Communicating in bCourses: FAQs

Can I send a message to everyone in my course site using my own email application?

Yes, you can request a bCourses Mailing List for a course, which provides instructors the ability to send messages from their email application, rather than using the Inbox in bCourses. Follow the instructions in the bCourses Mailing List support article.

Why didn't my students receive the message that I posted?

Any message that instructors send through bCourses, whether you are using the Inbox or the Announcement tool, will show up in immediately in these tools, as well as in CalCentral. In addition, notifications are sent directly to students' email accounts. Notifications are copies of Announcements or Inbox messages, notifying them that there is a message waiting for them in the Announcements or Inbox tool within bCourses.

If students report that they are not receiving these notifications, it could be for one of the following reasons:

1. The bCourses site is not published. If the course site is not published, students will not receive the messages. Make sure your course site is published before posting Announcements or sending messages via the Inbox. See the Canvas Guide: How do I publish a course?
2. The notification may have gone into the Spam folder of the student's email inbox.
3. Students may have changed their default notification setting from the default (Notify immediately) for Announcement postings and Inbox messages. For information on student notification settings, please see this Canvas Guide: How do I manage my Canvas notification settings?

Why didn’t I receive a copy of my Announcement or Inbox message right away?

It may be that your Notification Preferences for "Announcement Created By You" or "Conversation Created By Me" are not enabled and set to the ‘Notify Immediately’ setting. To check, please see this Canvas Guide: How do I manage my Canvas notification settings?

Another possibility is that your course site is unpublished. Announcement notifications do not get sent when you post an announcement in an unpublished site. See the Canvas Guide: How do I publish a course?

What are the default notification settings?

By default, students receive notifications for Announcement and Inbox messages ASAP. For a full list of default notification settings and what they mean, please see this bCourses help article: Default Notification Settings

Can I add more than one attachment to an Announcement?

Only one attachment can be added to an announcement. However, you can create a link to a file in the body of your Announcement. This means that a file is uploaded to your course site and placed in the Files area, and a link is created to it in the Announcement.

Please see this Canvas Guide for step-by-step instructions on adding content into your Announcement: How do I add content to my Announcement?