[Inbox] Email (message) multiple classes at one time

[emalates]

Instructors often want, or are asked, to share news and information of importance to all our classes.  Currently, that means copying and pasting that information into anywhere from 2-5 different classes.  Given that there is a drop down box for choosing a class to message currently, adding the ability to select multiple classes seems like it would be an easy "fix".  Please add this capability ASAP.

[lisa_clayton]

Ugh this is all so frustrating. I searched this topic, saw that the votes were still open in this thread (?) so I voted and posted and presumed this was a current poll (that's my fault for assuming - I do appreciate the heads up).

I give up - no more time for this today. They don't want us to have this for some reason (even though there are 950+ up votes now and most of us have used other LMS platforms in the past that allow multiple messaging). I'm going back to the drudgery of sending 5 separate message every time and focusing on helping my students rather than trying to make a change that apparently has been requested over and over since at least 2016 with no resolution. 

[sdillon1]

I have commented multiple times on this issue with little to no response. Canvas does make changes to the program quite frequently but the majority of the changes that I have seen in the ~2 years I have had to use the system are the type that programmers think are cool not those that actually help faculty. For instance the most recent changes to the gradebook and email app. In the first I lost the ability to get averages for my exam columns or any other assignment that was not grade generated in Canvas or the new "favorites" app which means I have to wait 5-10 minutes for my email list to load. THANKS Canvas for the "improvements"? Is my sarcasm clear enough? I have 80+ sections of labs and even cohorted by meeting times this means I have 25 cohorts to email every time I need to let students know about a change. In this current crisis this means LOTS of extra time sending repetitive emails to each. And with the new "favorites" list this slows me down even more. I would like to see Canvas stop making changes based on what they think we want and start working on those items that would really help. 

[egerig]

All right, it's 2020 and this feature is still not available.  Is there anything else we can do to move this along?

[mrpannell]

Hi Kona,

Thanks for that info. I have a question that is similar to this discussion. We now have the option to select a course under Favorite or More courses when sending a conversation. Does anyone find the functionality delayed or slow? Many faculty are complaining because the UI usually takes more time or never works. 

Any ideas?

[mrpannell]

Hi,

I just posted a response to Kona about this issue. It's extremely frustrating for faculty to send emails to their students. The new UI isn't faculty friendly. I wonder if Canvas is aware of this issue. 

[rungun_nathan]

Sorry to say this - but canvas is very slow in implementing features requested by users.  It goes into the voting and stays there cooking till it is done (and this can be a loooooooooong time)

[brogund]

Hi All, I'm new to this process. When does the voting closes or is there a threshold number to trigger this development?  My institution just adopted Canvas, and I don't want to cross-link my three sections.  Yet, yes, of course, I would love to email my sections at once without indulging in the copy-pasta dish all the time.

[dlyons]

Voting on feature ideas is one of the ways Instructure collects input on which features to prioritize, but it's not the only factor. 

May I ask why you don't want to cross-list your three sections? When I've taught multiples of the same section I found cross-listing to be super valuable above and beyond even just messaging all my sections more easily.

Also I appreciate that you want to save your copy-pasta for memes. 😉

[brogund]

David,

Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

I would like to keep my sections separately since I don't want to end up generating too many  Discussion forum teams.  Please, let me know whether there is a way to facilitate a discussion forum with a specific section, out of the three (in my example) without forming teams?

Thanks,

Dim

[dlyons]

You wouldn't be able to do it without forming groups, but since groups can be automatically created and restricted to section enrollment I would still find it less work to manage than three entirely-separate-but-largely-duplicate courses, personally. Example in the screenshots below: