Assigning mandatory assignments

A mandatory assignment is the binding variant of an enrollment: you assign a course or learning path with a deadline to a learner or a whole group. The system enrolls them automatically, sends the configured reminders, and shows you the progress state. This is how you make sure your learners really finish a training by a cutoff date — not just "at some point".

Org-wide instead of for your courses?

This guide is tailored to your courses and your learners. If you steer mandatory assignments across several trainers, departments, or the whole company, take a look at the administrator guide: Steering mandatory assignments org-wide.

Where to find mandatory assignments

In the main menu under Administration → Mandatory assignments. The area is visible from the trainer role upwards.

Giving one person a mandatory assignment

1. Open Administration → Mandatory assignments.
2. Click New.
3. Fill in the fields:

Field	What you enter
Target	Choose course or learning path. For a learning path, the person is automatically enrolled in all mandatory courses of the path; the assignment is only done once the whole path is completed.
Person	The learner (search by name or email)
Due date	Mandatory field
Repetition (weeks) (optional)	e.g. 52 for a yearly repetition — see Recurring mandatory assignments
Note (optional)	Shown to the person in the course player, e.g. "Please before the next team meeting"

1. Configure reminders — see below.
2. Save.

The person receives a notification in the platform and by email. They're enrolled automatically — a separate enrollment via Managing participants is not needed.

Course or learning path?

A single course is enough for a one-off training. If your cohort should go through a sequence of several courses, assign a learning path — see Assembling learning paths.

Setting up reminders

You can define any number of reminders per mandatory assignment.

No reminder email without a configured reminder

There is no automatic default reminder. If you leave the reminder section empty, the person only gets the assignment notification — nothing else. So for deadlines with teeth, always create at least one reminder.

For each reminder you define:

Field	What it means
Days relative to due date	Positive number = before the deadline (new rows start with 3). Negative number = after the deadline (a dunning notice if overdue).
Email template (optional)	If you don't choose your own template, a standard email is sent.
Recipient	Exactly one recipient per reminder: the person themselves or the assigning person (you). For "both", simply create two reminders with the same timing.

Typical setups:

Use case	Reminders
Low-key mandatory assignment	One email 3 days before the due date to the person
Important compliance training	Emails 14 / 7 / 3 / 1 day(s) before the due date; + a 1-day-overdue dunning email to the person and one to you
Onboarding requirement	Only if overdue — a dunning notice 7 days after the deadline

Reminders run automatically

You don't have to send anything manually — the system sends due reminders once a day in the early morning (around 6 a.m.), so the email sits at the top of the inbox at the start of the workday.

Several learners at once — bulk assignment

For a whole cohort, an onboarding, or a training wave, the bulk assignment is worthwhile.

1. In the mandatory-assignments overview, click Bulk assignment.
2. Fill in everything on one surface in the Create bulk mandatory assignment dialog:
3. Basic info: target (course or learning path), due date, optionally repetition and note
4. Select people via three tabs:
   • Individual users — pick people one by one from the search
   • By department — a whole department
   • By group — all members of a user group (from user management — not to be confused with the app's learning groups)
5. Reminders (expandable): as with the individual assignment, applied identically to all created assignments
6. Optionally check the preview: number + list of all people
7. Create — the system creates all mandatory assignments at once.

Existing mandatory assignments (same target + same person) are skipped — no duplicate assignments. The result message shows how many assignments were created and how many were skipped.

Recurring mandatory assignments (subscription)

If a training should be repeated regularly — e.g. a yearly data-protection briefing — set the Repetition (weeks) field when creating the assignment, e.g. 52 for yearly.

After completion, the system schedules the next round: one repetition interval after the completion, the assignment is automatically set back to "Assigned", with a new deadline (again one interval later). The person is notified and the reminders run again. This also works for a bulk assignment to a whole group.

Tracking the status

In the mandatory-assignments overview you see per assignment:

Status	What it means
Assigned	Person is enrolled but hasn't done anything yet
In progress	At least one lesson worked on
Completed	Course or path finished

Whether an assignment is overdue you can tell from the due date: deadline passed and status not "Completed" — worth following up. The list is sorted by due date, with the most urgent ones at the top.

For more detail per person, go via Managing participants.

Changing or withdrawing a mandatory assignment

1. Click the mandatory assignment in the list.
2. Edit — extend the deadline, adjust the note, reconfigure the reminders. Reminders not yet sent are recalculated based on the new deadline (already sent ones are not repeated).
3. Or withdraw it via the delete icon — the assignment is removed. The person does not receive an automatic notification about this; give them a quick personal heads-up if needed. The course enrollment remains in place.

Frequently asked questions

A person already completed the course before the mandatory assignment — do they get it twice? No, the system recognizes the existing enrollment and doesn't create a second one. However, the assignment status starts at "Assigned" and only catches up the next time something happens on the enrollment. For an already completed course, ask the person to briefly open the course again — or check the completion directly in the enrollment overview.

A person says they didn't receive a reminder. Possible reasons: no reminders were configured for the assignment (see above — no configuration, no email), the email is in the spam folder, or the email address in the profile is outdated. The mandatory assignment still has to be done — the deadline stands.

Can I still extend the deadline after sending? Yes — open the mandatory assignment → Edit → change the due date. Reminders not yet sent are recalculated against the new deadline.

Can learners cancel a mandatory assignment themselves? No. Unlike voluntary enrollments, the assignment comes from you — only you or an administrator can withdraw it.

A person doesn't show up in the selection. You can assign people from your company. If someone doesn't show up in the selection at all, they probably don't have an account yet — then they first need to be invited by an administrator. For company-wide assignments, see Steering mandatory assignments org-wide.