Email: Sending Messages to Students

You can send email messages from eLearn. Messages sent through eLearn will be delivered to the recipient's Vol State Microsoft Outlook inbox. 

While you can directly message your students from your Outlook account, there are a few advantages to starting your messages in eLearn.

  1. You don't have to track down your student's email addresses.
  2. When you start your message in eLearn, a subject line is automatically started that includes your course name. This makes it easier for your student(s) to identify exactly which course you are referring to.

When you email from a class the subject line will be auto populated to begin with the name and section of your course. It will end with this symbol >. You are encouraged to add to the subject line to make it more meaningful. Here is an example:

Screenshot of a help question for Chapter 5 in a chemistry fundamentals course.

Sending to an Individual

To send a message to only one person, click their name in the Classlist. A new email message window will open. Complete the message and click send.

Sending to a Select Group of People

To send a message to a group of selected individuals, first, click to put a check mark in the selector boxes next to their individual names. At either the top or bottom of the list, click the "Email" link. A new email message window will open. Complete the message and click send.

In the example below, you see that 3 students are selected from the classlist.

Classlist screenshot

Sending to the Entire Class

  1. Click the button "Email Classlist." 
  2. Click the blue "Send Email" button at the bottom of the classlist. 
  3. Compose and send your message.

Classlist screenshot

Notes:

Group messages will automatically place all recipients in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field. This is a system setting enforced by the creator of eLearn and cannot be changed at this time.

The default setting is to display 20 users per page. It may be helpful to use the drop-down arrow at the bottom of the page to select a number larger than your class enrollment. This way you will see all of the enrolled students on one page.

Screenshot of number of people on page

Sending messages using the "BCC" or "To" fields

Using the classlist email functions will default in all recipients being added to the BCC field. Sometimes it would be better to send a message using the "To" field so students could see the email responses from others included on the list. Follow the steps in this video to add students to the "To" field.

Organizing Incoming Mail in Your Outlook Inbox

Now that all your messages from eLearn will be delivered to your Outlook inbox, you may want use folders and rules to help organize and group your eLearn messages. All messages that are sent from eLearn will identify the class and section in the subject line (as long as the sender does not remove the text).  This Knowledge Base article has a video and written steps that you can follow to use part of the subject line to group your email messages together in a folder. Email: Tips for Organizing Your Incoming Mail in Outlook

Viewing Messages Sent from eLearn

To see your list of sent messages, Click on the envelope on the main screen > Click the blue email envelope and click the gray Sent Mail button.

Screenshot of an email interface showing no items found in the email section, with icons for notifications, settings, and user profile.

Send Yourself a Copy of Every Email Message You Send from eLearn

If you’d like to be sent a copy of every outgoing email message you send from eLearn to your Outlook inbox:

  • Click on your eLearn profile
  • Go to Account Setting
  • Go to the Email Tab
  • Check the box that says "Send a copy of each outgoing message to [your Vol State email address]"

 

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