Use the Actions tab on each course’s management page to manage and automate actions within your Skilljar dashboard. Actions include customizing emails for registrations, engagements, and completions, adding/removing students to/from groups, enrolling them in other content, and more.
Learn more about the Actions available within this tab at Skilljar Actions.
Overview
The Actions tab can be found within a course’s management page and is located next to the Details and Curriculum tabs.
The Actions tab is made up of four sections, select each one to learn more.
Each action category includes a variety of actions that are dependent on your selected triggers. To learn more about actions and triggers, see our Skilljar Actions article.
To learn more about how to create and customize email templates and notifications, see our Customize Emails article.
Accessing the Actions tab
To access the Actions tab:
- Open your Skilljar dashboard and select Course Management, or expand the Course Management header on the left and select Courses.
- Select the course you want to manage or create a new one.
- Select the Actions tab beneath the course title.
- Select the type of action. A flyout screen will appear.
- Example: Select “Add Registration Action” to manage emails, groups, and enrollment actions that trigger when a student registers for the content.
- Select one of the actions under "Messaging Actions" or "Skilljar Actions" on the flyout screen.
Registration Actions
Registration actions happen when students register for (or are enrolled in) the content. You can customize the email sent upon registration as well as add or remove registered students to a group.
Open the registration actions by selecting the Add Registration Action button at the top right corner of the section. A flyout screen will appear with messaging and Skilljar actions.
Create a custom registration email that can be activated alongside or in place of the existing system-generated registration email when a student/organization registers for the content.
Note: When you manually register a student via the 'Students' Dashboard area, they will receive the default email template, not the custom template that was created.
The system-generated “Default Email to Organization” and “Default Email to Student” emails will be automatically selected. To remove the default emails, select the X beside each one. They can be re-added by selecting them within the Registration Actions window.
Engagement Actions
Engagement actions happen after a time delay after the student registers for content as long as they still need to complete it. You can configure and customize an engagement email to be sent to students a chosen number of days after they have registered.
Example: You have selected the engagement email to be sent to the student three days after they have registered for the content. If three days pass and the student hasn’t completed the registered content, the custom Engagement email will automatically be sent to them.
Open the Engagement actions by selecting the Add Engagement Action button at the top right corner of the section. A flyout screen will appear with available actions.
You can create a custom engagement email or use an existing template. You can create multiple actions or campaigns with up to 15 engagement emails per content.
Completion Actions
Completion actions happen when a student completes the content (or when the content is completed via an external source) for this student. Within this section, you can choose:
- The type of email sent upon successful and failed completion.
- To add/remove students from a group.
- Deactivate a students enrollment in the course after they've completed this content.
- Enroll students in other content after they’ve completed this content.
- Issue a certificate upon successful completion.
Open the Completion actions by selecting the Add Completion Action button at the top right corner of the section. A flyout screen will appear with messaging and Skilljar actions.
Post-Completion Actions
Post-completion actions are time delayed after a student completes the content. Within this section, you can:
- Send emails to students.
- Add/remove students to a group
- Deactivate the students enrollment in this course a number of days after completing the content.
- Enroll students in selected content a number of days after completing the content.
- It is also possible to have different actions happen based on their pass/fail status when completing the content. This method is used for actions, such as sending surveys, recertification reminders, and other post-engagement emails.
Note: The post-completion action will only trigger if the student's course enrollment is Active. If the Learner has a new enrollment for this object or the current Enrollment has been manually marked as “Inactive”, post-completion actions will not trigger for this learner.
Note: If the Enrollment Access has Expired, but remains an active enrollment, this post action will occur at the expected time delay.
Open the post-completion actions by selecting the Add Post-Completion Action button at the top right corner of the section. A flyout screen will appear with available actions.
You can create a custom post-completion email template or use an existing one, and define the ‘number of days after completion’ when it is sent (with a minimum of one day after). You can also set Group and Enrollment actions as time delayed after completion of the course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Actions Tab
The button to add an action is not active. Why is that?
The button to add a custom registration email, engagement email, or completion email is only active when actions can be added.
- If a course already has all completion actions added, the button to add another is inactive.
- If a course has 15 engagement emails defined, the button to add another is inactive.
- If a course already has a custom registration email defined, the button to add one is inactive.
How do I know that my change was saved when I switch a toggle?
Switching a toggle saves the change immediately without the need to click a ‘Save’ button. In addition, a little “Saving” text appears next to the toggle. If Skilljar can’t save the action, the dashboard displays an error message.
Are the settings on the actions tab cloned when a course is cloned?
Yes, a course clone will have the same actions tab settings as the original course.
Registration Emails
What happens if I turn on both the custom registration email and the system-generated registration email?
A student that enrolls in this course will get both registration emails. This is typically not recommended.
