Events and Announcements: Documentation

Here is a tour of how to navigate through Simmons alerts, events and announcements, and to manage them by setting your own personalized flags and reminders, moving items to and from the trash, and finding old events, alerts, and announcements. To see all Simmons alerts, events, or announcements (not just public ones) and to flag or remind yourself about any, first you have to Sign In, or Log in to personalize this page.

For Moderators

When acting as a moderator for a category, your primary task is to review posts for event notices and announcements and ensure that they meet specific criteria. Some moderators also are responsible for moderating alerts, which are sent immediately through email directly to the specified audience.

How will I know an event or announcement is waiting for my review?

You will be notified in two ways that you have a MySimmons posting to moderate:

  1. You will receive an email stating that you have an alert, event notice or standard announcement to review. The message also displays the title, and a link to MySimmons.
    • This message will come from "no-reply@simmons.edu" with the subject line beginning "[MySimmons]" followed by the title of the posting.
    • If the posting is an alert, the subject line of this email will begin "[MySimmons] ALERT" followed by the title of the posting.  Please be sure the post should go out as an alert! (see below)
  2. On the Dashboard Welcome page:
    • The Recent Activity list on the right hand side shows that you have one or more posts to moderate.
    • The Moderate Content list on the right hand side shows that you have posts to review.

Criteria for approving posts

Posts should be:

  • Written in appropriate language.
  • Assigned an appropriate access setting (e.g. Employees Only, or Anyone at Simmons).  If the information is public or would be good publicity if people outside Simmons knew about it, set privacy to Anyone (public).
  • Correctly assigned as Send email, or Don't send email
  • Correctly assigned a status of Standard or Alert.  For Alerts:
    • merits being highlighted as an alert on MySimmons
    • merits being sent immediately to all members of the selected audience (you post an alert and also choose Don't send email)
    • correctly assigned to the correct audience and meriting.  Note: an alert can be posted to MySimmons without being sent through email.
  • Directed to the appropriate category (e.g. Library, or Student Life)

To review an event notice or announcement:

  1. Login or Sign in at MySimmons. You will see the Dashboard Welcome page.
  2. Click Moderation.
    Dashboard bar showing Moderation
  3. You will see the Moderation Queue page displaying all of the event notices or announcements waiting for your review.
  4. Review an event or announcement using the criteria noted above. Don't forget to check the Summary carefully.
    Moderation Summary
  5. You can edit the text or modify any of the settings by clicking edit, to the far right of the event or announcement title.  If you edit the posting, you are serving as an author and have all of the Add an Announcement, or Add an Event options.  When you Submit, the post will go back to Moderation, so begin these instructions over again to moderate and release the event or announcement.
  6. From the Approval drop-down list, choose one of the following:
    • Approve. An email will be sent to the author and all moderators for the subscription category or target audience, including you, stating the notice is approved.
    • Deny. Type your reasons in the Comments box. An email will be sent to the author and all moderators for the subscription category or target audience, including you, stating the notice is denied and your reasons for denying it.
    • On hold.  This option will leave the post in your moderation queue.
  7. When you are finished, click Submit