Please note that most organizations do not have Opt In Merit accounts. If your organization has a traditional Merit account, please visit the Privacy section of our knowledge base to learn more about opting students out (or back into) Merit.
If your institution has an Opt In Merit account, then your students will be asked to participate in Merit prior to you sharing achievements about them. Your students' achievements will not be shared publicly with anyone unless the student has chosen to opt in.
There are a few things that will work differently when having an Opt In Merit Account:
Welcome Emails
When a student is added to Merit for the first time, either by student import or an achievement, they will receive a welcome email. This email is designed to introduce students to Merit and encourage them to log into their accounts. Your new students will first receive a copy of your institution's welcome email:
Learn more about how opt-in welcome emails work.
Achievement Emails
When a student is recognized in an achievement, they will receive an email notification prompting them to view their online story. However, the achievement will not be shared with other audiences until three days after these emails go out. Students have until that time to decide if they'd like to be included in Merit:
Learn more about how opt-in achievement emails work.
Opt In Permission Emails
Students who click a link in either an achievement or welcome email will receive a follow-up email from Merit. This email will ask them to either participate in Merit or skip Merit altogether. A student only needs to choose this option once. However, if a student does not click either the opt in or skip link, they will continue to see this email every time they are included in an achievement or import:
Delayed Achievements
When you publish an achievement, there will be a three-day delay between when you publish the story and when it goes out to parents, media, high schools and government officials. This will allow any students who have not yet decided if they'd like to participate in Merit to either opt in or opt out. After the three-day wait, the achievement will go out, and it will list only your students who have opted into Merit.
Adding Students to a Published Achievement
As an opt-in institution, you will not be able to add students to a previously published achievement. If you have late additions to a story, you will want to create a copy of the previous achievement and distribute it as a new achievement. A member of the Merit team can combine these achievements for you at a later time if needed. Contact us at help@meritpages.com for assistance.
Learn how to copy a sent achievement.
Viewing Your Students
As an opt-in institution, you will have a new category of students inside your account: Not opted in. These students will be visible inside your account on the Students tab. Click the Show dropdown, select My Not Opted In Students and then click Submit to view students who have not opted in.
Your students who have opted into Merit will have a teal Opted In indicator beneath their name.