If you’re managing training or onboarding in a company that uses Brainshark, you know the pain: endless spreadsheets, chasing people to complete modules, and way too much manual tracking. Good news—Brainshark does have tools to automate content assignments and reminders, but they’re easy to mess up or overcomplicate if you’re not careful. This guide is for anyone tasked with getting the right training to the right people, without losing your mind (or your weekends).
Let’s break down how to set up and automate content assignments in Brainshark, what really works, and what’s just noise.
1. Get Your Content in Order First
Before you even touch automation, make sure you know exactly what you want to assign. Brainshark lets you assign presentations, courses, curriculums, and learning paths—but that doesn’t mean you should assign everything at once.
Here’s what matters: - Check content status. Only live/published content can be assigned. Drafts and archived stuff won’t show up. - Group related items. If you’re assigning a whole onboarding program, use a curriculum or a learning path. Individual presentations work for one-off needs. - Double-check prerequisites. If you want people to complete things in a certain order, set up prerequisites in your learning path or curriculum.
Pro tip: Less is more. Don’t assign every available module “just in case.” People ignore firehoses.
2. Decide Who Gets What (And When)
You can assign Brainshark content to individual users, groups, or even entire departments. The trick is not to overthink it.
Best practices: - Use groups for automation. If your org syncs users from an HR system or Active Directory, groups usually reflect departments, roles, or locations. Much easier than picking users one-by-one. - Don’t assume groups are up-to-date. Double-check group membership. If you assign to the wrong group, the wrong people get your emails. - For small teams, manual’s fine. If you only have a handful of users, manual assignment isn’t the end of the world.
3. Assign Content Manually (The Basics)
Before you automate, learn the basics of manual assignment. This is how you’ll test your setup.
To assign manually: 1. Go to the content item (presentation, course, curriculum, or learning path). 2. Click “Assign.” 3. Choose users or groups. 4. Set a due date (optional but helpful). 5. Add a custom message if you want. 6. Click “Assign.”
What works:
Manual works for one-offs and testing. You see exactly who gets what.
What doesn’t:
Doing this for every new hire or recurring training gets old fast.
4. Automate Assignments with Rules
The real time-saver is automating assignments using rules. Here’s how to set it up without tripping over the details.
Step 1: Use Group-Based Automation
Most automation in Brainshark is triggered by group membership. When a user joins a group (like “New Hires” or “Sales Team”), they get assigned the content you’ve linked to that group.
How to do it: 1. Create or identify the group you want to use. 2. Go to the curriculum or learning path you want to automate. 3. Click “Assign,” then select the group. 4. In the assignment options, look for “Auto-assign to new group members” (the wording might vary). 5. Turn this on.
Now, every time someone is added to that group, they get the assignments automatically.
What works:
- Great for onboarding, recurring compliance, or role-based training.
- No need to reassign manually for each new person.
What doesn’t:
- If your IT team doesn’t keep groups updated, people fall through the cracks.
- You can’t always automate for super-specific cases (like “people in this region, in this role, hired after April”).
Step 2: Automate Reminders
Assignments mean nothing if people ignore them. Brainshark lets you automate reminder emails.
Set up reminders: 1. When assigning content, look for notification settings. 2. Set up automatic reminders—for example, 7 days before the due date, or every X days until complete. 3. Customize the message if you want (but keep it short).
Honest take:
Reminders are useful, but don’t overdo it. If people get too many nag emails, they’ll tune them out—or worse, mark them as spam.
5. Use Learning Paths for Smarter Automation
If you’re dealing with more than a couple pieces of content, use Learning Paths or Curriculums instead of assigning individual items. This keeps things organized for you and for your learners.
Why bother? - Easier tracking. One progress bar instead of ten. - Built-in prerequisites. Learners have to finish step 1 before step 2 unlocks. - Cleaner reporting. You see at a glance who’s done what.
Set up a Learning Path: 1. Go to “Learning” > “Learning Paths.” 2. Create a new path, add the course(s) or presentations in order. 3. Assign the Learning Path to the right group(s) and set up auto-assign for new members. 4. Set due dates and automated reminders.
What to ignore:
Don’t break your training into a million micro-modules just because you can. Chunk things logically. You’ll get fewer headaches—and so will your learners.
6. Reporting and Adjusting Assignments
You can automate assignments, but you still need to check if people are actually completing things.
How to check progress: - Use Brainshark’s “Reports” or “Dashboards” to see assignment status. - Filter by group, due date, or content. - Export results if you want to chase down stragglers (or hand reports to a manager).
What works:
Set aside regular time (monthly, not daily) to check progress and nudge people who are behind.
What doesn’t:
Micromanaging every missed deadline. If your reminders aren’t working, talk to managers, not just the users.
7. Common Pitfalls (And How to Avoid Them)
- Too many assignments: Don’t assign everything to everyone. Target your content.
- Groups not syncing: Make friends with your IT admin. If user groups aren’t updated, automation breaks.
- Vague due dates: Give people a real deadline. “ASAP” or “whenever” is code for “never.”
- Forgetting to test: Assign to yourself or a test user first. Nothing like 200 angry emails to ruin your week.
8. When to Skip Automation
Automation isn’t always the answer. If you’re running one-off sessions, or your user base changes constantly, manual assignments might actually be faster and less error-prone.
Ask yourself: - Is this a repeatable process? - Are my groups stable and accurate? - Do I actually want this to run on autopilot, or do I need more control?
If the answer’s “no” to most, keep it manual.
9. Quick Checklist for Setting Up Automated Assignments
Here’s the bare minimum you need to do:
- [ ] Confirm your content is published and organized.
- [ ] Make sure your groups are accurate and up-to-date.
- [ ] Build a Learning Path or Curriculum for bundled training.
- [ ] Assign content to groups, with auto-assign enabled for new members.
- [ ] Set due dates and (reasonable) reminders.
- [ ] Test it yourself or with a small pilot group.
- [ ] Schedule time to review reports and adjust as needed.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate as You Go
Automating content assignments in Brainshark isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overcomplicate. Start with one group or one Learning Path, see how it works, and tweak from there. Don’t try to automate every scenario right away. The more you keep it simple and test as you go, the less cleanup you’ll have later.
And remember: automation should save you time—not create new headaches. If you find yourself fighting the system, step back and see if you can simplify. Your future self will thank you.