Turn on a weekly reminder email for your students to let them know which courses they have yet to complete on your site. This increases student engagement and ultimately, course completion!
In this article:
How to Turn On Weekly Reminder Emails
How to Edit Weekly Reminder Emails
About This Feature
The weekly reminder emails provide your students with updates on their progress on all of the courses that they have not yet fully completed. The emails are branded with your school logo and site name, and provide direct links for your students to resume their courses. The default email looks something like this:
Within the student notifications settings, you have the ability to edit this email template to better match your branding, or include additional details that you would like to provide to your students.
How It Works
These emails fire once a week on Sunday, between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM UTC. Each student will receive a single email that lists all of their incomplete courses, the percentage of completion for each course, as well as a direct link to resume the course.
For students enrolled in Course Bundles, the weekly reminder email will include any courses in the bundle that a student has not completed.
How to Turn On Weekly Reminder Emails
- Go to Users
- Select Notification Emails
- Make sure you are on the Student tab
- Click the toggle beside Weekly reminder
- Your Weekly reminder email is on when the toggle appears blue and is on the right
In order to turn student email notification on or off, or make edits to the email template, you must be a Site Admin or Site Owner.
How to Edit Weekly Reminder Emails
The email editing function is exclusively available on paid plans.
- Go to Users
- Select Notification Emails
- Make sure you are on the Student tab
- Click Edit beside Weekly Reminder
- Make your changes to the email subject or email body within the templates. You can use these variables if you would like unique details for each student to be populated within the emails.
- Make sure to Save your changes!
Email Variables
Since the same email template is used for all your students, you can use email variables to automatically populate information in order to customize the email for each student. Below is a list of available variables for your weekly notification emails.
| Variable | Description |
| {{site_name}} | Inserts the name of your course site |
| {{site_url}} | Inserts your Thinkific site URL |
| {{edit_notifications_url}} | Inserts a link to yoursite.thinkific.com/account/notifications where students can update notification preferences |
| {{user.full_name}} | Inserts first name and last name |
| {{user.first_name}} | Inserts first name only |
| {{user.last_name}} | Inserts last name only |
| {{user.email}} | Inserts the email address |
| {{sign_in_url}} | Inserts a link to yoursite.thinkific.com/users/sign_in where students can sign in to your course site |
| {{enrollments_url}} | Inserts a link to yoursite.thinkific.com/enrollments. This is the Student Dashboard where students can access all of their courses |
| {{enrollment.course_name}} | Inserts the name of your course |
| {{enrollment.percentage_completed}} | Inserts the current completion percentage of the course |
Default Email Template
If you had previously customized your weekly reminder email but would like to start again, here is the code for the default email design. Make sure that you are copying and pasting the code below in the code view option of the email text editor:
<style>
@media screen and (max-width:480px) {
.main-table {
width: 300px !important; margin: 0 auto;
}
}
</style>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="main-table" style="margin: 25px auto; background:#ffffff; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; -moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 0 #eaeaea; -webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 0 #eaeaea; box-shadow: 1px 1px 0 #eaeaea; width: 500px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="border: 0;">
<td style="padding: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius:3px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius:3px; border-top-left-radius:3px; border-top-right-radius:3px; text-align: left; border: 0; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"> <a href="{{site_url}}" style="border: none; text-decoration: none; font-size: 22px;" target="_blank"> {{site_name}} </a> </td>
</tr>
<tr style="border: 0;">
<td style="padding: 20px; background: #fff; border: 0;">
<h3 style="font-size: 18px;">Hi {{user.first_name}}! </h3>
<p style="margin-bottom: 30px;">It looks like you are making progress on your {{site_name}} courses! </p>{% if enrollments %}
<p> <strong>Keep going! </strong> </p>
<ul>
<li style="display: none;">{% for enrollment in enrollments %} </li>
<li>
<p>{{ enrollment.course_name }} is {{enrollment.percentage_completed}} complete. <a href="{{enrollment.course_url}}" target="_blank">Resume this course. </a> </p>
</li>
<li style="display: none;">{% endfor %} </li>
</ul>{% endif %} </td>
</tr>
<tr style="border: 0;">
<td style="padding: 20px 40px 20px; text-align: center; border: 0; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">‌ <a href="{{sign_in_url}}" target="_blank">Login to your account </a> | <a href="{{edit_notifications_url}}" target="_blank">Edit notification settings </a>‌ </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Frequently Asked Questions
How many emails are sent out?
Only one email is sent per student. All of the incomplete courses that the student is enrolled in will be included within a single email.
Can I edit or send weekly reminder emails per course?
Weekly reminder emails are sent site-wide and cannot be edited per course.
In what order do the courses appear within the email?
The courses will be displayed within the email in alphabetical order.
Will courses that have been completed be included within the email?
The weekly reminder email is intended to notify students of their incomplete courses. For this reason, only courses that have less than 100% completion will be included within the email.
Will draft or unpublished courses show?
The course will not be included if it has been unpublished, even if the student was actively enrolled.
Will private and hidden courses show?
Private and hidden courses will be included as long as the student is enrolled within the course.
Can I turn off the weekly reminder email for a single student?
No, but the student can opt out of these emails if they choose to. See how here: How can students turn off email notifications?
If a student has an expired enrollment in a course will they still see it in their weekly reminder email?
No, students will not see a course in their weekly reminder email if their enrollment in it is expired. If this is the only course they had enrolled in on your site, they will not receive the weekly reminder email.