When to Use?
You can use course messages as an alternative to email when communicating with your students. Course Messages remain in the course. You can receive notifications of received messages, but you must return to the course to read and respond to messages.
See also: Communication Options in Blackboard Ultra
Procedure
Global Messages Page
You and your students can send messages to each other, multiple people, or an entire class. Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don't have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated.
As an instructor, you can send messages to all students about important deadlines and schedule changes.
This information also applies to organizations.
Don't miss any action. The most recent messages for each course appear first. If you have a mix of Original and Ultra courses, you can access messages for both on this page. New messages appear in a bold font.
Access messages across time. You can view messages for current, previous, and future courses. Use the arrows to navigate to another time period. For example, view messages from past courses that you want to reuse.
Jump into your messages. Select a course card to view all new and existing messages in your course. You can delete messages inside of your course.
Ready to share? Select the New Message icon in a course card to send a message to one person, multiple people, or a class. In the Ultra Course View, begin typing and recipient names pop up. In the Original Course View, select To. A list of all course members appears. In the first box, select the recipients and select the right-pointing arrow to move them to the Recipients box.
To send a course message:
In the navigation bar, select the Messages. The Messages page will open up.
- In the top right corner of the Message page, select the New message icon (plus sign). The New message panel will open up on the right-hand side.
- In the New message panel, enter the recipient and type your message in the message box.
- If you want to send an email copy of a course message, select Send an email copy to recipients. Email copies are delivered if recipients have valid email addresses in their Blackboard profiles. Recipients can read your message in their email, and can reply to the email if Allow replies to this message remains checked.
- If you don’t want recipients to reply to the message, deselect the checkbox for Allow replies to this message.
- Select Send to send your course message.
Unread Message Notifications
An identifiable number count highlights any new messages received. When you select the Messages tool on the Base Navigation, a red number count changes to a red pill icon to reduce distraction. When you navigate away from this page, the system shows again the unread message count.
