Schedule emails for session on 2025-10-28/2025-11-04 for @jmafoster1

[jmafoster1]

Emails need to be scheduled via Eventbrite ahead of each session. (/cc'ing @jmafoster1 so you are aware of this setup task too).

Emails

There are up to 5 emails that need to be scheduled for this course. There are parameterised .Rmd templates in the
emails/ directory which should be used to generate the contents of these emails in HTML for copy and pasting into
Eventbrite.

Schedule	File	Description
2 week reminder	attendance_reminder_email.Rmd	An attendance reminder to encourage participants who cannot attend anymore to cancel.
1 Week Reminder	setup_email.Rmd / setup_email_two_day.Rmd	A reminder of the setup instructions as well as information about the session platform and joining link (use appropriately to how course is being run).
4 Day Reminder	setup_email.Rmd / setup_email_two_day.Rmd	A reminder of the setup instructions as well as information about the session platform and joining link (use appropriately to how course is being run).
On the Morning	joining_reminder_email.Rmd	A reminder of the joining link.
Day After	feedback_survey_email.Rmd	A request to complete a survey.

Not all templates require all parameters but across all four email templates the parameters required are:

• lead_instructor: name of the lead instructor
• session_joining_link: link to the blackboard collaborate room (if teaching on-line)
• event_date: the date of the session in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD)
• event_start_time: defaults to "10:00"
• lunch_time: defaults to "13:00"
• prefilled_survey_link: the unchanging part of the survey link containing the identifier of the date of course question to be pre-populated with the event_date parameter.

Knitting & Sending

To use these, open each .Rmd, edit parameters in the YAML header under params and knit to render to html. If you do this in
RStudio then you can select the "Knit on Save" option. Alternatively you can knit the document
with the following, assuming your currently located in the root of the repository directory and wish to knit the attendance_reminder_email.Rmd.

rmarkdown::render("emails/<email-to-be-knitted>.Rmd")

You can run this at the command line without starting an R session using the -e flag.

R -e "rmarkdown::render('emails/<email-to-be-knitted>.Rmd')"

The html content should then be copied (from the viewer or the generated HTML document) and pasted into the Eventbrite
message content box.

Make sure to send a test message to yourself and to check each link prior to finalising the email.

Blackboard Collaborate Session

• Go to Blackboard Collaborate, logging in via MUSE,
• Under Organisations open COM - Research Software Engineering,
• Select Create Session and fill in the details as follows:
  • Session Name: git & GitHub through GitKraken - from Zero to Hero!
  • Guest Access: ✔️
  • Make sure that Guest role is set to participant
  • Set the start and end dates and times suitable for the session, add 30 mins to 1hr extra onto the scheduled end time.
  • Early entry: 15 minutes before start time.
• Click create, this will create the session link, make a note of this for the emails.

Checklist

Complete as necessary (dependent on what has been created in the past).

Tick off tasks as they are completed or if they are not required.

• attendance reminder email setup email appropriate for two day course (2 weeks prior) 2025-10-13 09:11
• set up blackboard session
• setup email appropriate for two day course (1 week prior) 2025-10-20 09:02
• setup email appropriate for two day course (4 days prior) 2025-10-24 12:28
• joining email 2025-10-27 10:18
• joining email 2025-11-03 10:21
• feedback email 2025-11-04 13:44

Once all tasks are complete, please close issue.