Email within Brightspace

Brightspace contains an email tool to help instructors connect with students from within the LMS. Its utility is limited and is best used as a means to quickly reach out to a site roster or select students. Students cannot reply to/within the Brightspace email system and actual conversations will take place outside of Brightspace.

Email options are available in several useful places like the Classlist and an Assignment’s submissions page, although instructors can access a dedicated Email area via the letter icon in the main Brightspace banner menu (near the course list and notifications).

Students do not have any access to Email within Brock’s instance of Brightspace (due to restrictions in the Classlist tool) and will receive instructor emails directly to their Brock Outlook inbox.

The Email tool and Sent Mail

The Message alerts icon is available in the main banner menu on the Brock Brightspace homepage and within each course site. Click the Message alerts (envelope) icon and then Email.

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The Email tool in the Brightspace menu.

The Compose New Message page provides basic email options and some useful tools, but is awkward to use and thus not ideal for actually creating and sending messages (which is much easier from within the Classlist or other tools).

• Brightspace email does provide the full HTML/text editor and can include attachments.

• An email signature can be added through Settings in the top-right.

• If the Email tool was accessed from within a course site, the Address Book will list all component rosters and Groups in the Filter By: field.

• The Sent Mail button provides a history of all outgoing Brightspace messages.

Send messages from Classlist, Assignments, etc.

The main benefit of Brightspace email is that it can quickly send messages to all site/class members, Sections, Groups, or select students, without the hassle of looking for a list of email addresses. Bulk Email options are available in most tools where a list of students is present.

The easiest place for instructors to generate email is the Classlist. There may also be situations where messages are most conveniently sent from an Assignment’s submissions page.

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Email options within Classlist.

Email in Classlist

 

The Email Classlist button at the top of the Classlist page will create a message going to all site members. Further restrictions can be specified and recipients can be removed in the next step.

 

The Email button above the student names can be used once a student or group of students has been selected (via the checkbox on the left).

Restrict messages to certain Groups, Sections, or individuals

Any tool with email options will also include the View By: filter (as long as the course has multiple sections or if the instructor has created Groups). This can be used to restrict the view to only members of the chosen Group or Section, and messages can then be sent to only selected members of those smaller rosters.

The Classlist itself presents these options across the top of the page. Use the Apply button next to the drop-down menu to enable the filter.

1. Click the checkboxes next to students' names to select individuals or the checkbox in the top-left corner of the table to select all students.

2. Then, click the Email option to begin crafting a message to those particular students.

The Email Classlist option will immediately present the View By: filter. It is also possible to filter to only the teaching team/TAs. This tool will then create a message addressed to all chosen members as BCC.

Student replies and conversation

Messages sent to students will originate from a system address (email@brocku.brightspace.com) as opposed to the instructor’s email. While this may be confusing to students (and may be worth clarifying), replies will be redirected to the sending instructor’s Brock email. This means that, after using the Brightspace tools to quickly establish contact, subsequent conversation will actually take place through the standard Brock Outlook system and that information will not be trackable in Brightspace.

Announcements for direct communication

Brightspace’s Announcements tool is an alternative for quick communication to all class members as students will receive an accompanying email notification unless they have adjusted their own Notification Settings. This tool is completely separate from Email in Brightspace. Learn more in the dedicated Announcements article.

Student-to-student communication

Students are unable to access the Email functions within Brightspace as all contact information is connected to the Classlist, which is not accessible to students due to privacy concerns.

Several alternatives are presented in this article on Peer-to-Peer communication. The only option within Brightspace is the archaic and clunky Instant Messages tool, which is difficult to recommend.