Can you Please Allow Inbox Disabling or Auto-reply

[holmesm1]

We are forced to use Canvas at our school. Canvas has an inbox through which students can contact us. I d not like this as it adds another inbox I must check. I can forward the messages to my inbox but replyinf to those often gets an error message at which point I must log in to Canvas and type up the same reply to the student I just tried to send...more work. I have asked my IT people and they say it's a Canvas bug. I cannot figure out who our CSM is to speak with directly. 

Can you please get me in contact with the person that might be able to make this feature accessible at my institution (American River College, Los Rios Community College District)?


Thank you,
Mike Holmes

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello @holmesm1 ...

I believe there is a way to it disable the Canvas "Inbox", but it *may* disable it for all instructors at your school...not just you.  So, this would be a larger decision that would have to be made at your school whether or not everyone would want to use it or not.  You may have colleagues that like to use the Canvas "Inbox" and would not want it to go away.  I believe your Canvas administrator(s) would have to talk with their assigned Customer Success Manager team at Instructure about this.

Not sure if this is completely helpful, but hopefully you will be able to have some additional conversations with folks at your school.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello @holmesm1 ...

I believe there is a way to it disable the Canvas "Inbox", but it *may* disable it for all instructors at your school...not just you.  So, this would be a larger decision that would have to be made at your school whether or not everyone would want to use it or not.  You may have colleagues that like to use the Canvas "Inbox" and would not want it to go away.  I believe your Canvas administrator(s) would have to talk with their assigned Customer Success Manager team at Instructure about this.

Not sure if this is completely helpful, but hopefully you will be able to have some additional conversations with folks at your school.

[holmesm1]

Yep, it is institution-wide. In order to get any traction, any suggestion, smart or not, must get a nebulous number of "kudos" to be considered. I cannot even get the name of our CSM though some sleuthing makes me think it is @zbrady  Canvas/Instructure is really frustrating with the levels of bureaucracy to even get a message to someone who can effect change on their platform. Disabling the inbox or even the ability to add an auto reply seems like a no-brainer but I can't even find the contact of someone to talk to about this.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @holmesm1 ...

For clarification, are you a Canvas administrator at your school?  Or are you an instructor?  (Or, maybe you are both?)  I have some connections to Canvas Community Managers, so I might be able to help you find out who your Customer Success Manager is (or at least be able to have one of the Community Managers connect with you about this).

[henson_john]

I also would appreciate the ability to either send the message to my email or preferably close the inbox and send an automated message for the students to contact me through one of the other avenues I use. I find Canvas inbox cumbersome and slow to load. I've told the students numerous times to not message me through there but they continue to do so.

[canvasorbb]

A much needed feature. Please allow auto reply.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@holmesm1 , @canvasorbb , and @henson_john ...

I came across a pretty new blog posting from an Instructure employee last evening, and it looks like auto-replies in the Canvas Inbox are coming soon!  Please check out this link for the details (and other new updates, too):

New Features, Big Impact: Enhancing Common Workflows in Canvas LMS