![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/12\/light-bulb.svg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nBy default, Canvas sends email notifications for Inbox<\/em> messages and Announcements<\/em> to recipients at their Manchester email address. However, staff and students can customise their notification preferences and may choose to turn off these emails<\/strong> in their personal Canvas settings. For further details, see the Notifications<\/em> section below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Use the Inbox tool to send messages to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that you cannot <\/strong>send messages to users in concluded courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1:<\/strong> Select the Inbox<\/strong> tab in the left-hand global navigation menu. Step 3: <\/strong>Both the Course<\/em> and To<\/em> search bars allow you to filter for a specific course. The To<\/em> bar provides further options of selecting individual participants or sets of participants within that course (status sets, differentiation tags, etc). Step 5: <\/strong>Enter your message<\/em>. Canvas and Outlook messages aren’t fully integrated<\/strong>. If a message is sent via Canvas, the recipient gets it in both their Canvas Inbox and Manchester email. However, replies sent through Outlook don\u2019t appear in the Canvas Sent<\/em> folder for students, while staff do<\/em> see their Outlook replies in Canvas. To avoid important messages getting lost or missed, it’s best to stick to either Canvas Inbox or Outlook consistently when replying to a thread. You may also use the Inbox tool to view and reply to assignment submission comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further guidance is available at this link: How do I use the Inbox?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Use Announcements to broadcast information out to all <\/em>members of a course or sets of members<\/em> within a course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1:<\/strong> Select the course in which you wish to make an announcement. Step 4: <\/strong>Enter an announcement title<\/em> and content<\/em>. Step 6:<\/strong> Filter for chosen sets of users in Post to<\/em>, or leave as the default All Sections<\/em> if posting to all students within the course. Step 10: <\/strong>To edit or delete previously made announcements, select the chosen announcement title on your main announcements page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 11:<\/strong> Select the 3 dots on the upper right corner, then select Edit<\/strong> to edit the announcement or Delete<\/strong> to delete it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For further guidance on Announcements, please visit the following links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do I use the Announcements Index Page?<\/a> Use Discussions to foster interactive communication among students, enabling conversations that engage the whole class or specific groups of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussions can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two<\/strong> types of discussion topics: focused<\/strong> and threaded<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Focused Discussions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Threaded Discussions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Peer reviews can also be incorporated into discussions, where students are required to comment on and provide feedback on a peer’s work. See the links below for guidance on enabling peer review discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further guidance on Discussions can be found at the links below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use Notifications to keep abreast with activities in your courses. Further guidance of managing notification settings can be found at the links below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-76","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6211,"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions\/6211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Inbox<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 2:<\/strong> Select Compose<\/strong> in the top-right corner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/03\/compose-message-1024x474.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Step 4: <\/strong>Enter your subject<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/03\/compose-message-entry-fields-1024x472.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Step 6: <\/strong>There are also additional options to upload an attachment or audio\/video to accompany the message.
Step 7: <\/strong>Click Send<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/09\/compose-message-text-entry-1024x494.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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You may wish to set up auto replies from your Canvas Inbox to direct students to using Outlook as their primary method for communicating with the course team. Further information regarding this can be found here: Canvas Inbox \u2013 How to set up auto replies<\/a> .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAnnouncements<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Step 2: <\/strong>From the course menu, select Announcements<\/strong>. Note that this tab will appear hidden to students until an announcement has been made.
Step 3:<\/strong> Select the + Add Announcement<\/strong> button. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/09\/add-announcement-1024x460.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Step 5:<\/strong> Attachments<\/em> can be added to the announcement if required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/09\/announcement-text-entry-1024x627.png\")
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Step 7: <\/strong>Further options can be selected to enable student liking<\/em> and commenting<\/em>, allowing for student interaction with your announcement. Note<\/strong>: commenting is sometimes locked by default in the course settings<\/em>, and will have to be enabled in settings first before applying it to announcements.
Step 8:<\/strong> An optional availability time frame can also be chosen, allowing for timed release\/removal of announcements.
Step 9:<\/strong> Click the Publish<\/strong> button. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/09\/announcement-settings-1024x667.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/03\/edit-delete-announcement-1024x461.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/10\/editing-announcements-1024x464.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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List of all Canvas Guides on Announcements<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nDiscussions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Focused](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/12\/focused-discussions-1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
![\"Threaded](\"https:\/\/www.elearning.fse.manchester.ac.uk\/getting-started-with-canvas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/12\/threaded-discussions-2.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nPeer Review Functions on Discussions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Notifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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