This refers to Moodle Moodle 4.1 from December 2023 onwards.

How to send the students on your module an email

Moodle gives you the ability to send an email message to all the students who are enrolled on your module. The email message will be sent to the email address in the student's profile which has been fixed to the student's University of Nottingham student email address.

To contact all students in the module using Announcements or (same thing) the Latest Announcements block

The best way to send a message to all your students (all students in a module) is to create an Announcement - EITHER by:

• clicking on the  forum at the top of the module OR
• clicking Add a new topic in the 'Latest Announcements' block

The 'Latest Announcements' block is available in every module: If it is not visible, to make it visible:

1. Turn on the editing mode, using the toggle switch in the top navigation bar.

2. Open the Block Drawer from the right hand side of the screen using the pop out button

Note: In Moodle 4.1 the block drawer is now a toggle area, it is hidden as default and you must press the toggle button to pop it out from the side of the screen.

3. Once the block drawer is open, click Add a Block

4. From the list that opens, select 'Latest Announcements'

5. When finished, click on the 'Turn editing off' using the toggle switch.

A post in Announcements

• It puts a post in the Announcements (forum) which will remain for ever unless deleted (always there for students to refer to)
• It adds a notification in the 'Latest announcements' block (this will show only the most recent posts)
• It will go out by email to all participants (including staff enrolled on the module) and they cannot unsubscribe 

To send a message to all participants

NOTE: To send a message it is necessary that the Announcements forum is visible to students 

1. Go into your module
2. Click on Announcements and then the 'Add discussion topic' button
   OR go to the 'Latest Announcements' block and click on the Add a new topic link
3. Type a "Subject" and type your "Message"
4. Add an attachment if you wish by click on the Advanced link
5. Click on the 'Post to forum' button when done

The message:

• Appears as a post in the forum
• Is featured in the 'Latest Announcements' block on the right
• Is sent as an email to all students and other participants

Within the advanced settings, you can choose to "Send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay" or - if left unticked, Moodle will give you 30 minutes in which you can edit the text.

The time of receipt still depends on the user's profile settings for one at a time or digest.

Information about the email

The email is sent FROM the Moodle system – and it will have the module code in the Subject. 

It is not sent from your personal email address (so you will not see a copy in your Sent items). You (or your students) can re-read the message at any time by visiting the News Forum.

However it does have your personal email in the REPLY TO field which means that students can respond by email directly to you. It is up to you whether you enter into a private correspondence or post the answers back in the module for all to see.

NOTE: You can manage the emails you get from Moodle

This is the best option if:

• You want to be sure everyone gets the message
• The message contains information that students will need to save or read again “Change of seminar room to C30, Physics Building”
• You want the message to be easily found if people need to come back to it

NOTE: If the message needs action within 24 hours, students set to digest may not receive it in time. This method should not be used for urgent or emergency announcements (use mail through SATURN for those).

How the student receives the email depends on their settings. They may receive each individual announcement email separately, or, it if this is set in their profile (and it is default for students), all announcements and forum alerts are bundled up in one email Digest per day.  Remind students to check all emails with the subject heading “moodle.Nottingham Forum Digest”. Note: These emails arrive at the end of the day (around 5 pm) so students may not receive an email until up to 24 hours after you post it.

Alternative 1: Use the Participants list 

The best way to send a message to students is to email them via the Announcements. Alternatively you can get a list of all student email addresses and send them a normal email with these addresses in the BCC box.

1. To open the Participants List, click the 'Participants' link on the sub navigation menu on your Moodle site.

2. To send a message to all students via normal email ensure that no filters are turned on, and check the box to the left of 'First name / Last name'

This will select all users on the page.

3. From "With selected users" at the bottom of the list select Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)

4. Open the downloaded Excel spreadsheet and select everything in the "email" column (except the header) and Copy

5. Open an email in Outlook, ensure the bcc field is visible and then Paste into the field. This will send the email to all participants. Complete your email as normal.

Alternative 2: The Messaging system

If you can't use either of the above methods, you can also send a message to individual students or a group or small proportion of students on a module (say up to 15 or so students).

You can use the Participants list to send a Moodle message via the Messages system (a sort of internal text message). 

1. To open the Participants List, click the 'Participants' link on the sub navigation menu on your Moodle site.

2. To send a message, select the tickbox next to one or more students and from "With selected users" at the bottom of the page select 'Send a message'.

This is more like a text message

This process sends a message to each student. They receive it (by default) in one of the following ways:

• If they are ONLINE it pops up as a message and goes into their Messages folder.
• If they are OFFLINE  then it goes into their messages folder and is sent as an email.
• It is possible for individuals to change their preferences on how to receive messages so these defaults (1 and 2 above) may have changed. Some individuals may opt not to see any messages at all so you can’t be sure your message got to them!

Note: There is NO subject or module context on the message – it is sent from one person (e.g., a module convenor) to another (student) so you should include the name of the module in the message to give it a context.

This is the best option if:

• You want to send a quick personal message
• The message is informal, quickly read and does not need to be kept
• You don’t need the message to be easily found, as people are unlikely to need to read it again