator role. Verify exercises are enabled for your company. |
Exercise not appearing after creation | Refresh the page or navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises in the sidebar navigation to confirm status. |
Can't edit an exercise | Verify you have edit permissions or are listed as an editor on the associated item. Check you're in the same company as the exercise. |
Can't see submissions to score | Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Exercises → Score Exercises in the sidebar navigation. Check your sign-off permissions and team assignments. |
Scoring rubric not appearing | Ensure the rubric is published and not archived. Verify it's linked to the correct exercise. |
Archive option not visible | Only Super Admins, Owners, and Admins can archive exercises. Check your role permissions. |
Exercise submissions not showing as failed | Check if unlimited attempts are enabled. With unlimited attempts, submissions won't show as failed. |
Can't see Team or Managed views | Verify you have manager permissions or managed user override enabled. Team view requires you to be a manager of at least one team. |