Tribal Habits has seven assessable elements which can be used throughout any topic.
These are:
Event: The Event element tracks registration and attendance at instructor-led events (workshops, webinars).
Task: The Task element tracks the completion of a specified task by the learner. The learner is given instructions and indicates when the task is complete. An assessor can grade their work, including a score and comment. Tasks are typically for offline or practical assessments which can be observed by the assessor.
Upload: The Upload element tracks uploaded files by learners. The assessor can then view the file and, once again, provide a grade, score and comments. The Upload element accepts videos, images, files and other types of uploads.
Q&A: The Q&A element tracks written responses by learners to a question. These can be short sentences up to complex, long essays. The assessor can review responses and grade, score and comment.
Requirement: The Requirement element allows creators to request specific information or documentation from learners within a topic. It supports scenarios such as qualifications, licences, and certifications that need to be recorded, tracked, or verified. Optional assessor review is available, allowing assessors to pass/fail submissions and review details such as evidence or attachments.
Observation: The Observation element lets assessors grade learners against a checklist of observable tasks, with custom grading labels, scoring, comments, file uploads, retakes and a full audit history. Ideal for verification of competency assessments.
Assessment: The Assessment element is a graded quiz assessment which can be placed anywhere in a topic. Questions are marked automatically, and assessors can review each learner's attempts, manually approve results that need review and allow retakes.
In combination, these building blocks allow for a wide range of complex assessments which can be reviewed and graded by creators or assessors. You can click on the links above to learn more about the settings for each building block.
In this article, we will provide a more general overview of the manual assessment process. Topics in Tribal Habits can also have graded online assessments (quizzes) which you can learn about in this article.
How does an item in an element become assessable?
Each event, task, upload, requirement, observation and Q&A has a similar group of settings that creators can use to determine if items and submissions in a particular element should be assessed.
First, creators can set the requirements for learners.
Is it compulsory for the learner to submit an item? Each element has an option similar to 'The learner must upload/complete/answer/attend this item'. If this option is checked, then it becomes a compulsory interaction. If left unchecked, it is optional.
Does the element require that an assessor grade the submission? Each element also has an option similar to 'An assessor must grade the learner's upload/completion/answer/attendance/requirement'. If this option is checked, submissions to this element becomes assessable (this enables the grading, score and comment options).
Second – and importantly – there are options to control the learner's progress based on the completion of either/both of the selected requirements.
Does the learner have to complete the selected requirements to progress to the next section? If checked, this option will stop the learner progressing until they have met the selected requirements.
For example, if the element is assessable, then this option would prevent the learner from continuing until they had received a pass grade on their submission.
This is an important option – it determines whether the learner has to wait until passing before they can proceed to the next section!
This may be important if the next section has content that should not be viewed until their submission is passed.
Equally, it may be important to uncheck this option if the assessment may take some time and the learner needs to be able to complete other parts of the topic in the meantime.
Does the learner have to complete the selected requirements to complete the entire topic? If checked, then the topic will not be able to be set to complete until the requirements are met.
For example, if the building block is assessable, then this option would prevent the learner from attaining a completed status until they had received a pass grade on that building block.
This is also an important option – it determines whether a pass grade is a requirement for completion.
The combination of these two progression options allows creators to carefully determine how a learner moves through a topic.
Note: On Task, Upload, and Q&A elements, creators can also turn on Assessor is required to set a result date. By default, a Verified, Pass or Fail result is dated at the moment the assessor selects it in Tribal Habits. With this setting on, assessors must choose the result date each time they grade. If it's off, the date can still be changed afterwards.
Note: The Assessment element works differently from the other assessable elements. Its questions are marked automatically, so there are no compulsory or assessor grading settings. Instead, creators choose whether results are held for review (Requires review) and what happens if a learner fails (Fail event). Learn more in What is the Assessment element and how do I use it?
Can an assessable element set the topic completion date?
Yes. Creators can nominate one assessable element in a topic (Task, Upload, Q&A, Observation or Requirement) to set the completion date for the whole topic. This option is under the Completion setting heading in the element editor.
Once the nominated element is passed (or verified, for a Task), its completion date becomes the topic's completion date. If the assessor set their own result date when grading, that result date is used instead.
