The Intelligent Agents tool monitors a course and sees if anything happens that meets the rules you set to then perform an action. Those rules can be about login, activity in the course or conditions you set in Brightspace.
Examples of using intelligent agents include:
- Emailing users with grades below a certain level
- Checking for users who have not logged in within a certain number of days
In this article different uses of Intelligent Agents are mentioned. Besides these five uses, several other uses are possible, only these five will be highlighted since these include most of the Intelligent Agents features. Before setting up an Intelligent Agent, please first take a look at the article about Intelligent Agents Settings.
Creating a new Intelligent Agent
For each use, create a new Intelligent Agent. Go to Course Tools and click Intelligent Agents.
Then select New Agent
You can personalise Brightspace emails and announcements. To do this, you use so-called Replace Strings. For more information, see What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
Uses
You can generate an automated email to welcome your students to your course. Fill the Agent Name and Description.
Below Criteria, select: Users with specific roles and choose Student and Student - SIS.
Check the Course Activity box and select User has accessed course during the past 1* day(s).
- Below Actions, select Take action only the first time the agent's criteria are satisfied for a user.
- Check the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied box.
- Add replace string {InitiatingUser} in To-box. If you want to monitor what the emails do, add your email address to the Bcc-box.
- Add subject.
- Select if you want to add a picture, Quicklink or symbol to the email.
- Type message. To use replace strings, see: What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
- Select if you want to add an attachment.
- Choose HTML format.
Below Scheduling:
- Select Daily
- Fill 1 behind Repeats every [ ] day(s)
- Select Has Start Date and set this to the date a week before the start of the Course.
To finalize your Intelligent Agent, select Save and Close.
If your student has not accessed your course for the last 5 days, you can send them an automated email via Intelligent Agents in order to notify them on their inactivity. Fill the Agent Name and Description.
Below Criteria, select: Users with specific roles and choose Student and Student - SIS.
- Check the Course Activity box and select User has not accessed the course in the last [5] day(s).
- Below Actions, select Take action only the first time the agent's criteria are satisfied for a user.
- Check the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied box.
- Add replace string {InitiatingUser} in To-box. If you want to monitor what the emails do, add your email address to the Bcc-box.
- Add subject.
- Select if you want to add a picture, Quicklink or symbol to the email.
- Type message. To use replace strings, see: What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
- Select if you want to add an attachment.
- Choose HTML format.
Below Scheduling:
- Select Daily
- Fill 1 behind Repeats every [ ] day(s)
- Select Has Start Date and set this to the date a week before the start of the Course.
- Select Has End Date and set this to the final day of the Course.
To finalize your Intelligent Agent, select Save and Close.
If your student has not accessed your course at the end of the first week, you can send them an automated email via Intelligent Agents in order to notify them on their inactivity. Fill the Agent Name and Description.
Below Criteria, select: Users with specific roles and choose Student and Student - SIS.
- Check the Course Activity box and select User has not accessed the course in the last [5] day(s).
- Below Actions, select Take action only the first time the agent's criteria are satisfied for a user.
- Check the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied box.
- Add replace string {InitiatingUser} in To-box. If you want to monitor what the emails do, add your email address to the Bcc-box.
- Add subject.
- Select if you want to add a picture, Quicklink or symbol to the email.
- Type message. To use replace strings, see: What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
- Select if you want to add an attachment.
- Choose HTML format.
Below Scheduling:
- Select One-Time Run
- Under Scheduled Date, enter for example the date of the Friday after the start of the Course
To finalize your Intelligent Agent, select Save and Close.
To inform your students they have graded low on their Quiz, you can send them an automated email by using Intelligent Agents. Fill the Agent Name and Description.
Below Criteria, select: Users with specific roles and choose Student and Student - SIS.
Select Create below Release Conditions.
Select Condition Type > Quizzes - Score on Quiz.
- Select the appropriate Quiz under Condition Details.
- Select <= or < under Criteria.
- Select the desired percentage under Grade. (e.g. 60% is sufficient, lower is insufficient)
- Select Create.
- Below Actions, select Take action only the first time the agent's criteria are satisfied for a user.
- Check the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied box.
- Add replace string {InitiatingUser} in To-box. If you want to monitor what the emails do, add your email address to the Bcc-box.
- Add subject.
- Select if you want to add a picture, Quicklink or symbol to the email.
- Type message. To use replace strings, see: What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
- Select if you want to add an attachment.
- Choose HTML format.
Below Scheduling:
- Select Daily
- Fill 1 behind Repeats every [ ] day(s)
- Select Has Start Date and set this to the date a week before the start of the Course.
- Select Has End Date and set this to the final day of the Course.
To finalize your Intelligent Agent, select Save and Close.
To congratulate your student with their improvement in the Quiz score compared to last another Quiz, you can send them an automated email by using Intelligent Agents. Fill the Agent Name and Description.
Repeat the Release Conditions creating step from Use 4 with different Criteria for a different Quiz (e.g. 80% on the second Quiz). This results in a setting where student get an automated email when they fail the first Quiz (<60%) and pass the second Quiz (>80%).
Now create a new Release Condition
- Select under Condition Type Quizzes - Score on Quiz.
- Select under Condition Details your desired Quiz.
- Select under Criteria >= or >.
- Select under Grade the percentage you prefer (e.g. 80% is sufficient, lower is not sufficient).
- Select Create.
- Below Actions, select Take action only the first time the agent's criteria are satisfied for a user.
- Check the Send an email when the criteria are satisfied box.
- Add replace string {InitiatingUser} in To-box. If you want to monitor what the emails do, add your email address to the Bcc-box.
- Add subject.
- Select if you want to add a picture, Quicklink or symbol to the email.
- Type message. To use replace strings, see: What are Replace strings and how do I use it?
- Select if you want to add an attachment.
- Choose HTML format.
Below Scheduling:
- Select Daily
- Fill 1 behind Repeats every [ ] day(s)
- Select Has Start Date and set this to the date a week before the start of the Course.
- Select Has End Date and set this to the final day of the Course.
To finalize your Intelligent Agent, select Save and Close.