(UB)
Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation
Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation
Learning Management System Support
Log in to UB Learns
Request Support

Intelligent Agents

Use Intelligent Agents to automatically send emails to students based on criteria such as grades, assessment submissions and viewed content.

On this page:

Uses of Intelligent Agents

Examples of criteria that instructors can set up include, but are not limited to:

  • Login activity: if a student has or has not logged into UB Learns.
  • Course activity: if a student has or has not accessed a course.
  • Grades: if a student has achieved a specific score on a grade item.
  • Content: if a student has or has not viewed a content topic.

Creating a New Intelligent Agent

To create a new Intelligent Agent, follow these steps:

  1. On a course navbar, click Instructor Only and select Course Admin.
  2. Click Intelligent Agents.
  3. Click New Agent.
  4. Enter a name in Agent Name.
  5. Enter a description inDescription if necessary.
  6. Select a category from the Category drop-down menu or click Add Category to create a new one.
    • Categories are used for organizational purposes only.
  7. Click the checkbox next to Agent is enabled
  8. Click Scheduling and select an option from the Frequency drop-down menu.
    • Note: Intelligent Agents can only be scheduled to start after the course start date. Scheduled intelligent agents stop running and are automatically disabled if the course is inactive, past its end date or deleted. Intelligent Agents are also disabled when copied to a new course.Y,ou can still set up a one time run or a manual run of an Intelligent Agent at any time in a course that has passed its end date. 
  9. Click Criteria and under Role in Classlist do one of the following 
    • If you want the intelligent agent to apply to all roles in the Classlist, click the radio button next to All users visible in the Classlist. This will include instructors, facilitators and Teaching Assistants.
    • If you want the intelligent agent to apply to select roles, click the radio button next to Users with specific roles and click the checkboxes for all needed roles.
  10. If you want your agent to target users' login habits, under Criteria select Login Activity and enter your criteria. 
    • Note: Login activity refers to logins to UB Learns.
  11. If you want your agent to target users' course habits, under Criteria select Course Activity and enter your criteria. 
  12. To set an intelligent agent based on specific release conditions, do one of the following: 
    • If you want your agent to run when a specific existing condition has been met, under the Release Conditions subheading, select Create.
    • Select a Condition Type from the drop-down list. Complete any additional Condition Details that appear and click Create. For example, you can create an agent that acts against users who have been enrolled in a course for a certain number of days, either based on the first or last time they were enrolled into the course. 
    • Note: All criteria selections under Take Action on Activity, which include the criteria Login Activity, Course Activity and Release Conditions, are optional selections. 
  13. Under Actions select Repetition and then select how often you want the agent to take action. 
  14. You can set your agent to perform an enrollment action: 
    • Under Change User Enrollments, select the Change user enrollments when the criteria are satisfied check box. 
    • From the Enrollment Action drop-down list, select the action you want your agent to perform and select the course. 
    • If you want to Enroll user in a course, select an available course from the dialogue. Only courses you have permission to enroll in will be shown. 
    • From the New Role drop-down list, select what role the user will be enrolled with when the agent criteria is satisfied. 
  15. If you want the agent to send an email when the criteria are satisfied, expand Actions and under Send an Email click the checkbox next to Send an email [when the criteria are satisfied] and enter email details and relevant attachments. 
  16. Click Save and Close. 

Considerations When Creating an Intelligent Agent

When you create a new agent, you need to consider the following:

  • Criteria: The criteria the agent selected. The agent can check user login activity, course activity and/or triggered release conditions. 
    • Intelligent agents evaluate the status of release conditions at the time that they run. 
  • Frequency: How often the agent is scheduled to run and find users that meet its criteria or often the agent takes action when a user satisfies the criteria. If you don't set a schedule, the agent must be manually triggered on the Agent List page.
  • Action. The action you want the agent to take when it finds a user that fits the criteria it is looking for. An agent can: 
    • change enrollment in the current course or enroll into another course. 
    • send an email to the user, their auditor or other user; or do nothing. 
      • Note: choosing no action enables the agent to run and generate reports of those who have satisfied the criteria during different runs of the agent.

Note: You must have the appropriate enrollment permissions in the current or destination courses to create intelligent agents that change user enrollments. Any file attachments and inserted images in emails cannot exceed the limit set for your institution for email attachments.

Best Practices for Intelligent Agents

Any file attachments and inserted images in emails cannot exceed the limit set for your institution for email attachments.

Some best practices include:

  • Use a standard naming convention to keep the order and purpose of each agent clear.
  • Use the agent's description area to collect reminder notes of what you need to adjust in the agent for each offering.
  • Determine if your agent would benefit from repetition.
  • Use Replace Strings to personalize emails and minimize editing.
  • Avoid overusing agents, especially if you can get the information to learners another way.
  • Conduct a practice run of your Intelligent Agent prior to activating the agent.

Accessibility Considerations for Intelligent Agents

Intelligent agents are not automatically accessible in their design. Students who are blind or have low vision, for example, use text-to-speech software and must listen to an entire email from start to finish. To assist in ease of access for all students:

  • Use clear language.
  • Use content-specific subject lines.
  • Use the HTML editor to create headers and links to additional content. 

Additional Resources

Set up Intelligent Agents (Brightspace)
SUNY OSCQR Interaction Standards
SUNY OSCQR Standard #38
SUNY OSCQR Standard #39