[Conversations] Include or Copy Admin in Messages

[HParkhurst]

Current behavior: a student contacts faculty through Canvas Inbox. Faculty gets email notification, logs into Canvas, responds to student. Student replies, faculty gets notification, but no longer needs to login to Canvas - conversation can now be carried out strictly by email.

We would like to remove the first requirement for the faculty member to login to Canvas to reply to the message. They should be able to reply via email and allow the conversation to carry on that way (just remove the first step of having to login first).

[rmurchshafer]

@HParkhurst ,

I'm not quite following this because in my experience the system already works just as you are requesting.  I'm going to put in the steps I just used to recreate it but with a few more specific details.

1. Student contracts instructor through Canvas InBox.  
2. Faculty gets email notification with the message in their email client (Outlook in my case but same with things like Gmail)
3. Faculty member replies to the notification directly in email application (Outlook)
4. Student receives message in Canvas InBox, which then sends notification with message to their email account in Outlook.
5. Student replies to the notification message using Outlook and it goes back into Canvas and notification goes to Faculty member's email account.
6. Repeat

So in our case once an initial message is sent from Canvas the replying can take place through an email client without the need to go back to Canvas.  The only reason someone would need to log in would be if they were not already logged in to their email client, or were not already logged in to Canvas.  

Am I misunderstanding what you are describing as an issue?

Rick

[HParkhurst]

Thanks for explaining Rick - it looks like I misunderstood the issue. I have a support email address that I use to support faculty/students and the faculty member was telling me that they can't add me to the Canvas Inbox messages because I am not a student in the course, nor am I a teacher. Is there a way to add me into that conversation so that it can stay INSIDE Canvas? 

[KristinL]

Hi @HParkhurst - Thank you for following up! It is not currently an option to add an Admin to a conversation (like a cc), so this thread is opening for conversation. 

[MeredithBates]

This would be a great tool for administrators, special education teachers, or other specialists that see students but are not necessarily rostered. Currently, if a classroom teacher is messaging with a parent/observer about a student & needs to include an admin or case manager, the conversation has to be moved outside of Canvas.