Read Receipts

[kfluckiger]

In the "Inbox messenger" feature; Why do students get read receipts, but we as instructors don't. I feel it would be beneficial if we could see if a student reads a message and ignores it, or if they genuinely didn't see the message. If this feature exists please let me know where it is so I can use it. Thank you much. 

-Kris Fluckiger

[awilliams]

Hi,  @kfluckiger . Actually, I'm not familiar with any "read receipt" functionality in Canvas. I could have missed something though. Could you explain further about the student perspective and the "Inbox Messenger?"

[James]

Kris,

Can you explain more about what do you mean that students get a read receipt? I am not familiar with this capability within Canvas.

There is a workflow_state in the conversation object and it has options of read, unread, and archived. However, that is for the individual making the API call and not for the person on the other end. In other words, you could check and see whether you have read a message, but you will not be able to see if the recipient read the message (unless you have admin rights and can act as another user).

There is no way to know for certain that anyone has read a message unless they take some action like reply to you.

Canvas can know if they read it within Canvas, but notifications go out to email accounts and other locations. There is no way for Canvas to know if I read a message in my email unless I respond to it and it comes back into Canvas. When I do that, it removes that message from the unread message count badge.

Even if your email client supports read message receipt, they might be disabled for privacy purposes. In other words, there really is no way to know for sure if a student has read a message or not.