To communicate with your class, there are two options, Announcements and Messages:

Announcements (recommended): Post in the Announcements Forum

• Keeps a running list of important communication to students.
• The forum will send email notifications (unless the student has misconfigured their notifications)
• Only instructors and other administrators can post in the forum.
• Recent posts to this forum will be displayed in the Announcements block.

1. Enter the Announcements forum or click Add a new topic Announcements block.
   
   
   
   
2. Change the number of Announcements shown in the block by clicking on the Actions menu (gear icon) on your course dashboard and then on Edit settings.
   
   
   
   
3. Under the Appearance category and change Number of announcements to your preference and save your updates with the button(s) at the bottom of the page.
   
   
   
   

Note: If you do not see the Announcements forum in your course, you may need to re-enable it using the following instructions: Missing the Course Announcements Forum.

Messages: Send Messages

This option is not recommended for regular course communications because the messages reside outside of the course context and are delivered directly to users. It may be a useful tool for exceptional circumstances like fully online, remote exams or for quick updates to individuals. Messages in this interface reside along with messages from other courses and users that have the potential to be missed by users.

1. To directly message course participants, click on Participants in the navigation panel.
   
   
   
   
2. Check all the users who you wish to send a message. You may click Select all if you want to message all participants. Then choose Send a message from the ‘With selected users...’ dropdown menu at the bottom.
   
   
   
   
3. A message composer window will open where you can type your message. Click the green button to send your message.
   
   
   
   
4. A red, numbered alert will appear on the Messages icon for Participants in the course to click on. The messaging drawer now appears along the left-edge of the browser window.
   
   
   
   

Notes:

• There are ways to communicate with students outside of using eClass explained in this article: Alternatives to Emailing Students through Course Announcements
• Notifications sent in eClass are also sent via email to students at the University unless they have disabled or misconfigured their notification settings.