Email notification for Canvas Inbox

[jmerriam]

Suddenly this semester I'm not receiving notifications on my college email for emails that students send me through Canvas. I've double- and triple-checked my Notifications (which doesn't offer a column for email messages), looked through every Canvas Guide (including the .pdf file on setting Notifications)  and community answer...but I still can't figure out why this isn't working. By the way, I do get notifications when students respond to Discussions and when they submit assignments.)

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @jmerriam ...

Keep in mind that Canvas does not have e-mail.  (See a further detailed response about that in this topic: sending Emails to my students).

Regarding your question, when you go to your "Notifications" screen in Canvas (How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor?), scroll down to the three items listed under "Conversations".  These are the items that are tied to your Canvas Inbox where you receive messages from your students.  Do you have your notifications set up properly in these rows for each of the columns you have added to your Canvas account (such as e-mail address, mobile phone number, etc.)?  If you hover your mouse over the words in these three rows, you will see a pop-up that gives a little bit of a description...as shown in the section "View Notification Details" of the Guide that I linked to above.

I hope this information will be of help to you, Joan.  Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[jmerriam · Accepted solution]

When I said "Canvas email" I'm talking about the Canvas Inbox. OK: I had no idea that was what "Conversations" is! Maybe it's just me, but I suggest you might want to rename this "Inbox/Outbox." 

Thanks so much!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @jmerriam ...

I do not work for Instructure, so I wouldn't be able to help implement something like that.  (I work at a Technical College in Wisconsin.)  You could always submit your suggestion as a Feature Idea here in the Community...making sure to search for existing ideas first...so you are not duplicating something that's already been suggested.

• How does the feature idea process work in the Canvas Community?
• How do I create a new feature idea in the Canvas Community?
• What is the feature development process for Canvas?

I hope this helps, Joan.

[doneng]

Agreed! The name mismatch is very confusing. Took a bunch of test messages to identify "Conversations" as Canvas Inbox messages. 

Poor UI/design. Someone at Canvas needs to read Steve Krug's book. 

😉

[DamonBurke]

Agreed. Calling it Inbox on the home screen but a different name in the Settings confused me (and faculty with whom I work) as well. 

[MattStephens]

Slight variation on this question: I am a parent who does not open/use Canvas daily, and would like to receive email notifications whenever I receive a message in my "Conversations" Inbox. I'd like to set this as the default for all Conversations. Or should I say I have it set up that way in my Notification settings, but still do not receive email notifications. This leads me to believe that I'm only setting in-app notifications. Please clarify and/or help. Thanks.