In-App Messages allow you to send messages to your learners. They can serve as an alert, announcement, notification, reminder, or more. These messages will appear within a learner’s course in their Notification Center inbox. Whenever they receive a new in-app message, a red dot will appear on the envelope icon and let them know how many new messages/notifications they have. In-app messages can be sent to an individual learner, a select set of learners, or all of your learners. They can also be sent at a scheduled time or upon triggering an event during a specific timeframe. To learn more about the Communication Suite and its other features, check out our article here.

 

 

 

In Console, an admin or user with a custom role that has the permissions Create:Communications, Read:Communications, Update:Communications, and Delete:Communications will be able to manage in-app messages.

 

Creating a Message

To create a message, follow these steps:
 

1. Navigate to Console, expand the Communication tab, and click on Messages.
2. Click on Create Message.
   
3. Type in a subject and message for your in-app message. Click on Next to continue.
   
4. Select your Audience (who will receive your message). It can be set to a specific content package, user(s), or for all users.
   1. If you selected content package, select the appropriate content package in the new populated field. Click on Save.
      
   2. If you selected user(s), select the user(s) you'd like to set as your audience. You can search for users by their name, ID, or SIS ID. Click on Save once you've selected your users.
      
5. Select your Message Destination (where your message will be sent) by selecting a course for which the audience will receive your message in the Notification Center. Only learners enrolled in the selected course(s) may receive this message.
   
   If this should apply to all courses, select the “All” option. Click on Save. Click on Next to continue.
   
6. Select your Timing.
   1. Manual - schedule delivery of a message to all users in the selected audience
   2. Automated - deliver a message to individual users within the selected audience upon a triggering event
      1. Select a Trigger Event Type. Expand Trigger Event Descriptions for more details about each event type.
         1. Completion of an Asset-Based Course
         2. Issuance of a Certificate
         3. Completion of an Exam
         4. Start of an Exam
         5. Completion of an External Package
         6. Completion of a Milestone
         7. Creation of a Custom Score
         8. Completion of a Study Plan
         9. Completion of a Study Task
      2. Select the Triggering Event Status. Automated messages will only be sent if the status is Enabled.
7. If you selected:
   1. Manual - Select a start date/time for when your message should be sent.
   2. Automated - Select a start and end date/time. Automated messages will be sent upon occurrence of a triggering event on/after the start date and until the end date. If your message doesn’t have an end date, you can leave this blank.
      
      The dates and times inputted here will be in your local time. It will also show UTC, as this is the time zone used in Console.
8. Click on Save.
9. Review all selections for your new message, and click on Save.
   
10. After creating your message, impersonate a user from your selected audience and navigate to their course’s notifications. Click on the envelope icon in the platform header, and if you see the subject of your message in the list, they have successfully received the message. Do not open their inbox, as this will remove the “new message” indicator.
    

 

Messages Overview

The Messages Overview page will list all of your in-app messages and display the following columns:

• ID, subject, audience, destination, and timing
• Status of your message (active, scheduled, expired, or disabled)
• Date the message was created
• Actions (delete)

 

To view an individual message, click on the message’s subject to go to the Message Details Page.

 

Message Details Page

The Message Details Page will show the following information for your in-app message:

• ID, subject, status (active, scheduled, expired, or disabled), and date created
• Message
• Audience and destination
• Timing and start/end dates

NOTE: The start and end dates will be displayed in UTC time. To see them in your local time, hover over the dates.

Click on the Edit buttons to update your message. Click on Delete to delete your message.

 

Editing a Message

To edit a message, follow these steps:
 

1. Navigate to Console, expand the Communication tab, and click on Messages.
2. Click on the subject of the message you’d like to edit.
   
3. Click on Edit next to the section you’d like to edit. You can edit the subject, message, destination, or timing of your message. The audience and timing type (manual/automated) cannot be changed once the message is created.
   
4. Click on Save to save your changes.

 

Deleting a Message

To delete a message, follow these steps:

 

1. Navigate to Console, expand the Communication tab, and click on Messages.
2. Click on Delete next to the message you’d like to delete.
   
   OR
3. Click on the subject of the message you’d like to delete, and at the top-right, click on Delete.
   
4. In the pop-up modal, click on Confirm.
   

Once deleted, the message will no longer appear to the selected audience in their Notification Center inbox or in Console’s messages overview page.