How to Share Learner Training Time Data With External Tools

Before You Start

Time-in-training data can vary depending on how learning content is configured:

SCORM courses rely on the data sent back from the content itself.
Bridge can’t control scenarios where a learner leaves a course open, which may lead to inflated “time in course” values.
Some organizations prefer to use course duration instead, as it provides a more consistent measurement.
If you’re looking for a quick way to view total time spent in a course, check out the article, ‘How do I see the total time a learner spent in a course?’ It’s a useful starting point before setting up data exports.

Best Practice: Use Bridge Analytics to schedule and send CSV files via SFTP, email, or other delivery methods.

How to Report on Learner Time-in-Training Data Using Bridge Analytics

There are two common ways to report on time in training using Bridge Analytics:

Time in Course (Actual Time Spent)

Best for: Tracking real learner engagement (with some variability).

Course Duration (Estimated Time)

Best for: Consistent, standardized reporting across all learning items.

Note: For either of the options below, you’ll need the Advanced Analytics Analyst role. This role must be provisioned, even if you are already an Account Admin.

Step 1: Access the Report in Bridge Analytics

Navigate to the Overview dashboard in the Analytics menu.
Locate the Time in Course widget.
Click on the time value.

Step 2: Open in Advanced Analytics

Click Explore in the top right to open the report in Advanced Analytics, the BI tool in the backend of Bridge.
Click the cog icon in the top right-hand corner and select Save and schedule.
Enter a title and click Save & View Look.

Step 3: Schedule the Report for Delivery

Open the schedule options.
Choose your preferred cadence (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).
Select SFTP as the delivery method.
Configure the destination and any required credentials.
Select CSV as the file format in the scheduling options.
Go to Advanced Options > Limit > All Results to ensure the full dataset is included.

Notes:

Time is reported in seconds.
Output includes course-level data only.

How to Use Course Duration (Recommended for Consistency)

Many organizations use the course duration set in Bridge instead of the actual time spent for a more consistent view of the time learners spend in training across all items.

Step 1: Build Your Transcript Report

Go to Analytics > Transcript.
Apply relevant filters in the top row and refresh your report.
Click the more options menu (the three dots) in the transcript and select Explore from here to access additional reporting options.

Step 2: Configure in Advanced Analytics

Increase the row limit to 5,000 to re-run the report with any modified filters.
Add the Courses filter and select Course Duration (In Minutes).
Filter to include only Courses (Optional).

Step 3: Run and Review

Click Run at the top of the page to generate the report.
The report will include a column displaying Course Duration for each item.

Notes:

A value of 0 means no duration was set.
A null value indicates the field is not applicable.

Report Delivery Options

Once your report is ready, you can schedule delivery to a variety of destinations, including:

SFTP (Recommended)

Send CSV files securely to external systems.
Ideal for automated pipelines.

Email

Send reports to one or multiple recipients.
Recipients don’t need to be registered in Bridge.
Different file formats are available (i.e., CSV, Excel, HTML, etc.).

Webhook

Send data to internal systems in near real-time in a digestible format.

Amazon S3

Deliver files directly to your S3 bucket.

Using APIs to Pull Course Data (Advanced Option)

You can also retrieve time-in-training data via Bridge’s APIs. This solution is ideal for teams that want to integrate training data directly into internal systems and BI tools.

Course Duration Example

CALL

GET /api/author/course_templates/{{course_id}}

Note: Look for the estimated_time field in the response.

Live Training Sessions

You can use Bridge’s APIs to pull the start and end times of live training sessions.

CALL

GET /api/author/live_courses/{{live_course_id}}/sessions

Note: Use start_at and end_at to calculate duration.

Summary

Use Time in Course for actual engagement (less precise).
Use Course Duration for consistent reporting (recommended).
Deliver data via SFTP, email, webhook, or S3.
Use APIs for custom integrations.

Key Considerations

SCORM data may not always reflect true engagement time.
Always validate your report before scheduling.
Advanced Analytics access requires the Advanced Analytics Analyst role.
Choose the method that best aligns with your reporting needs.