"Message OBSERVERS of Students Who..." in Grade books!

[jeff_pence]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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K12 teachers MUST have the ability to "Message The Observers of Students Who...directly from the grade book. To maintain contact with Parents.

As a K-12 teacher, communication with parents (Observers) was one of the biggest challenges that almost turned our school away from using Canvas. Being able to communicate with the Parent/Observer in conjunction with, or at least as much as the Student, is incredibly important. For example, if a student is missing an assignment or needs to make revisions, as a teacher, I can send a message to the Student directly from the grade book. However, in order for me to contact the parent/Observer, I need to write myself a paper note and then go the Messages/Inbox (a more manual strategy). It would be better if communication between teacher and student were more transparent to the parent and to have an easier, more direct line of communication to the parent. I don't know if the new/in-progress parent app does more than allow parents to easier check grades. I think that for the teacher, improving the ways in which we can communicate with an Observer/Parent would greatly improve the functionality and ease of use of the Canvas platform.

Therefore, I propose that teachers have the ability to "Message The Observers of Students Who..." in addition to the current/only "Message Students Who" directly from the grade book.

NOTE: This is a resubmission of a feature originally proposed by by Amber De Petro on May 19, 2016.

[Renee_Carney]

Hi  @jeff_pence  

We appreciate your continued inquiries, but vote count does not guarantee an official response to an idea or development of a feature.  You can read more about the process in How does the feature idea process work? 

This (very interesting) idea has yet to fit into projects that have been prioritized for development.  When/If it is, we will comment accordingly.

There is also a workable solution shared by Martha Zumack and authored by Stephen Rice.  Messaging Observers of Students in Canvas.  

 I saw that you didn’t want to delve into the code, but I think it might be worth it.  Canvas is a platform, designed with the intentions of others building on top of what we build.  Even though we would love to build every feature that our users are passionate about, we must stick to a plan of building the things we think will benefit the most users in order of priority

In addition, When we look at ideas  we look at more than just the vote.  Vote count helps us identify ideas that are of high interest, but then we break down the demographics of the vote.  The demographics allow us to see what type of schools are most interested, and if there is a single school that holds most of the interest, in an idea.  In the case of this idea, 61% of the votes were submitted by 2 schools.  This is awesome, and it doesn't discredit the idea, but we do take this in to consideration when exploring whether an idea is needed by a majority. 

You may also be interested in reading more about the development process in What is the feature development process for Canvas? 

[jmclinden-c]

As a teacher and a parent of three this tool would be very helpful.

[chinweprincess]

Thank you for your idea, I am ready to vote

[briana_williams]

This would be very beneficial. It would be nice if there was a way to select multiple parents at once to send an email to a group of parents. This would be nice for group projects and/or if students are missing similar work.

[petern]

Is this going to happen?  

[breklis]

We need this now more than ever!

[susanbholzknech]

This is needed to keep parents aware of student course progress.  Adding this feature will reduce the amount of time teachers have to spend emailing parents about missing work.  

[catherine_rodr1]

I just finished a one hour Zoom meeting with parents who are frustrated with BLEND.  They want this feature and teachers do too.  I can't believe that in the last five years no one has moved to make this happen.  

[bmtarter]

I think this would be a great feature and is the most asked question at our school. We have had to make a completely separate google spreadsheet mail merge to solve this problem. It would be great to do it all within Canvas. 

[kmberg]

With remote learning, this is needed now more than ever.  What a quick tool to reach parents.