Notifications

About notifications

Notifications alert teachers, students and other users about events such as new forum posts, assignments needing grading or badges awarded. New notifications are highlighted with a number in the notifications menu at the top of the screen:

Notifications icon with 1 new notification

Clicking there displays any new notifications, along with the option to mark all as read (1 below), to go to the notifications preferences page (2) to change how notifications are received, and (3) to view all notifications.

Clicking 'View full notification' displays the notification in a full list, whereas clicking the main body of the notification will take you to the location that the event happened, as in this example, to the assignment grading screen.

Receiving notifications

Along with a visible alert to new events in the notifications menu, users can configure how they are notified of new events via User menu > Preferences > Notification preferences or from the 'Notification preferences' icon (a gear cog) in the notifications menu.

Notifications may be sent via the web, email, mobile (for Moodle Mobile-enabled sites) or SMS (for assignment notifications only and requires a SMS gateway to be set up).

How to disable the 'New sign in to your account' notification

Access Notification settings from the cog icon inside the Notifications icon at the top of your screen to the left of your profile. Disable the setting 'New login notifications'. (Note the admin can do this for the site from Site administration > Messaging > Notification settings.)

Admin settings

In Site administration > General > Messaging > Notification settings the site admin can enable notification plugins and set default notification preferences.

There are 4 standard notification plugins:

SMS (currently only for assignment notifications)
Web
Email
Mobile.

By default, web and email are both enabled, although email will only work of course if the site has been properly configured to deliver email. SMS and mobile notifications are off by default and need to be configured first.

Mobile notifications require a Moodle app subscription. For details, see Moodle app notifications.
SMS notifications require an SMS gateway. For details, see SMS gateways.

Default notification preferences

For each notification, you can enable/disable notifications and also the types of notification. If a notification type is locked, users cannot change it.

All web notifications are enabled by default for all users in new installations of Moodle LMS.

Notification types

Module	Output Name	Description	Recipients
Assignment	Assignment notifications	Student has submitted an assignment. Configuration in assignment settings.	Teacher
Assignment	Assignment notifications	Student submission is overdue. Configuration in assignment settings.	Teacher
Assignment	Assignment notifications	Student has received a grade/feedback. Configuration in assignment settings.	Student
Assignment	Assignment due soon notification	Student needs to submit an assignment. Sent 48 hours before due date. In cases where the time between the assignment being created and due is less than 48hours, the notification is sent as soon as possible (source: MDL-79716).	Student
Assignment	Assignment overdue notification	Student has not made a submission after the due date.	Student
Assignment	Assignments due in 7 days notification	Student needs to submit an assignment. Sent 7 days before due date	Student
Feedback	Feedback notifications	Notices from setting Enable notification of submissions in Feedback settings	Teacher, Feedback administrator
Feedback	Feedback reminder	Feedback non-respondent reminder message	Student feedback activity non-responders
Forum	Subscribed forum posts	Default for forum subscription handling	Anyone subscribed to a forum
Forum	Subscribed forum digests	A digest of forum subjects or subjects and posts if enabled in User - Forum Preferences, Set default for this in User default preferences	Authenticated users
Lesson	Lesson essay graded notification	Notify students a teacher has graded a Lesson essay question	Student
Quiz	Notification of your student's quiz submissions	Message that student has submitted a quiz	Teacher
Quiz	Confirmation of your own quiz submissions	Notice to student that your quiz was successfully submitted	Student
Quiz	Warning when your quiz attempt becomes overdue	See Quiz settings	Student
Quiz	Notification that your attempt has been graded	Message that a teacher has posted feedback on an Quiz activity	Student
Quiz	Quiz opens soon	Notification for students when they have an quiz about to open, sent out 48 hours before the quiz is available. In cases where a quiz is created and the time between the quiz being available and open is less than 48hours, then the notification is sent as soon as possible (source: MDL-79718).	Student
System	Notices about minor problems	?	Site administrators
System	Important errors with the site	Important errors - See also Debugging	Site administrators
System	Available update notifications	Notice of new releases of Moodle code	Site administrators
System	Personal messages between users	Using the Messaging interface tool	Authenticated Users
System	Backup notifications	Automated backup schedule run completed	Site administrators
System	Course creation request notification	Notice a course has been requested - See Course request	Defined in Site admin > Courses > Course request > Course request notification
System	Course creation request approval notification	Notice a requested course has been approved	User who requested the course
System	Course creation request rejection notification	Notice a requested course has been rejected	User who requested the course
System	Badge recipient notifications	Notify recipient of a badge when it is awarded to them	Any badge recipient (typically Student role)
System	Badge creator notifications	Notify creator of a badge when it is awarded to someone	Any badge creator (typically Teacher or Manager role)
System	Comment posted on a learning plan	?	?
System	Comment posted on a competency	?	?
System	Insights generated by prediction models	Notice of users that meet the Analytics criteria
System	Message contact requests notification	Notifies users when a non-contact user attempts to send them a message	Authenticated users
System	Asynchronous backup/restore notifications	Notifies users when a backup/restore is completed message, see Course backup	Authenticated users
System	Grade notifications	Message that a teacher has posted feedback on an assignment	Student
System	Course completed	Automatic notification (congratulations note) about completing the course - sent to the student after all the course completion criteria have been achieved	Student
System	Antivirus failure notifications.	Warning message for Site Admin, see Antivirus plugins	Site Administrator
System	New login notifications	Warns a user if there was a failed login attempt with their username	Authenticated Users
System	Course content changes	Message that alerts students that a course activity was updated - activity title only, does not provide details about what has change)	Student
System	Custom report builder schedules	Notification of Report subscriptions, see Custom reports	usually Teacher or Manager
System	Welcome message for new course enrolments	Sends course welcome message to users added by manual or self enrolment	Student
Manual enrollments	Manual enrolment expiry notifications	Notice if Manual enrolment is about to expire	Manual enrolees
Self enrollments	Self enrolment expiry notifications	Notify users when if Self enrolment is about to expire	Enroller only, or Enroller & Enrolled user
Data privacy	Data request	Message that data review has been requested, see Data privacy	Privacy Officer
Data privacy	Data request processing results	Message that data review has been received and is processing, see Data privacy	Authenticated User
Data privacy	Data requests exceptions notifications	?	?
Inbound message configuration	Message to confirm that an inbound message came from you	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Inbound message configuration	Warning when an inbound message could not be processed	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Inbound message configuration	Confirmation that a message was successfully processed	See Incoming mail configuration	Authenticated Users
Event monitoring	Notification of rule subscriptions	Notifications from Event monitoring rules	Event rule subscribers

Capabilities

The following capabilities can be applied as permissions to make custom changes to roles affecting messaging.

Email

All email messages and notifications go to the email address set in a user's profile. The administrator can optionally allow users to choose to have notifications sent to a different email address. This is off by default and can be enabled in Site administration > Messaging settings.

Users can then enter their alternative email address under Preferences/User account/Notification preferences: Click on the gear icon next to "Email" in the table header and enter the alternative email.

Note: The 'messagingallowemailoverride' setting does not affect failed log in notifications as they do not go through the messaging system, and will therefore still go to the original email specified.

Documentation