Email Preferences
Students can turn weekly guidance emails off or on for each course separately, using a preferences page you add to your site with the [dcc_email_prefs] shortcode. Turning a course off only affects email. The student still sees all their guidance on the course’s guidance page.
This page covers setting up the preferences page (administrators), how students use it, and what an opt-out does and doesn’t change.
Setting up the email preferences page (administrators)
- In WordPress, go to Pages → Add New and create a page with a clear title, for example Email Preferences.
- Add the shortcode
[dcc_email_prefs]to the page and publish it. The shortcode adds its own Email Preferences heading. If your theme already shows the page title, use[dcc_email_prefs heading="false"]so the heading doesn’t appear twice.headingis the only setting the shortcode accepts. - Go to Course Cadence → Settings → Emails → Student preferences & links.
- Email Preferences Page URL fills itself in if it’s empty and a published page contains the shortcode. You’ll see Auto-detected from the page “Email Preferences”, which contains the [dcc_email_prefs] shortcode. Click Save Settings to confirm. Otherwise, paste the page address yourself.
- Make sure Email Preferences Link is ticked. This is the box labelled Include a “Manage email preferences” link in the footer of guidance emails, and it is ticked by default.
- Optionally, edit Preferences Warning Text (see the table below).
- Click Save Settings.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Email Preferences Link | Adds a Manage your email preferences link to the bottom of weekly guidance emails. | Ticked |
| Email Preferences Page URL | Where that link goes: the page containing [dcc_email_prefs]. The link only appears once this is saved, even when the box above is ticked. |
Empty (auto-detected) |
| Preferences Warning Text | A notice shown above the course list on the preferences page. Clear it to hide the notice. Basic formatting such as bold and links is allowed. | These emails are often part of your student support. Disabling them may impact your learning journey. |
The link appears in single-course and multi-course weekly emails, and in retry emails. It doesn’t appear in catch-up emails or admin-only emails. Students can always reach the page directly through any menu or link you give them.
Changing your email preferences
This section is for students.
- Open the preferences page. Use the Manage your email preferences link at the bottom of a weekly guidance email, or the link your course team gave you.
- Log in if asked. If you aren’t logged in, the page says Please log in to manage your email preferences.
- You’ll see Email Preferences with the line Choose which courses you would like to receive guidance emails for. Below it is one checkbox for each course you’re currently enrolled in. Each course is marked Subscribed or Unsubscribed.
- Untick a course to stop its guidance emails. The marker shows Unsubscribing… and then Unsubscribed.
- Tick it again at any time to start receiving them again. The marker shows Subscribing… and then Subscribed.
Changes save automatically as you tick or untick, so there’s no need to press anything else. The page reminds you: Changes save automatically as you toggle a course. If a change does not seem to save, select “Save preferences” below. If the automatic save fails (for example, you lose your connection), the checkbox switches back to how it was. Click Save preferences to save every course at once. The page reloads and shows Your email preferences have been saved. Save preferences also works if JavaScript is turned off in your browser.
Open How we use this data on the page to see what is recorded about the emails sent to you, and for how long.
If the page says You are not enrolled in any courses., the site doesn’t have a current enrolment for your account. Contact your course administrator.
What turning a course off does
It stops:
- weekly guidance emails for that course, from the next dispatch onward
- automatic catch-up emails for that course (for example, if you re-enrol)
- catch-up emails an administrator tries to send you for that course. The plugin refuses them and tells the administrator {name} has opted out of emails for this course.
It does not:
- remove you from the course, or stop you seeing guidance on the course’s guidance page. Every week is still there.
- change emails for your other courses. Each course has its own setting.
- affect trainer emails. If you also teach a course, the trainer guidance for that course is always sent. Instructors don’t receive student guidance emails for courses they teach.
- cancel an email that had already failed and is waiting to be retried before you made the change. That retry may still arrive.
There’s no single “unsubscribe from everything” switch. Untick each course you don’t want emails for.
What happens when you turn a course back on
Weekly emails start again from the next dispatch, at the week the course has reached. The plugin doesn’t automatically send the weeks you missed. Instead, those weeks appear under Pending catch-ups so an administrator can choose to send them to you, or dismiss them. You can also read the missed weeks on the guidance page at any time.
For administrators: seeing who has opted out
There’s no admin report listing opt-outs in this version. You’ll come across them in these places:
- Manual catch-up at Email Delivery → Send & Status shows {name} has opted out of emails for this course. for an opted-out student.
- Opted-out students are left out of the Pending catch-ups counts and lists for that course.
- A student’s opt-outs are included in the WordPress personal data export (Tools → Export Personal Data).
Opt-outs are saved on the student’s user account, one list per student. They are deleted by a WordPress personal data erasure request. After an erasure, the student receives emails again until they opt out again. They are also deleted on uninstall if Remove All Data on Uninstall is turned on at Settings → System.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Emails have no Manage your email preferences link | Email Preferences Page URL hasn’t been saved, or Email Preferences Link is unticked. If the URL shows Auto-detected …, click Save Settings. Catch-up emails never include the link. |
| A student unticked a course but still got an email | The email may have already been queued or waiting to be retried. Check the course’s tick box is still cleared on their preferences page. If saving failed, the box switches back. Ask them to use Save preferences. |
| The page shows two headings | Use [dcc_email_prefs heading="false"]. |
| A course is missing from a student’s list | Only courses with a current enrolment are listed. Cancelled or expired enrolments don’t appear. |
Example: a part-time student at a community college
Jordan studies Workplace Health & Safety and First Aid Refresher at Lakeside Community College. They only want reminders for the WHS course. They click Manage your email preferences at the bottom of Monday’s combined email and untick First Aid Refresher, which now shows Unsubscribed. From the next Monday, the weekly email covers WHS only, and First Aid Refresher guidance is still on the guidance page. Three weeks later Jordan ticks the course again. The coordinator sees Jordan listed under Pending catch-ups for the three missed weeks and sends them with one click.