Understanding Student Tasks
In Nimbu, every piece of content assigned to a student has a corresponding progress record. This record referred to as a student task, captures what the content item is, whether it requires completion, and where the student currently stands in completing it. Understanding how student tasks work gives trainers and administrators precise visibility into what each student has done, what is outstanding, and what needs action.
What's Covered in This Article
This article explains how student progress is tracked at the individual content level.
- What Student Tasks Are: How content and student progress records combine to form a task.
- Task Types: The content types that generate student tasks and how they differ.
- Task Statuses: The statuses a task can hold and what each one means.
- Satisfactory Marking: How activity-level results are determined and what they represent.
What Student Tasks Are
A student task is the intersection of a content item and a student's individual progress record for that item. When a student is enrolled in a class, every content item in every unit of that class generates a task record for that student. This happens automatically, no manual setup is required.
The task record tracks two things: what the content item is (its type and completion requirements) and what the student has done with it (their current status and, where applicable, their result).
Completion Required vs Not Required
Not all content items in a unit carry the same weight in terms of completion. Nimbu distinguishes between two categories:
- Completion Required: Content that the student must finish for it to count toward unit progress. This includes all assessments, observations, and Evokio assessments (always mandatory), as well as learning resources that a content editor has explicitly flagged as requiring completion.
- Not Completion Required: Learning resources that are available for the student to engage with but do not need to be formally completed for unit progress purposes. These items still generate a task record and display a status, but their state does not block unit progression.
A Required badge is displayed on completion-required content in the student's unit view, so students can clearly distinguish what they must finish from what is supplementary.
Task Types
The content type determines how a task behaves, how it is completed, and whether a trainer needs to be involved in its outcome. The table below covers all task types available in Nimbu.
Activities (Graded - Trainer Involvement Required)
Activities are completion-required by default and always require a final result to be recorded before the task is considered complete.
| Task Type | Description | How Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment | A set of questions (short answer, multiple choice, true/false, selection, upload) submitted by the student for evaluation. | Student submits; self-marking questions are auto-graded; short answer and upload questions require trainer marking. |
| Observation | A practical task where a trainer observes and records student performance, or the student submits evidence for trainer review. | Trainer completes checklist questions; student submits any student questions; trainer sets a final result. |
| Evokio Assessment | An interactive assessment created in Evokio and embedded in Nimbu via LTI. | Student completes within the Evokio interface; scores are automatically passed back to Nimbu. |
Learning Resource Materials (LRMs)
LRMs may or may not be set as completion required, depending on how the content editor has configured them. Where completion is required, the student must actively mark the resource as complete using a Complete button.
| Task Type | Description | How Completed |
|---|---|---|
| A document file the student reads within the platform. | Student clicks the Complete button after reviewing. | |
| Video | A video file or embedded video the student watches. | Student clicks the Complete button after viewing. |
| Podcast | An audio file the student listens to. | Student clicks the Complete button after listening. |
| Article | In-platform text content authored directly in Nimbu. | Student clicks the Complete button after reading. |
| Canva | A Canva presentation embedded within the unit. | Student clicks the Complete button after reviewing. |
| Quiz | A self-marking knowledge check containing true/false, selection, or multiple choice questions. | Student completes and submits; auto-marked immediately. |
| SCORM | An e-learning package that may send completion and score data back to Nimbu automatically. | Completed within the SCORM package; result reported back to Nimbu automatically, or via a Complete button if the package does not auto-report. |
| External Content | A link or embedded third-party resource. | Via automatic result reporting or a Complete button, depending on configuration. |
Note: For SCORM and External Content, the completion mechanism depends on whether the package is capable of automatically reporting results to Nimbu. If it is not, content editors can enable a Complete button so students can manually mark it as done.
Task Statuses
Each student task displays a status that reflects the student's current state for that content item. Statuses update automatically as the student engages with content, submits work, and receives results.
LRM Task Statuses
| Status | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Ready | The content is available and the student has not yet accessed it. |
| In Progress | The student has opened the content but has not yet clicked the Complete button or had their completion automatically recorded. |
| Completed (C) | The student has completed the content, either by clicking the Complete button or via automatic result reporting. |
| Locked | The content is inaccessible due to a prerequisite not yet being met, or due to trainer activation timing settings. |
Activity Task Statuses
| Status | Label | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Inactive | IA | The activity has not yet been activated for the student. Access is blocked until a trainer activates it (applies when Trainer Activation Required is enabled). |
| In Progress | IP | The student has accessed the activity and is working on it, but has not yet submitted. |
| To Be Marked | TBM | The student has submitted the activity and it is awaiting trainer review and marking. |
| Satisfactory | S | The activity has been marked and the student met the required standard. |
| Not Satisfactory | NS | The activity has been marked and the student did not meet the required standard. |
| Locked | Locked | The activity is inaccessible due to a prerequisite or activation timing restriction. |
Satisfactory Marking
For activities - assessments and observations - completing and submitting the task is not enough on its own. The task must also receive a result: either Satisfactory (S) or Not Satisfactory (NS). These results are applied at two levels.
Question-Level Results
Each individual question within an assessment or observation is marked S or NS:
- Self-marking questions (multiple choice, true/false, selection): Marked automatically by the system based on correct or incorrect answers at the moment the student submits.
- Trainer-marked questions (short answer, upload): Reviewed and marked manually by the trainer in the Marking Dashboard.
- Trainer questions in observations (checklist items completed by the trainer): Filled in directly by the trainer during or after the observation.
Activity-Level Final Result
Once all questions in an activity have been addressed, the trainer assigns an overall S or NS result for the activity as a whole. This is a professional judgement - it reflects whether the student's full body of evidence for that activity demonstrates the required standard, not simply a count of question-level results.
Note: Even if all individual questions are marked S, a trainer may assign an overall NS if the collective evidence does not sufficiently demonstrate competency. Conversely, a small number of NS questions may not prevent an overall S if the student has clearly demonstrated the required skills and knowledge across the activity.
How Activity Results Feed Unit Progress
The S/NS results recorded across all activities in a unit collectively inform the unit's final competency outcome. A unit where all required activities are marked S is typically eligible for a Competent result; a unit with one or more NS activities may result in Not Yet Competent, though the trainer retains final discretion when the manual result setting is enabled.
Related Articles
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- What is Content?
- Marking Dashboard