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Engage

Points Settings

Setting up the Points feature in your Engage instance helps you foster engagement and recognize user activity. This article will walk you through the necessary steps and important settings for successfully launching Points.

Accessing Point Settings

  • Start by selecting the Admin icon in the left-hand menu of your Engage instance.

  • Locate the drop-down menu labeled Paths and Points (formerly just “Paths”). Click to expand it. Note: Only Engage users with Full Community-Wide Access to Paths will have access to the Points feature.

  • Within this menu, click Points Settings within the Points section to begin configuration.

There are four steps you need to review and complete for the Points program:

1. Turning on Points for Users

  • Decide if you are ready to have Points be visible for your entire Engage community and begin awarding Points to users. This is a global setting—when enabled, all users can view and earn Points.

  • Best Practice: We recommend activating Points only after you’ve created your initial set of Activities. This ensures that when students view the My Points Dashboard, there are already ways available to start earning Points. You can always come back to this setting after you have built your Activities.

  • Note: Points cannot be limited to specific users; it applies universally to all users in Engage. 

2. Configure Point Ranking

  • Choose whether users can see their ranking compared to others.

    • If enabled, users will see their numerical rank (e.g., #356) and their performance quartile (e.g., upper quartile, low average).

    • If disabled, users see only their total Points—not their relative standing.

  • For a full list of how these settings will change the My Points Dashboard, please review the Admin Guide to the Student View article.

3. Set Up Refresh Options

  • Decide if you want to enable Refresh—the ability to reset Points at certain intervals. When Refresh is enabled, users will see both Lifetime Points (total since feature activation) and Current Points (earned since the last Refresh). For a full list of how these settings will change the My Points Dashboard, please review the Admin Guide to the My Points Dashboard article. 

  • You can schedule one refresh date in advance. Common best practices include aligning refreshes with the start of the academic year or semester.

  • Refreshes occur at 11:59 PM on the chosen date, with the new Points period beginning at midnight the next day. Example: Scheduling August 1st, 2025 means the reset happens at 11:59 PM on August 1st and the new period starts at midnight on August 2nd, 2025.

  • If a scheduled refresh date passes, you’ll receive an alert on both the Point Settings screen and the Points Dashboard screen. To reschedule, use the Edit Date icon and adjust your selection in the date picker.

  • The Points Settings screen always displays the most current scheduled refresh date for your reference.

4. Save Your Settings

After configuring all settings, click Save to apply your changes.

Note: Be sure to click the “Save” icon to activate your settings and begin creating Activities. Even if you leave all Settings toggled off, you still need to click “Save” to confirm your choices. If you skip this step, an error message will appear on both the Settings and Dashboard screens.

Congratulations! You have now set up Points for your Engage instance. Users can immediately begin earning Points and engaging with your community activities.

Next Steps

Now that Points is configured, you can start building out activity types that award Points to users. Consult our Activity Configuration guide for more on customizing your Points program.