Bring Back the Ability to Message Students in the Inbox After a Course Concludes

[llawrence10]

I really, really miss being able to communicate with students via the inbox (and for students to be able to communicate with each other) as soon as a course concludes. Some common reasons for instructor-to-student, student-to-instructor, and student-to-student communication after a course concludes:

• A student asks if their final assignment was received
• An instructor wants to let one or more students know their final assignment was received
• An instructor has made arrangements to allow a student to submit a final assignment the day after a course concludes
• An instructor wants to let the whole class know final grades have been submitted
• An instructor needs to stay in contact with a student who earned an "Incomplete"
• Students form friendships and would like to stay in touch with each other
• An instructor wants to follow up with a former student to see how they're doing
• A student asks an instructor for recommendations on other instructors for courses they're planning to enroll in
• A student wants to know if a favorite instructor will be teaching other courses in upcoming semesters
• A student asks for a letter of recommendation

These are very common scenarios. But the changes to the inbox do not allow instructors or students to message students after a course concludes. That's the equivalent of slamming the doors shut. We should be seeking ways to encourage ongoing communication, not preventing it. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @llawrence10 ...

I can completely understand why some of the items in your list would be a "nice to have" within the Canvas Inbox.  However, as it relates to instructor to student communication (especially after the course has ended), couldn't this also be handled via e-mail?  If you don't have a course roster with all your students' e-mail addresses, you should be able to obtain this in a couple ways:

• How do I export grades in the Gradebook? - look for a column that lists the e-mail address in the *.csv file that is generated
• How do I view and download reports in New Analytics? - On the "Reports" tab, run the report for "Course Roster".  This will also give you a *.csv file that has the e-mail addresses of all your students in a course.

Your posting sounds a lot like what used to be called "Feature Ideas" here in the Canvas Community.  I'm not sure if you've seen, but Feature Ideas have been re-branded to "Ideas and Themes".  In searching this space, I found the following for you:

Provide more control over notifications and commun... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

One of the "Referenced Ideas" (currently second from the bottom) is:

[Inbox] Canvas Inbox Messages – Fully Obey Course ... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I'm not sure if any of this will be helpful to you, but I wanted to share the links just in case.  I would encourage you to follow these links so that you can stay up-to-date on if Instructure moves forward with any kind of implementation.

[llawrence10]

Hi, Chris,

Yes, students and instructors can still communicate via their school (or personal) email. But after we've spent a whole semester communicating within Canvas, it's weird and clunky to have to start using a different tool. I know that I really miss being able to stay in touch with my former students via the Canvas inbox, and I know other faculty (and students) do, too. 

I'm aware of the Features Ideas forum, but because this is not a new feature, just a former feature that was turned off about a year ago, I didn't think of it as a "feature idea."

Thanks for the links; I will definitely check them out. 

Laura

[SusanNiemeyer]

@llawrence10  I COMPLETELY agree with you!!!! 

This winter, I needed to get in touch with some of my Fall 2022 students, and I was dismayed to see that I could no longer contact them through Canvas Inbox. I tried sending out emails, and unfortunately, I only got a few replies.

@Chris_Hofer Yes, there is a work-around, but it didn't work too well for me. 

[llawrence10]

@SusanNiemeyer - As most faculty, advisors, and college staff know, students resist using their school email accounts because they say it has "too much junk" (activities, reminders, registration info, sports updates, etc.). They do, however, love the Canvas inbox because it is so specific to each course. It also does not require the exchange of any account information such as email addresses. And it eliminates the issue of student emails not being received or the receiver not knowing who it's from when they send from a personal account. We need the Canvas inbox after the course concludes. 🤔

[mike_ulrich]

It's crazy that the Inbox is basically shut down for closed courses. I can't see any benefits of disabling Canvas messaging after a course ends. I resisted using Canvas messaging for a long time and only recently started to use it and am now having second thoughts. 

[extensiononline]

Following this thread as there is interest at our institution to bring back the ability to message students using the inbox for inactive courses.