Link for Creating New Canvas Message to Instructor

[danielostendorf]

Is there a way to use HTML code to make a link start a new Canvas message to me, as the instructor?  I could use "mailto", but that forces the students to contact me through email.  I'd rather have the link kick them right to a new message within Canvas that is already addressed to me.

Is this possible?

canvas messages‌ #links

[danielostendorf · Accepted solution]

Found the solution!

I just needed to find a link that already did exactly what we needed - and found it via the People page! Hope the below is helpful  @dhulsey ‌.

When you click on an individual in the course from the "People" page, you get the option to "Send a Message" on the right hand side.  This is a hyperlink that specifies both the course the student is in and your information.  And, as it happens, you as the instructor are on this list.  Click on your name, right click on "Send a Message", and click "Copy Link".  That is the code to then use for creating a "Send Message Via Canvas" link.  

Step 1: Navigate to the "People" page within the specific course you want to create the link (doing this will keep any message a student sends you connected to this course).

Step 2: Find your user listed here (you can filter or search for your name if it is a larger class).

Step 3: Right click on "Send Message" on the right right hand side. Then click "Copy Link Address".  This will give you the exact link for a student to create a message to you that will also be tied to this course.

Step 4: Now go to the page/announcement/assignment where you want to create this link.  Highlight the text you want to create the link on (#1 below).  Then click on the link tool (#2 below).

Step 5: Next, paste (CTRL+V or right click and "paste") in the link you copied from your profile on the People page.

Step 6: Now, when you students click on that link it will open a message to you connected to that course.

[danielostendorf · Accepted solution]

Thanks Nelson.  From what I can tell, student's can navigate to this, but there is no way to create a link from within one of your pages/announcements/assignments that will take them to this directly. Maybe I'm missing something?

[benjamin_rodrig · Accepted solution]

This seems to work, had to do a combination of what the folks here proposed. 

https://instance/conversations?context_id=course_course id&user_id=user id&user_name=first name%20last name#filter=type=inbox

[ddessauer · Accepted solution]

In 2022-23 there was an update to the Canvas inbox which broke some of the methods in older posts, so I thought it was worth adding a note here about how I am creating this function at the start of 2024.

I am no longer able to get my message links to specify the course. I suspect the id=course_NUMBER query pair has changed, so if anyone can set me straight on the new code, that would be great.

What I can tell you is that it is still possible to create direct links to compose a message to a specific individual in Canvas.

My link looks like this:

https://swinburne.instructure.com/conversations?user_id=1086&user_name=Wednesday%20Dessauer

the path is quite simple:

yourInstitutionCanvasURL/conversations followed by two query value pairs: user_id  & user_name both of which can be found via the people page as documented elsewhere in this thread.

Because of the course ID issue I listed at the top, the user then needs to manually select the Canvas Course, but the "To" section will be populated with the user specified above. Additionally, you can add multiple recipients by using additional &s with more user_id  & user_names added.

I hope this is of some help to others wanting to add what really should be a pretty fundamental link like "message my teacher".

[dhulsey]

This is an awesome question. This has never occurred to me before, but it would be nice to create a link to message the instructor. 

[nr2522]

Hi,  @danielostendorf ‌.

Unless your Canvas admins have removed it, this is available from the Help menu.

How do I get help with Canvas as a student? 

[danielostendorf · Accepted solution]

Thanks Nelson.  From what I can tell, student's can navigate to this, but there is no way to create a link from within one of your pages/announcements/assignments that will take them to this directly. Maybe I'm missing something?

[danielostendorf · Accepted solution]

Found the solution!

I just needed to find a link that already did exactly what we needed - and found it via the People page! Hope the below is helpful  @dhulsey ‌.

When you click on an individual in the course from the "People" page, you get the option to "Send a Message" on the right hand side.  This is a hyperlink that specifies both the course the student is in and your information.  And, as it happens, you as the instructor are on this list.  Click on your name, right click on "Send a Message", and click "Copy Link".  That is the code to then use for creating a "Send Message Via Canvas" link.  

Step 1: Navigate to the "People" page within the specific course you want to create the link (doing this will keep any message a student sends you connected to this course).

Step 2: Find your user listed here (you can filter or search for your name if it is a larger class).

Step 3: Right click on "Send Message" on the right right hand side. Then click "Copy Link Address".  This will give you the exact link for a student to create a message to you that will also be tied to this course.

Step 4: Now go to the page/announcement/assignment where you want to create this link.  Highlight the text you want to create the link on (#1 below).  Then click on the link tool (#2 below).

Step 5: Next, paste (CTRL+V or right click and "paste") in the link you copied from your profile on the People page.

Step 6: Now, when you students click on that link it will open a message to you connected to that course.

[dhulsey]

That is neat. I am going to give that a try! Thanks, Daniel.

[AngelaLevy]

Huge thanks for this! Very helpful

[KrystalLaharty]

I don't have the "send message" option for anyone on my People list. Is this an institutional permissions issue?

[llane2]

The Send Message link doesn't seem to be available from People, so I tried a couple of things, and found out that the information given here was helpful.

I was able to create the link, and it seems to Redirect properly from the course menu.

[d00386959]

So smart!  I've wondered this before too but it wasn't until a professor requested it that I went searching.  Thank you for this awesome, simple solution.

[dwayne_towell1]

This no longer works as the page has been changed to prevent the link from being available. (BOO!)

