Schedule emails for the entire session in iLearn insights

Unit Convenors can now schedule emails for the entire session and emails will be sent automatically with a confirmation email sent to the Convenor when the email has been sent.

In LAWS8097 I use scheduled emails to send reminders to students about upcoming assessment deadlines. It is a very quick and simple process. I can set up all my reminders at the beginning of the session, which is really great and means that there is one less thing to think about during the busy teaching session.

_{Daniela Simone | Senior Lecturer in Macquarie Law School | Faculty of Arts}

There are 3 easy steps to schedule an email:

1. Compose and save email template

• Write an email that you want to send or select from saved email templates by clicking on the ‘available email template(s)’ selection box.
• Customise email subject or email body text as required. You can improve personalised student emails by using iLearn Insights ‘Variables’.
• Save template with a meaningful name by clicking ‘Create new email template’.

2. Preview email template

• ‘Select an activity to preview activity-related data’ is optional. If your email has any activity-related ‘Variables’ (Example activity name, due date, etc.) then only you need to select an activity that is associated with this email.

Note: Please note that this step is very important. Make sure you are 100% happy with the preview email. Remember, what you see in the preview email is exactly what the student receives.

3. Schedule an email

• Select a group of students you want to schedule an email for. Currently you can schedule for –
  • All participants
  • All participants who have not logged in to iLearn within last 7 days
  • All participants who have not submitted an activity

• If you intend to send email to ‘All participants who have not submitted an activity’ then you need to select an activity in step 2

• Select schedule date and time
• Acknowledge email preview in step 2 looks correct and click on ‘Schedule’ button.

View all scheduled emails for this unit

You can view all of your scheduled emails together with the following –

• Schedule ID: An ID to identify your schedule email. This ID will be within the confirmation email sent to you.
• Schedule for: Which group of students will receive this email.
• Schedule on: Date and time of schedule.
• Mouseover ‘Preview’ to preview your scheduled email.
• You can delete a scheduled email by selecting the email and clicking the ‘Delete schedule email’ button as long as the scheduled time is prior to the current time.

I use the ‘schedule an email’ function because it allows me to draft emails in advance as often I need to adjust, add or remove certain information after some reflections. The function also allows me to send out early in the morning which is particularly useful when I need to remind students about the assignment deadline or exam on the day. This gives plenty of time to my students (I have about 400 students in each semester) to prepare, particularly those who don’t even realise the deadline or exam on this day!

_{Raymond Trau | Senior Lecturer in Dept of Management | Macquarie Business School}

Need more help?

Please contact Shamim Joarder or Jeremy Hind for more information or refer to the iLearn Insights website.

Access the other iLearn Insights posts in this series:

• Faculty, department and program level reporting in iLearn Insights
• Forum participation report in iLearn Insights
• Share ‘sent emails’ in iLearn Insights with unit convenor, tutor, marker and support staff
• SCORM participation report in iLearn Insights