Can I define the new custom registration email so that it contains a purchase confirmation section that outlines the price and purchase of the course?
No, there is currently no email variable that could be used to add purchase information to the custom registration email.
Is there a default template for custom registration emails?
No, but the template editor contains a default email text that showcases how customers can use the email variables.
Engagement Emails
When exactly are engagement emails sent to the student?
Engagement emails are sent roughly at the same time of day the student has registered for the course. E.g. if an engagement email is set to be sent 3 days after registration and a student registered at 9:15 AM on Monday, they will get the email at approximately 10 AM on Thursday.
If I turn on an engagement email, will students that are already enrolled in this course past the defined days after registration get the new engagement email?
No. Engagement emails are not sent retroactively. If an engagement email with a trigger 3 days after registration is turned on, it will be applied only going forward. Students that are already enrolled for more than 3 days (3x24h to be precise) will not receive the new engagement email. Students that are enrolled for 0, 1, or 2 days will receive the new engagement email after being enrolled for three days.
Are engagement emails available for paths or plans?
No, engagement emails are only available for courses at this point.
Are there any limitations when defining engagement emails?
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Days after registration:
Engagement emails can be sent a maximum of 365 days after a student registered and can be sent a minimum of 1 day after registration. -
Number of engagement emails:
There is a limit of 15 engagement emails. Once there are 15 emails listed in the engagement section, the button to add additional actions is disabled. It is not relevant if the engagement emails are turned on or off, all of them count towards the limit of 15 engagement emails. When the user hovers over the button, an alt tag appears that says “Courses can have a maximum of 15 engagement emails.”
Is there a default template for engagement emails?
No, but the template editor contains a default email text that showcases how customers can use the email variables.
Can students opt-out of any emails that can be configured on the actions tab?
Engagement emails will have a footer at the bottom explaining why the student gets the email and how they can unsubscribe: “This message was sent to you because you are registered for <course>. If you prefer not to receive messages regarding this course, you may click here to visit your profile and adjust your settings.” Students can go to their profile and de-select the “Receive notifications” checkbox for the course they want to unsubscribe from.
Skilljar sends engagement emails only to students that have “Receive notifications” turned on for the specific course. Registration and completion emails don’t offer the student to unsubscribe.
Is there a possibility to send a reminder when a student’s course enrollment expires?
There is no dedicated email for this use case, but customers can use the engagement emails to set up such an email. E.g. if course enrollment expires 1 year after registration, customers can define an email that is sent 350 days after registration to remind the student about the course and inform them that their enrollment will expire soon. No email variable would allow customers to add the specific expiration date to the email though. Customers also need to consider that engagement emails can only be sent up to 365 days after registration. If a course expires e.g. after two years, then engagement email cannot be used for this purpose.
Can I use this engagement email feature for advertising purposes?
No, emails should be defined so that they can be categorized as transactional emails: informing students about their course, providing additional information or resources, or asking about feedback. Users should not use these emails to advertise their product since the unsubscribe option in engagement emails is legally not sufficient for promotional emails. Users bear the responsibility for ensuring that their content is not promotional.
Completion Actions
Are completion actions displayed by default when I create a new course?
The completion section is empty for new courses. Users can add completion actions by clicking the “Add Completion Action” button. If a customer’s courses have very similar email and action settings, they can use the function to clone an existing course, which will also clone all settings on the actions tab.
Are there any dependencies between course settings and actions?
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Email Student on Failed Completion
An alert appears if this action is turned on and “Use Lesson Score As Course Score” and “Mark the course as complete if the student passes or fails” are not turned on.
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Any completion email
An alert appears if the email uses a certificate variable, but the certificate action is not turned on or not defined.
When creating an additional completion action, some tiles in step 1 are inactive. Why is that?
All completion actions can only be added once. E.g. a user can’t create two completion emails for successful completion. Once they have created the email and it’s listed in the completion section, users can’t create a second action of the same type. Its tile is therefore inactive.
Post Completion Actions
If I turn on a post-completion email, will students who are enrolled and/or have already completed this course get a new post-completion email at the expected trigger date?
Post-completion emails will be sent to any student that 1) meets the course completion criteria implemented (such as passed, failed, or all) AND the email's send date is in the future.
Example
I have 50 students who completed a course nine months ago. If I enable a post-completion email for that course that sends an email:
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12 months after completion, those past students WILL receive an email in three months when the 12-month date arrives.
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One month after completion, those past students will NOT receive an email as that one-month date has already passed.
What happens if I change the timeline trigger for post-completion emails?
If you increase the email's timing, then the emails will be triggered at that future date. When an email’s timing is reduced (for example, changes the timing from 180 days down to 90 days, and it’s day 100 for a student) then an email would be sent to the student immediately.