Canvas: Conversations (Inbox)

What do they do?

Conversations Links to an external site. (or Inbox as it is referred to at UW-Madison) allows you to send messages to enrolled students without leaving the Canvas course. You can view and reply to conversations and sort them by course or inbox type. Inbox itself does not have any file size limits; however, attachments added to a conversation are included in the sender's personal files.

Notes:

If you right-click or option-click on the Inbox link, you can open your Inbox in a new browser tab to keep it handy while you are doing other tasks in Canvas.
Users display in Inbox once they have an active enrollment in the course, and users cannot join a course unless it is published.
Once a course has concluded and its term date has passed, you can no longer message students in that course.

How do I do it?

Learn how to use Conversations Inbox Links to an external site. as an instructor.

Best Practices

Be aware that students may turn off their notification preferences to not receive announcements via email; however, they will still see recent announcements when they view the course home page if you've opted to show recent announcements Links to an external site..

Example Use Cases

Example 1: An instructor wants to remind students about an upcoming exam study session opportunity. To accomplish this, they log into the Canvas course, click Assignments from the course navigation menu, and "+ Add Announcement." Save changes. The announcement gets sent to students according to their notification preferences Links to an external site..
Example 2: An instructor of a fully online course recently published the next module a day earlier than scheduled; they want to let students know about it. To accomplish this, they create a new announcement and send it to all members of the course.

Canvas: Conversations (Inbox)

What do they do?

How do I do it?

Best Practices

Example Use Cases

Further Reading/Information