Automated Communication
Would you like to congratulate your students for a job well done or give them a nudge when they might need to work harder — without having to do a lot of extra work to make it happen? The Brightspace Intelligent Agents tool can help automate this process for you.
What is an Intelligent Agent?
Intelligent Agents allow instructors to delegate some of the course communication and notification tasks to the system, based on specific triggering activities in the course. Intelligent Agents (IA) can be used to both recognize student achievement and warn of potential problems. Below are some of the most common uses for IAs:
- Hasn’t accessed course in 2 weeks
- Incomplete tasks on a checklist
- Completed all tasks on a check list
- Earned 80% or higher on quiz/assignment
- Failed test
- Late assignment
- No posts authored in discussion topic
- Received a grade/feedback on an assignment
- Once a learner has reached a topic page in a long course to indicate half way or almost finished
The automatic notifications that are generated when specified course performance criteria are met can be sent to instructors, advisors, and/or students.
How to Create an Intelligent Agent
IA Replace Strings
Replace strings help personalize the message being sent, such as addressing the email to the learner’s first name or indicating the date that a specific user last logged in the course. There are several replace strings that can be used in Intelligent Agents – here is the complete list. It is important to note, though, that some can be used only in the body of the message while others can also be used in the subject.
Video Instead of Text
Want to give your learners a break from reading yet another email? Why not record yourself delivering the IA message using Video Note (through Insert Stuff in the body of the email). This can help the learner feel even more connected to you.
Recommendations
Repetitive emails may lose their effectiveness, so use Intelligent Agents sparingly. Consider using Intelligent Agents when there isn’t a better way of communicating. Ask yourself the following:
- Would an announcement work better?
- Would a personally crafted email work better?
- Would a discussion board posting work better?
If the answer is no, then consider using an Intelligent Agent.