The Actions

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision” – Dalai Lama

This is the most important functionality of the platform. Actions are exchange of information with the learners. There are two types: actions in, and actions out. A workflow contains an arbitrary number of these actions. The action page shows a table with the actions in the selected workflow.

Similarly to the case of the workflow, each action is identified by a name (unique) and an optional description. There are several operations supported for each action (right most column in the table shown in the previous figure).

Actions In

These actions allow you either instructors or students to introduce information in the table stored in a workflow. When providing information, you typicially are interested in a subset of the rows (some of the learners) and a subset of the columns (some of the factors). For example, you would like to check if a group of students is attending one face-to-face session, or if a group of students is engaging in a project discussion.

These actions are edited using the screen shown in the following figure:

The page has two elements. The first one is a filter to restrict the rows in the table considered for data entry. You create a condition, and those rows that satisfy it are then prepared for data entry. The second part of the screen is to select those columns that you want to include in the data entry form. You must select at leaset a Unique column (shown with green background) and a non-unique column.

Once an Action In has been selected, there are two operations available represented by the buttons with labels Run and URL. The Run operation is intended for the instructors to enter the data for a set of learners. After clicking the link the platform shows a table with the data about the learners. The table has a search box in the upper left corner to quickly find a person as ilustrated in the next figure.

An instructor may click in the link available in the right column and it is offered the possibility of modifying the information in the pre-selected columns for that learner.

After entering the information the platform refreshes the list of students for which the data entry is still allowed.

The second operation available for Actions In is to make available the URL to learners so that they individually enter the information themselves. If you go back to the table showing all the actions and click in the icon with label URL you are given the choice to enable/disable a specific URL for the students to access the data entry screen.

You then may send or make available this URL and, after authentication, students will be able to enter the information requested and the values are automatically stored in the right row and column in the table.

These actions offer an ideal procedure to collect information about any aspect of a course in a way that is centralized and available for further processing. The power of these actions is complemented when combined with Actions Out, in which personalized content is made available to the learners.

Actions Out

These actions allow to create a resource (in a format close to HTML) and mark certain elements with conditions that will control its appearance in the final view. Think of these actions out as a resource (item, message, tip, comment) you would give learners during a experience. You may have several of these items prepared to be used at different points during the expeience. The action is manipulated with the screen shown in the following figure

Before describing in detail the structure of this screen let’s digress for a second and explore the concept of condition. A condition in OnTask is a Boolean expression, or if you prefer, an expression that when evaluated will return either True or False. These expressions are commonly used in other applications such as spreadsheets or programming languages. The following image shows an example of this condition.

The Boolean expression is contained under the title Formula. The expression can be alternatively read as:

Days_online_2 = 0

The first element of the expression is the variable Days_online_2. The second element is the equal sign, and the third component is the constant zero. The variable Days_online_2 may be replaced by any value in a procedure we call evaluation. So, if the expression is evaluated replacing the variable by the value 3, it results in \(3 = 0\) which is false. Alternatively, if we evaluate the expression replacing Days_online_2 with the value 0, then the expression becomes \(0 = 0\), which is trivally true. With this structure, any expression then is evaluated by replacing the variables by values and deciding if the resulting expression is true or false.

These conditions can have nested sub-expressions and get complex fairly quickly.

However, the underlying mechanism to evaluate them remains the same: replace variables with values and decide the result (true or false). OnTask relies on these expressions to personalise the content of the actions.

Let’s now go back to the screen to edit an action. The area has four components

The filter

The top area contains a filter. This element is an expression used to decide which table rows will be selected and used with this condition.

The line below the button to edit the expression states how many table rows satisfy the filter condition (and therefore are selected). In practice, this is as if you dropped from the table some of the rows (it is just that they are ignored, not dropped.

The conditions

This is the area immediately below the filter. Each condition allows you to edit its expression (first block with the pencil), use it in the text blow (block with the arrow), or delete it (trash can icon) as shown in the figure below

The HTML text

This is the area to create the personalised document. It is a conventional HTML editor offering the usual functionalities (inserting text in various forms, headings, lists, links, images, etc.) Right above the editor window you have two choice menus that you can use to insert either a workflow attribute or a column name that will be replaced by the corresponding value for each row.

The preview/save buttons

The Save button saves the content of the text editor, the Save & Close saves the content of the text editor and returns to the list of actions, and the Preview button shows how the text is rendered for every row in the table.

Using column values, attributes and conditions in an Action Out

The purpose of this page is to allow you to create a text in the editor that may include three types of elements that are personalised for each row: an attribute name, a column name or a condition.

To insert an attribute name simply place the cursor in the text editor in the location where you want the value of that attribute to appear. Then, select the attribute from the area above the editor and you will see how the name of the attribute surrounded by double curly braces appears in the text (for example {{ course_name }}. Only the attributes you previously created in the details page are available.

To insert a column name, you follow the same steps but this time you select one of the elements next to the text Insert column value. Place the cursor in the location in which you want that value to appear, select the column name from the pull-down menu, and the name appears in the text surrounded by double curly braces (for example Hi {{ GivenName }}.

These two elements will be included in the text with the corresponding values (the same for all rows in the case of the attribute, and the value of the corresponding row in the case of the column name. Inserting a condition is different. Highlight the text in the editor and then click in the arrow of one of the conditions. The text will be surrounded by two marks. For example if the condition name is Video_active, the text in the editor will appear as:

{% if Video_active %}Good work with this week’s video{% endif %}

This format states that the message Good work with this week’s video should appear only if the condition Video_active is true. If not, the text should be ignored. The following figure illustrates this process.

Previewing the content of an Action Out

Once a text is created, you need to verify that all the elements are properly visualised for each of the rows. This is the purpose of the Preview button at the bottom of the page.

Sending personalised emails

You now have created an action and verified its content using the Preview button. Go back to the Actions screen (showing the table with the actions you created in the workflow). The right-most column shows a button that reads Send Email.

This functionality process the text in the action for each learner and sends the resulting text as an email. If you click in that button the platform asks you for additional information:

The subject

A line to be included as subject of all the emails.

The column with the email address

OnTask needs to know where to send the email. It assumes that you have a column containing that information for each learner and it needs you to select that column.

Send summary message

If you select this option OnTask will send you an email with the summary of this operation (number of rows in the table that were selected by the filter, number of emails sent, date/time of the operation, etc.

Snapshot of the workflow

If you select this option, after the emails are sent, the platform returns you a file that contains a snapshot (picture) of the workflow. It basically freezes the content of the workflow and places it in a file given to you. You may take this file and import back the workflow. In this new workflow you can check the values and messages at the time the operation was executed.

Making personalised content available to learners

Sending a personalised email is just one of various possible actions to do with a personalised text. Another one is to make the content available through a URL that can then be given to the learners. OnTask offers this possibility through the button labeled URL followed by either the word `` (Off)`` or (On).

If you select this option, the platform will show you the URL providing access, the choice of making it available, and the possibility of using an alternative column containing the email address.

You may enable/disable this URL at any time. If a learner tries to access this URL and it is disabled, the platform informs the user that the information is not available.