While the world adjusts to learning to learn from home, it’s important to maintain clean and constant lines of communication. Axis LMS provides its administrators and its users with several communication channels so that learners are receiving information they need to advance; as well as options for facilitating communication between users, and from the administrators downward.
Start a Dialog with Automatic Emails
In terms of communication, Automated Emails may not be personable, but their utility is undeniable. The utility of these are really only limited to the needs an administrator can conceive. The system tries to intelligently offer some launching points, such as system reminders, to help getting your users to login for their first time; but their usefulness can go well beyond this.
Scheduling an email can also be tied to courses, which means that course authorers can tie emails being sent out to how long a user has been enrolled in a course; or their progress in a course; or both. This helps the LMS catch users from falling too far behind in a course before the instructor might otherwise be able. And in a world where both instructors and pupils are forced to adapt to new platforms and circumstances, a little automated safety net can be a huge boon to both parties.
Scheduled Emails run early in the morning, and are not the same as triggering an email. Course Event Triggers are another way to automatically send emails out; usually for passing/failing an activity in a course, but can be extended to other actions, and have criteria requirements before firing. Administrators can create Course Triggered Emails by editing a Course, and selecting User Event Triggers.
You can learn more about Scheduling an Email here.
Or watch a crash course on Event Triggers here.
Stay on Topic with Course Forums
Without a physical classroom, debate and discussion among your students may seem hard to stimulate and control. While Axis LMS can’t offer the spark needed for rigorous discussion, creating and tying a forum to your courses can provide a clear -controllable- channel for discourse.
Forums are typically tied to either a Usergroup, or a Course. While creating an area for exchange for your usergroups may not be the top priority on every administrator’s mind, course-based forums should be. They provide the instructor and the learners a space where they can openly discuss the ins and outs of the subject among their peers, actuating an environment where the students can learn better, and the instructor can teach more thoroughly.
Forums can be created from your Communications area. After being created and tied to a course, you can then add them to your courses through your course builder.
Learn more about Forums here.
Broadcast with Internal Messaging
Once a user has made it into Axis LMS (and knows how to reliably log on), one of the most efficient methods of communication with the user would have to be the internal messaging system. This method of communication shines because, unlike email, the administrator can ensure that messages sent via the internal messaging system have reached their destination.
There are two different modes administrators will typically consider when using internal messaging; either User-to-User, or User-to-Admin. In some business models, it doesn’t make sense for users to be able to communicate directly to one another, and will opt to use it as a user-to-admin ticketing system. For smaller scale users of Axis LMS, the user-to-admin messaging can also be thought of as an informal line of communication between the two.
The internal messaging system can also be used to ‘broadcast’ information to large swatches of users, by sending a messaging to all your users’ inboxes. As soon as users log in, they will find they’ve an unread message in their inbox.
You can find out more about Axis LMS internal messaging here.