Using the PLD tool is a great way to personalise your student's experience as they progress through your course and also automates common tasks which the Instructor may need to perform. 

A common use case scenario would be to set a PLD rule to send a custom personalised email notification to your students when they first access your Moodle course. This notification may contain useful information to assist students in getting started as well as links to useful resources. 

Where is PLD?

You can find PLD in the settings block in your Moodle course.

What are 'Rules'?

'Rules' are the automatic actions staff can instruct PLD to perform. Each rule is made up of events, conditions, and actions. 

• Events - Specify when the rule is run. (i.e. at a date/time or when a user views a page)
• Conditions - Specify who will be affected by the rule (i.e. affects students only). If no conditions are set, the rule will affect everyone related to the event. 
• Actions - Specify what the rule does when it is run. (i.e. send an email)

How to manage 'Rules'?

You can manage rules by pressing the 'cog' icon beside a rule. 

• Edit - Allows you to edit a previously created rule. (e.g. changing an event type)
• Disable - Turns off a rule, preventing it from being run.
• Delete - Permanently remove a rule. 

Additionally, the "History" tab can be used to view records of previously executed rules in your course. 

The Send email and Display alert actions are useful for sending personalised emails and displaying alert popups to students. Tokens can be used within the text to display personalised information such as each students name and the Moodle course URL to customise the message.

Using tokens combined with appropriate events and conditions will allow instructors to send personalised feedback to students in response to important events such as assessment non-submission or grades.

Using Tokens

Tokens can be inserted into the text of a Display alert or the Subject and body of a Send Email action. These tokens will be replaced with the appropriate information when displayed to students.

It is recommended to use mainly the User and Course tokens. Activity and Grade tokens should only be used if using an event that is specifically related to an activity or grade. Ie activity viewed or activity graded. Otherwise, the token will do nothing.

To add a token:

1. Select 'Insert Token' and choose one of the token options
2. A text in the format of "((student_firstname))" will appear in the related text field, this text will be replaced with the relevant information when sent

Sending Emails

The send email action is useful for automatically sending personalised emails to students. It is recommended to use the following settings when sending an email using PLD.

In the From field, select ‘Custom’. This allows us to specify a specific first name and last name to use as the emails From field. Include a name related to the course. (First Name: Introduction to Renewable Energy)

The Email address field can be an instructor or a shared email.

All PLD emails are sent as a no-reply email and students cannot respond to it.

In the Recipients field, click ‘Add recipient’ and select ‘Triggering user’. The triggering user are the users related to our rule, a custom email may also be used if you want to be cc’ed into PLD emails.

It is recommended not to use ‘All users of role…’ as it will send an email to all matching people each time the rule is triggered. This may cause duplicate emails if the rules are triggered per person in the course (i.e Scheduled date and time)

In the Subject and Body, enter the email subject and message text. Tokens (mentioned above) may be used to include personalised information.

When your students first access the course, they will be redirected to view the course outline and optionally a welcome email or popup can be sent. 

You will require a course outline file or welcome page in your course to use this rule.

1. Setup Activity Completion:

The Course Outline will be 'Completed' when a student views it

1. Click 'Turn Editing On'
2. Click 'Edit' beside the course outline/welcome page activity and 'Edit Settings'
3. Navigate to 'Activity Completion' section
4. Set completion tracking to 'Show activity as complete when conditions are met', tick 'Require view' and save changes

2. Create the PLD rule

Each rule is made up of an Event and several Conditions and Actions

1. Open PLD in your course and click 'Add a Rule'
2. Enter a name for your rule 

2.1 Events

In the Events tab, we will use 1 event:

1. Course entered:
   
   • Select the Course entered event and click 'Add'

2.2 Conditions

In the Conditions tab, we will use 2 conditions:

1. User Role Check:
   
   • Select the User role check condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select Student in the drop-down
   • Click Save
      
2. Activity completed:
   
   • Select the Activity completed condition and click 'Add'
   • Select has not in the first drop-down
   • Tick the 'Select an activity' checkbox
   • Use the last two drop-downs to select your course outline's activity type (ie, file or page) and name.
   • Click Save

2.3 Actions

In the Actions tab, we will use one necessary and you can choose to use up to 2 optional actions:

1. Go to activity:
   
   • Select the Go to activity action and click 'Add'
   • Use the two 'Select activity' drop-downs to select your course outline's activity type (file, page) and name.
   • Click Save
2. (Optional) Display alert:
   Use this to display a popup containing helpful information before redirecting the student
   .
   • Select 'Display alert' and click 'Add'.
   • Type in the information to display to students in the 'Alert text'. You can use the 'Insert token' button to add personalised content such as the students name. Make sure to read our section on tokens above.
   • Click Save.
      
