Communicating with the Students

[TomWoolway]

I am a new adjunct professor so I am still learning how to use Canvas.  I want to send a message to the students in my class along with two attachments.  Can I do this through Canvas?  If so, how do I do it?  If not, I can send a group email to the students but I do not have all of their USD email addresses.  How do I get their USD email addresses?

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@TomWoolway ...

Canvas requires that every user has an e-mail address tied to their account.  So, you can use the Canvas Inbox to send your students a message without really needing to know their e-mail addresses.  All users can configure their notification settings so that they can be notified via e-mail when they receive a message via the Canvas Inbox.  Further, users can select the frequency of these notifications.  And even further, the notifications can be configured for the entire user's account...or for specific courses that he/she is enrolled in.

Here are a few Guides that you can look through to send messages to your students via the Canvas Inbox:

• How do I send a message to a user in a course in t... - Instructure Community - 602
• How do I send a message to a user in a student gro... - Instructure Community - 601
• How do I send a message to all course users in the... - Instructure Community - 600
• How do I attach a file to a message as an instruct... - Instructure Community - 599

You also asked about how to obtain a listing of the e-mail addresses of your students in your course(s).  You can do this via the "Reports" tab of the "New Analytics" screen:

How do I view and download reports in New Analytic... - Instructure Community - 409936 (canvaslms.co...

Run the report for "Class Roster".

Hope this helps a bit!

[michael_berg]

Tom,

Inside of Canvas you should be able to message all of your students through the inbox link on the left of your screen. On the mobile apps I believe this section is at the bottom. Once in your inbox you should be able to create a new message from the "pencil and paper" icon in the top right of the screen. When the new dialog opens, select the course you want to address and then in the "to" field you should be able to select "students" and then "all students." You can attach files using the paperclip at the bottom of this composition window. That should send the information to any student in any section of your class.

Typically what I would do in this situation (If I did not need feedback from the students) would be to create a class announcement. Here you can put in a topic (like an email subject line) and body text (like an email message) and then use the attach link to upload your files. The default will send to everyone in the section but you can also break this up to send to only certain sections or only certain students. And you get the bonus of allowing comments so you can turn it into a group discussion.

Hope this helps. My teachers and I all do things a little differently based upon our workflow and needs. There are lots of different ways to communicate with others through Canvas!