"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.

[bryan_tayman]

The ability to "Message The Observers of Students Who...directly from the grade book to maintain contact with Parents would be SUPER helpful and can only help but strengthen the very important relationship between home and school.   : )     

[theresa_sesti]

Thank you and I agree. More specifically,  from total grade column we need to be able to "message all who". We could blanket remind all failing or praise and encourage all. I have been sent to share here,  but the parent end was only part of my request.  For me we should have the ability to have student, teacher, & parent add parent email so whenever we email a student or blanket email we can include their attached parent by simply choosing all parents as well.

Thank you

[KristieBennett]

This is so important for K-12 educators. As a HS teacher, I am obligated to let parents know about certain things, such as when a student is failing. Especially when it can impact their graduation status. If we are to switch to Canvas from our current grade book, this is an essential part of the support you need to offer to educators.

[cheryl_zachry]

in gradebook when using the pulldown box to 

Message students who.....  haven't submitted yet, scored less than, haven't been graded yet...

allow the option to simultaneously send the same message to the observer for that student.  

[cheryl_zachry]

Hoping this is added by next year as it would be very helpful.  

[adieken]

Having the ability to "Message students who (are missing assignments, scoring less than ___, etc)" was a real selling point to our teachers for using Canvas.  The ability to message students AND their parents/guardians is really powerful. It lets the students know that their families are also aware of the situation, without the teacher having to draft two separate emails and sending to each parent separately. Please add this feature.

[ck4]

I "Message observers who" option would be awesome. I'd love to be able to message observers who have a student with an average under a certain value, say 60.  

[kraimont]

This is a great idea and I would add the option to automatically CC the parent observer when sending any individual message to students. Finding parent observers is a time consuming task for teachers and the option to "Notify Parent Observer" would help K-12 users. 

[KristinL]

  Comments from Instructure

[KristinL]

  Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2022-06-18)