The Instructure Community will enter a read-only state on November 22, 2025 as we prepare to migrate to our new Community platform in early December.
Read our blog post for more info about this change.
Hi.
I am finding that it is time consuming to work out exactly who the student is that is messaging me.
Running multiple courses across multiple states, sometimes I will get a message from simply a "James".
There could be 25+ James's across the various courses that we offer!
So my question to the community is... can it be set so as that the FULL names appear for the students??
A first name is difficult enough, but then sometimes students message and use their nickname, which adds another element of trickiness.
So far, I have had to deal with this by simply investigating using the limited information the student may have provided in their message. However, I often have to reply with, "please tell me your surname" in order to identify them.
Thanks for your assistance. I look forward to your responses... Fingers crossed, it's a simple fix.
Hi Ben,
I'm afraid I'm not seeing what you're seeing in the Canvas Inbox. My Inbox shows the full name on the sender's account, just as it appears in the course roster, grade book, etc. Here's a test message from my regular user account to my Admin account:
What do student names look like in your course roster (People)?
Community helpTo interact with Panda Bot, our automated chatbot, you need to sign up or log in:
Sign inTo interact with Panda Bot, our automated chatbot, you need to sign up or log in:
Sign in
This discussion post is outdated and has been archived. Please use the Community question forums and official documentation for the most current and accurate information.