Assessors and Assessment

A formal graded online assessment module can be enabled within any standard topic via the topic’s navigation settings. Once enabled, creators designate individual Quiz, Fill-In, and Match elements as assessment questions. When a learner reaches the assessment module, they are presented with a randomised selection of questions drawn from the full question pool. Creators configure the pass mark (minimum number of correct answers), the maximum number of allowed retakes, time limits (supporting timed assessments) and whether results are shown immediately or held for manual assessor review before being revealed. If a learner exhausts all retakes, they can request additional attempts from their assessors.

Five content elements support manual assessor review: Q&A (written responses), Task (practical activity completion), Upload (file submission), Event (attendance at an instructor-led session), and Requirements (structured evidence or document submission). For each element, creators configure whether submission is compulsory, whether assessor grading is required, and whether the learner can progress through the topic or complete it before their submission is graded. On Upload, Q&A, Task, and Requirements elements, creators can also optionally rename the Pending, Pass, and Fail status labels to their own terminology (e.g. relabelling Pass as “Competent”), up to 50 characters per label. Custom labels flow through consistently to assessors, learners, and grading notifications. Elements not yet graded appear as Pending (or its custom equivalent). Once all pending items are passed, the learner’s enrolment is automatically set to complete without requiring the learner to log back in.

Assessors are a distinct user role in Tribal Habits, separate from creators, admins, and learners. A person can be an assessor of one or more topics without having any admin access. Assessors are assigned per topic via the topic’s Access tab or via the user’s profile. A person cannot be both a creator and an assessor of the same topic — however, creators automatically have the ability to assess submissions in topics they create. Assessors can be grouped using the Groups feature so that each assessor only sees submissions from learners in their assigned group. Assessors access pending work via the Assess tab on their learner homepage.

Assessors access all pending submissions via the Assess menu within the topic creator view, which has separate tabs for each assessable element type (Q&A, Task, Upload, Event, Requirements). Submissions are grouped as Pending or Complete. For each submission, the assessor selects a Pass or Fail result – selection is instant with no save button required. On Q&A, Task, Upload, and Requirements elements, creators can rename the Pending, Pass, and Fail status labels to match the organisation’s own terminology (e.g. Pass becoming “Competent”); where set, these custom labels appear to the assessor on this grading screen in place of the defaults. Optionally, the assessor can add a numeric score, written comments, and attach a file. On Task, Upload, and Q&A elements, creators can also require assessors to verify the actual date the assessment took place: when an assessor sets a result to Verified, Pass, or Fail (or their custom equivalents), they’re prompted to select that date, allowing the recorded result date to reflect when the assessment genuinely occurred rather than defaulting to when the assessor happened to grade it. Attached files can be shown to the learner (e.g. annotated feedback) or hidden (e.g. internal notes). Learners are not automatically notified of grades for Q&A, Task, and Upload – assessors can trigger a manual notification to the learner for any individual submission. For Event attendance, learners are automatically notified. Bulk grading is available, allowing assessors to grade multiple submissions at once.

Within the Assess section of a topic, assessors and creators can switch to the Assess Learners view, which provides a per-learner summary of all their assessable submissions across all element types in that topic. Each learner entry shows their overall topic progress status, a count of pending and graded contributions per element type, and a full submission history. Clicking into a learner reveals all their individual submissions — Q&A answers, uploaded files, task completions, event attendance records, and requirement submissions — with their grades, scores, and any assessor comments, all in one place. The learner list can be filtered by group, enrolment type, element type, and other criteria.

Assessors grade Observations from the Assess Learners page, opening a dedicated, mobile-friendly review page per observation. Assessors work through each checklist item, applying a grading label, an optional score, a comment, and optional file/photo/video evidence per item. Grading labels are fully customisable by creators and can be renamed to suit the organisation’s own language (e.g. “Competent” / “Not yet competent”), the same customisable-label approach now also available on Upload, Q&A, Task, and Requirements elements. An Observation can also be configured to require assessors to verify the actual date the assessment took place: when the assessor sets a result to Verified, Pass, or Fail, they’re prompted to select that date rather than it defaulting to the grading date. Once all items are graded (and the learner has accepted, if required), the assessor finalises an overall result, comment, score, and evidence, and chooses whether to notify the learner. If a learner doesn’t pass, the assessor can issue a retake in one of three modes: full retake (all items reset to pending), partial retake (only failed items reset, passed items retained), or retake previous attempt (clones the prior attempt for adjustment). Every attempt is retained and viewable in full. Assessors working without internet access can download a blank PDF version of the checklist, complete it on paper, and enter results later, or upload a scan as an attachment. Every action taken is logged in a per-observation audit trail (actor, decision, timestamp, attempt), downloadable as a CSV.

Creators can nominate one assessable element per topic (Task, Upload, Q&A, Observation or Requirement) to set the topic’s completion date, using the Completion settings heading in the element editor. Once that element is passed, its completion date becomes the topic’s completion date. If the assessor has set their own result date, that date is used instead.