Creating Student Journey Workflows and Using the Editor

Student Journey Workflows are automated sequences that guide your campus members through personalized learning experiences without requiring you to manually send each communication or perform each action. Think of workflows as your teaching assistant that never sleeps—they deliver the right message, enroll students in the right course, or apply the right tag at exactly the right moment based on triggers you define.

The visual workflow editor makes it possible for course creators and educators to build sophisticated automation without writing a single line of code. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can create everything from welcome sequences for new campus members to multi-week course completion celebrations, all while maintaining the personal touch your students expect.

Why This Matters for Your Campus

As your campus grows, manually managing every student interaction becomes impossible. Imagine welcoming 50 new members in a single week—each one needs a welcome communication, course enrollment, and ongoing encouragement. Without workflows, you’d spend hours on repetitive tasks instead of creating new courses or engaging with students who need your direct attention.

Student Journey Workflows free you from these repetitive tasks while actually improving the student experience. Automated doesn’t mean impersonal. When done well, workflows deliver timely, relevant messages that feel more personal than a delayed manual communication sent days late because you were overwhelmed.

The workflow editor puts this power in your hands. Whether you’re automating a simple welcome sequence or building a complex learning path with conditional branches, the visual interface helps you see exactly what happens and when.

Understanding the Workflow Editor Interface

When you create a new Student Journey Workflow, you’ll see a clean canvas with three primary building blocks available in the left sidebar: Triggers, Actions, and Conditions.

Triggers are the starting point of every workflow. They answer the question "When should this workflow begin?" Common triggers include when someone joins your campus, enrolls in a specific course, or gets tagged with a particular label. Every workflow must have at least one trigger—it’s the spark that starts the automation.

Actions are the steps your workflow performs. These might include sending a campus communication, enrolling a member in a course, applying a tag, or adding someone to a segment. Actions are the "doing" part of your workflow—the actual value delivery to your campus members.

Conditions let you create different paths based on specific criteria. You might send different communications to members who completed a course versus those who haven’t, or route members to different learning paths based on their interests. Conditions make your workflows smart and personalized.

The editor uses a visual flowchart style. You drag blocks onto the canvas, connect them with arrows, and configure each block’s settings. As you build, you can zoom in and out, rearrange blocks, and see the entire workflow at a glance.

Building Your First Workflow: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Let’s create a practical workflow that welcomes new campus members and enrolls them in a starter course. This common use case demonstrates the core concepts you’ll use in more complex workflows.

Step 1: Create a New Workflow

Navigate to your Campus Dashboard and find the Student Journey Workflows section. Click "Create New Workflow" and give it a descriptive name like "New Member Welcome and Course Enrollment." Good naming helps you find and manage workflows as your library grows.

Step 2: Add Your Trigger

From the left sidebar, drag a "Member Subscribed to Communications" trigger onto the canvas. This trigger fires when someone joins your campus and opts in to receive communications. Click on the trigger block to configure it—you can usually leave the default settings, but review them to understand what activates this workflow.

Step 3: Add a Welcome Communication

Drag a "Send Campus Communication" action onto the canvas below your trigger. Connect them by dragging from the connection point on the trigger to the action. Click on the communication action to configure it.

Write a warm, welcoming message that introduces new members to your campus. Use merge tags like {{first_name}} to personalize the message. Keep the tone conversational and focus on what students will gain from being part of your campus. Save the communication settings.

Step 4: Add a Delay

Before enrolling members in a course, give them time to read the welcome communication. Drag a "Wait" action onto the canvas and connect it to your communication action. Configure it for a 1-day delay. This pacing prevents overwhelming new members.

Step 5: Enroll in a Starter Course

Drag an "Enroll in Course" action and connect it to your wait action. Click to configure it and select your beginner-friendly starter course from the dropdown. This automatically gives new members access to valuable content without them needing to navigate your campus to find it.

Step 6: Send a Course Introduction

Add another "Send Campus Communication" action. This communication should introduce the course, explain what students will learn, and encourage them to start the first lesson. Include a direct link to the first lesson using merge tags if available.

Step 7: Test Your Workflow

Before publishing, use the test function. Most workflow editors let you run a simulation with sample data or use your own account as a test subject. Testing catches configuration errors, typos in communications, and logic issues before they affect real campus members.

Step 8: Publish and Monitor

Once you’re confident the workflow works correctly, click "Publish" or "Activate." The workflow is now live and will automatically process new members who match your trigger criteria.

Working with Existing Workflows

You won’t always build workflows from scratch. The clone feature lets you duplicate successful workflows as templates for similar sequences. For example, clone your new member welcome workflow to create a welcome sequence for a different campus segment or course level.

