Different ways of learning item assignment and related email notification - deeper dive

[whchuang]

Hi, thanks for reading this question.

As we all know, as an LMS Admin, there are several different ways that we can assign a training item to a user. For example, we can (1) go to Learning Activities > Items > find the item (e.g. ELN course) and assign it from there, or (2) go to People > Users > Assigned Items > Click "+" and add training for a specific user from there, or (3) Go to "Manage User Learning" > Manage Assignments > Add Items > Find User ID > add the training from there. Among all these different ways to assign a specific training, does it affect the Email Notification at all (e.g. for the "Learning Activity Added" email, Template ID: ApmStudentLearningPlanNotification)? I assume that no matter which training assignment approach you take, for new training assignments, the user should always receive that "Learning Activity Added" email, right?

Also, what about if I remove the assigned training from a specific user, then reassign the training back to him/her right away? Would that trigger another "NEW" "Learning Activity Added" email notification (given that we have our Automatic Processes (cron) set to hourly, for the "Learning Plan Email Notification"? Would it make a difference if I remove the training for that user, then waited for >2 hours, then reassign the same training back to him/her? Would it make a difference if I waited for > 12 hours (the next day), then reassign the same training back to him/her? Please let me know. Thanks!

[HeatherLeBlanc]

The Learning Plan Notification is nor triggered by the action of assigning items. It is triggered by the impact on the actual Learning Plan. For instance, we have our system to not show assignments more than 90 days in the future, so if there is retraining the learning plan is not changed until 90 days prior to the required date. It is at that time the notification is triggered.

Also, the learning plan notification can be setup to send a notification for added, updated or removed assignments. In our system only added assignments will trigger a notification.

If your APM is set to run hourly, it will depend at what time that is based on. Ours is at the top of the hour (9, 10, 11, etc.). If I remove an item at 8:55 am and add it back at 9:01 am, then the notification is triggered for the 10 am run. If I remove it at 9:10 am and return it at 9:50 am, I believe it will still run at 10 am (in our case) because we are set to trigger when something is added. Again, it is the action occurring on the Learning Plan.

The Template ID to Trigger Map will explain what is the trigger for all of the notification templates.

Heather