Automations are a powerful tool that allow you to set up rules for triggering specific actions within your learning platform.
They consist of three main parts:
Events: Things that happen within your platform, such as a learner completing a activity or a user being added to a group.
Conditions: The criteria that must be met for the automation to run, such as a learners being members of a certain group.
Actions: The things that happen when the conditions are met, such as sending a notification or granting a badge.
By setting up automations, you can streamline and customize the learning experience for your users, making it more engaging and rewarding. In this help article, we'll go into more detail on each of the three parts of automations and how to set them up:
Create a new Automation
Navigate to Behaviour > Automations
To create a new automation, click the create automation button. Give the automation an internal name, choose a type of event and click Create.
Events
In automations, an event is a trigger or occurrence that learning platform can recognise before performing an action. The event can be scheduled (e.g. based on a date or time condition), triggered by a user (e.g. "a learner completing a activity") or triggered by a change in the system (e.g. "a user was updated" or "a user was added to a group").
When | Event | Trigger moment |
Periodical | Check periodically | A periodic event that triggers once every hour.
|
Triggered by a user | Goal is completed | When a learner completed a goal |
| Activity is completed | When a learner completes a activity |
| Journey/section is completed | When a learner completes a journey or section |
| Programme is completed | When a learner completes a programme |
| Activity is reset | When an activity is reset |
| When a learner has finished a activity that needs grading | |
| When a manager grades a learner's activity through manager reporting | |
Triggered by a change in the system | User is deleted | When a user is removed from the platform |
| User is added to group | When a user is added to a specific group. Only available if the feature 'ECA group membership' is enabled. |
| User is removed from group | When a user is removed from a specific group. Only available if the feature 'ECA group membership' is enabled. |
| Webhook event | An external app (connected) pushes data to the platform |
Please note that the selected event triggers every time the occurrence takes place. E.g. if "Activity completion" was selected as an event, learning platform will trigger the automation every time any user completes a activity. This does not mean the actions will also be executed, that depends on the conditions.
After you've selected an event, you will go the automation editing screen. Here you can add:
the conditions to be met
the actions you want to execute when the criteria of 1 are met
To add a condition or action, press the ‘+’-icon and select the item you want to add.
Conditions
Start with and / or if you want to add more than one condition. Otherwise select use only one condition.
And: automation will be applied if all selected conditions are met.
Or: automation will be applied if one of the conditions are met.
Condition | Description |
General time condition | Apply this automation only within the selected time frame. Set a start and/or end date. |
User-specific time condition | Compares the current date/time with user specific date, such as contract start date. E.g. can be used to send a notification to all employees with a contract start date between date X and Y. |
User in study group | Do not use this condition since it does not work and will be removed. |
Is group | Apply this automation to users who are in the selected group. You can use the negate option to apply the automation to everyone who is NOT in the specified group. |
Is user | Apply this automation only for the selected user. This condition is beneficial for testing purposes. For example, you can unlock activities only for yourself to review the content. |
Is activity | Apply this automation only for users who have either completed or not yet completed the selected activity in the past. |
Is journey/section | Apply this automation only for users who have either completed or not yet completed the selected journey/section in the past. |
All activities completed | Apply this automation to users who have completed all the activities they have access to. |
Unconditional | Apply this automation to all users on the platform. |
Is activity in event | Apply this automation only if the activity being completed is the selected activity (can only be combined with the "Activity completion" event). |
Is activity in journey/section | Apply this automation only if the activity being completed is in the selected journey or section (can only be combined with the "Activity completion" event). |
Activity graded | Apply this automation only if the grade is above the specified minimum grade (can only be combined with the "Activity graded" event). |
Is group in event | Apply this automation only if a user is added to the specified group (can only be combined with the "User added to group" and "User removed from group" events). |
Add condition group | This option allows you to create one or multiple conditions groups, which is convenient if you want to combine AND and OR conditions simultaneously. |
Tip! When adding a lot of similar conditions, you can also duplicate a condition. The editor will automatically open for quick adjustments.
