Send and Read Messages

Messages let you write to the people you learn and work with, right inside the learning portal. This article explains who you can write to, how to send and reply, and what happens with attachments.

Who you can write to

You can only write to people your role connects you with:

If a name does not show up when you search, you cannot message that person. Anyone who writes to you can always get your reply.

Open your messages

1. Click the envelope icon at the top of any page. A number on it means you have unread conversations.
2. Your conversations are listed newest first. Unread ones are in bold with a new label.
3. Click a conversation to read it.

Instructors can also use Messages in the Teach menu.

Send a message

1. Open your messages and click New message.
2. Click in the To box. If you are a learner, your instructors are listed right away, so you can click one without typing. The same happens whenever only a few people can receive your messages. Otherwise, type at least two letters of a name, then click the person in the list (or use the arrow keys and press Enter). Add more people the same way. Each person you add appears above the box; click the × next to a name to remove them.
3. Instructors, group admins and managers can choose a group of people under Send to instead — for example Everyone in a course or All my learners. Changing Send to clears the people you already picked.
4. Enter a Subject and your Message.
5. To attach files, click the file button under Attachments (up to 5 files, 25 MB each).
6. Click Send message.

Messages to several people are announcements. Each person receives it on their own. Nobody sees who else received it, and replies come back privately to the sender.

Reply

• In a conversation with one person, write in the Reply box at the bottom and click Send.
• In an announcement you received, write in Reply privately to… and click Send. This starts a private conversation with the sender. The other people who received the announcement do not see it.

Attachments

• You can attach PDFs, Office documents, images, audio, video and ZIP files.
• Every file is checked for viruses. A file marked being checked for viruses can be downloaded as soon as the check is done.
• A file that fails the check is blocked and cannot be downloaded.
• Download links work for a short time only. If a link stops working, click the file name again.

Remove or delete

• Remove from my inbox hides the conversation for you only. If the other person writes again, it comes back.
• Delete under one of your own messages hides that message for everyone.
• Delete conversation (only for the person who started it) removes it for everyone.

Notifications

When someone writes to you, you get a notification in the bell and, unless you turned it off, an email. The email shows who wrote and the subject — never the message itself. You get at most one notification per conversation every 15 minutes.

To change this, open your profile and find New message in your notification preferences.

Troubleshooting