Manage e-mail templates
E-mail templates can be used for courses in a course planner. There are 2 default templates for Welcome & Reminder mails, but others can be added by an administrator in the Administration panel > More > E-mail templates. Click on New e-mail template and in the empty template form:
- select type of e-mail: Welcome or Reminder e-mail
- chose a default language (the language used if there is no translation for a specific language within the template)
- for each language, a subject for the e-mail and the contents you wish to add. By selecting the lables suggested below the editor, in the form of for example [[person prename]] within the content section, the data will be dynamically retrieved and populated based on the created assignments in the course planner
Click Save when you have finished the e-mail definition and the new template will become available for you in the courses within the course planner.
Changes in the email template
If you make changes in the email template, they will not be applied to an already added email. To do this, the mail must be removed from the course and added again to the course from the email template.
Sending a Welcome mail via Course Planner
In the Course Planner it is possible to define Welcome mails that are sent to the learners' e-mail addresses as soon as a course has been assigned to them. These mailing rules can only be defined in the Course Planner. The mailing rule and mail content added to a course are linked to this course and function only as long as the rule is connected to the course.
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In the course section of the course plan select the required course for which you wish to define the Welcome mail.
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In the course details, scroll down to reach the E-mail rules section, then click on Add, select the E-mail template you would like to use and confirm by clicking on Select
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Click on the required mail template on the list to display the text to be dispatched.
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As you can see, the mail content was created according to the email template. You can now edit the content further. Click on the Edit button at the bottom. Text changes can now be made here.
Via the default language you define the e-mail language to be used in case a learner selected a language in his or her profile for which there is no e-mail translation available.
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To edit the dispatch time of a Welcome mail, insert the required time difference in the respective fields (first field for number of days, the second for number of hours). If more than 24 hours are inserted into the "hours" field, they will be converted into days / hours. Therefore, 25 hours will become 1 day / 1 hour.
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When the template is added to the list, it is displayed with the status "deactivated". In order to enable email sending once you've configured it to your wishes, you need to click on the Actions dropdown, select Enable e-mail rules, select the email and click Save. The status will now be changed to "activated" and the email can be sent out according to your previous settings
Sending a Reminder mail via Course Planner
In the Course Planner it is possible to also define Reminder mails that are sent to the learners' e-mail addresses to remind them of the assignment according to your defined rules. These mailing rules can only be defined in the Course Planner. The mailing rule and mail content added to a course are linked to this course and function only as long as the rule is connected to the course.
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In the course section of the course plan select the required course for which you wish to define the Reminder mail.
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In the course details, scroll down to reach the E-mail rules section, then click on Add, select the E-mail template you would like to use and confirm by clicking on Select
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Then click on the just added mail to see its content.
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As you can see, the mail content was created according to the email template. You can now edit the content further. Click on the Edit button at the bottom. Text changes can now be made here.
Via the default language you define the e-mail language to be used in case a learner selected a language in his or her profile for which there is no e-mail translation available.
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Currently, Reminder mails can only be dispatched if a validity period (start/end date) has been defined for the courses. You set up this definition with the function "Validity period" while assigning the courses to learners (see appropriate section in Actions within a course plan (reporting, setting validity periods)
Effective Date: Define the key event to which the rule will be aligned (the start time of the course, the end time of the course or the moment of assignment to the course)
Distribution: Define whether the dispatch will take place before or after the defined date in the previous step.
Time difference: The time difference indicates the difference to the key event with which the mail is to be dispatched.
For Reminder mails, please don't define a dispatch date before the assignment date.
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When the template is added to the list, it is displayed with the status "deactivated". In order to enable email sending once you've configured it to your wishes, you need to click on the Actions dropdown, select Enable e-mail rules, select the email and click Save. The status will now be changed to "activated" and the email can be sent out according to your previous settings
Conditions for an email to be sent
If a user has not yet assigned the course, an e-mail will be sent as soon as the course is assigned and the following conditions are met:
1) Mail rule is activated
2) User has not started the course yet or
3) User has already started the course but not yet finished
If a user has already assigned the course, an e-mail is sent as soon as the mail rule is activated and the following conditions are met:
1) User has not started the course yet or
2) User has already started the course but not yet finished
Changes directly in the mail
Changes made directly in the mail are only valid for this mail in this course and will not be included in the email template. If you delete this mail, the changes made will also be lost.
Changes in the email template
Conversely, if you make changes in the email template, they will **not** be applied in an already added email. To do this, the mail must be removed from the course and added again from the email template.