This is useful when the topic completion date needs to reflect when something actually happened, for example:
Aligning the topic completion date with the Date obtained on a Requirement
Aligning the topic completion date with the day an observation took place
How are pending items assessed?
Creators and Assessors will see an Assess menu item on the top left-hand corner of the topic creator view.
This menu has tabs to assess Q&A, Task, Upload, Event, and Requirement submissions. There is also an Assess learners tab for managing all assessable items for a single learner in one place.
Note: Observations and Assessment elements can only be reviewed via the Assess learners tab.
When viewing one of the element tabs (Q&A, Task, Upload, Event or Requirement), creators and assessors will see submissions from learners – Q&A responses, uploaded files and so on.
To view all contributions for a specific learner (or to perform an observation or review an assessment), use the Assess learners tab.
Note: If your organisation has activated the Groups feature, assessors will only see submissions from learners in their group/s.
How are learner contributions assessed?
Each element has a largely similar assessment process.
First, there is a dropdown menu to select one of the elements by their label or title.
This dropdown will place any elements with pending items to assess in a group called Pending. Select items in that group in the dropdown to find elements which have items to assess.
Other items, which are either not assessable at all, or do not have any pending items to assess, will be shown in a Complete group in this dropdown.
Once you select an element in the dropdown, additional information will be shown about it to assist with your assessment. This may include the question asked in a Q&A, the event information, the instructions for an upload or the details of a task.
Creators and assessors can then review learner activity in the selected element in the table below. They can grade each learner as required.
Note: Results save instantly, unless the element has Assessor is required to set a result date turned on. In that case, you'll be asked to confirm the result date before a Verified, Pass or Fail result is saved.
Optionally, the assessor can also enter a score, file and any comments.
Comments can be particularly useful for a 'fail' grade, to provide the learner with feedback to resubmit.
Any file uploaded by the Assessor can be shown or hidden from the learner for that submission.
Show: You may choose to show a file to the learner as part of your grading. For example, a mark-up of the assessors uploaded file or submitted answer.
Hide: You may choose to hide the file from the learner. For example, this may be private notes or information only relevant for an audit of this grading.
Note: If a pending item was preventing a learner from completing a topic, then when all assessable submissions are in the pass grade, the learner's enrolment will be set to complete automatically (the learner will not need to log back in to trigger the completed status).
Can I change the date of an assessable item result?
Yes. By default, the result date is the date the grade was selected (unless you were prompted to set one). If the assessment actually happened earlier, for example when a paper-based or in-person assessment is entered into the system later, click the pencil icon next to a graded submission to change the result date.
Can I assess multiple submissions/contributions at once?
Most actions available for an individual submission can also be applied in bulk. This allows you to perform tasks such as marking learners as attended, marking submissions as passed, or applying a comment to multiple submissions at once.
To apply a bulk action, select the checkbox next to each submission, then open the Bulk actions drop-down menu and choose the action you want to apply. Available actions depend on the element type.
Note: If the element has 'Assessor is required to set a result date' turned on, you'll be asked to enter one result date, which applies to all selected submissions.
How are learners notified of their results from an assessor?
For learners registered for a Session in an Event, they are automatically notified when their attendance is recorded (as attended or did not attend) via email.
For learners submitting a response to an assessable Q&A, Task or Upload element, they are not automatically notified when an assessor grades their response. Instead, assessors see a Notify learner button for each submission which they can click to send a notification to that learner about that grade (including the score and comments).
If the element uses custom status labels, the notification shows the custom label for the result.
Can I view all contributions for a specific learner?
If you would prefer to view all contributions for a learner rather than per-element type, you can use the Assess learners tab.
The Assess learners screen contains a list of all learners enrolled into the topic, along with some data providing an overview of the number of their contributions (sorted by element – events, Q&A, tasks, uploads, requirements, observations).
When you click on a learner, you'll be taken to a screen showing detailed information about them. This includes their overall progress status for the topic, along with a list of assessable element types, and the number of the learner's pending contributions.
If the topic has any Assessment elements, each one has its own panel at the top of the learner's screen, titled Assessment - followed by the assessment's label. If the topic uses the Assessment module, it has a panel titled Assessment module. Learn more in How are Assessment element results reviewed? below.
To view other contributions, scroll down to one of the six element types. All contributions per type will be listed, allowing for quick assessment, scoring, and review. You may need to expand the element heading to view contributions if it has been collapsed.
