In SLK when creating an assignment there is an option to send emails to users about assignments. The option is a check box on the assignment properties page labelled “Email learners on creation or when changed”.
If the check box is selected then emails are sent:
- To learners when an assignment is created.
- To learners if they have been added to an assignment.
- To learners if they have been removed from an assignment.
- To learners if an assignment is deleted.
- To learners when as assignment is collected, reactivated or returned.
- To instructors when a learner submits an assignment.
This allows everyone to be kept informed about work they have been set, without having to go to a page in SharePoint with the Assignment List Web Part (ALWP) on.
Although the text only states learners, it does also email instructors about submissions. However, this means instructors can receive lots of emails telling them that learners have submitted an assignment. They are the people who are most likely to go and look at the ALWP to track the progress of their assignments. Ideally there should be a way to turn off emails to instructors.
I now added an option for this. Rather than add another option on the properties page, I’ve added a global settings when will turn off all emails on submission. I decided on a global setting to avoid cluttering up the properties page and to avoid adding any user training about a new user available option. It also likely that the majority of environments will want it on or off for everybody.
To turn on the setting, you need to add EmailOnSubmitOff="true" to the Email setting in SlkSettings.xml as in:
By default this is set to false, so the current behaviour will continue, i.e. if Email learners is checked in the assignment properties, then submissions will be emailed to the instructor.
This is now available in the latest release of SLK 1.8 – which is considered to be Beta currently.