Reassignment Process versus Certificate Expiration

A learner may be reassigned to a course or learning path in three different ways:

Manually reassigned the course or learning path
Reassigned due to the course or learning path settings
Reassigned due to an automated reassignment rule

For ease of tracking assignments, expirations, and user progress it is recommended to use one method across the whole academy. When selecting the best option, consider:

The population that you want to be impacted
The certificates that will or will not be awarded
The way you want possible future edits to be handled
The Compliance dashboard, in case your course or learning path has been marked as compliant.

Population Impacted

Benefits	Reassignment Rules	Certificate Expiration	Comments
Reassign a course or learning path for assigned learners only. Learners who drop out are not included.	X		Use the reassignment rules to reassign only the currently enrolled and assigned learners. If course progress is set to reset when certificates expire, this also affects the unenrolled and unassigned users.
Configurable to reassign a course or learning path only to learners who have completed the course.	X	X
Configurable to reassign a course or learning path to all enrolled learners.	X		Use the Reassignment Rules to reset the progress for learners who have not completed the course or learning path.
Configurable to reassign a course or learning path only to learners who have not completed it.	X

Certificates

Benefits	Reassignment Rules	Certificate Expiration	Comments
A certificate can be awarded.	X	X
Send reminder notifications for expiring and expired certificates.		X	If certificates have a specific expiration period, you can schedule notifications to remind learners their certificates are expiring or expired.
The certificate can be set to expire. Note: Expiration can result in reassignment but does not have to.	X	X

Considerations and Impact Related to Future Edits

Benefits	Reassignment Rules	Certificate Expiration	Comments
Easily modify the configuration.	X	X*	Example: A 12-month reassignment needs to be updated to either 24 months or 6 months.
Adjust settings so expiration dates on certificates for completed courses are removed retroactively.	N/A	X*

*Example:
A certificate is set to expire in one month. You can change it to expire in zero months, removing the expiration date. In this case, any past completions removed from the certificate’s expiration are restored. This feature can only be used to remove the certificate expiration date, not to make it earlier or extend it. Removing the expiration date also restores completions for learners whose certificate(s) expired due to the certificate expiration.

Other

Benefits	Reassignment Rules	Certificate Expiration	Comments
Usable with the Compliance Dashboard.		X	Use this option if your course or learning path is marked as a compliant one.

Note:
A learner who earns a course certificate and then drops out of the course is not automatically reassigned to the course when their certificate expires. Instead, they receive a notification that their certificate has expired and their progress will be reset.