Reminders

Reminders are used to automatically send emails or SMS text messages to learners, administrators and other users. Examples uses for reminders include reminding learners to complete an evaluation, reminding faculty of pending forms, or notifying admins of an expiring course.

Events that cause reminders to be sent are called “reminder event triggers.” Each reminder event trigger is combined with a "user segment." The user segment is the user or users who will receive the reminder. For example, a reminder event trigger called "Event date: end" will cause a reminder to be sent when the course ends. Combining this with a user segment of "incomplete" will send the reminder to all users who have not completed the course at the end of the event. This can be used to remind learners to complete any remaining incomplete course objects.

Multiple reminders can be set per course, and reminders can be set to repeat.

Please click here to view the glossary of available reminders.

To enable a reminder:

  1. Navigate to the course.

  2. Click the "Reminders" tab.

  3. Check the "Enabled" checkbox.

  4. Type the number of days, hours or minutes in the "Days," Hours," or "Minutes" field.

  5. Select "Before" or "After" and specify the reminder event trigger by making a selection from the dropdown menu. Reminder event triggers are available in the glossary.

  6. For reminders to repeat, check the "Repeat" checkbox.

    1. Fill in the repeating increment by typing the number of days, hours or minutes into the "Days," "Hours," or "Minutes" fields in the "Every" section.

    2. Fill in the number of repeating reminders to be sent by typing the number of days, hours or minutes into the "Days," "Hours," or "Minutes" fields in the "For" section.

  7. Select a user segment to receive the reminder by making a selection from the dropdown menu. Recipient user segments are available in the glossary.

  8. Select the delivery mechanism of the reminder. By default, email will be selected. SMS will only be available if SMS is enabled on your EthosCE site. Contact support to enable SMS messaging.

  9. To send a test to the administrator user, click the "Send test" button. 

  10. Type the subject line or leave the default in the “Subject” field.

  11. Type the reminder text into the "Message" field.

  12.  

    1. Tokens may be used in the reminder text.

  13. Click "Save."

If a new reminder needs to be added, do not reuse and update an existing reminder, as it will not resend to users who have already received the reminder. A brand new reminder should be enabled in a new reminder field to ensure it sends.

When an RSS or a course is cloned, course object based event triggers will not be cloned.