Our Moodle site offers three options for communicating with participants in a class: Announcements, Quickmail, and Messaging. This article compares the features of each type of communication.
Before you start, you may need the following:
- an Instructor of Record or Other Editing Teacher role in a Bryn Mawr Moodle course.
Quickmail
This is an e-mail option that is only visible to the Instructor of Record, Other editing teachers, and Non-Editing teachers. Instructors can see the full history of messages they’ve sent, but no archive is available for studens' messaging.
Note: You will need to add the course block Quickmail to your course if it is not already available on your site. To learn more, go to the article Moodle: Add Course Blocks
Announcements
Announcements are a forum/email option. Only Instructors can post to a Moodle course. Participants receive the announcement via email and/or on-site message (depending on their notification settings), and the post is archived on a forum that all Participants can access.
Messaging
This is an instant messaging/e-mail option that allows everyone on Moodle 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 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.
Feature Comparison
The below comparison chart provides a quick overview of all three communication forms within Moodle.
| 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 messages via email | opt-in | opt-in | |
| Get notified of messages in Moodle app | |||
| Save message history | |||
| Include attachments (files, media)* |
Attention: Email systems like Outlook and Gmail have strict file size limits for attachments, and messages with attachments that exceed those limits will fail to be delivered. We’ve restricted the attachment file size in Quickmail to 20MB to ensure the messages you create stay under these limits. If you need to share larger files, upload them to OneDrive or Panopto (for audio/video) or post them to your Moodle course page and then share the links to the file with your students instead.
Questions?
If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!
Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor
