Intelligent Agents and Samples

Introduction:

The Intelligent Agents tool monitors an org unit to find activity that matches the criteria that you set. The criteria that the agents search for are login activity, course activity, and release conditions in Brightspace.

In this article, we will showcase the steps to creating intelligent agents while providing a sample agent.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. 1. In Brightspace, access your course and on the navigation bar, select Class Progress. Then, select the intelligent agents.
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4. NOTE: Intelligent agents can be imported, exported, and copied between courses. Imported Intelligent Agents will be inactive and must be manually enabled. The import/copy function will replicate all associated settings and restrictions except for Release Conditions, which require the additional “Release Conditions” option to be selected. If these Release Conditions are related to the Classlist (e.g., course enrolment, group enrolment, etc.), these conditions will not become associated with the new course when copied. Double-check and adjust your settings before activating any Intelligent Agents. For more information,  visit our support site  Import/Export/Copy Components.
5. 2. Under Agent List, select New Agent
6. 3. Give the new agent an Agent Name (e.g., “Login Activity”, as in the image below). You can also choose to add a Description of the Agent and to assign it to a Category for organizing your Agent List page.
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8. NOTE: This description is for your own use and will not be revealed to the students.
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10. 4. Under Status, select Agent is enabled if you want to put the Agent into effect right away. (can be enabled later)
11. 5. 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, as well as when and how often the system will check that there are students who meet these conditions. You have the following settings options:
12. Scheduling

    

    If you want to set up your agent to run automatically, select an option from the Frequency drop-down menu. Depending on the Frequency type, new options will appear below the menu to program a date range (Start/End Dates), time of day (Scheduled Time), and rate of recurrence (Repeats Every) for the intelligent agent, among other frequency-specific options.

    NOTE: If the No Schedule option is selected, 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.
    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 anyone enrolled in the course, regardless of role type.
      • Users with specific roles: Choose this option if you want to isolate which role types will receive an email. For example, if you select the Learner role, the intelligent agent will be restricted to students enrolled in your course, and TAs or Instructors will not receive automated emails.                             
    • Take Action on Activity. Optional conditions the student must meet to receive a notification.

    NOTE: If you are simply creating an Agent as a placeholder, this area of the settings can be left blank for the moment. However, in order for the Agent to work you must identify conditions for it to evaluate. Otherwise, when the Agent runs for the first time it will produce an error and be automatically disabled.

    • Course Activity: This option refers to whether the student has accessed your course page in Brightspace. Enter the number of days a student can be inactive/active before they receive an agent email.
    • Login Activity: This option refers to whether the student has logged into Brightspace LMS, not your course specifically. Enter the number of days since the student last logged into Brightspace before they receive an agent email.
    • Release Conditions: Select this option if you want the intelligent agent to run only when the student meets certain requirements (e.g., student belongs to Group A, student receives 80% or greater on Quiz 3, etc). Select the Browse button to search for a Release Condition you have already created. Select the Create button to program a new one. For more information about using Release Conditions in Brightspace, refer to our support site on Creating Release Conditions.
    Actions

    

    Customize the following settings as they apply to your agent.

    Repetition: 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 only if you want you or your students to receive an email when the criteria are satisfied. Use the email fields below to enter your message and add any attachments. Enter the recipient names in the To, Cc, and Bcc You can also enter a replace string. (For instructions, refer to our support site on Creating Replace Strings within the Intelligent Agent Tool.) Fill in the email fields as follows:

    • 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: Select What special email addresses can I use? to see more replace strings for the To, Cc and Bcc fields.
    • 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 from those used elsewhere in Brightspace. Select 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.
    • Select Upload to attach a file from your computer, Choose Existing to select an item from your course files, or Record to create and attach a video or audio message
13. 6. Save and Close
    • If you wish to edit an intelligent agent, click on the drop-down arrow next to the agent and select Edit
    • Note that Bulk Edit only applies to changing the agents' name, category, and availability (enable/disable)
14. 7. See below about Categories, Enable/Disable, Deleting, and Exporting:

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    1. Categories

    To Edit a Category

    1. Select Edit Categories.

    2. You will be taken to the Edit Categories page.

    • To edit a category name – Select a category name and then type the new name. Select outside the text box or select the Enter key on your keyboard to save your changes.
    • To edit the Sort Order – Select a number under the Sort Order column to adjust the order of the category list. (Type 1 for the category that will appear first in the list, 2 for the category that will be listed second, etc.)

    To add a category:

    1. Select the arrow next to an Intelligent Agent and select Edit from the drop-down.

    2. Under Category, select a category from the drop-down menu.

    3. Select Save and Close.

    or when creating a new agent

    1. Find Category: in the editing panel

    2. Click on the No Category to check for any existing categories

    3. If none, Click on Add Category to create your own

    2. Enable/Disable

    Check on the boxes to either single select or do a bulk select

    • When selected, you can choose to enable activate the agent or all agents
    • Or, you can choose to disable or deactivate the agent or all agents
    3. Delete/Restore/Copy

    [a] Deleting An Agent

    • Select on the checkbox (either bulk or single) and click the Delete button to delete the agent.
    • Click Delete to confirm

    [b] Restoring An Agent

    • In Agent List, click More Actions, and select Restore
    • Click on the restore button on the agent(s) you wish to restore.

    [c] Copying An Agent

    • Click on the drop-down of an agent
    • Select Copy to create a duplicate agent
    4. Export

    • To export, select on the More Actions
    • Click Export Agent History
    • Select an Agent
      • All for all agents in the course
      • Or pick a specific individual agent
    • Click export to generate a .csv file
    • Click on the link to download and access the Agent Runs Results

     

Intelligent Agents Samples:

• Engagement & Participation Agents

1. Welcome Message Agent

• Trigger: When a student accesses the course for the first time.
• Action: Send a warm welcome email with course tips and contact info.

2. Inactive Student Reminder

• Trigger: Student hasn’t logged in for 7 days.
• Action: Send a reminder encouraging them to return and offering help.

3. No Discussion Participation

• Trigger: Student hasn’t posted in a discussion forum by a certain date.
• Action: Send a nudge to participate and explain the importance of discussions.

• Performance-Based Agents

1. Low Quiz Score Alert

• Trigger: Student scores below 60% on a quiz.
• Action: Send a supportive message with study resources or office hours.

2. High Achiever Recognition

• Trigger: Student scores above 90% on an assignment or quiz.
• Action: Send a congratulatory message and encourage continued effort.

3. Missed Assignment Notification

• Trigger: Assignment due date has passed and submission is missing.
• Action: Send a reminder and instructions for late submission policy.

• Course Progress Agents

1. Module Completion Encouragement

• Trigger: Student completes a module.
• Action: Congratulate them and preview what’s coming next.

2. Midterm Progress Check

• Trigger: Mid-semester date.
• Action: Send a personalized message summarizing current grade and offering support.

• Custom Use Cases

1. Custom Group Welcome

• Trigger: Student is added to a specific group (e.g., project team).
• Action: Send a message with group expectations and collaboration tips.

2. Survey Completion Reminder

• Trigger: Student hasn’t completed a course feedback survey.
• Action: Send a reminder with the survey link and deadline.

Troubleshooting Tips:

• When you create a new agent, you need to determine:

  • The criteria the agent looks for. The agent can check user login activity, course activity, and/or triggered release conditions. Be aware that intelligent agents evaluate the status of release conditions at the time that they run. A user that may have satisfied a release condition on a prior run, may no longer satisfy a release condition on a subsequent run, especially in the case of our 'NOT' conditions.
  • How often the agent is scheduled to run and find users that meet its criteria. If you don't set a schedule then the agent must be manually triggered on the Agent List page.
  • How often the agent takes action when a user satisfies the criteria. I.e. Will the agent send one email the first time the user triggers the agent, or send reminder emails to the user every time the agent runs?

  • The action you want the agent to take when it finds a user that fits the criteria it is looking for. An agent could: change enrollment in the current course, or enroll into another course; send an email to the user, their auditor, or other user; or do nothing (choosing no action enables the agent to run and generate reports of who has satisfied the criteria during different runs of the agent). 

• You must have the appropriate enrollment permissions in the current or destination courses to create intelligent agents that change user enrollments.
  File attachments and inserted images in emails cannot exceed the limit set for your institution for email attachments.

Additional Resources:

• • See the video tutorial below for an overview of performing a practice run | Brightspace Community
• • See the video tutorial below for an overview of how to manually run an intelligent agent | Brightspace Community
• • About Intelligent Agents | D2L Brightspace Community
• • Set up Intelligent Agents | D2L Brightspace Community
• • Run Intelligent Agents | D2L Brightspace Community