Invitation emails not received

[dbradbury]

This long-running problem is still unresolved. When we try to invite students to a course, the invitation email is not received. I know this is an intermittent problem - sometimes it works. Last time we had to add students manually and send them each a password. Is there any word on when this problem will be resolved, or is there a workaround?

As it stands, for a course starting Monday, I will have to email materials to my students, and in the longer term we will have to reconsider whether Canvas is viable for wholly online courses.

[NoahBoswell]

Hi there @dbradbury ,

Are you using free for teacher? If so, are you using canvas.instructure.com or k12.instructure.com?

- Noah

[dbradbury]

Hi,

Thanks for responding. No, not the free version.

David

[NoahBoswell]

Thanks David for clarifying! I wanted to confirm — your course is published, right? Course invitations are not sent until the course is published and ready for students to access.

[dbradbury]

Hi,

Yes, it's published, and "Restrict students from viewing course before term start date" in settings is unchecked.

[NoahBoswell]

Awesome!

It sounds like you’re having a difficult time getting your students enrolled in the course itself, right? Would you happen to have self registration for courses enabled? This would allow you to provide your students (they must have an account within your institution’s canvas) with an enrollment URL via the course settings, and they could just type in the code and get enrolled. I personally don’t recommend manually inviting several students at once, as it usually leads to bumps in the road, similar to what you’re experiencing now.

Or, are the students already enrolled, but they aren’t receiving the invitation email itself? If they aren’t receiving the invitation email, I recommend clicking the ‘Resend invitation’ link on the students that are having trouble receiving the email.

[dbradbury]

Hi,

They are enrolled, but did not receive the email. I have resent it, but I'm not sure if they are checking emails at the weekend. They did receive the notification for the Zoom meeting, which was scheduled using the Canvas Zoom plug-in, so something is working.

We had the same problem on another course, and we had to send each student a link and password, so I guess if they haven't received the invitations we'll do the same again. Until that's sorted out, I can send materials through email or Zoom. For future online courses, we might stick to that approach and not use Canvas, rather than going through this again. Thanks for your help.

[NoahBoswell]

Are you adding new users to your institution by creating accounts by adding their emails to the course roster?

If so, I’d recommend having them register instead, that process usually seems to work out easier according to others I’ve helped with this process in the past. Creating new user accounts through the course doesn’t seem to be ideal. You can also create their accounts at the account level, and set their own passwords which they can change after they sign in.

However, if their accounts are created (and accessible)  and you’re adding them, they should not need access to their email to accept the course invitation. They can accept the course invitation from their Dashboard.

[dbradbury · Accepted solution]

Hi Noah,

It turns out that the problem was with the term date. Even though "Restrict students from viewing course before term start date" was unchecked, it seems it's one of those Canvas annoyances (like setting a course home page) where there are a number of hoops to jump through for a seemingly simple thing to happen.

I'm posting this here to help others with the same problem.

Thanks again for your help.

David

[NoahBoswell]

David,

I’m so glad you got it figured out! The only other thing that crossed my mind was, I wonder if any ‘students can access courses at this date’ setting was enabled at the account level under that specific term and something with that has to do with it? I’m not sure exactly how that would impact access off the top of my head.

Regardless, thanks for reaching out to the Community! As always, if you ever need any assistance with anything else please come back!

Noah

[yotebrarian]

Glad you resolved the issue! 

Was the resolution method to check/uncheck the "Restrict students from viewing course before term start date"? Or was it change the Participation setting from Term to Course?

Thank you,
Lance

[dbradbury]

Hi. The solution was to change the term date. The "Re strict students from viewing course before term start date" has no effect.