[pfau]

Booo Canvas. Why in the world would you remove the ability to message from the People page? Why, why, why? I instinctively go here regularly thinking I can message the person. Grrrrr. Everytime I try to do something on Canvas I get irritated because of common sense things like this.

[Stef_retired]

 @pfau ‌, when the instructor clicks on one of the names that display on the People tab, it will launch the Student Context Card; the instructor can click on the envelope icon to send the student a message directly from the People page. The View Context Card section of https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26343-how-do-i-use-the-people-page-in-a-course-as-an-instru... provides a screenshot.

[pfau]

Well, now I feel dumb! There's some other place in Canvas that I wished students could be contacted from--can't think of it now. That must have been what was on my mind! Thanks for setting me straight!

[Stef_retired]

There are just so many things to know, Russell!  

[dlpickel]

If a course has 2 instructors, how can you create this link to send both of them the message in Canvas inbox?  

[d00386959]

When you copy the URL from the Send Message button, you will need to edit it slightly.  See below:

When I get the link to send a message it starts like this:

https://dixie.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_626303&user_id=1999400&user_name=Ethan... 

The URL has a context_id, user_id, and user_name value in it.  Here's how you would change it to message all the teachers in a course instead of just a single user (see bold):

https://dixie.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_626303&user_id=course_626303_teachers&user_name=All%20Teachers

Hope this helps!

[AKeiA2020]

I can't get the context card to pop up for instructors so tried to follow the instructions for messaging all teachers and posted this link:

https://indianriver.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_84443&user_id=course_84443_teach...

However, with each of the solutions presented in this thread I always get a "recipients invalid" error. Here's a screen shot...help?!

Thank you in advance!!

[d00386959]

Another idea we've tried with this is creating a Redirect app so that the link to message the instructor can be visible in the course menu at all times.  The only downside is that when you copy a course over, for whatever reason it doesn't update the Redirect app, so you would have to update that each time you import into a new course.

[benjamin_rodrig · Accepted solution]

This seems to work, had to do a combination of what the folks here proposed. 

https://instance/conversations?context_id=course_course id&user_id=user id&user_name=first name%20last name#filter=type=inbox

[ddessauer · Accepted solution]

In 2022-23 there was an update to the Canvas inbox which broke some of the methods in older posts, so I thought it was worth adding a note here about how I am creating this function at the start of 2024.

I am no longer able to get my message links to specify the course. I suspect the id=course_NUMBER query pair has changed, so if anyone can set me straight on the new code, that would be great.

What I can tell you is that it is still possible to create direct links to compose a message to a specific individual in Canvas.

My link looks like this:

https://swinburne.instructure.com/conversations?user_id=1086&user_name=Wednesday%20Dessauer

the path is quite simple:

yourInstitutionCanvasURL/conversations followed by two query value pairs: user_id  & user_name both of which can be found via the people page as documented elsewhere in this thread.

Because of the course ID issue I listed at the top, the user then needs to manually select the Canvas Course, but the "To" section will be populated with the user specified above. Additionally, you can add multiple recipients by using additional &s with more user_id  & user_names added.

I hope this is of some help to others wanting to add what really should be a pretty fundamental link like "message my teacher".

[ddessauer · Accepted solution]

I have an update to this. I have just observed that the old functionality has been restored. You can add a specification for the Canvas course like this:

https://YourInstitutionURL/conversations?context_id=course_11111&user_id=2222&user_name=Your%20Name

That course id number is easy to pick out of the URL of any page in that course.

Here's how I implement this as a contact button:

<a class="Button" href="https://swinburne.instructure.com/conversations?context_id=course_57956&amp;user_id=1086&amp;user_na..." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> message me now</a>

[laura_clark]

Hi there. We have been using a similar option at our middle schools. The course template includes an "Email Me" button for students, which would initiate a message through Canvas addressed to the instructor. Teachers add their links individually; the links follow the same format that you posted. However, this stopped working this fall. Our students use iPads and the Canvas Student Mobile app. Do you know if your success translated to the mobile app on a tablet?

[ddessauer]

Thanks for drawing my attention to this @laura_clark .

i just tested it using the Teacher app on iPhone and iPad. I anticipate the Student & Parent apps will have the same behaviour.

Rather than functioning within the app, it is opening the link successfully, but as a Canvas web view with the device default browser (Safari). So it switches apps, and if you aren’t already logged into Canvas there, it will put you through the login screen before arriving at the inbox compose message screen.

This is a long way for ideal! Particularly in the context of tightly managed student devices, which I imagine is the case with middle school iPads.

It’s hugely frustrating that the mobile app dev team seems to be siloed away from the web app team, making the two experiences so incongruous. I need to offer an equitable experience to users on all available platforms.

[KrystalLaharty]

I am able to add the course itself but am not able to add more than one recipient when using the method above. Please advise. 

https://myinstitutionCanvasURL/conversations?context_id=course_course id&user_id=user id&user_name=first name%20last name&user_id=user id&user_name=first name%20last nam#filter=type=inbox

[Sachelis]

Note that the course number (aka the context_id) isn't required. That is convenient for me because I include this link on the bottom of all of my pages and don't want to edit all of the pages when the course number changes. I use something similar to: https://utah.instructure.com/conversations>user_id=123456&user_name=firstname%20lastname.