Creating Learner Notifications

The first step is to create a learner notification based on the content type you want to target.

1. From your homepage, select Users > Notifications.
2. In the left menu, select Learner Notifications > Add Learner Notification.
3. From the drop-down, select the learner notification type.
4. In the Title field, enter a title for your notification.
5. Select Content (Individual Session), Content Grouping (Group of Sessions), Learning Path(s).
6. Enter the name of the content in the Content search field.
7. Or click All Content if Content Grouping is not selected.
8. Click Save.

Next, you will add emails to the notification that will get sent out based on action triggers. See the next section for how to add emails to notifications.

Once the notification is created, emails can then be added to the notification. Emails are sent to enrolled learners based on triggers and can exclude learners that have already performed certain actions or met specific criteria.

1. Click Add Email.
2. Select the trigger (action required to send this email) from the drop-down. For example, you can choose to send immediately after enrollment or to send on a specific date.
   • Depending on the trigger chosen, complete the relevant fields that appear below. Be sure to fill in the Subject and Body as you would like for them to appear in the email.
3. You may optionally select a condition from the Exclude Conditions drop-down to skip sending emails to learners that have already performed an action or meet the selected criteria (e.g. already completed the content).
   Note

   Exclude conditions are not available for the trigger "Send immediately after a learner performs action".

4. To preview this email in your inbox, click Send Test Email to send a test to your currently signed-in email address.
   Note

   We recommend logging in with a learner account and performing the action to trigger the notification.

5. Add Button and Button URL are for adding a call-to-action to the bottom of your email, so that you can send traffic to a specific site.
6. Click Save.

For each email, a trigger needs to be selected so the information gets to the learner at the right time. You have a few options - read on to know what the trigger options are and what actions are available for each trigger.

Substitutions in the form of tags can be added to the subject and body of the notification email. When used, the substitutions, or tags will be replaced with values from the user or content before sending. Substitutions can be modified like other text using the WYSIWYG modification icons.

Substitutions For All Notification Types:

• Content Title {{contentTitle}}: The title of the content the learner is being notified about.
• Start Date {{contentStart}}: The date the learner started the content. (Note, this is not when the content starts.)
• Start Time {{time}}: The time the learner started the content. (Note, this is not when the content starts.)
• Content Description {{contentDescription}}: The description of the content.
• Learner’s Name {{firstName}}: The learner’s first name only.
• Learner References 1-10 {{ref1-10}}: The value of the reference in the Learner’s profile.

Substitutions For VILT Notifications Only:

• Session Title {{sessionTitle}}: The course title of an individual session.
• Content Dates & Times {{contentDatesAndTimes}}: A formatted list of meeting dates and times.
• Attendee Dial In Number {{audioInfo}}: The value from the “Attendee Dial In” field in the vILT’s settings.
• Google Calendar Link {{addToGoogleCalendar}}: A link to add the event to Google Calendar. Clicking this link will prompt the learner’s calendar application to open. The calendar event links learners to the URL of the content item within Thought Industries. On event day, learners click on the link in their calendar, are prompted to log into your site, and then are redirected to the webinar provider.
• Microsoft Outlook Calendar Link {{addToMicrosoftOutlookCalendar}}: A link to add the event to Outlook Calendar. Clicking this link will prompt the learner’s calendar application to open. The calendar event links learners to the URL of the content item within Thought Industries. On event day, learners click on the link in their calendar, are prompted to log into your site, and then are redirected to the webinar provider.
• Calendar Link {{addToCalendarLink}} or {{downloadCalendarIcs}}: A link to download a standard ICS file and add the event to iCal, or other compatible calendars. Clicking this link will prompt the learner to log in and then a standard ICS file will download. By default, the calendar event links learners directly to the webinar provider's event (e.g., directly to Zoom, WebEx, etc.). On event day, learners click on the link in their calendar and are taken directly to the webinar provider (no need to log in).
  Tip

  ICS links {{addToCalendarLink}} and {{downloadCalendarIcs}} behave differently than Google and Outlook links. There is a feature flag to change the default behavior for ICS links so that it requires the learner to log in to your site first (matching the learner experience for Google and Outlook links). If this feature flag is enabled, on event day, when learners click on the link in their calendar, they will be prompted to log into your site and then redirected to the webinar provider.

