The Alert Center helps admins stay on top of important events and issues in Pencil Spaces. Alerts are created when a specific action or situation requires attention, such as a declined event, an event no-show, a safeguarding concern or potential nudity detection.
You can review each alert, assign it to the appropriate person, set its priority and mark it as resolved once the issue has been addressed.
Note: The Alert Center is currently available as an opt-in feature for Master plans and above. If youâre interested in using the Alert Center, please contact our support team, and weâll help you enable it for your institution.
How to manage your alerts
1. Open the Alert Center
To access the Alert Center, select Alerts from the left-hand menu on your Pencil Spaces dashboard.
2. Review your alerts
From here, you can review your different alerts. The Alert Center organizes alerts into two categories:
Not Started: Alerts that have not yet been assigned to anyone.
In Progress: Alerts that have been assigned to someone and still need to be reviewed or actioned.
3. Set the priority and assignee
Click an alert to open it and view more information. From the alert details, you can set the alert's priority and assign it to the person responsible for reviewing or resolving it.
Assigning an alert helps your team keep track of who is responsible for taking action.
Depending on your institution's setup, relevant admins may also receive email notifications when an alert is created.
Institutions with Sites: Alerts are typically sent to the Site Admins associated with the affected site, as well as Institution Admins. For more information, see our guide: How do I set up and use sites?
Institutions without Sites: Alerts are sent to Institution Admins.
4. Resolve the alert
Once the issue has been reviewed and the necessary action(s) have been taken, click the three-dot icon (...) at the top of the alert, and then select Mark as resolved.
Mark an alert as resolved once it has been addressed and no further action is required.
Types of alerts in Pencil Spaces
Pencil Spaces supports four different types of alerts.
1. Declined events
What is it? An alert is created when a host declines an event invitation by selecting No for the RSVP.
What to do: Review the event and decide whether it needs to be rescheduled or whether the participants should be reassigned to another ongoing event.
2. Event no-shows
What is it? An alert is created when the event host has not joined within 10 minutes of the scheduled start time, while students are already in the Space or waiting room.
What to do: Check whether the host is able to join the session. If they are unavailable, you can reassign the participants to another ongoing event.
Note: If a host is no longer able to facilitate a scheduled session, the intended participants can be reassigned to a different event instead. For more information, see our guide: How to reassign users to another event?
3. Safeguarding
What is it? A safeguarding alert is created when Pencil Spaces detects activity that may require attention, including inappropriate language, harassment, safety or privacy concerns, and potential grooming.
What to do: Review the alert and follow your institutionâs safeguarding procedures. The appropriate response will depend on the circumstances and your institutionâs specific protocols.
4. Nudity detection
What is it? An alert is created when Pencil Spaces detects potential nudity during a session.
What to do: Review the alert for more information, and follow your institutionâs safeguarding and safety procedures.
Managing alert priorities and assignments
You can use the alert details panel to ensure that each alert has the appropriate priority and owner:
Priority helps your team identify which alerts require attention first.
Assignee identifies the person responsible for reviewing the alert and taking any necessary action.
When should I resolve an alert?
Mark an alert as resolved after you have reviewed the issue and completed any necessary follow-up.
For example, you might resolve an event no-show alert after confirming that the host was unavailable and successfully reassigning the students to another event.
If an alert still requires action, leave it active and assigned to the appropriate person.
Need more help?
If you have questions about an alert, what triggered it or how a specific alert should be handled, please contact our Pencil Spaces Support team. Weâre available 24/7 and will be happy to help.
For more details on how to access our live support team, see our guide: How to access 24/7 live support.
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