Communication Event

Owned by Diane Momongan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 12, 2022
10 min read

Overview

The Communication Event menu in Paradigm is intended to send bulk communications to students or selected recipients with information regarding their study at your business or institution. The body of your email template can be personalised using some of the merge fields that we made available, and emails can contain attachments to provide more detailed, personalised, and dynamic data to be included in the report/letter attachment. This knowledge article will guide you on how to send bulk communications to a bulk list of students/recipients with or without attachments.

Complexity: expert

 

Communication Event Module Initial Setup and Configuration

The communication event module uses the email delivery provider SendGrid to deliver emails on behalf of the users. To avoid being classified as SPAM, it is important that our SendGrid email server IP address (168.245.65.115) is white-listed to ensure that Paradigm is able to send emails on behalf of your existing company email server. It may also be necessary to configure a DKIM or SPF DNS record to ensure that Paradigm is permitted to send emails on behalf of a provider email domain.

 

After your IT person/department has white-listed our IP address, you can try sending bulk communications by referring to the workflows below – if there are any further issues, raise a ticket to our Support Team.

 

For more details, please contact the Silverband Support Team.

 

Adding a New Communication Sender [From: dropdown list]

 

Refer to this How-To Guide: Adding a New Communication Sender (From:) in the Communication Event for the workflow.

 

Email Templates

The letter templates are designed to be a cover letter (in email format) for attaching invoices, CANs, enrolment letters, etc to be emailed to the students and stored as proof of communication. Copies of both the letter and attachments are then saved to the student's record within the communication event section. These can then be interrogated for delivery, bouncing, and opening. The letter can be formatted within the provider section for ease of use and minimal updating when used.

Contained within each email sent with the communication module is a one-pixel tracker. This is one 1x1 pixel that is hidden within the body of the email that allows the email client to track the email. It can determine if the email has bounced, been delivered, has been opened and read and if any attachments have been clicked into. This can be particularly useful when students are questioning if an important email/communication was sent to them and if they received it.

Below is a list of required fields to build a bulk student report for Communication events. This report can be built in the report builder and saved for future use. The fields below are required for such a report (i.e. Bulk student report) but additional ones can be added.

Refer to this knowledge article on how to Search, Add and Edit Content (e.g. Email Templates).

Table 1: Email Template Form Fields

Field Name

Brief overview

Field Name

Brief overview

From:

Communication Request Sender

It will be sent from the email address that is recorded against the user's profile.

Provider record is linked with the student’s course enrolment. Make sure you load the student’s course enrolment first, then you will see the Provider option in the drop-down.

If you want a Provider Name/Home Institution (that is not linked to a student's profile or course enrolment) or to add a specific sender/department in your business or institution to be in one of the options under the From field, you have to add a role to that Provider record as a “Communication Sender“, see Adding a New Communication Sender (From:) in the Communication Event for more details.

To:

Communication Request Recipient

Who the email is going to

Communication name / Email Subject

The subject name / line of the email

Communication Date

Date sent. This date is recorded within the communication event as the sent date.

Communication Type

For Communication Events this is normally set to Email

Communication Status

This will tell you the status of the communication event:

  • Bounced - Receiving Server could not or would not accept the message. 

  • Cancelled - Communication Event Cancelled

  • Closed -

  • Email Opened - Recipient has opened the Message

  • Entered -

  • Failure Sending -

  • In-Progress -

  • Pending -

  • Referred -

  • Resolved -

  • Sent -

  • Unknown Party -

Course Enrolment

The Course of Study the student is enrolled in

Communication Template Message

This option will allow the user to select from pre-written email templates. These can be added to or updated once loaded into the HTML writer.

Communication Description / Email Body

This is where the template will be displayed once loaded. Alternatively this is where the user can write the body of the email to be sent.

 

Table 2: Merge Fields in Communication

Merge Fields Within Communication Templates

Brief Overview

Merge Fields Within Communication Templates

Brief Overview

{email_first_name}

Student / Receiver's first name

{email_last_name}

Student / Receiver's last name

{student_number}

Student’s number issued by provider

{email_subject}

The communication event/email subject

{email_from}

This is the email address of the sender

{email_from_first_name}

This is the first name of sender (blank if the sender is a provider)

{email_from_last_name}

This is the last name of sender (blank if the sender is a provider)

{url_read_tracker}

This is a 1 pixel image that, when added to an email, will upon opening of the email by the receiver will mark the email as open within the system

 

Workflow

Follow the instructions below in order from step 1 to step 2, and choose between option 1 [if with an attachment] or option 2 [if without] depending on your communication event.

Video Tutorial

The video tutorial below will guide you on how to send bulk communication emails with CANs attachments.

Related Pages

 

 

 

Overview | Assumptions | Key Terms and Concepts | Implications | Workflow | Video | Related Pages | Further Reading

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