The steps for assessing each contribution here are generally the same as those mentioned earlier in this article.
How are Assessment element results reviewed?
The Assessment element is a graded quiz assessment that marks learners automatically. Assessors and admins can review every attempt, approve results that are held for review, and allow learners to retake the assessment.
Viewing a learner's assessment results
Navigate to the Assess learners page and select the learner.
Find the panel for the assessment, titled Assessment - followed by the assessment's label. You may need to expand the panel if it has been collapsed.
The panel shows:
a summary of the learner's result, with Passed and Failed highlighted
a dropdown to choose an attempt (for example 'Attempt #2: Failed'). If the learner has made two or more attempts, you can also choose Aggregated attempts to see every question they have been asked, their latest answer to each and how many attempts they have had at it
a table of the questions asked, the question type and the learner's answer, with a tick or cross for each answer and a Critical badge on critical questions.
Click View Log to see every action taken on the assessment, such as submissions, results, retake requests, retakes and approvals. The log can be downloaded as a CSV.
Reviewing results that need approval
If the creator has set Requires review to Yes, learners' results are held until an admin or assessor reviews them. Learners see Results submitted and a message that their results will be reviewed, and your admins receive an Assessment review required email.
After reviewing the learner's answers, choose one of these options in the assessment's panel:
Manually approve assessment: Enter the learner's score (at least the pass mark, and not more than the number of questions asked) and click Approve. The learner passes, and anything the assessment's pass event does (such as completing parts of the topic) happens straight away.
Allow assessment retake: The learner's result is treated as a fail and they are given one more attempt. Use this when you don't want to approve the result.
Allowing a retake
The Allow assessment retake link appears when a learner has failed and has no retakes left, or when their result is waiting for review.
Learners who must pass the assessment and have used all their retakes can click Request a retake. This sends your admins an Assessment retake request email with a link to the learner's progress.
Open the learner's assessment panel on the Assess learners page.
Click Allow assessment retake, then confirm.
The learner is given one more attempt and receives an Assessment retake approval email.
If the assessment is set to Retake only failed items in assessment, the learner keeps the questions they answered correctly and is only asked the rest. They are given a full retake instead if you are turning down a result that would have passed, or if their correct answers already cover every question asked.
Note: Each retake you allow adds one attempt. It doesn't reset the learner's retake count.
Admin options in the topic progress report
Admins can take the same actions from a learner's topic progress report:
Navigate to Admin → Topic → Enrolments.
Click on the learner's enrolment status to open their topic progress report.
In the History section, find the assessment listed under its part.
Click Allow assessment retake or Manually approve assessment.
The History section also shows a summary of the learner's result for each assessment, and when the last retake was issued.
What happens when an assessment is changed?
Creators can change an Assessment element after learners have started it. Learners' results are always based on the questions and settings they were actually given, and each attempt shows its own pass mark and questions. A learner who has failed moves onto the updated assessment on their next retake. Their used retakes still count, and any retakes you have allowed are kept.
Learn more in What is the Assessment element and how do I use it?
How does an assessable item appear to learners?
Each item appears slightly differently but utilises the same assessment indicators.
Pending. This status indicates a submission has been made and is awaiting assessment.
Did not pass. This is the 'failed' result. Learners will typically see an option to resubmit (try again). They will see the score and comments if available.
Passed. The result reads 'Result: Pass with a score of X', where X is the score given by the assessor. Learners will also see any comments.
Below the result, a progress status shows whether the learner has met the element's requirements: 'This content is complete' or 'This content is incomplete'. This wording appears in all available learner languages.
Note: If the element uses custom status labels, learners see those labels in place of Pending, Pass or Fail.
Note: The Assessment element has its own result screen, showing the learner's score, the pass mark and whether they passed. Learn more in What is the Assessment element and how do I use it?
Can assessors use a mobile device?
Yes. Assessors can log in from a smartphone or tablet to review assessable items on the go. The mobile view gives access to the Assess learners panel, which is optimised for smaller screens, allowing assessors to mark, grade, and verify each learner's assessable items directly from the field.
Why can't I see Pass/Fail/Pending result options?
While these grade labels are the default, they can also be customised, so may appear differently to both an assessor and learner. Pass may show as something like Competent or Compliant, for example.