How are notifications managed in topics and pathways?

Each topic and pathway has a Notifications tab which contains all the email notification options broken up by their individual event type (including enrolment, assessment, reminder and completion).

Notifications are managed using an 'action subscription' model. Each topic and pathway includes a range of possible actions, each of which can trigger notifications to designated subscribers.

Every action has a specific trigger and a default recipient who receives the notification. You can choose to disable individual actions entirely or subscribe additional recipients as needed.

To customise notification settings, click the blue pencil icon on each action panel, make your changes, and save.

What actions can trigger a notification?

Actions include:

Enrolments (including enrolment retakes)
Assessment-related activities (standard topics only)
Reminders
Completions

Expand the notification types below to learn more about each.

Enrolment notifications

These actions are always available:

Topic/Pathway enrolment. When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when an learner is manually enrolled in the topic or pathway by an admin or automation (either individually, part of a bulk enrolment or via an automated enrolment or API enrolment).
By default, the email is sent to the learner and includes a link to the topic or pathway as well as a summary of the topic or pathway..
Topic/Pathway self-enrolment. When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when a learner 'self enrols' in either a topic or pathway (via their catalogue or an auto-enrol link). By default, the email is sent to the Primary Admin (as defined at Accounts → Subscription) with details of the person and enrolment. This action is used to notify admins about a self-enrolment. When enabling this option, it's worth keeping in mind that it can create many notifications in a large organisation.
Topic/Pathway retake enrolment. When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when a learner is enrolled in the topic or pathway as the result of a retake (e.g. retake triggered manually or via recertification).

Assessment notifications (standard topics only)

These actions are only visible when the Assessment module is activated in a standard topic. These actions are not visible for pathways or short topics.

Assessment retake (sent when= retake is requested). When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when a learner fails an assessment and has run out of retakes - so they need to request another retake. By default, the email is sent to the Primary Admin as defined at Accounts → Subscription.
- This action cannot be disabled once an Assessment module in your Standard Topic is active.
Assessment retake (sent when= retake is approved). When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when a learner's retake request has been approved.
Assessment review required. When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when assessment results are not immediately made available to learners upon completion and require an admin to review them first. By default, the email is sent to the learner and the Primary Admin as defined at Accounts → Subscription.

Note: Whenever a change is made to assessment settings in a published topic, the topic must be republished before any related notification changes will take effect. If an assessment retake or review notification has not sent, this may be the reason.

Reminder Notifications

These actions are always available, however, they are directly tied to due dates and therefore will only be triggered for enrolments with an assigned due date.

Topic/Pathway reminder - before due date, on due date, and after due date overdue). Each reminder action can be configured separately (e.g. you may only want to notify managers on the 1-week overdue action). When enabled, each action means an email will be sent at the scheduled time with a reminder for the learner to complete the topic or pathway. By default, the email is sent to the learner and includes a copy of their journal or list of the topics in the pathway.
- NOTE: Reminder emails are not sent if a learner has completed the topic or pathway by the time the reminder action is reached.
- NOTE: Reminder emails are only sent to enrolments that have a due date. If an enrolment does not have a due date, no reminder can be sent. It does not matter if the topic or pathway settings have a due date or not - if an individual enrolment has a due date, it will be sent a reminder (if the enrolment is not completed).

Completion Notifications

These actions are always available:

Topic/pathway is completed. When enabled, this action means an email will be sent when a learner completes all modules in that topic or all topics in a pathway. By default, the email is sent to the learner and summarises their key results (length, completion date, assessment results, activities completed), along with a copy of their journal and a PDF attachment of their certificate if enabled as per the details here. This notification is enabled for all topics and pathways by default but can be disabled, if required.

Who can subscribe to notifications?

Each action has a default recipient for the notification. If the action is enabled, that recipient is selected by default and cannot be removed from the notification.

Effectively, that action notification is 'theirs' and their name will appear in the To box of the notification email.

However, other people can be subscribed to each notification.

Primary Admins. This is the Primary Admin Email as defined at Accounts → Subscription. It does not (currently) include all admins within the portal.
Creators. This will send the notification to all creators assigned to the topic (this option does not exist for pathways).
Managers. This will include the select learner's managers (1-5). This is a good option to enable for overdue notifications (as it escalates the reminder).
Mentors. This will include the learner's mentor.
Stakeholders. This allows for the addition of specific emails addresses to be subscribed to individual events. You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. This is very useful when you need to notify a specific team or individual on the completion of a topic or pathway.

How are email notifications delivered?

You can learn how email notifications are delivered at this article.

Can topic and pathway email notifications be customised?

You can learn more about options to customise email notifications in this article.