06. Contacting students Contents
6. Contacting students
If you want to contact all students in a course, you can use "Announcements" to do so all at once. Conversely, if you want to contact only one or some students, you can use "Message".
6.1 Contacting students all at once using announcements
Announcements refers to the forum found at the top of the course screen by default, and only teachers can make a post (students can only view them). Content posted in an announcement will be displayed in the forum and sent to the email address of the student enrolled in the course. Announcements are very convenient for contacting students all at once.
Click on the "Announcements" icon on the course screen.
Click on the "Add discussion topic" icon.
1. Subject
Enter a subject.
2. Message
Enter the content of the notification to the students.
If you want to attach a file, click "Advanced" to display the file attachment field.
3. Pinned
If you check the "Pin" box, the topic will appear at the top of the forum.
"Send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay"
If you check here, your post will be e-mailed within about 5 minutes . If you do not check here, you can edit your message for 30 minutes after posting, but the emails will be sent 30 minutes later. If many people are using the system at the same time, the sending of the messages may be delayed
4. Click "Post to forum".
※ Click on "Advanced" to display an entry field for attachments.
Students will be able to see the volume of notifications posted to Announcements in the "Announcements" section of the Moodle course.
A copy of the content will also be sent to students by email.
Please note, however, that students are not able to reply to these emails.
6.2 Individual communication using messages
If you want to contact only one or some students, you can use "Message" to do so.
If you want to contact only one or some students, you can use "Message" to do so.
There are two ways to display the message sending screen.
Method 1: Click on "Participants" from the menu under the course name.
Method 2: Open the block drawer and click on "Enrolled users" in the management block that appears.
The "Enrolled users" screen will appear.
A list of faculty members and students registered in the course is displayed.
1. Check the box at the beginning of the line for the student(s) you wish to send a message to.
2. Click on the "With selected users..." field to select an action.
3. Click "Send message".
Enter your message in the message body field. The title will display as "New message from XX", with the first and last name registered in Moodle displayed in place of XX. By default, the content of the message is also sent to their Chiba University webmail address. However, the email address shown as the sender of the email is one that cannot be replied to, so if you need to contact each other outside of the message, specify your contact information in the text.
Note about student email addresses:
The e-mail address distributed by the university, "XX@chiba-u.jp" or "XX@student.gs.chiba-u.jp", is the e-mail address to which notifications are set to be sent from the university. In general, this is "XX@student.gs.chiba-u.jp" for undergraduate students and "XX@chiba-u.jp" for graduate students. (This does not apply when forwarding settings have been activated.)
After entering your message, if you are satisfied with the content, select "Send message to X person" to send it.
View from the student’s perspective 1
A red balloon icon will appear on the navigation bar of the Moodle screen of the student who has received the message, indicating that a new message has arrived.
Clicking on this icon will open the message window, where the student can open and read the messages addressed to him/her.
View from the student’s perspective 2
When a message is sent, a copy of the content is also sent to the student by email.
Please note, however, that students are not able to reply to these emails.
When a message is sent in Moodle, the sender will not receive an email
When sending a message in Moodle, it will also be sent to the recipient’s email address, but following the Moodle 2021 version upgrade, an email will no longer be sent to the sender.
【Dealing with this change】
・How to check if a message has been sent
Select the balloon icon on the upper right to open the "Message" screen, and if there is a message in "Private", it has been sent.
・ An alternate way for sending messages to all students in the class
You can make a post in "Announcements" instead of using the message feature to reach users (all student and teacher roles) enrolled in the course.
An email will also be sent to the sender.