3. (Optional) Send an email:
   Use this to send an email containing helpful emails and course links to students. 
   It is recommended to visit our section on 'Emails, popups and tokens!' above before using this, as there are recommended rules to follow.
    
   
   • Select 'Send email' and click 'Add'.
   • Select 'Custom' as the 'From' email address and enter a relevant course email, firstname and lastname. Emails sent via PLD will always be noreply but this information will be displayed as the sender name.
   • In 'Recipients', click 'Add Recipient' for the 'To' field and select 'Triggering User'.
   • Enter an appropriate Subject and Body, tokens may be used to personalise the email.
   • Click Save.

3. Click Save to finish the PLD rule.

Instructors can send all students a personalised email on a specific date. This is a basic version of the other email rules and can be used to schedule personalised announcement emails.

1. Create the PLD rule

Each rule is made up of an Event and several Conditions and Actions

1. Open PLD in your course and click 'Add a Rule'
2. Enter a name for your rule 

1.1 Events

Specific date and time:

It is recommended to schedule events on 15min intervals as that is when PLD checks its rules in Moodle (e.g. 12:15, 12:30 etc.)

• Select the Specific date and time OR Recurring event, enter date/time details and click 'Add'

1.2 Conditions

In the Conditions tab, we will only use one condition to ensure the email only goes out to students:

1. User role check:
   
   • Select the User role check condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select Student in the drop-down
   • Click Save

1.3 Actions

In the Actions tab, we will use one action (Send email):

1. Send an email:
   Use this to send an email containing helpful emails and course links to students. 

   It is recommended to visit our section on 'Emails, popups and tokens!' above before using this, as there are recommended rules to follow.

   
   • Select 'Send email' and click 'Add'.
   • Select 'Custom' as the 'From' email address and enter a relevant course email, firstname and lastname. Emails sent via PLD will always be noreply but this information will be displayed as the sender name.
   • In 'Recipients', click 'Add Recipient' for the 'To' field and select 'Triggering User'.
   • Enter an appropriate Subject and Body, tokens may be used to personalise the email.
   • Click Save.

3. Click Save to finish the PLD rule.

Instructors can send students a personalised email notification containing feedback and links to resources depending on the student's grade range in an assessment task.

Multiple personalised feedback rules can be created for different grade ranges to provide different feedback (ie, for low or high marks)

You will require an assessment task in your course to use this rule.

1. Create the PLD rule

Each rule is made up of an Event and several Conditions and Actions

1. Open PLD in your course and click 'Add a Rule'
2. Enter a name for your rule 

1.1 Events

Recurring event:

It is recommended to schedule events on 15min intervals as that is when PLD checks its rules in Moodle (e.g. 12:15, 12:30 etc.)

• Select the Recurring event, enter date/time details and click 'Add'

1.2 Conditions

In the Conditions tab, we will use 2 conditions:

1. Course login:
   
   • Select the Course login condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select has NOT logged into course in the first drop-down
   • Enter a value for days of inactivity you want to check against
      
2. User role check:
   
   • Select the User role check condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select Student in the drop-down
   • Click Save

1.3 Actions

In the Actions tab, we will use one action (Send email):

1. Send an email:
   Use this to send an email containing helpful emails and course links to students. 

   It is recommended to visit our section on 'Emails, popups and tokens!' above before using this, as there are recommended rules to follow.

