Workflows

Workflow enables you to create rules for what needs to happen at different events. It may be that you want to send a message when a user is enrolled in a course or maybe you would like to automatically assign all users who obtain a status of completed or passed on an activity to another activity.

Note that it is possible to create multiple rules for the same event on the same activity. For example, it is possible to send multiple reminders to you users if a deadline is approaching, for example, a week and again three days before the deadline respectively.

The workflow is structured in four parts: Event, When, Filter and Action.

• Event specifies the incident triggers the workflow rule.
• When is the point in time the rule should be executed. This can be either immediately when the event occurs, before or after.
• Filter filtrates on which learning profiles should be affected by the workflow and can take in consideration if a selected learning activity should meet a specific criteria.
• Action is the action the system should take when then workflow rule is executed.

The workflow can be illustrated with a flowchart. The different symbols represent the four parts of the flowchart. "Activity Name" applies to the learning activity in which the workflow should be set.

There are some inspiring workflow ideas under the workflow ideas section.

Workflow profiles

Workflow rules are subordinates of a workflow profile. All learning activities have opportunity to use all available workflow profiles. Workflow profiles can be assigned to an organisation or suborganisation, and can be used as a way to customise the workflow for different organisations. An example of this could be that one organisation wants it's users to enroll to a course immediately after creation, while another organisation still needs to enroll its users to the same course, but they should be enrolled 14 days after creation instead.

The following paragraphs will describe the options available to the four parts.

Event types

This is an elaboration of the different event types. Please note that not all will make sense when choosing Before, since Activate LMS unfortunately can't foresee the future... yet :-). Before only works with the event types Enrollment is due and Enrollment is expired.

• User self-enrolled: This event occurs when a user enrolls her/himself in a learning activity using the course catalog. This requires the setting allow user self registration to be enabled.
• User enrolled: This event is triggered when a user is enrolled in a learning activity. How the user is enrolled (manually or automatically) is irrelevant. This event is not triggered when the user self-enrolls.
• Enrollment is active: This event is triggered when an inactive enrollment becomes active.
• Enrollment completed: This event is triggered when a user completes an enrollment.
• Enrollment passed: This event is triggered when a user passes an enrollment.
• Enrollment failed: This event is triggered when a user fails an enrollment.
• Enrollment is due: This event is triggered when an enrollment is due.
• Enrollment is Expired: This event is triggered when an enrollment has expired.

When

The When option is a period of time specified in days. As mentioned above the Before setting only works with the Enrollment is due and Enrollment is Expired events. The After and Immediately setting works with all events. Please note that the function which calculates the timing runs every day at 7 AM (GMT+1).

Filter types

This is an elaboration of the different filter types. All filter types are available for all events.

• Who: This filtrates which learning profiles should be affected by the workflow. The default setting is all learning profiles 
• If: This adds a condition to the workflow where the only ones affected is those with the selected learning activity with a specific criteria met. The following specific criterias can either be is or is not:
  
  • Passed: If the selected learning activity is passed or not.
  • Failed: If the selected learning activity is failed or not.
  • Completed: If the selected learning activity is completed or not.
  • Incomplete: If the selected learning activity is incomplete or not.
  • Not started: If the selected learning activity is started or not.

Action types

This is an elaboration of the different action types. All action types are available for all events.

• Send message: This action provides options to send emails (or SMS/Text messages, if enabled). Mails will be send from the system email sender address (this address can  be specified in Configuration > Settings > System > System email sender address. The send message feature requires you to fill out the following fields:
  • Template: This option requires you to select a template to use for sending the message. The templates are defined under Admin > Configuration > Notification > Templates.
  • Edit: Click this to edit the selected template. Please note that templates can be shared among multiple event so be careful when you edit templates.
  • New: Click this to to create a new template. This template will also be available for future use in your system, and is not only bounded to this workflow rule.
  • Method: The method of the way you wish to send this message (email and/or SMS). Please note that not all instances of Activate LMS have enabled SMS. Also note that there is a cost involved in sending SMS.
  • To: Specifies who the message should be send to:
    • If User is checked, an email is sent to the relevant user.
    • If Manager is checked an email is sent to the users manager.
    • In the Others field you can specify other email addresses. To enter multiple email addresses, you can separate the email addresses with a semicolon (ie. [e-mail];[e-mail]).
  • Cc: This basically works the same way as the To option, but instead addresses specified here are added to the CC field of the email.
  • Attach event: If this option is checked a iCalendar file (.ics) is generated and attached to the email message. This provides a means to add an event to the user’s calendar program (such as Outlook or Google Calendar) with a reminder to do the task. The event start time is the due date defined for the enrollment.
  • Event subject: This option defines the subject of the event send.
  • Event description: This option defines the body or description of the event.
• Enroll in activity: The Enroll in activity action provides a means to enroll users in new learning activities. This action type can be used by you to link learning activities together. For example, you can assign a user to one activity if the user passes the test, and assign to another activity if the user fails the test. You can select the learning activity in the (please select) menu under the Action menu. If nothing is specified the enrollment will be created with the active property set to active and it will be available immediately after the rule is triggered. It is possible to specify the following properties for the enrollment:
  • Due lag time: This option sets the due date of the enrollment relative to the time the rule is executed. I.e. if you type in 9, the enrollment will be due to 9 days after the enrollment was triggered.
  • Expiration date lag time: This option sets the expiration of the enrollment relative to the time the rule is executed. I.e. if you type in 5, the enrollment will expire 5 days after the enrollment was triggered.
  • Lock on completion: This option locks the learning activity whenever a user has completed the learning activity the first time. This means that  the user can continue to use the learning activity, but he/she can't change the results of the test.
• Activate enrollment: This feature activates a preexisting enrollment. This assumes that an inactive enrollment exists and is connected to the relevant user. You can select the learning activity you wish to activate in the (please select) menu under the Action menu.
• Move user: This action provides the option to move a user (within a selected organisation or without a selected organisation) from a learning profile to another, or simply add a learning profile to the user or remove a specific learning profile from the user.
  • Move to: This option moves the user to another learning profile. Automatically removes the previous learning profile. 
  • Add to: This option adds a learning profile to the user. 
  • Remove from: This option removes a learning profile you have selected from the user.