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Welcome to this video on setting up notifications for programs and certifications in Totara. 

Here you can see my program, so I’ll start by selecting the Notifications tab. 

Notifications are based on events, known as triggers. An event is something that happens in relation to the program, and which can trigger a notification. You can also decide to send the notification at a set time after the event has occurred. If I expand this section I can see all of the notification triggers relating to program management. For each trigger I can see if it is enabled or disabled in the Status column. I can disable a trigger to prevent its notifications from being sent – for this program I don’t want any notifications relating to course sets, so I’ll disable this trigger.

Now let’s take a look at which notifications are sent for one of these triggers. I’ll expand the Program completed section, and here I can see that two notifications are sent - one to the subject and one to their manager.

Let’s take a look at the notification that will be sent to users when they complete this program – I’ll edit the notification to check its details.

Here I can configure how this notification will work and the content it will send in my program. Currently these settings are inherited from the site-level settings, but I can change some of them by checking the Override boxes.

 I could change the Schedule setting to Days after to send the notification a set time after the program is completed, for example if I wanted to find out how learners have put their learning into practice after a few months.

Here I can configure the delivery channels, which are the different ways users can receive notifications. This notification is currently sent via a site notification and by email, but users can configure their notification preferences to turn these off. Here I could set the Site notifications to Forced, meaning users would always receive this notification when they complete this program. Be careful when using forced notifications that you only do this for important notifications – your users may be frustrated if they continue to receive notifications they’ve asked not to.

If I wanted to add other delivery methods I could do this by configuring the notification trigger at the site level.

I want to make this message a bit more personal for my program’s users, so I’ll address each recipient by name. I’ll add a short message, then I can use open square brackets to show a list of placeholders – I just want to add the subject’s first name. I could use these placeholders to include a range of useful information about the recipient or learning content, in both the body and subject line of the notification.

If I needed to add content in multiple languages I could do this by clicking this icon, then selecting a language code for each block and entering my translated content. For this program I only need English content, so I won’t use multilanguage blocks here.

Once you’ve finished editing your notification, remember to save your changes. 

I can also create new notifications for each of the notification triggers. 

I’ll create a new notification to be sent to remind users a week before the program is due.

I’ll give my notification a name and select the Subject as the Recipient then I want the notification to send seven days before the due date.

I’ll add my content and enable the notification, then save my changes.

Now let’s see how this notification will look for the recipient.

Remember, if you use the Ventura theme, you can also add custom branding to your email notifications. 

So that’s setting up your notifications for programs and certifications in Totara. Why not watch the other Academy videos on working with programs and certifications?