[ARCHIVED] private chats

[rlecessi]

Is there ant way to do private chats in canvas (or another tool I could use). What I'm looking for is for a way for the students to send me their lab work so I can comment on it, but I don't want to share their work with the entire class. I don't want to use email. Thanks.

[Chris_Hofer]

 @rlecessi ...

Would you be open to using the Canvas Inbox to have these private conversations with your students.  Often, instructors think that the Canvas Inbox is the same as e-mail, and it is not.  Canvas doesn't actually have e-mail.  They refer to it as Conversations or Messaging.  So, you can use the Canvas Inbox to message students individually...giving them feedback about their lab work.  To me, that seems to be the quickest way to accomplish what you are asking.  How do I send a message to a user in a course in the Inbox as an instructor?

I hope this will help, Ralph.

[rlecessi]

Thanks Chris, I was hoping to avoid email, since its VERY difficult to maintain, even when students send me late assignments. It looks like Collaborations could work for me. I could create a separate collaboration for each student and that might perform the function I want. Thanks again. 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

 @rlecessi ...

Another idea...probably should have suggested this first...  why not set up an assignment called "Lab Work" in your course where students can submit their file(s) to you, and you can still have those private conversations between you and your students?  The benefits are that you can see all of their submissions to you (time and date stamped), and there would be a complete conversation history for and the student.  You can even use the annotation tools provided in the SpeedGrader in case you wanted to mark up a student's document to provide feedback.  You wouldn't have to make it a graded assignment...just make sure that students are able to submit work to you via that assignment.

[Bobby2]

This is a great suggestion from  @Chris_Hofer .

Might I add to this that the feedback function within Speedgrader is like finding gold. Not only can the instructor provide feedback but the students can feedback to their instructor.

Feedback loop - winning!