Creating Notification Template for a Pre-Class Reminder

Before a Class begins, you may want to notify instructor and students that are going to be attending the class. You can create a Notification Plan in Skillable TMS to let them know.

Create a Notification

1. Open notification plans, from Site Administration on the Notifications tile, select Create Notification Plan.

2. Input a name and description for the notification.

3. The trigger is the amount of time you set before class begins. The Trigger Event is Class time trigger.

4. Add filters, for example you may want to set the Class Status to Scheduled and the Enrollment Status set to Enrolled.

5. You must add a filter for Trigger XX Hours Before Class Starts.

6. There is not a person triggering the action, it is based on time.

7. The student(s) and the instructor(s) can be sent the reminder. If the notification is only to the student, then the To is User. To add instructors assigned to the class, check Instructor.

8. Fill in From and Subject. Add a *CC as needed.

9. Uncheck Enabled until you are ready to test the notification.

10. Input your text with replacement text for the notification.

11. On the Organization tab, assign the organization(s) where the notification will be used.

12. If you wish to limit it the notification to specific courses, select them on the Courses tab.

Enable Notifications for a Class

Notifications related to classes must have Enable Notifications checked to have them sent.

To enable notifications on a class,

1. Edit the class and stay in the Basic Information section.

2. Select Show Advanced Settings in the top right above the section header.

3. Check the box for Enable Notifications.

4. Save.

You can also add this as a default setting so that each class created has notifications enabled. To do this,

1. Edit your Organization profile.

2. Open the Preferences tab.

3. Under Class Settings, check Enable Class Notifications.

4. Save.

Test a Pre-Class Reminder Notification

Testing a notification gives you the opportunity to verify that the notification sends when you want it to go out and does not send when you do not want it to go out. You can limit the impact by restricting the notification to only go out for one Course.

For testing purposes, to limit the Users a notification is sent to you may create a course specifically for this purpose and then specify the course in the notification plan.

To create the course with the minimum fields:

1. From Site Admin on the Courses tile, select Create Course.

2. On the Basic Information tab,

   1. Input a name for the course, Testing Automated Notifications.

   2. In the Program field select Training.

   3. On the Content Provider field, select your organization.

   4. Check the box to enable Available Instructor-Led.

3. On the Publishing Groups tab, add a publishing group under your organization.

Time Trigger notifications are sent out at the top of each hour and trigger for any class within the previous 59 minutes. If your notification is set up to send a reminder 24 hours before class starts, you will need to schedule a class starting the next day at the at the beginning of the next hour (at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, etc.) or within the 59 minutes before the next hour. For example, if it is currently July 1st at 1:45PM when you are testing the notification, you will schedule the class for July 2nd at 2PM.

Open your Notification Plan, if you have disabled the notification you will need to add the Enabled filter on the Find Notifications page and filter by Is not Enabled.

To set up testing, begin by preparing your notification.

1. Select Edit on the notification.

2. Open the Courses tab and select Specify courses.

3. Under the Individual courses heading, select Add course.

4. Search for and select a course named, Testing Automated Notifications, then select OK.

5. On the Basic Information tab, check the Enabled box.

6. Save.

Create a Class

1. Create a new class using the course set on your notification.

2. Verify the time zone matches the time zone you are in.

3. Verify any notification filters you have set are set in the class. For example, if the class must be Dedicated for the notification to send, then assign a company to the class.

4. Schedule the first class session for tomorrow's date and have it on the next hour, for example, if it is currently 1:01PM-1:59PM set the class to start at 2PM.

5. Save the class.

Check for Notifications

1. After the top of the hour, select the Details link in the top right corner of the page to return to the Class profile.

2. Select the Find Sent Notifications link to view all notifications sent for the class.

Enable your Notification

Once you have completed testing, you will want to enable your notification to put it in use.

1. Return to your Notification Plan to select Edit and open the Courses tab.

2. To make your notification available for all courses used in your organization, remove the Testing Automated Notifications course and select Applies to all courses.

3. To make your notification available for specific courses used in your organization, remove the Testing Automated Notifications course. Select Add Course and select all courses that need this notification, then select OK.

4. Save.

Additional Resources

For more information on enrollment notifications and descriptions of all the available fields, read Creating New User Notification.