There are many ways to communicate with your student through Canvas including Announcements, Chat, and Inbox. This page will help you to differentiate between them and decide which option or combination works best for you.
Course Announcements
What are Announcements?
Canvas Inbox and Notification Settings
What is Chat?
What is the Inbox?
Announcements allow instructors to communicate with students about course activities and post interesting course-related topics. Announcements will publish immediately unless you change the settings to delay posting. It is not possible to save drafts for future use.
How do I add an announcement in a course?
How do I attach a file to an announcement in a course?
How do I delay posting an announcement until a specific date in a course?
How do I copy an announcement to another course?
How do I send an announcement to another instructor?
How do I edit an announcement in a course?
How do I delete an announcement in a course?
How do I use the Announcements Index Page?
How do I view and sort announcement replies as an instructor?
How do I allow or disallow announcement replies in a course?
How do I reply to an announcement as an instructor?
How do I allow students to like replies in a course announcement?
How do I like a reply in a course announcement as an instructor?
How do I use Chat as an instructor?
How do I use inline Chat as an instructor?
The Canvas Inbox displays all Canvas Conversations - the internal messaging system in Canvas. These messages automatically forward to your UMass email address.
How do I use the Inbox?
How do I send a message to a user in a course in the Inbox?
How do I send a message to a user in a student group in the Inbox?
How do I send a message to all course users in the Inbox?
How do I attach a file to a message?
How do I reply to a message in the Inbox?
How do I privately respond to one individual in a group message?
How do I record or upload media to a message in the Inbox?
How do I reply to submission comments in the Inbox?
How do I add new people to an existing conversation in the inbox?
How do I find my unread messages in the Inbox?
How do I filter conversations in the Inbox?
How do I start a conversation in the Inbox?
How do I delete a conversation in the Inbox?
How do I delete a message from a conversation in the Inbox?
How do I archive a conversation in the Inbox?
This course contains a wide variety of resources including a Canvas course checklist, video and written tutorials, sample courses, and access to 24/7 support. The course is "on-demand" meaning that you can access it at any time.
To access this "Canvas Training and Resources" course, you can simply self-enroll by following these steps:
You should now see the "Canvas Training and Resources" course on your Canvas dashboard.
IDEAS is available for drop-in support on Monday through Friday, 10am to 3pm:
To schedule an appointment, please contact us at instruct@umass.edu.