Actions
The action part of setting up automations is where you get to decide what happens when the conditions you've set are met. You can choose from a variety of actions, including sending notifications, unlocking or locking specific activities, granting badges or certificates, and more. Here is a list of available actions:
Action | Description |
Send an (email) notification. | |
Unlock journey/section | Choose this action to make certain journeys or sections available for users. |
Unlock activity | Choose this action to make certain activities available for users. |
Lock activity | Choose this action to make certain activities unavailable for users. |
Unlock widget | Choose this action to show specific widgets in the discovery stream for users. |
Choose this action to make other content, like the intake or the intro, available for users. | |
Add a to do item to the user's to do list. | |
Choose this action to hand out a badge to the user based on the given conditions. | |
Complete the activity for the user. | |
Reset the activity for the user. | |
Grant the user a certificate. | |
Group management for most groups is done by the admin. Here you can specify what groups a user can (or must) join themselves when using the platform, e.g. by joining groups through their user profile. Only available if the self-assignable groups feature is enabled. | |
Expires a activity for a learner after a certain time period, which requires the learner to redo the activity. Only available if the "Activity expiry" feature is enabled. | |
Repeat feedback | Periodically triggers the feedback survey that fetches feedback on the learning platform. Only available if the "feedback" feature is enabled. |
Remove user from group | Removes users from the specified group(s). Only available if the "ECA group membership" feature is enabled. |
Add user to group | Adds users to the specified group(s). Only available if the "ECA group membership" feature is enabled. |
Grants credits to learners. Only available if the "User budget" feature is enabled. | |
Suspend user | Suspends users from the platform, which causes them to no longer count towards the license fee. |
Unsuspend user | Unsuspends users from the platform, which will allow them to login again and access the available content. |
Automatically adds users to a Smart Group based on defined conditions. The system updates group membership dynamically as users meet or no longer meet the criteria. |
Good to know 👀
Keep in mind that some actions, like suspending or unsuspending users, may have a larger impact on your learners' experience and should be used carefully.
Some actions, like self-assigning to groups or granting budgets, may only be available if certain features are enabled. If you don't see an action you're interested in, you can check the Features page or contact your TinQwise contact person for more information.
Tip! When adding a lot of similar actions, you can also duplicate an action. The editor will automatically open for quick adjustments.
Automations impact preview
For automations that use "check periodically" condition, you can check its impact before saving the automation. There are two different concepts:
The number of users who meet the conditions: Hover on the eye icon to see how many users meet the conditions you created. This number only includes active users, not pending or suspended users.
The number of users impacted by the automation: Click on the eye icon to see how many users are immediately impacted after saving. This number is split up per action and might differ from the number of users who meet all the conditions, since the count does not include users that have already been impacted in the past or will be impacted in the future.
Let's illustrate the preview with a few scenarios:
You're creating a new automation: The number for 1 and 2 are the same. Since none of the users who meet the conditions have already been impacted in the past.
You're adding an action to an existing automation: The number for 1 and 2 will only be the same for the new action. For the existing action the number of impacted users will be 0 since the action has already been applied to everyone in the past.
You're adding or changing a condition to an existing automation: The number for 1 and 2 can be different for all actions. The actions have already been applied to users who met the old conditions. They will still be applied to new users who were added through the new conditions.
Save automation
Don't forget to save your automation. Once you click on save automation, you will see an option to immediately activate the automation. Tick this box only if you're sure the automation is set up correctly. Until then, you can also save the changes without activating the automation.
To disable, rename, duplicate or remove this automation, press the options button (with the three dots).
Audit log: A closer look at automation changes
The audit log serves as a secure and systematic record of all modifications made to your automation. This feature enhances accountability by allowing you to track who did what and when, ensuring clarity and transparency within Control.
Within each automation detail, you will find a tab "Audit log". This is your dedicated space where you can monitor all changes associated with that specific automation.
The audit log showcases:
Operation: This denotes the specific change or modification that was implemented.
Actor: This highlights the admin responsible for the particular change.
Date and time: Pinpoints the exact moment the change was enacted.
For a more in-depth understanding of a specific operation, you can simply click on "Details". This will furnish you with a comprehensive view of the exact modifications.
💡 Note: With every single alteration, the conditions undergo a recalculation. This is diligently recorded in the audit log. As a result, for every change, you might observe dual entries: one for the actual change and another reflecting the recalculated conditions.
For instance, if an additional action is incorporated into your automation, the audit log will display two modifications; the first for the added action and the second for the newly recalculated conditions.
Regularly consulting the audit log ensures you remain abreast of all updates and fosters a robust, transparent system.
💡 Good to know
Check periodically → This means the automation is triggered every hour.
Other automations → These are triggered once, every 6 hours, or immediately when a specific event occurs.
If an update doesn’t appear right away, it may be waiting for the next scheduled trigger.
Activities not mentioned in automations are unlocked for all users by default. If the activity is unlocked through an automation for certain users, it will be locked for all the users who do not meet the condition(s) in the automation. If the activity is then added to a programme, it is now only available to the users who have access to the programme.