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Spec: Notifications grouping

Spec: Notifications grouping

As of Oct 2025, grouping is implemented for 2 of 16 notification types:

  • New discussion posts (grouped by course)

  • New ORA submissions (grouped by assignment)

Grouping was first added to reduce clutter and improve visibility of high-volume notifications. Data showed a CTR improvement from 8% to 27% for “new discussion posts” and a 7% increase in overall CTR.

See Current state of OpenedX Notifications for more details.

Why only these two?

  • New discussion post notifications can number in the hundreds per day in large courses; though off by default, many course staff enable them.

  • New ORA submission notifications can also spike in volume; grouping allowed us to turn this preference ON by default without overwhelming instructors.

Problem

Analysis from an Open edX instance shows 2 other notification types with high per-user counts:

  • New response on my post

  • New response on a post I’m following

Proposal

Add grouping for:

  1. New response on my post (group by post ID)

  2. New response on followed post (group by followed post ID)

Expected impact

  • Reduce tray clutter

  • Increase CTR for these notification types

Technical considerations

  • Re-use existing grouping logic from new_discussion_post

  • Update text templates to pluralized forms (e.g., “Steve and others responded on your post”)

Notification Type

Single Notification Text

Grouped Notification Text

Notification Type

Single Notification Text

Grouped Notification Text

New response on my post

Steve responded to your post {post title}

Mark and others responded to your post {post title}

New response on followed post

Steve responded to a post you’re following: {post title}

Mark and others responded to a post you’re following: {post title}