Watch a video about course messages

The following narrated | unnarrated video provides a visual and auditory | visual representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.


Video: Course Messages shows to access, view, and send messages to members of your course.




Access course messages

Navigate to the Course Messages page in these ways:

  • On the course menu, go to Tools > Course Messages.
  • On the Control Panel, go to Course Tools > Course Messages.

You can also add a link to course messages on the course menu.

Send a course message

Everyone can use messages for reminders, quick questions, and social interactions. If your institution allows, you can attach files from your computer to your messages.

Your institution can choose not to allow students to reply to or create messages in their courses. Only the student role has these restrictions. You can't turn this setting on and off in your individual courses.

When this setting is turned on, students can only read the messages other roles send, such as instructors and teaching assistants. Students also won't be able to forward messages they receive.

When course messages are read-only for students, you're alerted when you create a message.

On the Compose Message page, select To. A list of all course members appears. In the first box, select the recipients and select the right-pointing arrow to move them to the Recipients box.

For Windows, to select multiple recipients in a row, press the Shift key and select the first and last recipients. To select recipients out of sequence, press the Ctrl key and select each name needed. For Macs, press the Command key instead of the Ctrl key. You can also select all course members with the Select All option.

You can use the options in the editor to format the text of your message. You have creative control over how your content appears and the flexibility to change the order and appearance.

To use your keyboard to jump to the editor toolbar, press ALT + F10. On a Mac, press Fn + ALT + F10. Use the arrow keys to select an option, such as a numbered list.

Reply to a message

You can reply to the sender or reply to all. The sender and all other recipients of the message are populated in the To: box.

Add other course members to the message as needed. The text of the message is populated with the text of the original message. You may add additional text.

New message alerts

The What's New module appears on the first page after you log in and on the course Home Page. You're notified when new course messages arrive.

The module reports changes once a day when you first log in. If you want to see new alerts later, select Refresh in the Actions menu.

You and your institution control which modules appear.