Community

llawrence10 · ‎03-13-2023

@SusanNiemeyer - As most faculty, advisors, and college staff know, students resist using their school email accounts because they say it has "too much junk" (activities, reminders, registration info, sports updates, etc.). They do, however, love the Canvas inbox because it is so specific to each course. It also does not require the exchange of any account information such as email addresses. And it eliminates the issue of student emails not being received or the receiver not knowing who it's from when they send from a personal account. We need the Canvas inbox after the course concludes. 🤔

llawrence10 · ‎03-12-2023

Hi, Chris, Yes, students and instructors can still communicate via their school (or personal) email. But after we've spent a whole semester communicating within Canvas, it's weird and clunky to have to start using a different tool. I know that I really miss being able to stay in touch with my former students via the Canvas inbox, and I know other faculty (and students) do, too. I'm aware of the Features Ideas forum, but because this is not a new feature, just a former feature that was turned off about a year ago, I didn't think of it as a "feature idea." Thanks for the links; I will definitely check them out. Laura

llawrence10 · ‎03-12-2023

I really, really miss being able to communicate with students via the inbox (and for students to be able to communicate with each other) as soon as a course concludes. Some common reasons for instructor-to-student, student-to-instructor, and student-to-student communication after a course concludes: A student asks if their final assignment was received An instructor wants to let one or more students know their final assignment was received An instructor has made arrangements to allow a student to submit a final assignment the day after a course concludes An instructor wants to let the whole class know final grades have been submitted An instructor needs to stay in contact with a student who earned an "Incomplete" Students form friendships and would like to stay in touch with each other An instructor wants to follow up with a former student to see how they're doing A student asks an instructor for recommendations on other instructors for courses they're planning to enroll in A student wants to know if a favorite instructor will be teaching other courses in upcoming semesters A student asks for a letter of recommendation These are very common scenarios. But the changes to the inbox do not allow instructors or students to message students after a course concludes. That's the equivalent of slamming the doors shut. We should be seeking ways to encourage ongoing communication, not preventing it.

llawrence10 · ‎07-06-2021

I agree 100% with Kori Schneider. We have used Canvas for almost 10 years and have very few new users. It would be far better as an feature one could choose instead of one that pops up automatically and doesn't seem to have a "dismiss" option.

llawrence10 · ‎03-06-2018

Yes - I tried the search feature that's shown at the bottom of this guide: How do I filter conversations as an instructor? But it didn't work to find conversations with a student who was no longer enrolled in the course (but for whom there WERE indeed previous messages in the Inbox). That search feature is sort of a generic search for anyone you have an enrollment in common with; it does not search the folder (Unread, Inbox, Sent), etc. Even though the Canvas Inbox is a messaging service and and not email, that's what we need: the ability to search within the Inbox and its individual folders, much the way an Outlook (or other email) search works.

llawrence10 · ‎03-06-2018

Yes, please! This would be especially helpful for instructors who have a large # of classes and/or students and who need to find communication with just a particular student. For ex., today I was asked to help someone find messages regarding a student who was going to be dropped from the course last semester. Because this instructor uses the Inbox for weekly reminders and assignment details, it was very cumbersome to search through the hundreds of messages. Narrowing the search down by course and type of message (sent, unread, etc.) helps a little, but to be able to search by the person's name would have been SO much better. The "star" feature did not seem to work to isolate sent messages in a concluded class, so if the instructor needs to access these messages again, he will just have to scroll, scroll, scroll until he finds them.

llawrence10 · ‎10-06-2017

Thanks goodness I was not the only one who couldn't make sense of the rocket ship for quizzes. And Tracey is a LOT more tech-savvy than I am, so if it didn't make sense to her . . . !

llawrence10 · ‎10-06-2017

All three of these icons intuitively say "compose a new message" to me. Good ideas, Heather.

llawrence10 · ‎10-06-2017

A pencil usually means "edit," not "compose." But the current icon does look like a leaf, and that makes no sense to me. How about just a button that says "NEW"?

llawrence10 · ‎10-19-2016

Whoo Hoo! Thanks for allowing me to share some ideas. Anyone who wants to view the presentation materials at any time may do so by click the course link shown above. Thanks to everyone who attended!

llawrence10 · ‎10-19-2016

If the webinar link doesn't work for you, please just click the course link instead and join the BB Collaborate session from there. Webinar link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/249AFDEE7CB93F04C79FE467B0E3C4A9 Course link: Using Canvas to Empower Students

llawrence10 · ‎10-17-2016

Here is the webinar link: https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/249AFDEE7CB93F04C79FE467B0E3C4A9 The session will begin at 12:00 CDT; you may enter the session :15 before. The presentation will take place using Canvas as a presentation tool. The public course URL is Using Canvas to Empower Students If you have any questions, feel free to contact me (the presenter): Laura Lawrence Director, Instructional Professional Development Teaching with Technology Northwest Vista College 3535 N. Ellison Dr., MZH 204M San Antonio, TX 78251 Ph: 210-486-4850 Email: llawrence10@alamo.edu

llawrence10 · ‎03-31-2016

This is a fantastic idea! How often do we create courses and NOT need to then add people to them? Never. So the ability to do it all at once would be a huge improvement.

Posts	23
Solutions	0
Kudos given	13
Kudos received	31
Member Since	‎04-15-2015

Community

Have a Canvas Question?

Have a Mastery Question?

Have an Elevate Question?

Have an Impact Question?

Re: Bring Back the Ability to Message Students in ...

Re: Bring Back the Ability to Message Students in ...

Bring Back the Ability to Message Students in the ...

Re: Option to disable the "Welcome Tour" in settin...

Re: Add search feature for Inbox/Conversations

Re: Add search feature for Inbox/Conversations

Re: Change the quill icon to a pencil icon for Com...

Re: Change the quill icon to a pencil icon for Com...

Re: Change the quill icon to a pencil icon for Com...

Re: Using Canvas to Empower Students: If They Buil...

Re: Using Canvas to Empower Students: If They Buil...

Re: Using Canvas to Empower Students: If They Buil...

Re: Ability to easily open newly-created course