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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-10-17
Steps: Set Up External Tracking

Steps: Set Up External Tracking

This information is to help you set up external tracking if you are using legacy tasks to integrate with Workday Learning. See Concept: Cloud Connect for Learning Integration Methods to learn about the various integration methods and their benefits.
  • Set up Cloud Connect for Learning. See Steps: Set Up Cloud Connect for Learning.
  • Administrator access and an active account for the external provider.
  • Content Import integration must be complete.
  • Test tracking in a Sandbox tenant before enabling it in Production.
You can enable near real-time completion and in progress tracking to track when learners consume external content from these providers on the Learning dashboard:
  • Coursera
  • Go1
  • Harvard ManageMentor®
  • LinkedIn Learning™
  • OpenSesame
  • Pluralsight
  • Skillsoft Percipio
  • Udemy Business
In progress tracking for these providers works by default for all customers who enable completion tracking. To protect overall customer tenant performance, Workday limits tracking requests per tenant, per external content provider, to 1000 requests per minute. In the unusual event of high system load and an increase in the number of requests, it can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours for the tracking record to be updated, depending on each external content provider's retry mechanism.
To successfully track a learner's progress send the learner’s Workday Username from an Identity provider (IdP) to the external content provider on the Account Name of the tracking statement. Using Workday Username guarantees a unique ID. Only use an Employee ID or an email if it matches the learner's Workday Username.
These providers communicate with Workday in near-real time regardless of whether a learner launches their content from:
  • A desktop device.
  • An external platform.
  • Mobile.
  • Workday Learning.
If you enable completion tracking, the
Mark Complete
 button automatically disappears.
Cloud Connect for Learning only tracks progress and completion and doesn't include grades or scores.
Don't configure Cloud Connect for Learning on a Gold tenant.
  1. (Optional) Activate Single Sign-On (SSO) tracking integration.
    Contact your content provider to confirm the SSO support.
    As the process varies for each provider, we recommend that you contact them directly and use their documentation to configure it correctly. They'll work with your IT staff to configure SSO with your corporate identity provider, and to use the Workday Username as the Account name on the tracking statement.
    If you don’t have an IdP, you can use a learner’s email address as the user identifier value for tracking. However, you must create a custom report using the
    External Tracking Requests
     report data source on a regular basis to view failed tracking instances.
    Workday recommends tracking a learner's progress using their Workday Username.
  2. Run the
    Configure External Content Tracking Credentials
     report to generate values for these Parameter fields:
    • Auth URL
    • Client ID
    • Client Secret
    • Tracking URL
    Security: The
    Set Up: External Content
     domain in the Backpack Hub Service and Cloud Connect for Learning domains.
  3. Select an external content provider and the
    Generate Credentials
     button.
    Take note of your Client Secret information. If you lose it, you'll need to generate new credentials.
  4. Confirm that you've recorded your credentials.
  5. (Optional) Select the
    Regenerate Credentials
     button on the trusted credentials summary if you've lost your Client Secret information.
  6. Access the
    Create Client Credentials Mapping
     task.
    Only Security Administrators can run this task.
    Security: The
    Security Administration
     domain in the System functional area.
  7. Enter these values:
    Field
    Value
    Client ID
    The
    Client ID
    you generated using the
    Configure External Content Tracking Credentials
     report.
    Integration System User
    The Integration System User (ISU) must be part of an Integration System Security Group (ISSG) on the
    Cloud Connect for Learning Service
     domain security policy. Grant the ISSG
    View
     and
    Modify
     permissions for reports and tasks and
    Get
     and
    Put
     permissions for integrations. To save time, we recommend that you reuse the ISU for Content Import integration.
  8. Access the Administrator page for your external content provider to add completion integration details.
    Consult configuration guides for your external content provider for details on how to configure their tracking functionality.
  9. Enter the generated credentials to activate the integration:
    Depending on the external content provider, you can:
    • Configure tracking using their user interface.
    • Contact their support team to configure tracking on your behalf.
    We recommend that you test tracking in Sandbox before enabling it in Production. Tracking won’t be recorded in Sandbox once it’s enabled in Production.
    If you aren't using Workday Account Username to configure tracking, and you would like to use Workday Account Username, work with your content provider to ensure they support the sending of Workday Username in their integration.
    If you are using a learner’s email address as the user identifier value for tracking, you must create a custom report using the
    External Tracking Requests
     report data source on a regular basis to view failed tracking instances.
    If you're using a learner’s email address as the user identifier value, then tracking won’t record if:
    • The learner completed a course on an external content provider's website that's not imported into your Workday tenant.
    • The learner's email on the external content provider's website isn't the same learner email used to log into Workday.
    The tracking mechanism disregards statements for learners who have 2 or more persons with the same email address. We expect that each person in Workday has a unique email address according to the external content provider's setup. A common exception to this includes customers with 2 persons or more with the same email address such as:
    • Contingent workers who become full-time employees.
    • Pre-hires who become full-time employees.
    So for multiple learners with the same email address, we:
    • Check all people with duplicate addresses.
    • Check whether there's at least 1 learning record associated to exactly 1 person.
    • Associate the tracking to that person.
  10. Edit Domain Security Policies.
    To report on failed tracking instances for your organization, configure the
    Manage: External Tracking Data
     domain in the Cloud Connect for Learning functional area. Grant security groups Modify permissions.
  11. (Optional) Create Custom Reports.
    Create an advanced custom report to view these failed tracking instances for your organization:
    • Course not found: When the learner consumed a course on an external content provider's website that's not imported into your Workday tenant.
    • Duplicate email found: When there are multiple learners with the same email address.
    • Learner not found: When the learner’s email on the external content provider’s website isn’t the same learner email used to log into Workday, or the email isn't associated to a learner in Workday.
    1. From the
      Data Source
       prompt, select the
      External Tracking Requests
       report data source (RDS).
      Every week, Workday automatically deletes failed tracking instances older than 180 days on the
      External Tracking Requests
       RDS.
    2. On the
      Columns
       tab, add rows with these selections in
      Fields
       column:
      • Content Provider
      • Created Moment
      • External Tracking Processing Errors
      • External Tracking Request
      • Learner Actor ID
      • Learner Email
      • Learning Content Reference ID
Workday provides you and your learners with more accurate information on their external content consumption.
Use these custom report fields in your custom reports to surface tracking data for your organization:
  • External Content Attendance Duration in Minutes:
     To track the amount of time a learner has spent on an activity associated with an enrollment. Workday can only track this information if the external content providers submit it.
  • Last Updated Lesson Tracking Moment:
     To view a timestamp for a lesson's in progress and completion tracking.
  • Record Progress:
     Contains a default value of 0.5 to record in progress tracking for external content.