Configure course and activity notifications

  • Updated on Sep 2, 2024
  • Published on Aug 6, 2024
  • 1 minute(s) read
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Within an individual course you can edit or create notifications for the course or the course activities.

Note that custom or amended notifications will not be included when backing up and restoring courses, as these will be inherited from parent contexts instead.

Edit a notification

To edit a notification for a course, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the course for which you wish to configure notifications (or the course containing the course activities for which you wish to configure notifications).
  2. In the Administration block, go to Course administration (or Activity administration) > Notifications.
  3. Expand the feature for which you wish to configure notifications. 
  4. Expand the notification trigger you wish to configure.
  5. Click the three dots (three_dots(1)) alongside the notification you wish to edit.
  6. Click Edit. 
  7. Make the desired changes to the settings. To override a specific part of the notification (e.g. the Schedule or Body text) click the toggle next to the setting, then edit the setting as required.
  8. Click Save.

Now whenever this notification is triggered the new settings will be used.

Note that only the settings with the toggle enabled will use the edited content for the individual notification. Any settings that do not have the toggle enabled will instead inherit the content or configuration from the higher context level (e.g. the site level). You can therefore revert a setting back to the default by disabling the toggle for that setting.

If a notification is changed at a higher context level, only the settings with the toggle disabled will be updated on edited notifications at lower levels (e.g. on an individual activity). Any changes made to notifications on individual instances will not be applied elsewhere.

Create a notification

To create a notification for a course, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the course for which you wish to create notifications (or the course containing the course activities for which you wish to create notifications).
  2. In the Administration block, go to Course administration (or Activity administration) > Notifications.
  3. Expand the feature for which you wish to create a notification. 
  4. Click the three dots (three_dots(1)) alongside the trigger for which you wish to create a notification.
  5. Click Create notification. 
  6. Make the desired changes to the settings and add your content. 
  7. Click Save.

The Totara Academy has a whole course dedicated to Notifications in Totara. Here you can learn more about how to set up and use centralised notifications, see best practice, and give it a go yourself.

Join the Totara Community for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara. 


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