Can I send a message to students in a bCourses section?

You can communicate with students inside bCourses by using Announcements or your Inbox.

• Announcements send a message that is broadcast within your course or specific section(s).
• Inbox messages students privately. You can message individual student(s), a group, a section, or the entire class.

Send a message using Inbox

You can use the Inbox tool in bCourses to send a message to students in one particular section or multiple sections of your class. You can filter which individual(s), group(s), or section(s) of students you would like to send a message to. Access your Inbox by clicking Inbox in the global navigation menu on the left side of your dashboard. This feature looks similar to an email portal.

For instructions, please see one of the Canvas guides based on who you want to send a message to:

• Specific student(s) or section(s): How do I send a message to a user in a course in the Inbox as an instructor?
• All students: How do I send a message to all course users in the Inbox as an instructor?
• Student groups: How do I send a message to a user in a student group in the Inbox as an instructor?

Broadcast an Announcement to a section

You can use the Announcements tool in bCourses to broadcast a message to students in one particular section of your course. Your course must be published for students to receive announcement notifications.

By default, bCourses will send your announcement to all sections within your course. To select specific sections for your announcement, click the Post to drop-down menu and select section(s) from the list provided. See the Canvas guide, How do I add an announcement in a course?, for more information. 

 

NOTE: If no sections appear in your Inbox address book for a course or Announcement drop-down menu, it may be because the sections were not added to the course site when it was created. To add sections to your course site, you need to be the instructor of record for the section, then use the How do I add or delete a section roster from my course site? instructions.