To clone a workflow, find it in your workflow list, click the options menu, and select "Clone" or "Duplicate." The editor creates an exact copy with "(Copy)" appended to the name. Rename it appropriately, then modify the triggers, actions, or communications to suit your new purpose.

Editing existing workflows requires care. If a workflow is actively running for campus members, changes might affect people currently in mid-sequence. Many systems show you how many active enrollments exist before you make changes. Best practice: if you need major changes to an active workflow, clone it, make your changes to the copy, publish the new version, and deactivate the old one.

Understanding Workflow Analytics

After your workflow runs for a while, analytics help you understand performance and identify improvements. Most workflow editors show key metrics directly in the workflow view or in a dedicated analytics section.

Enrollment counts tell you how many campus members have entered the workflow. Growing enrollment indicates your trigger is working and capturing the right audience.

Completion rates show the percentage of members who reach the end of your workflow versus those who exit early (perhaps by unsubscribing or being manually removed). Low completion rates might indicate communications that aren’t resonating or delays that are too long.

Action performance metrics vary by action type. For campus communications, you’ll see open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates. For course enrollments, you might see how many actually started the course versus how many were enrolled but never logged in.

Goal tracking lets you define success metrics. If your workflow’s purpose is to increase course completion, set that as your goal and track whether members who go through the workflow complete courses at higher rates than those who don’t.

Use these analytics to iterate. A/B test different communication subject lines, experiment with delay timing, or try different trigger conditions. Small improvements compound over time.

Common Patterns for Course Creators

Welcome Sequences are foundational. Every campus should automatically welcome new members, set expectations, and guide them to valuable first actions. A typical sequence includes 3-5 communications spread over the first week or two.

Course Launch Sequences build excitement before a cohort-based course begins. Send countdown communications, preparation instructions, and community-building prompts. On launch day, ensure everyone knows how to access the course and where to find the first lesson.

Engagement Re-activation targets members who joined your campus but haven’t engaged recently. After 30 days of inactivity, send a communication highlighting new content, upcoming events, or asking if they need help. After 60 days, try a different approach—perhaps a success story from another member or a special offer.

Course Completion Celebrations recognize achievement and encourage next steps. When a member completes a course, immediately send congratulations, offer a certificate, request a testimonial, and suggest the next course in their learning path.

Onboarding Sequences for Specific Segments treat different member types differently. Someone who purchased your premium tier needs a different welcome than someone starting with free content. Use conditions to branch workflows based on tags, segments, or purchase history.

Advanced Editor Features

Version history in some workflow editors lets you see previous versions of a workflow and restore them if needed. This safety net encourages experimentation—you can try changes knowing you can roll back if something breaks.

Notes and annotations help you document complex workflows. Add notes to explain why you chose specific delays, what you’re testing, or what results you’re seeing. Future you (or a team member) will appreciate the context.

Templates and presets accelerate workflow creation. Many platforms offer starter templates for common use cases. While you’ll customize them for your campus, templates provide proven structures and save time on routine workflows.

Workflow folders or categories become essential as your workflow library grows. Organize by function (welcome, course-specific, re-engagement), by status (active, testing, archived), or by campus segment (beginners, advanced, premium members).

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Members not entering the workflow usually means trigger configuration issues. Verify the trigger conditions match your expectations. Check if members actually meet the criteria—for example, if your trigger requires a specific tag, confirm members are actually getting that tag.

Communications not sending often relates to member status. Members must be subscribed to campus communications to receive them. Check if members have unsubscribed or bounced. Also verify your communication is properly configured with subject line, sender name, and content.

Delays not working as expected might indicate timezone confusion. Most systems use UTC or server time, not your local timezone. A 24-hour delay might fire at an unexpected hour if you configured it thinking in your local time.

Actions failing silently require checking workflow logs or activity feeds. Most platforms log errors when actions fail—perhaps trying to enroll someone in a course they’re already enrolled in, or applying a tag that was deleted.

What to Do Next

Now that you understand the workflow editor, dive deeper into specific components:

• Primary Workflow Triggers for Campus Automation – Learn about all available triggers and when to use each one for maximum engagement
• Campus Communication Actions in Student Journey Workflows – Master the art of crafting automated communications that feel personal and drive action
• LMS Actions for Course Automation – Automate course enrollment, progress tracking, and certificate delivery to create seamless learning experiences

Start simple with a single welcome workflow, test it thoroughly, and let it run for at least a week before building your next one. Automation is powerful, but effective automation comes from understanding your students and iterating based on real results.