Setting Up Intelligent Agents

Add an Intelligent Agent 

1. Log in to Brightspace with your MyCarletonOne credentials.
2. On your Brightspace homepage, locate your course in one of the following ways:
   • Click on your course under My Courses.
   • Click the Course selector grid , then search for your course name or select your course from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Navbar at the top of your course page, click Tools.
4. In the drop-down menu, select Intelligent Agents. 
5. Under Agent List, click New.                                                                           
6. Give the new agent an Agent Name, for example, Login Activity (see image below). You can also choose to add a Description of the Agent. This description is for your own use. 
7. Under Status, ensure Agent is enabled is selected.  
8. On the New Agent page you can set the conditions that need to be met by students before an email is sent by the intelligent agent.  You have the following settings options:
   • 1. Criteria:  Customize the settings below as they apply to your agent:
     • Role in Classlist – select one of the following options:
       • All users visible in the Classlist – choose this option if you want  to email your entire classlist.
       • Users with specific roles – choose this option if you want to customize which role types (Learner, TA, Instructor) receive an email. For example, if you select the Learner role, the intelligent agent will be restricted to the students enrolled in your course and any automated emails will not be sent to TAs or instructors.
     • Login Activity (optional) – Choose this option if you want the agent to monitor login activity.  Select Take action when the following login activity is satisfied and enter the number of a days a student can go without logging in before they receive an agent email.
       

       NOTE: This only monitors login activity to Brightspace, not whether or not the student has accessed your course.

     • Course Activity (optional) – Choose this option if you want to monitor how active/inactive students are in your course. Select Take action when the following course activity is satisfied to choose how many days a student can be inactive/active before receiving an agent email.
     • Release Conditions (optional) – If you want your Intelligent Agent to run when an existing Release Condition has been met, select Attach Existing. If you want to create a new Release Condition for your Intelligent Agent, select Create and Attach. For more information about using Release Conditions in Brightspace, see the Creating Release Conditions page.
   •  2. Actions:  Customize the following settings as they apply to your Agent:
     • Repetition (recommended) – This setting determines how many emails an agent might send to users who satisfy its criteria. Choose one of the following options:
       • Take action only the first time the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user – When you select this setting, all users that satisfy the agent’s criteria receive only one email no matter how many times the agent is evaluated. This is the recommended setting if you are sending automated emails to students to avoid sending repeated emails.
         Take action every time the agent is evaluated and the agent’s criteria are satisfied for a user – When you select this setting, the agent sends an email to all users that satisfy its criteria every time the agent is evaluated.
     • Send an Email – Select this option if you want your students to receive an email when the criteria are satisfied, or enter your own email address if you wish to receive email updates from the agent. Use the email fields below to enter your message and add any attachments. Enter the recipient names in the To, CC, and BCC fields. You can also enter a replace string (See Creating Replace Strings within the Intelligent Agent Tool for instructions). Fill in the email fields as follows:
       1. To: Enter your own email address if you wish to receive email updates from the agent. Use the replace string {InitiatingUser} to have Brightspace autofill the applicable student’s email address. Note. Click on What special email addresses can I use? to see more replace strings for the To, Cc and Bcc fields.
       2. Use the Subject and Message email fields to enter your message. Optional: use replace strings to personalize the message, such as to autofill the student’s name or the course address. See Creating Replace Strings within the Intelligent Agent Tool for more information. Note: The replace strings used in an intelligent agent are different than those used elsewhere in Brightspace. Click What replace strings can I use in the subject and message? to see the entire list of replace strings. Copy and paste the replace strings directly from that list to be sure they will work properly.
       3. Click Upload, Record, or Choose Existing to add a file to the email.
   • 3. Scheduling: If you want to set up your agent to run automatically, select the Use Schedule checkbox and then click Update Schedule. In the Update Agent Schedule pop-up window, set the agent schedule by selecting how often you want the agent to run in the Repeats drop-down menu and entering how many days the run will repeat in the Repeats Every field. When you are finished entering your schedule, click Update.
     

     NOTE: If no schedule is entered, you will need to manually run the intelligent agent.

     TIP: Create a schedule for your agent within the start and end dates of your course so that students are not receiving notifications during holiday periods, or after the course has finished.

9. Click Save and Close when finished.  

Your Intelligent Agents will now appear on the Agent List and you can see the date and time of when they last sent reminders and to how many people.  

See the video tutorial below for an overview of creating an intelligent agent:

Perform a Practice Run

1. Log in to Brightspace with your MyCarletonOne credentials.
2. On your Brightspace homepage, locate your course in one of the following ways:
   • Click on your course under My Courses.
   • Click the Course selector grid , then search for your course name or select your course from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Navbar at the top of your course page, click Tools.
4. In the drop-down menu, select Intelligent Agents. 
5. Locate the agent name in the Agent table and click the downward arrow to expand the actions menu.
6. In the menu, select Practice Run.
7. You will be prompted in a pop-up window to confirm that you want to complete a practice run. Click Run.
   

   NOTE: Processing time varies based on server load and the priority of other scheduled agents.

8. You will see a Practice Run Agent Confirmation page confirming that your request has been submitted. An email will be sent to your @cunet.carleton.ca email when the request is completed and you will then be able to view the practice run results.
9. Click Done to return to the Agent List page.
10. On the Agent List page, locate the agent name and click …users identified in the Results of Last Run column to view your results report.

See the video tutorial below for an overview of performing a practice run:

Run an Intelligent Agent Manually

1. Log in to Brightspace with your MyCarletonOne credentials.
2. On your Brightspace homepage, locate your course in one of the following ways:
   • Click on your course under My Courses.
   • Click the Course selector grid , then search for your course name or select your course from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Navbar at the top of your course page, click Tools.
4. In the drop-down menu, select Intelligent Agents. 
5. Locate the agent name in the Agent table and click the downward arrow to expand the actions menu.
6. In the menu, select Run Now.
7. A pop-up window will appear prompting you to confirm that you want to manually run the intelligent agent. Click Run.
8. You will see a Manual Run Agent Confirmation page confirming that your request has been submitted. An email will be sent to your @cunet.carleton.ca email when the request is completed.
9. Click Done to return to the Agent List page and view your results.
10. On the Agent List page, locate the agent name and click …users identified in the Results of Last Run column to view your results report.

See the video tutorial below for an overview of how to manually run an intelligent agent: