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Send a Message to a Student’s Inbox

In the Canvas Inbox, you can send a message to one user or multiple users in a course. 

Notes: 

  • If your recipient list contains more than 100 users, your message will automatically be sent as individual messages to each user. As the sender, you will also be included in the total recipient count. 
  • Currently you cannot message users in multiple courses.
  • You can also send a message to yourself, but messages can only be viewed in the Sent messages folder. 
  • You cannot send messages to users in concluded courses. 

Open Inbox

In the Global Navigation, click the Inbox button. 

Compose Message

Click the Compose button. 

Select Course

In the Courses drop-down menu, select the course where you want to send your message. You can filter your courses by current favorite courses [1], more course [2], or course groups [3]. 

Add User

To add a user, you can search for the user in the To field [1] or you can use the Course Roster [2].

Search for User: To search for a user, click in the [1] To field and type the user’s name. Canvas will automatically populate matching names. Click on the name to add users. Repeat to add more users.

Use Course Roster: To select a user from the course roster, click the [2] Address Book button. From the address book, locate the user’s role and then select the user’s name. Names are arranged by last name. 

Note: To select multiple users from the drop down list, press the command key (Mac) or the control key (windows) and click the name of each user you’d like to add to your message.

Send Message

Just like an email, be sure to enter a subject and body. 

If you are sending your message to multiple users, but you do not want each user to see who else was included in the message, click the Send an individual message to each recipient checkbox [1]. If your message includes over 100 recipients (including you as the sender), this checkbox will be selected by default. Additionally, you can include attachment or media file by clicking the attachment or the media file button. [2]

When you are finished, click the Send button [3]. 

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