Schoolbox Help - Notifications

Overview - Notifications

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

Schoolbox includes a notification system that can ensure users stay up to date on what is happening in the school. Notifications are triggered by various actions, such as adding new material, publishing news or calendar events, or as reminders for students of pending work they need to complete. It is important to consider your school’s communication strategy when you are configuring your notifications as it is possible to pro-actively determine how your users will be able to receive your school communications . That way, you can ensure users are alerted to the items they need to know, without being overwhelmed.There are four notification types that exist within Schoolbox as follows:

Instant
Email
Digest (Email)
Push (Digistorm EduApp customers ONLY)

On this page, you will find the following information:

Notification types

Configuring global notifications

Configuring the email digest

How to open an instant notification

Clearing your notifications

Managing your notifications

Testing the email digest

Back To Top

Notification Types

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

There are four types of notifications available in Schoolbox.

1. Instant notification

These notifications appear in the Schoolbox application, in the notification panel.
These notifications appear instantly as they are triggered.
Clicking on the notification takes you directly to the item that it refers to EG a news item, a due work, or a social stream comment.
These notifications remain visible for two weeks after they have been read. After two weeks they expire and are no longer able to be viewed.

2. Email notifications

These notifications will send an individual email to the user involved.
The email will be sent to the email recorded on the User Profile.
The email will be sent instantly as the notification is triggered.
The email will contain a link directly to the item that it refers to EG a news item, a due work, or a social stream comment.

3. Email Digest

These notifications will be collected in the system and sent out at the intervals set by a Superuser.
If Email Digest has been given as an option for users but the Digest Schedule has not been set, the user will not receive a notification.
The email will be sent to the email recorded on the User Profile.
The email will contain a series of links directly to the items that they refer to EG a news item, a due work, or a social stream comment.

4. Push Notifications

These notifications are only available for schools that have a mobile application using the mobile API.
The notification will go directly to the mobile phone of the user who has downloaded the application and logged in.
The notification will be sent instantly as the notification is triggered.
The notification will contain a link directly to the item that it refers to EG a news item, a due work, or a social stream comment.

5. Web Push Notifications

Schoolbox offers you web push notifications as a web application. This ensures that notifications are delivered in real-time and appear as pop-up messages on your device’s screen (iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS). To know more, see Install the Schoolbox web application.

Back To Top

Configuring Global Notifications

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

1. Navigate to Administration > Modules > Home.

image.php?hash=2b4dc200fef31c86a31f37cd9bf41999e7231d87

2. Ensure 'Enable Notifications' is toggled to 'ON'.

image.php?hash=f9ba749629be57b8fee993397aef11ee3b6b43e4

Configuring Notifications

1. Navigate to Administration > Notifications > Home.

image.php?hash=fb9ed0f632067ff42e43b04c6d0c15f36ab17523

2. Select 'CONFIGURE SETTINGS'.

image.php?hash=45db93965e2f68c30a4887dcc40dfe5aebf1f30e

4. From the next page, you can choose to configure the settings for all roles, or by role type by selecting one of the blue tabs.

image.php?hash=e8341cb3fad8150abacde2cc1af80f7cc2c3c07f

The settings are organised by the component or module that sends out a notification.

5. Select the drop-down arrow next to a notification you want to configure and it will show the current notification settings for the roles you have selected in the blue tabs.

NOTE: Some notifications are specific to particular role types, so you may not see all of the roles that you have in your instance for each type of notification.

6. Select the 'Advanced' button to modify the notification settings.

7. Step 1 will allow you to choose which notification settings are available to users who wish to personalise their notifications. Select your choices by clicking on the buttons so they show in blue.

Step 2 will allow you to select the default setting for the notification.

8. Tick the 'Copy settings?' checkbox to apply your notification settings to all users in the same role type.

9. Repeat this process for all the notification options.

10. Select 'Save'.

Recommendations for configuring notification settings:

For notification options that are not relevant to your school (e.g: email digest or push notification), we recommend that you disable these options for users. This is done in Step 6 outlined above. Simply do not select the options you do not want your users to be able to choose.
Consider the type and amount of notifications you want your users to receive. In our experience, too many notifications can result in users becoming disengaged with the system, so it is a good idea to evaluate the number of notifications that are being sent.

