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How is the length (time) of a topic or article calculated?
How is the length (time) of a topic or article calculated?

Tribal Habits automatically calculates completion time for topics and articles.

Lou Monsour avatar
Written by Lou Monsour
Updated over a week ago

As you create your topics or articles by adding elements of content and knowledge, we automatically calculate the estimated time required by an explorer to review that content, This estimate is continuously updated based on your content, so it always represent the latest version of your content.

With this calculation, we can...

  • Display the estimated completion time for the entire topic or article in the overview

  • Display the estimated completion time for each card in your topic
    Record the time taken by explorers for compliance or reporting purposes

  • Advise whether your topic or article is shorter or longer than our benchmark guidelines

NOTE: There isn't a way to track actual time taken by a learner to complete a module. The reason for this is as we can't tell when someone has stopped learning due to a distraction, they may open the module and then leave it open in their tab while working on other tasks - making any time-tracking unreliable and unlikely to be accurate.

Instead, we estimate the time it should take a learner to complete a module and record that as the time taken, as explained in this article.

This measure is more accurate on average than attempting to record any "actual" time taken.

How is the estimated length calculated?

We use an algorithm to estimate completion time based upon the content elements you use. By analysing completion history of 1,000s of explorers, we can estimate the length it takes an average explorer to consume (read, complete, review) an average element.

  • For elements like quizzes and Q&A, we apply an average completion time based on the length and complexity (number of responses) of the element.

  • For text based elements, like sections, text and columns, we count the number of words and use agreed average reading times for screen-based text.

  • For narration elements and videos you upload using the video element, we know the exact playback length of those elements so can simply use that length.

We also apply some average completion lengths to our system generated modules in a topic, like the Overview, Destination and Insights modules. Assessment modules have their time estimated on the number of quizzes included in the assessment.

Overall, our estimates are quite accurate and we are constantly reviewing and refining them to ensure they stay accurate.

What if we are adding content outside of Tribal Habits, such as a link to a YouTube video?

Sometimes you may add content which we can't accurately estimate time for.

  • Links to external web pages which the explorer needs to read.

  • Links to externally hosted videos which the explorer needs to watch.

  • Links to files which an explorer needs to download and review.

In all these cases, there is time required by the explorer to consume knowledge, but we cannot calculate what that time is.

To help with this, in each Section element, you have an option to 'Add time' to that section. You can add one or more extra minutes if you feel there is content in that section which is missing from our calculations. Simply click on the slider to select the extra minutes and then ask Sage to review your point again to recalculate the times.

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