Users unable to Contact via Profile

[LamCake]

I am in the IT department and an admin for our school's Canvas account. 

An instructor informed me that students have been trying to contact instructors by navigating to the teacher's profile via the People list in the class. However, when either a student or a teacher load a profile, there is nothing listed below the Contact heading (see attached). When I view a user's profile as my admin account, I see a button to message the user (see attached).  I scoured the Permissions tab but don't see anything that would control this behavior. How do I get the same functionality for students and teachers?

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @LamCake ...

I'm a little confused as to why students are trying to contact the instructor by navigating to the teacher's profile page via the "People" list.  In my opinion, there are a couple easier ways that students can reach out to their instructor.

1. Canvas Inbox.  Students can easily use the Canvas Inbox to send a message directly to their instructor.  Students can use the instructions found in this Guide: How do I send a message to a user in a course in t... - Instructure Community - 502 (canvaslms.com)
2. Via the Help menu.  If students click on the Help icon in the left-hand global navigation menu, there is an option for Ask Your Instructor a Question.  Students can contact the instructor directly by filling out a little form...which gets sent to the instructor.  How do I get help with Canvas as a student?

Do you think either of these options would be better for your needs?  In my opinion, I think your students will find that using either of these options will be better...and more than likely, other instructors will also use the Canvas Inbox method to message students, too.

I hope this will be of some help to you.  Let Community members know if you have any questions...thanks!

[jmcrew]

Hello! I am also having the same question as @LamCake, and I might be able to provide some context as to why navigating from the profile page is easier. We have over 300 students in our course, and they are divided into different sections, each with a TA. When a student goes to the People page, they see ALL the folks enrolled in the course, not just their section. As far as I can tell, there is no way to sort by section or TA, so they just have to scroll through the list to find their TA's name.

If we post the TAs names for each section as a list on the course website, with a link to the TAs profile, it is really easy for a student to know who to click on, and then be able to message from there. There are work arounds, but just wondering why no option to contact from the TA or teachers profile?