KB1244 - Communicating in Moodle: Messaging, Quickmail, and Announcements

Moodle offers these options for communicating with students in your VCC online course:

Announcements

Forum/email option: Only Teachers can post; participants receive via email and/or on-site message (depending on their notification settings), and post is archived on forum where all Participants can access.

Quickmail

E-mail option: Only visible to Teachers; teachers can see history of messages they’ve sent, but no archive is available for Students.

Messaging

Instant messaging/e-mail option: Everyone on Moodle can use Messaging to contact other Moodle users via real-time chat (if they are online) or message (if they are offline). Offline users are notified of Messages when they log in, and can opt in to receiving Messages via email.

  • To view and send Messages, click on your name in the upper right and choose Messages from the drop-down menu. To control how you receive e-mail, post and message notifications, choose Preferences from this menu and edit Notification preferences and Message preferences.
     

Comparison Chart

Desired Features Messaging Quickmail Announcements
Message more than one person at a time
Message individuals across courses    
Message the entire course  
Message multiple individuals/groups in a course  
Get notified of message via email
Save message history  
Include attachments (files, media)  

(Adapted from https://techdocs.blogs.brynmawr.edu/7732 with permission.)