Part of the Canvas Basics series

Sending an Announcement to Your Class

You can send a welcome message or other important announcement to your students right from your Canvas course. This ensures all students in the course receive your message. Students can view announcements directly in Canvas, the Canvas Student App, or via their Stan State email.

Steps to create an announcement
Steps to create an announcement: 1) Open the Announcements tool. 2) Click the "Add Announcement" button

How do I add an announcement in a course?

Sending a Message to a Student

Message an individual student instead of the whole class using the Inbox and Conversations. Students receive notifications about the new message on the Canvas web site, the Canvas mobile app, and email.

Using the Canvas inbox to create a message
Steps to create a message: 1) Open the Inbox item in the menu. 2) Click the "Compose" icon in the tool bar. 3) View the Inbox or other message folders from the dropdown menu.

How do I send a message to a user in a course in Conversations as an instructor?

Viewing Messages from Students

View messages received from students in your class. 

How do I reply to a message in Conversations as an instructor?

Sending Assignment Feedback

When grading, you can send students a message to remind them to submit their assignments or to come visit you during office hours to discuss their progress in the course directly from the Gradebook.

Sending message via Gradebook
How to send a message via the Gradebook: 1) Open the Grades page. 2) Choose the activity and open the editing menu. 3) Choose "Message Students Who..." to select students for the message.

 

Messaging students who...
The "Message students who..." dialog allows you to filter a list of students based on an  automatic criterion.

How do I send a message to my students from the Gradebook?

In addition to providing a grade, send students written feedback right from within SpeedGrader.

Sending message via feedback
Use the Assignment Comments field to communicate feedback on a submission to the student.

How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader?

What to learn more?

View all Canvas Guides for Announcements and Conversations

Information on this page is adapted from content created by the Center for Effective Teaching and Learning at Cal State L.A.

Updated: August 18, 2022