How long team members spend learning content is important for L&D teams working to grow the skills across their organisation, and for Managers focused on specific talent within their department.
To make tracking accurate, the way in which Time Spent Learning records activity, is enhanced with the inactivity feature. This only applies to Nuggets and Courses, so to understand more about how it works, we need to look at the following areas…
On the Web App
Learning is always tracked from the moment a User opens a Nugget, or starts a Course from its landing page. This is considered an active learning session.
A session will become inactive, if the User has not clicked, typed or moved their cursor on the page for the past 60 minutes. This will lead to the “Are you still there?” pop-up appearing.
The below image is just an example of the layout
The pop-up will feature a 60-second timer that will begin to countdown as soon as it appears. Selecting the Continue learning button will keep the User on the page, and their Time Spent Learning will continue to be tracked, from the time-count where it was paused by the pop-up.
If the User doesn’t select any option and the timer runs down to 0 seconds, they’ll be automatically redirected to the homepage for Nuggets, and the landing page for Courses.
Note✨: At this stage, do remember that…
Refreshing your browser is considered as an activity, therefore the pop-up will disappear and learning can continue as before.
Even if the content is open in multiple browsers, it will show in just one.
Minimising a browser will still keep it active, and time spent learning will continue to be tracked.
Content Creation
Nuggets that are made up of only an External Link content type, will have a total tracked time of 1 second. This represents that the linked content inside has at least been opened, as time spent for third-party content can’t be tracked.
The “Are you still there?” pop-up will always appear - at 60 mins - for inactivity in Nuggets and Lessons that feature a Video or Audio content type.
Embedded content types will only track time spent learning, whenever the User shows activity within the Nugget or Lesson. This is regardless of whether it’s an audio, video or visible document embed.
For example:
User opens a Lesson that only has Embed Code content featured inside
They navigate across the whitespace of the Nugget’s page, and click on the Like button
This is tracked as activity
They then click on, and scroll through, the embedded content in the iframe (or play the embedded video and stay on the video).
This won’t be tracked
If the content type is an attached File, activity will be tracked as soon as the User opens it. They don't need to click on the File for the tracking to begin. The file will be available to download, at which point should the User navigate away from, or close, the Lesson or Nugget, tracking will stop.
When an Author views content in Preview Mode, Time Spent Learning is never tracked.
Extension & Mobile
On the Browser Extension, the "Are you still there?" pop-up will also appear, should the User be inactive. Closing the Extension and returning to the content, will reset the time tracking.
For tracking via the mobile app, Users must have the app open for it to be active and tracked. If the phone screen is locked while the app is open, this will still be tracking activity, up to the 60 mins.
Minimising or closing the app will stop tracking completely.
Note✨: Time Spent - in this context of Nuggets and Courses - is continuous when tracking across devices - as soon as the learner switches from one device to another, the tracking will continue instantly. there is no separation between timings.
For example...
User A begins learning their Sales Nugget at 4pm via the web app (desktop)
They leave the web app session running until 4.30pm
However at 4.20pm, they actively switched over to the mobile app, to continue learning Sales Nugget.
They continue on the mobile until 5pm
The Time Spent Learning tracker would calculate this session as 1 hour (4pm to 5pm), and not provide two separate recordings, due to switching devices.
Tracking Time Spent for Live Class, Webinar and Events
This section is an alternative to the way a User's time spent learning is calculated for Live Class, Webinar and Events specifically, which differs from the expectations outlined in our article, above.
Managers and Admins who want to keep track of the time Users are spending learning in a Live Class/Webinar session, can capture this when using the HowNow Virtual Classroom (HNVC).
Users can attend their booked session, while their time spent within that class, gets captured by HowNow - from beginning to end. This is then displayed in three ways….
Content main page: Duration - this displays the time for each individual session within a Live Class (for Events, this is used as the default setting, as offline attendance can't be 100% verified)
Content main page: Average Time Spent Learning - a summary card that includes times for Live Class, Webinar and Events
Content sub-page: Time Spent - this displays the User’s collective total time spent, across all sessions.
For example…
Dave books the session at 1.30pm.
He joins the Live Class for the full 1-hour duration.
Once the class ends, the 1-hour record is captured in the data table (Content sub-page).
The Time Spent column will allow his Line Manager (or any Admin) to see how much learning Dave partook in during the class.
Managers can use the Mark as Attended option, for any User who may have joined a session, from a direct link, outside of HowNow (and simply anyone who didn’t access it via the Join Class button).
With the above in mind, it’s important to note the following…
All Live Classes, Events and Webinars on your organisation's workspace - that existed prior to this feature - have been given Time Spent values, based on their own Durations, as the default option used.
For Live Class/Webinar: the status for a session can change from Attending to Attended, for a booked User, if they access the session link, without clicking the Join Class button on the Connection Test page (the page prior to actually entering the classroom). They would have attended, but with no Time Spent recorded.
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