File Upload is one of Continu's three assessment types. Use it any time you need the learner to submit a file as their answer — a work product, a portfolio piece, a signed document, or any other artifact.

Continu supports three assessment types — Quiz Assessment, File Upload, and Video Response. File Upload assessments let learners submit a file as their assessment response instead of answering questions. The file is stored alongside the learner's assessment record, where admins and graders can review it, download it, and grade against your criteria.

Use File Upload any time the point is that the learner produces something outside the platform and returns it as evidence — a written deliverable, a spreadsheet, a photo, a signed form, a portfolio piece.

When to Use a File Upload Assessment

File Upload assessments fit any use case where the artifact is the answer. Common patterns:

• Work products. A deployment plan, a customer-facing deck, a written analysis, a worked example, a policy document. When the point is the artifact, not knowledge recall, File Upload is the right format.
• Portfolios. A collection of prior work as evidence of capability — design samples, writing samples, code, project briefs. Learners upload their portfolio piece as part of the assessment.
• Applied deliverables. Anything a learner produces outside the platform — a spreadsheet analysis, a model, a report, a project brief — that needs to come back as evidence of the work.
• Photos and image-based evidence. A photo of completed work in the field, a scanned document, a screenshot of a configuration. Useful for on-the-job verification.
• Signed documents. Any time you need the learner to download a document, sign it, and return it — acknowledgements, attestations, program-specific forms. The signed file lives with the completion record.

The common thread: the assessment is about what the learner produces or returns, not about what they can answer.

Supported File Types and Size

When you create a File Upload assessment, you choose which file formats learners can submit. Continu supports:

• PDF — documents, reports, formatted deliverables, signed forms.
• JPEG — photos, scanned documents, image-based evidence.
• PNG — screenshots, diagrams, image-based work.
• XLS — spreadsheets, models, data workbooks.
• DOC — Word documents.

Maximum file size: 500 MB per upload. Learners see the size cap on the upload screen; files larger than 500 MB are rejected at upload.

Select every format you want to accept. Learners can only submit files in the formats you've enabled — if you only check PDF, they can't upload a JPG. Be inclusive if you're not sure what format learners will use, or specific if the format is part of the requirement.

How to Create a File Upload Assessment

1. Go to Admin > Assessments and click + Add an Assessment.
2. On the Details step, select File Upload as the Assessment Type.
3. Under File Response Type, check the file formats you want to accept (PDF, JPEG, PNG, XLS, DOC).
4. Give the assessment a title and continue through the Questions step to write the prompt. Tell the learner exactly what to upload and in what format. If they need to work from a source document (a form to sign, a template to fill in, a brief to respond to), link to it in the prompt or in the surrounding content.
5. Configure grading and settings on the Settings step (see Grading below).
6. Publish and assign the assessment to your target learners.

What Learners See

When a learner opens the assessment, they see the prompt you wrote plus a file upload control. They click to upload, select their file, and submit the assessment. The upload is validated against the allowed formats and size cap; if it passes, the assessment is submitted.

Depending on the assessment's grading configuration, the learner sees one of:

After the learner submits, the assessment shows as awaiting grader review until the grader evaluates the file and marks it pass or fail.

Reviewing and Downloading Learner Uploads

Admins and assigned graders can review submitted files from the assessment's Host View.

1. Open the assessment in the admin.
2. Go to the responses or grading view (see View Assessment Responses).
3. For each learner submission, click through to the response detail to view the uploaded file.
4. Download the file to your machine to review, and grade if grading is enabled.

Files stay associated with the learner's completion record for the life of that record. If you need a report of every learner's submission across a population (for example, all learners who completed a specific assessment), run an Assessment Status Report from Admin > Reports — the report includes the response data, and file responses can be pulled from there.

Grading a File Upload Assessment

Every File Upload assessment routes to a grader for review — there is no auto-submit path. Choose how they’ll grade: Define Criteria for a structured rubric with point values on each question, or Open Grading for free-form review. Assign a grader (or grader pool) in the assessment settings; submissions land in the grading queue. See Assessment Grader Settings for grader assignment mechanics.

Considerations

Be explicit in the prompt. "Upload your work" leaves too much room. Specify what you want, what format, and any naming convention. If a source document is involved (a form to sign, a template to complete), link to it directly in the prompt or the surrounding content.

Respect the 500 MB cap. The upload limit is 500 MB per file. If learners are producing bigger artifacts (large video files, uncompressed working files), either compress before upload or reconsider whether File Upload is the right assessment type for that use case.

Common Pitfalls

Using a Quiz Assessment when the answer is a file. A Quiz Assessment prompt like "Attach your work here" with a text answer field forces the learner to paste a URL or explain where the file is. Use a File Upload assessment directly instead.

Not linking to a required source document in the prompt. If learners need to work from a template, form, or brief, the prompt has to include the link (or the document has to be reachable from the surrounding content). Otherwise learners will guess or ask.

Grading configured but no grader assigned. If you require grading but haven't assigned a grader, submissions land in the ungraded queue — learners see the assessment as pending indefinitely. See Assessment Grader Settings.

See Also

• Assessments: Designing Effective Knowledge Checks — the strategic anchor covering all assessment types.
• View Assessment Responses — the response-review flow.
• Manually Grade Assessments — grading workflow.
• Assessment Grader Settings — grader assignment and grading models.

File Upload is one of Continu's three assessment types. Use it when the artifact is the answer — work products, portfolios, deliverables, signed documents. Choose the file formats you'll accept (PDF, JPEG, PNG, XLS, DOC), keep uploads under 500 MB, write a clear prompt, and assign a grader for review.