Communicate with Quickmail and messages

There is a bug in Quickmail which can result in some or all Quickmail email messages not been delivered. This means that the plugin is not currently usable.

Status

IT have reported this to the third-party developer and are looking at possibilities to fix this.

A News forum/Announcements forum is added to all Moodle modules. Staff can post to the News forum/Announcement and students cannot reply. This allows for simple one-way communication with enrolled students and staff members. The message is posted to the Forum immediately and is also emailed to all users enrolled on the module after the 30 minute delay elapses. 

Limitations

1. Students can choose to set up a Forum digest. This allows them to opt-in to receive a forum digest with subject lines only once a day. This means News forum/Announcements forum cannot be used for messages that you require students to receive on the same day.
2. All users who are enrolled on the module, including all staff and all student observers will also receive an email of the Forum message or a notification about this in their forum digest.

Options

1. With News forum/Announcements forum you can choose to send forum post emails with no editing-time delay.
2. You can choose when a post displays from and until.
3. Important messages can be pinned to the top of the forum.

Group forums can be set up to facilitate communication from the lecturer to each of the collaboration groups. Students can reply to this forum messages.

Limitations

1. Students can choose to set up a Forum digest. This allows them to opt-in to receive a forum digest with subject lines only once a day. This means that group forums cannot be used for messages that you require students to receive on the same day.
2. Group Forums set up with restricted visibility groups are unusable. 
3. New forums are set up with auto subscription so that students receive email notifications per post or within a digest, but they can choose to unsubscribe. You can select to Force subscription so that students cannot unsubscribe from the Forum.

Options

1. You can choose to send forum post emails with no editing-time delay.
2. You can choose when a post displays from and until.
3. Important messages can be pinned to the top of the forum.
4. Send separate messages to each group associated with the forum.
5. Choose to send a copy of a message to all groups associated with the forum.

To protect students’ personal information, students are added to hidden groups to manage resubmissions, extensions of assignments and assessments in Moodle. 

To contact students in a hidden or only see own membership group, you can send a Moodle message to each student.

1. Select the link to Participants in the contextual navigation menu. From the Match row, open the Select menu and choose Groups. A new filter field will display. Select the relevant group.
2. Select the Apply filters button.
3. The participants list will be filtered to display students in the selected group. 
4. Check the box above the participant list to select all students returned in the filter.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the participant list.
6. Open the With selected users menu and select Send a message. 

   

7. A dialog box will display. Type your short, simple message into the input field and select the button Send message to [n] people.
8. A number notification will display on the message icon when the student next logs into Moodle to alert them to the message.

Limitations

1. Students can disable email notification for messages.
2. Students may start replying to your via Moodle messages. You will only see the messages when you next log into Moodle.
3. Messages are only suitable for short informal communications.