Visible versus Assigned. What's the difference?

Find out the differences between "Visible" and "Assigned" content.

For information on reporting on Assigned Content, please view our article here.

This article will explain important points about Visibility and "Assigned" content.

There are three sections to this article.

Section 1: Visibility - what are the different types?

Section 2: Assigned - what does this mean?

Section 3: Dashboard visibility - why is this different?

Section 1: Visibility

What does "Visible" mean?

Events, Items and Learnlists all have a "Visibility" setting.

Visibility defines whether a particular person is allowed to see that piece of content.

Hidden:

If an item is "Hidden", it can only be seen by admins and curators. It will not show up people's search results, and if someone tries to visit that particular Item, the system will show an "Access denied" error message.
"Hidden" is useful if an item is in a draft state, and is not ready to be seen by people on the Platform.

Only visible when assigned:

If an item has a visibility of "Only visible when assigned", it will be considered "Hidden" to them unless that piece of content has also been assigned to them. See what does assigned mean.
This setting is useful, if the content is more sensitive in nature, and only a sub-set of your people should have permission to view it.

Visibility of "Entire company":

If an item has a visibility of "Entire company", then anyone can see the item, and it will appear in everyone's search results.

Please note that for Channels, anything that is Visible is also considered "Assigned". We'll explore this in more detail below.

Section 2: ASSIGNED

You may see the word "Assigned" in the Platform. Find out what this means.

What does "assigned" mean?

Assigned simply means that the person has been set a deadline in which they have to complete the content.

What does this mean in the context of the platform?

Events:

For Events, this means that the person is enrolled in an Event session.
Therefore the dates of the Event session define the "deadline" in this case.

Learnlists and Items:

For other types of content like Learnlists and Items, the content is considered assigned when it has been set as a Task for the user.

Channels:

Please note that visibility / assigned works differently for Channels.

If the Channel has been set to a visibility of Everyone, when you are looking at reporting on the Platform, Channels will be considered as assigned.

When a Channel is visible to a user, it is also considered assigned to them.

For example:

This Channel called "Communication" has been set with a visibility of everyone:

Even if it hasn't been set as as Task for some users, it will still show up in the Assigned column of the Content Log and the People Log.

In the Content Log you can see that it's been "assigned" to 22 people. This means that the Channel is visible to twenty-two people (i.e., all the people in the company, because the visibility is "everyone").

The Communication channel will also show up for all users in the People Log under the column of "Assigned" - if visibility is set to everyone.

To sum up, visible Channels are also considered to be "Assigned" in the eyes of the Platform.

How does assigned content appear?

Classic homepage view:

On our classic homepage, Tasks will appear at the top, in the section called "Assigned pathways".

Tasks set for Items, Learnlists, and upcoming events will appear in the "To Do List".

Any Channels that have been set as tasks will appear immediately below the "To Do List".

New Dashboards view:

In the new Dashboards, we have separate widgets for Upcoming Events, Upcoming Tasks, and Assigned Channels.

What happens when assigned content is "nested"? (i.e., Items which are inside a Learnlist / Channel).

If a person has been set a Task to complete a Learnlist, the system considers both the Learnlist, and all of the Items within that Learnlist to be "assigned" to the user.

Example:

A Learnlist contains five Items.
A person is set a Task to complete the Learnlist.
That person will be "assigned" the Learnlist and also the five Items within that Learnlist.
A total of six pieces of content.

What about Channels?

Likewise, if a person has been set a task to complete a Channel, the system considers both the Channel and all of the Items within that Channel to be "assigned" to the user.

Example with a Channel:

A channel contains two Learnlists, which each contain five Items.
That Channel is set as a Task for someone to complete.
Now that person has been assigned the Channel, both the Learnlists and the ten Items within these Learnlists.
A total of thirteen pieces of content.

In this way, assignment of content is hierarchical.

Section 3: DASHBOARD VISIBILITY OF CHANNELS

There is one exception to the rule that content is considered "assigned" when the user has been set a deadline to complete it. That is with channel Dashboard Visibility.

Please also note that any Channel that is visible, is also considered assigned by the Platform.

What about Channel "Dashboard visibility"?

Channels have a special visibility setting called "Dashboard visibility".

This functions slightly differently to the visibility of Events, Items and Learnlists, because Channels are set up to appear automatically on people's ‘logged in’ homepage.

What do the different options mean?

Hidden:

If a Channel has a Dashboard visibility of "Hidden", then the Channel will not appear on anyone's Homepage.

Selected:

If a Channel has a Dashboard visibility of "Selected", then the Channel will appear on the Homepage of anyone defined within the selected individuals, teams or groups.

In our classic Homepage, this means that the Channel will appear "below the line" in the section called "Channels for you".

With our new Dashboards, these visible Channels will appear in the "Visible Channels" widget.

Everyone in company:

If a Channel has a Dashboard visibility of "Entire Company", then the Channel will appear on everyone’s homepage, in the "Channels for you" section.

With our new Dashboards, all "Entire Company" Channels will appear in the "Visible Channels" widget.