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How to filter out email notifications from Brookes systems in Gmail (template)

The e-learning systems we use at Oxford Brookes, such as Moodle, Turnitin, Zoom and Panopto, send automatic email notifications to notify you for certain actions related to you or your modules, e.g. you student submitted in Turnitin or you have been added as an alternative host to a Zoom meeting etc.

Some of these notifications are permanently enabled, while others can be turned off manually for your account. While the amount of automated emails can be overwhelming and clutter your inbox, we don’t recommend turning them off completely. Some of these notifications can work as proof that an action has happened (e.g. a student submitted in Turnitin) and, if you turn them off, there won’t be a record of these actions in case you need it at a later date.

Instead, we recommend filtering out these notifications in Gmail, so they don’t appear in your inbox, but you can revisit them later if needed.

In this article

How do I filter out these emails?

Gmail filters work with keywords and other set of criteria that you can use to filter out emails. For example, you can set up a filter that archives emails from a particular email address or emails with a specific subject to skip your inbox and be archived within a Gmail label.

However, using the wrong criteria may result in missing critical emails or not having granularity in which emails you will filter out, e.g. you may want to filter out some emails from Moodle but not all of them.

We have prepared an XML template that you can upload into your Gmail account and filter out the most common automated emails that our Brookes systems send.

Which emails does the template filter out?

The template uses filters which are based on unique phrases (either in the subject line or in the body text) that we have identified in each automated email. In the screenshots below, you can see, highlighted in yellow, the phrases that the template uses as criteria to identify and filter out each email. The template will not filter out every email from Moodle, Zoom or Turnitin unless it includes the highlighted phrases.

Click on the each accordion to see examples:

Zoom

Click on images to enlarge:

You deleted a Zoom meeting

Zoom sends it when you delete your own meetings.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line that reads "Your meeting is deleted" and body text highlighted in yellow that reads "You have successfully deleted the below Zoom meeting".
Figure 1. Example of a Zoom email when you delete your own meeting.

You cancelled a Zoom meeting

Zoom sends it when you cancel your own meetings.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line that reads "Your meeting is cancelled" and body text highlighted in yellow that reads "You have successfully cancelled the below Zoom meeting".
Figure 2. Example of a Zoom email when you cancel your own meeting.

Zoom meeting is cancelled

Zoom sends it when the host has cancelled a meeting in which they originally added you as an alternative host.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line highlighted in yellow that reads "Zoom meeting is cancelled" and body text that reads "Hira Hadley (p number@brookes.ac.uk) cancelled the meeting below".
Figure 3. Example of a Zoom email when a meeting is cancelled by the host.

You are no longer an alternative host

Zoom sends it when the host has removed you from alternative host or they have removed you from co-teacher in Moodle.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line highlighted in yellow that reads "You are no longer an alternative meeting host" and body text that reads "You are no longer an alternative host for this meeting, which means that you cannot start and end the meeting. You can still join the meeting as a participant at the specified time".
Figure 4. Example of a Zoom email when you are no longer an alt-host.

Join a Zoom meeting as alternative host

Zoom sends it when a host adds you manually as alternative host or when as a co-teacher you click on the Zoom LTI activity in a module in Moodle.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line highlighted in yellow that reads "Hira Hadley invites you to join a Zoom meeting as alternative host" and body text that reads "Hira Hadley (p0099988@brookes.ac.uk) invited you to a Zoom meeting as alternative host. As a host, you have the ability to start and end the meeting. If the above button is not clickable, try copying and pasting the following link into the address bar of your web browser".
Figure 5. Example of a Zoom email when you are added as alt-host.
Turnitin

Click on images to enlarge:

TurnitinUK Paper View Request

Turnitin sends it when teachers in another institution make a request to view a student paper submitted to Oxford Brookes through Turnitin.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line highlighted in yellow that reads "TurnitinUK Paper View Request" and body text that reads "Dear Joe Doe, TurnitinUK is forwarding this request on behalf of Brett Simons, an instructor at Institute of Science. This instructor requests your permission to view the paper, "Animals of the sea", submitted to your U54321: Animals Behaviour (JAN-2018 to MAY-2018) (Moodle 3747233) class at Oxford Brookes University on 05-Mar-2018. This instructor has found a 62% match to this paper in a paper submitted to his or her thesis class. If you choose to grant permission to the instructor to view the paper, simply reply to this email. Please confirm the text of the student's paper is displayed in your reply email. By replying to this email, you will be sending an email (including the text of your student's paper) to the requesting instructor, Brett Simons. The text of the paper previously submitted to your class is included below. Please remove any identifying student information in the text below to respect the privacy of your student prior to sending".
Figure 6. Example of a Turnitin email with a request to access a paper.