   
   • Select 'Send email' and click 'Add'.
   • Select 'Custom' as the 'From' email address and enter a relevant course email, firstname and lastname. Emails sent via PLD will always be noreply but this information will be displayed as the sender name.
   • In 'Recipients', click 'Add Recipient' for the 'To' field and select 'Triggering User'.
   • Enter an appropriate Subject and Body, tokens may be used to personalise the email.
   • Click Save.

3. Click Save to finish the PLD rule.

Instructors can send an email to students to remind them that they have yet to submit their assessment task or have an upcoming assessment task. 

You will require an assessment task in your course to use this rule.

1. Setup Activity Completion:

The Assignment will be 'Completed' when a student submits  to the activity

1. Click 'Turn Editing On'
2. Click 'Edit' beside the course outline/welcome page activity and 'Edit Settings'
3. Navigate to 'Activity Completion' section
4. Set completion tracking to 'Show activity as complete when conditions are met', tick 'Student must submit to this activity to complete it' and save changes

2. Create the PLD rule

Each rule is made up of an Event and several Conditions and Actions

1. Open PLD in your course and click 'Add a Rule'
2. Enter a name for your rule 

2.1 Events

Specific date and time:

• Select the Specific date and time OR Recurring event, enter date/time details and click 'Add'

2.2 Conditions

In the Conditions tab, we will use 2 conditions:

1. User Role Check:
   • Select the User role check condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select Student in the drop-down
   • Click Save
      
2. Activity completed:
   
   • Select the Activity completed condition and click 'Add'
   • Select has not in the first drop-down
   • Tick the 'Select an activity' checkbox
   • Use the last two drop-downs to select the respective [Activity] with the completion tracking. (e.g. Moodle Assignment or Quiz activity)
   • Click Save

2.3 Actions

In the Actions tab, we will use one action (Send email):

1. Send an email:
   Use this to send an email containing helpful emails and course links to students. 

   It is recommended to visit our section on 'Emails, popups and tokens!' above before using this, as there are recommended rules to follow.

   
   • Select 'Send email' and click 'Add'.
   • Select 'Custom' as the 'From' email address and enter a relevant course email, firstname and lastname. Emails sent via PLD will always be noreply but this information will be displayed as the sender name.
   • In 'Recipients', click 'Add Recipient' for the 'To' field and select 'Triggering User'.
   • Enter an appropriate Subject and Body, tokens may be used to personalise the email.
   • Click Save.

3. Click Save to finish the PLD rule.

Instructors can send students a personalised email notification containing feedback and links to resources depending on the student's grade range in an assessment task.

Multiple personalised feedback rules can be created for different grade ranges to provide different feedback (ie, for low or high marks)

You will require an assessment task in your course to use this rule.

1. Create the PLD rule

Each rule is made up of an Event and several Conditions and Actions

1. Open PLD in your course and click 'Add a Rule'
2. Enter a name for your rule 

1.1 Events

Specific date and time:

It is recommended to schedule events on 15min intervals as that is when PLD checks its rules in Moodle (e.g. 12:15, 12:30 etc.)

• Select the Specific date and time, enter date/time details and click 'Add'

1.2 Conditions

In the Conditions tab, we will use 2 conditions:

1. Activity grade range:
   
   • Select the Activity grade range condition and click 'Add'.
   • Click Select an activity checkbox
   • Enter grade values for 'greater than or equal to' and 'less than' fields (e.g. Grade range between 75-100)
      
2. User role check:
   
   • Select the User role check condition and click 'Add'.
   • Select Student in the drop-down
   • Click Save

1.3 Actions

In the Actions tab, we will use one action (Send email):

1. Send an email:
   Use this to send an email containing helpful emails and course links to students. 

   It is recommended to visit our section on 'Emails, popups and tokens!' above before using this, as there are recommended rules to follow.

   
   • Select 'Send email' and click 'Add'.
   • Select 'Custom' as the 'From' email address and enter a relevant course email, firstname and lastname. Emails sent via PLD will always be noreply but this information will be displayed as the sender name.
   • In 'Recipients', click 'Add Recipient' for the 'To' field and select 'Triggering User'.
   • Enter an appropriate Subject and Body, tokens may be used to personalise the email.
   • Click Save.

3. Click Save to finish the PLD rule.