Is there a way to automatically send a welcome email to students when they enroll?

[GemaLeon]

Hello, 

Our class is open all semester long, and we're wondering if there is a way to send an automatic welcome email to students when they enroll?

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @GemaLeon ...

Canvas does not have anything built into the messaging system (Inbox) to send automatic messages to your students.  Notice I am intentionally using the word "messages" and not "e-mail" because technically, Canvas does not have e-mail.  You can message students through the Canvas Inbox, and students can receive messages via the Canvas Inbox.  In addition, students can choose to receive copies of those messages to their connected e-mail address(es).  They can also choose the frequency of how often they want to receive those e-mail notifications.  So, it is entirely possible that a student may want to turn e-mail notifications off and only get notified of things directly through Canvas.  Here are a handful of Guides that might be of help:

• How do I add contact methods to receive Canvas not... - Canvas Community
• How do I add an additional email address as a cont... - Canvas Community
• How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as... - Canvas Community
• How do I manage notifications for a single course ... - Canvas Community

I hope this will help a bit ... even though it might not directly address your question.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!

[RoderickWoodru1]

Your response does not answer the question.  As an Administrator, I enroll students through +People.  Upon adding them they receive an email from Canvas to prompt them to login with a user-id and password selection.  My question is: can I create a unique email with a course header graphic + Welcome instructions?  Thanks

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @RoderickWoodru1,

As far as I know, the course invitation/welcome notification is not something you can customize.  The closest you could probably get would be to enroll all of the students, then post an announcement in the course.  This would trigger an email notification to students who have their account configured for that, but some may have chosen to turn off email notifications (and also, the email notification would likely be text only, students would have to click a link to view the full announcement in Canvas with graphics.

Hope this helps answer the question.

-Chris

[karen_harris1]

The idea from the original post is that courses may be self-paced, with people joining the course when they can and completing the course when they can, within a given time span.  So, when they do join the course, it would be valuable for them to get an email with important introductory information.