This section walks you through the different ways you can communicate with your students and fellow colleagues. Whether you’d like to send messages to an individual or a group, broadcast public announcements on your course pages, facilitate discussions amongst your students, or edit your notification settings so that you’re constantly kept up to date with activities in your Canvas space, you will find the necessary guides below.
Inbox
Use the Inbox tool to send messages to:
- a course
- an individual student/user or a group in a course
- yourself (displays in your ‘Sent’ folder).
You may also use the Inbox tool to view and reply to assignment submission comments.
Note that you cannot send messages to users in concluded courses.
Announcements
Use Announcements to broadcast information out to all members of a course or sections within a course.
- How do I use the Announcements Index Page?
- How do I add, edit, delete an Announcement?
- How do I delay posting an announcement until a specific date in a course?
List of all Canvas Guides on Announcements.
Discussions
Use Discussions to allow for interactive communication between two or more people; users can participate in a conversation with an entire class or group.
Discussions can:
- be created as an assignment for grading purposes (which is integrated with the Canvas Gradebook)
- serve as a forum for topical and current events
- be created within student groups.
There are two types of discussion topics: focused and threaded.
Focused Discussions:
- Two levels of nesting – the original and subsequent replies.
- Are relatively short-lived interactions.
Threaded Discussions:
- Infinite levels of nesting – allow replies within replies.
- May last for a longer period of time.
- What are Discussions?
- How do I use the Discussions Index Page?
- How do I create, edit, reply to a discussion as an instructor?
- How do I delay posting a discussion until a specified date in a course?
- How do I close a discussion for comments in a course?
Peer Review Functions on Discussions
Peer reviews can also be incorporated into discussions, where students are required to comment on and provide feedback on a peer’s work.
List of all Canvas Guides on Discussions.
Notifications
Use Notifications to keep abreast with activities in your courses.