How to assign an assessment to the right audience, at the right time, through the right path.
Assignment determines who takes the assessment, when they take it, and how it gets to them. The wrong audience creates confusion and support tickets. The wrong timing leads to missed deadlines. The wrong path creates manual work that doesn't scale.
The assignment decision has three dimensions: who, when, and how. Each one has options, and the right combination depends on what the assessment is for.
The Three Assignment Paths
Continu offers three ways to assign an assessment. Each fits a different scenario.
1. Automation. The assessment is automatically assigned when a trigger fires — an onboarding milestone, a role change, certification expiry, or completion of a prior course. Use this for programs that need to scale without manual touch.
Common cases: compliance recertification cycles, onboarding modules tied to start date, role-based training, and any assessment that should fire on a schedule or in response to a system event. Set up the automation once; assignments happen automatically.
2. Direct Assignment. Assign one assessment to one cohort with explicit targeting (specific users, groups, Smart Segments). Use this for one-off campaigns and cohort-based programs.
Common cases: a specific cohort (e.g., "Q4 sales certification class of 25 reps") where you want explicit control over who's in and who's out, pilot programs, and bespoke audiences that don't map cleanly to an automation trigger.
3. Assessments Tab Direct Assign. The fastest path — assign directly from the Assessment's own view. Use this for quick assignments to a known audience.
Common cases: ad-hoc assignments where you already know exactly who needs the assessment and don't need the targeting sophistication of the Direct Assignments Page. This article covers this path specifically.
Assigning from the Assessments Tab
1. Open the Assessments list. Navigate to Create > Assessments from the side panel.
2. Select the assessment. Check the toggle next to the assessment you want to assign.
3. Click Assign. Opens the assignment panel where you pick the audience and due date.
4. Choose your audience. Search for individuals, groups, or Smart Segments. Add as many as needed. Mixed targeting is allowed (a few named users plus a Smart Segment plus a group).
5. Set the due date. A due date gives the assessment a deadline. Without one, the assessment is open-ended, which tends to delay completion. A defined deadline — even a generous one — improves completion rates.
6. Confirm and assign. Learners are notified per their notification preferences. The assessment appears in their Continu home and in any digest emails they receive.
Choosing the Right Audience
The three audience types behave differently — picking the right one matters more than it might appear.
Individuals. Specific named users. Use for one-off assignments and outliers (e.g., a single learner who needs to retake a certification because they missed the cohort). Does not scale.
Groups. Manually-curated lists of users. Use for stable cohorts that change rarely — leadership team, partner managers, region leads. Note that someone has to maintain group membership when people join, leave, or move roles.
Smart Segments. Dynamic audiences defined by attributes (department, location, job title, custom field). Membership updates automatically as user attributes change. Use for ongoing programs where assignments should follow the role, not the person — for example, "all new hires in North America Sales" stays accurate as people come and go.
For most programs that run more than once, Smart Segments are the right default. Use Individuals or Groups when dynamic targeting would not fit the program.
Configuration Pitfalls
Assigning Without a Due Date. Open-ended assessments tend to be deprioritized by learners. Set a due date even when the deadline is generous; the deadline itself improves completion rates.
Direct Assign for Recurring Programs. If you find yourself manually assigning the same assessment to similar audiences on a regular cadence, an automation can automate it. Convert to an automation trigger for any program that recurs.
Smart Segment Membership Changes Mid-Assessment. When you assign to a Smart Segment, the users in that segment at the moment of assignment receive it. New segment members do not automatically receive the existing assignment unless an automation is set up to re-evaluate. Plan for this when the audience is fluid.
Stacked Bulk Assignments. Assigning multiple assessments to the same audience on the same day produces a high volume of notifications and can make it harder for learners to prioritize. Stage assignments or use an automation that paces them out.
Direct Assign and Smart Segmentation Access Rules. If your organization uses Smart Segmentation to control which audiences can see which content, a direct assign can place an assessment in front of users who weren't intended to receive it. Verify the audience matches your access model before clicking Assign.
Where This Fits
You're here because you're ready to assign an assessment. The strategic decisions — what the assessment measures, who grades, what the pass mark is — should already be set in Assessment Settings and Assessment Grader Settings. Assignment is the last step before the program is live.
See Also
- Assessments: Designing Knowledge Checks That Are Useful — the strategic anchor.
- Assessment Settings — pass mark, retakes, certificates, grading.
- Resetting Attempts on an Assessment — the manual override for learners who need another attempt outside the retake policy.
Assignment is who, when, and how. Pick the path that fits the program's cadence, and use Smart Segments when the audience is dynamic.