Link for Creating New Canvas Message to Instructor

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danielostendorf
Community Novice

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

4 Solutions
danielostendorf
Community Novice

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).

251494_Canvas Message Link.png

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

251498_Canvas Message Link2.png

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.

251499_Canvas Message Link3.png

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).

251500_Canvas Message Link4.png

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

251501_Canvas Message Link5.png

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

251502_Canvas Message Link6.png

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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?

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benjamin_rodrig
Community Contributor

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

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ddessauer
Community Participant

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".

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