Submission made to assignment

Turnitin sends it via Moodle to module leaders and co-teachers when your students submit their work in a Turnitin assignment.

Gmail screenshot that shows an example of an email with a subject line highlighted in yellow that reads "Submission made to assignment" and body text that reads "A submission entitled The Goliath of the Sea has been made to assignment The Blue Whale assignment in the class ANML7006: Animals of the sea (Semester 2 2020-2021:1[OBO])".
Figure 7. Example of a Turnitin email when a student submits.

Be aware

Because the filters included in the template use phrases that we have identified in the automated emails, if you receive an email from a colleague that includes the exact phrase or if colleagues forward a Zoom/Turnitin automated email to you along with their own text (e.g. a question to you), your colleagues’ email will be also filtered out.

How do I get access to the template?

Scroll down to Article Attachments on this page and download the zip file locally on your computer.

You will need to unzip the file:

On Windows 10

  1. Right-click on the zip file.
  2. Click Extract All in the menu.
  3. This will reveal an XML file that you will have to upload to your Gmail.

On Mac

  1. Double-click on the zip file.
  2. This will reveal an XML file that you will have to upload to your Gmail.
How do I edit the template?

You can use the template as is, you don’t have to make changes to it before upload. But you can edit it if you wish and add more filters that are not included.

Open the XML file that you downloaded from the bottom of this article and open it with the text editor of your choice (e.g. Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code). You will see the XML code of the template.

To add your own filter, duplicate the last <entry> node and paste it before </feed>.

After duplication, you will need to change the properties (name='') and their respective values (value='') depending on the filter you want to create.

Here are some properties you can add to your filter:

<apps:property name='from' value=''/>
<apps:property name='to' value=''/>
<apps:property name='subject' value=''/>
<apps:property name='hasTheWord' value=''/>
<apps:property name='doesNotHaveTheWord' value=''/>
<apps:property name='hasAttachment' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='label' value=''/>
<apps:property name='shouldMarkAsRead' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='shouldArchive' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='forwardTo' value=''/>
<apps:property name='shouldStar' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='shouldNeverSpam' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='shouldAlwaysMarkAsImportant' value='true'/>
<apps:property name='smartLabelToApply' value='^smartlabel_personal'/> <apps:property name='size' value='20'/>
<apps:property name='sizeOperator' value='s_sl'/>
<apps:property name='sizeUnit' value='s_smb'/>

Repeat the process for as many filters as you need.

Once finished, save the XML file and upload it to your Gmail by following the instructions below.

How do I upload the template in Gmail?

Remove similar filters

Before you upload the XML template, it’s best to remove any existing filters, that you set up to filter out the same emails from Moodle.Zoom/Turnitin, to avoid any conflicts:

Figure 8. Deleting similar filters to avoid conflicts. (The video has no sound)
  1. Go to your Brookes Gmail.
    Make sure that when you are looking at your inbox, the Oxford Brookes logo appears in the top-right corner.
  2. Click Settings from the top right.
  3. Click See all settings.
  4. Click Filters and blocked addresses.
  5. Find any filters that filter our emails from Zoom and Turnitin and tick the box on the left of each filter.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click Delete.
  7. Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Upload the template

If you don’t have any similar filters for Zoom/Turnitin emails, upload the template by following these instructions:

Figure 9. Uploading the XML template in Gmail. (The video has no sound)
  1. Go to your Brookes Gmail.
    Make sure that when you are looking at your inbox, the Oxford Brookes logo appears in the top-right corner.
  2. Click Settings from the top right.
  3. Click See all settings.
  4. Click Filters and blocked addresses.
  5. Scroll to the bottom and click Import filters.
  6. Click Choose file and select the XML file from your computer.
  7. Click Open file.
  8. Gmail will show the filters included in the file so you can review.
    If you change your mind and you wish to remove some of the filters, deselect them by unticking the boxes on the left of the respective filter.
  9. Check the box next to Apply new filters to existing email.
  10. Click Create filters.
  11. It will take a few seconds for Gmail to import all the included filters. Upon completion, the new filters will appear at the bottom of the list.

Request a filter to be added to the template

If there is an automated email from Moodle, Turnitin, Zoom, Panopto we have missed and you would like to see it included in the template, forward an example of the automated email to Digital Services: digitalservices@brookes.ac.uk.

Updated on March 28, 2021

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