Messages - Instructor

Watch a video about messages

The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.


Video: Messages in Blackboard Learn shows you how to view and send course messages.

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Messages activity remains inside the system, and you don't have to worry about email addresses that may be incorrect or outdated.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 quickly 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.

Course messages

From anywhere in a course, you can access messages on the navigation bar. The course messages page displays all the messages that are specific to the course you are in.

You don't need to add a link to course messages. The Messages icon is always part of course navigation in the Ultra Course View.

Read-only course messages for students

Each institution has different communication preferences and policies. Some institutions may want to limit how students communicate with others in their courses. Your institution can choose not to allow students to reply to or create messages in their courses. Only the student role has these restrictions. You can't turn this setting on and off in your individual courses.

When this setting is turned on, students can only read the messages other roles send, such as instructors and teaching assistants. Students also won't be able to forward messages they receive.

Instructor workflow

When course messages are read-only for students, you're alerted when you create a message. The Allow replies to this message check box applies to the roles in the course allowed to reply to and create messages, such as other instructors and teaching assistants.

Student workflow

In the read-only state, the plus sign to add a message is removed from the students’ global Messages page and the Ultra course Messages page.

When students view an individual Ultra course message, they see a message in the Reply box that states: Replying is disabled for this 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.