"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]

Yes.  You would want to search for existing ideas around communications with advisors and counselors, and if you don't see what you're looking for then submit new!

[amber_depetro]

I would like to see a few options. As  @joseph_allen  stated, "buttons for 'message student, message parents, message students and parents'" would allow the teacher flexibility as to with whom they wish to communicate. 

[sdtester]

This is a great suggestion! Right now our teachers send a welcome message to the students and the observers. Then the observers reply back to the welcome message to email the teacher directly. This feature would cut out a step for our observers. I am with a K-12 completely online school with start dates every Monday, so any steps that we can eliminate to achieve our goals for communication is helpful! 

[rmeyer2]

This is a necessary addition to the Canvas suite.  Please consider creating the option.

[jeff_pence]

With 300+ votes has this been tagged for progression?

[jeff_pence]

378 votes.  Any progression considered?

[jeff_pence]

Many institutions do not want to delve into the code.

[joseph_allen]

 @jeff_pence  I totally get that.  My overall thought is that if you can do just a little bit of code here and there, you can really extend Canvas functionality and get what you need now rather than waiting for Canvas to get around to it.  

[wwolf]

Great idea,  @jeff_pence ‌!  This tool would be invaluable.  How many times to you send a notification to a student that they ignore?

[jeff_pence]

414 votes...  When will this progress?