Automation

WHAT IS AUTOMATION?

The new automation feature allows you to trigger certain actions that automatically enroll learners into courses in the ways you best see fit. With automation, University Administrators can set rules that automatically enroll users into courses or training tracks when they are added to groups. Additionally, training managers can set up automation rules that enroll users into advanced level courses after they complete a previous course.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

Automation enables University Administrators to:

• Easily onboard new hires, maintain HR compliance, and keep groups trained on product releases.
• Plan for continuous development of learners by automating enrollment into progressively more advanced courses.
• Establish automatic processes that cut down your administrative time when enrolling learners into courses.

HOW DO AUTOMATIONS WORK?

Automation works by setting triggers and actions. A trigger is a command that tells the system to complete an action that you define when you set up your automation.

For example, let us say that you want to enroll a user into a Drills 101 course when they are added to the Sales group. You will set a trigger that works like this:

• Trigger = When a user is added to the Sales group.
• Action = Enroll them in the Drills 101 course.

When setting up triggers and actions in your university, you will see these labeled as When and Then.

HOW TO ACCESS AUTOMATION RULES

Important: Only University Admins can create automation rules.

To setup automation rules, follow the steps below to navigate to the automation page in your university:

• After logging into your university, click Admin at the top of the screen, then select Dashboard from the drop-down menu.
• On the next screen, click Settings in the menu at the top, then hover your mouse over Automation to reveal a flyout menu. Select Automation Suite.

You are now in the right place to create new automation rules.

HOW TO CREATE AUTOMATION RULES

You can create new automation rules by following these steps:

1. Click the New Rule button in the top right corner of the Automation Rules section to load the trigger setup screen.
2. Under When:
   • Click the + Add Trigger button to open a drop-down menu, then click the option that suits the rule you would like to create. You can choose from the following options:
     • A shared course is accepted
     • Someone has completed a course or training track
     • Someone is added to one or multiple groups
   • Next, click + Add a Modifier and then click Group from the drop-down menu.
   • Click the + Add Target button to open a drop-down menu where you will select the group you wish to have automatically enrolled in a course.
     • You can use the search field to find a group or scroll through the list.
3. Under Then:
   1. Click the + Add an Action button and select Enroll the user in option.
   2. Click + Add a Modifier. You can choose from the following options:
      • Course
      • Training Track
   3. Click + Add a Target and scroll to or search for the course you would like to enroll users into.
4. Click Save to save your new rule.

Note: If the automation rule cannot be created, you will see a message in red telling you the reason.

HOW TO MANAGE AUTOMATION RULES

All rules created for your university will be displayed in the Automation Rules List.

• You can use the search box to search for rules that you want to manage.
• To the right of each rule, you will see several icons:

  • The Slider Switch turns rules on and off. Green indicates that the rule is enabled.

  • Click the Pencil icon to edit the rule.

  • Click the Trash icon to delete the rule.

Note: If for any reason, an Automation fails, you will see an indication in the rules list.

THINGS TO KNOW

From Now On

Rules will be triggered only for events that occur after they are turned on, not for any prior occurrences.

All or Nothing

When a rule is triggered, it will check to make sure it can complete the specified actions. If it cannot, no actions will be attempted. An exception is that if a user is already enrolled, other actions will still be processed. For example: in a rule that attempts to enroll a user in three courses, if the user is already enrolled in course 1, the rule will still attempt to enroll them in courses 2 and 3.

One rule per trigger

Only one rule may be defined for a given trigger. Multiple actions may be defined as a rule.

Newly created rules appear after refresh

The rules list is displayed after saving an automation rule, but the newly created rule does not appear on the list. Refresh the page to see the new rule.

Error indications

Rules List: If a rule attempts to run and encounters issues, a message will be displayed in the rules list. This message is not displayed until the rule attempts to run. If you suspect issues, open the rule editor.

Rule Editor: the rule editor checks whether the rule elements are currently valid and displays error messages.

Historic courses temporarily disallowed

Any course that was originally uploaded as “historic” will be ineligible to be used in an automation rule, even if it is now active

Paid course triggers temporarily disallowed

Paid courses cannot currently be used in automation rule triggers, such as “when user completes course,” in the future this limitation will be removed.

Number of rules and actions temporarily limited

The number of rules is currently limited to 100, and the number of actions per rule is limited to 10, in the future we expect to raise these limitations.

Training Track Setting: Auto enroll learners into courses

Automation rules that enroll a learner into a track will NOT enroll the learner into the courses within the track. Thus, a training track may contain courses that are paid, inactive, or otherwise ineligible for direct enrollment. An enrollment made via Automation Suite will also not trigger the “auto enroll learners into courses” function of a training track. However, if this option is turned on and the admin “saves” the track after making an edit to it (or just visiting the track edit page) then the auto-enroll function will be triggered for all learners currently in the track.

Wait a few minutes for newly defined groups, courses, etc.

Automation Suite runs separately from the main BlueVolt database. Newly created courses, groups, categories, etc. may take a few minutes to be available for use in defining automation rules and will not appear in the rule's editor selection lists until the page is refreshed.