Back To Top

Configuring the Email Digest

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

1. Navigate to Administration > Modules > Home.

image.php?hash=2b4dc200fef31c86a31f37cd9bf41999e7231d87

2. Ensure 'Enable Notifications' is toggled to 'ON'.

image.php?hash=f9ba749629be57b8fee993397aef11ee3b6b43e4

Configuring the Email Digest

1. Navigate to Administration > Notifications > Home.

image.php?hash=fb9ed0f632067ff42e43b04c6d0c15f36ab17523

2. Select the days of the week that you wish the digests to be sent.

3. Select the times that you wish the digest to be sent.

image.php?hash=f7ca41abcfbcaea5fab73259a124f1852ffdf6eb

4. Select 'Save'.

Back To Top

How to Open an Instant Notification

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

1. Select the 'Notifications' bell icon on the top right of your screen.

The Notifications Panel will open.

2. Select the Notification you wish to read.

Back To Top

Clearing your Notifications

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

1. Select the 'Notifications' bell icon on the top right of your screen.

2. Either select 'Mark all read' which will clear all of your notifications.

3. Or, select the tick next to individual notifications, to clear each one at a time.

Back To Top

Managing your Notifications

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

1. Select your profile picture in the Top Menu.

image.php?hash=f87eb7b633a1b7d68c3820da0185f493500407bf

2. Select 'Settings'.

image.php?hash=8e18357cc9e5b318db56e7c70149fab66f78875e

3. Review your notifications.

image.php?hash=0eaf58065fc135c5188ea6c12b0f5c26345717ae

Note - Alternatively, you can also select the Notifications icon and then select the Settings icon in the Notifications panel to go to the Notification Settings page.

Notification Symbols

Mute

Selecting mute will ensure you do not receive a notification for the selected setting.

image.php?hash=f207ff8de88c058da5031b44cf4c6c08c9c22482

Email Digest

Selecting email digest will ensure you will receive a notification in the form of an email digest. An email digest is a periodic email that is sent out to you with a summary of all the notifications that you have elected to receive in the digest.

Note - You will only have this option if your school has set up a digest schedule.

image.php?hash=afaf49f7e1597ed4841a1d165c854eae1c5c3bcd

Instant

Selecting instant will mean you will receive a notification in the top right corner of Schoolbox. You can access these by clicking on the red bell icon.

image.php?hash=00105b41f16b1c2f417b2552843d527594c11577

Email

Selecting email means you will receive an email at the time the notification is triggered.

image.php?hash=7274bc13b79841bb55006a982824312486863cf6

Push

Selecting mobile will allow notifications to be sent to your mobile phone immediately when notifications are triggered. This type of notification is only available if your school has chosen to have a mobile app.

image.php?hash=d8d48927dd74a82f259b6bf891810273ec7e2936

Note - Instant notifications can be paired with email notifications and/or mobile notifications. Selecting email digest will not allow any other notification type to be selected.

Back To Top

Testing the Email Digest

Are you sure you want to remove this component?

Testing the email digest

Superusers are able to create a test run of the school’s email digest in order to ensure it runs in the way you would expect. This test can only be completed on the Live instance, not the Development instance because the Development instance is not able to send any emails.

Steps to Test the Digest:

1. Create new roles in Schoolbox specifically for the test. These roles should use one or more of the role types that you want to test (Staff, Student, Parent). When the test is completed, remove these roles.

2. Add some new users to the roles. These users can have real email addresses, however they cannot have the same External ID's as your actual users.

3. Create a group homepage, add these users to the group. Add content that you would like to test to the group.

4. Enable the digest for the role/s in Administration> Notifications under the column 'Adjust Digest Schedules'.

5. The digest will be sent to the emails the next day at the time you have configured.

6. Remove the test roles.

Back To Top