  
  

  Please reach out to Support if you would like this enabled on your instance.

• ICS attachment {{icsAttachment}}: This substitution value can be added anywhere in the body of the learner notification. This substitution value is only available for triggers that are based on learner enrollment actions: send days after a learner performs an action and send immediately after enrollment. When this substitution value is included in a learner notification email, nothing will appear in the actual email body that is sent to the learner; instead, a standard ICS file will be attached to the email. All standard/modern email providers will be able to interpret this file and present learners with a clear call to action to add the event to their calendar. Note that the exact appearance of the calendar event varies slightly depending on how each email provider chooses to interpret the event information. Most notably, calendar events may look different in Outlook than in other email providers.
  Tip

  If you want to include additional content details in your ICS files, there is a feature flag that allows you do so. When enabled, the content description that appears on the content detail page will also be included in the ICS file for VILTs so that learners see the description in calendar event. Please reach out to Support if you would like this enabled on your instance.

• Link to Join Webinar {{joinLink}}: A link from the webinar provider to join the webinar. This is specific to the learner and meeting, so each email will contain a different link.
• Session ID {{sessionID}}: The session ID of an individual session.

Substitutions For ILT Notifications Only:

• Attendee Info {{attendeeInfo}}: The value from the “Attendee Info” field found in ILT settings.
• Event Link {{eventLink}}: Link to the Thought Industries event page.
• Event Location {{location}}: Formatted location address, room number, etc. from the ILT settings.
• Google Calendar Link {{addToGoogleCalendar}}: A link to add the event to Google Calendar. Clicking this link will prompt the learner’s calendar application to open.
• Microsoft Outlook Calendar Link {{addToMicrosoftOutlookCalendar}}: A link to add the event to Outlook Calendar. Clicking this link will prompt the learner’s calendar application to open.
• Calendar Link {{addToCalendarLink}} or {{downloadCalendarIcs}}: A link to download a standard ICS file and add the event to iCal, or other compatible calendars. Clicking this link will prompt the learner to log in and then a standard ICS file will download.
• ICS attachment {{icsAttachment}}: This substitution value can be added anywhere in the body of the learner notification. This substitution value is only available for triggers that are based on learner enrollment actions: send days after a learner performs an action and send immediately after enrollment. When this substitution value is included in a learner notification email, nothing will appear in the actual email body that is sent to the learner; instead, a standard ICS file will be attached to the email. All standard/modern email providers will be able to interpret this file and present learners with a clear call to action to add the event to their calendar. Note that the exact appearance of the calendar event varies slightly depending on how each email provider chooses to interpret the event information. Most notably, calendar events may look different in Outlook than in other email providers.
  Tip

  If you want to include additional content details in your ICS files, there is a feature flag that allows you do so. When enabled, the content description that appears on the content detail page will also be included in the ICS file for ILTs so that learners see the description in calendar event. Please reach out to Support if you would like this enabled on your instance.

• Session ID {{sessionID}}: The session ID of an individual session.

The time frame for certain triggers may vary:

• Learner Performs an Action: The job to send emails based on learner actions will run a number of days after the action was performed.
• Number of days before/after the content start/end date: The job to send emails based on content start/end date will run within ~3hrs of 12am (in your platform's timezone) on that specific date.
• On a specific date: The job to send emails on a specific date will run ~3hrs of 12am (in your platform's timezone) on that specific date.
• Immediately after learner performs action: Immediately

Examples of How to Schedule Notifications Based on When Learners Should Receive Them