Announcements and Emails

Communicating in Brightspace: Sending Emails and Reading Announcements

The email tool in Brightspace lets you send and receive private messages with other students and your instructors. You can also organize your email and create an address book.

Sending Emails

To send an email:

On your course homepage, click the Message alerts (envelope) icon and then click Email.
In the ‘To:’ field, enter the name(s) of the people you want to send the email to. You can also click the Address Book button to select recipients from your address book.
Enter a subject line and type your message in the Body field. You can also add images, links, or attachments using the tool bar
Click Send.

Announcements

Your instructors will use the Announcement widget to let you know about upcoming events in your course, including assignments, deadlines, changes to your class schedule, etc. When you log onto Brightspace, you will be notified of new announcements when a red dot appears next to the bell icon on the navigation bar.

Subscribing to Email Notifications for Announcements

Brightspace will not automatically send you a notification of new announcements or grades from your instructor. To subscribe to have notifications sent to your email or your cell phone:

Click on your profile picture/name or icon on the navigation bar.
Click on Notifications from the drop-down menu.
Select Instant Notifications.
Select the course event you want to receive notifications for from the alphabetical listing.
Click the SMS box for a text notification, or the Email box for an email notification.

Activity

Use the Email tool for more personalized, one-on-one communication.

✔️ Access the Email Tool

Navigate to your course homepage.
Click on the Message Alerts icon.
Select Email from the dropdown.

✔️ Compose an Email

Click on Compose.
Fill in the recipient’s email, subject, and body.
Add any attachments, if applicable.
Click Send.

✔️ Questions

Now that you’ve had a chance to look through the course in unit 1, how often do you think you should be checking your email? Your class announcements? Would putting a reminder in your calendar help you keep on top of things?