Announcements and email

Announcements in the Hub are linked to QMU email. If you create an announcement in a module in the Hub, anyone on the module (students, teaching assistants, tutors) will automatically receive:

·         An email notification;

·         An update when they log into the Hub on the Announcements area on the My Hub Page;

·         An update when they log into your module in the Hub in student notifications.

If you have added a link to the announcements tool on the left-hand side menu in your module, students will also be able to see announcements there.

 

When creating an announcement, you are provided with an option:

Send a copy of this announcement immediately

 

This means that everyone on the module in the Hub (tutors, teaching assistants and students) will immediately receive an email of the announcement. This will over-ride all settings that users have made, for example, a daily digest of emails from the Hub.

 

It is recommended that the option to send an email immediately is used only in particularly urgent cases, for example, a cancelled class. It this feature is used continuously, it will have less impact and may annoy staff and students who have changed their settings to avoid receiving a considerable amount of individual emails.

 

Further information, please contact hub@qmu.ac.uk.

 

Notifications from your Hub@QMU modules

By default all staff and students will receive email notifications in certain specific circumstances. These include;

• when an assignment is due
• when an assignment is submitted
• when an assessement is submitted
• when an announcement is posted

These email notifications are set as defualt but can be managed and turned on and off as required for all or some module areas. To access the notifications settings first click on the My Places icon in the very top-right of any blackboard area.

The panel that appears conatins a number of options :

The Edit Notifications Settings link takes you to a page where you have 3 options:

1. Edit General Settings

   This option allows you to choose whether to receive email notifications individually or as a daily digest. You can also choose when to remove notifications from the module and whether you wish to receive due-dates reminders X number of days before any due date.

2. Bulk Notifications Settings

     This option shows the default notifications applied to all module areas. You can use this options to change the defaults for all or some of your module areas. You can turn off the existing email notifications or add further email notifications. It is important to note that the Bulk Notifications Settings always shows the institutional defaults. Any changes made to notifications will be reflected in the individual courses listed in the "Edit Individual Course Settings" option.

3. Edit Individual Course Settings

   This option displays the current notifications settings, reflecting any changes that have been made, for all your individual modules. Individual module notifications can also be edited from here. If a module's notifications settings have been changed from the institutional defaults, an exclamation mark symbol will be displayed next to that module.  

   
   
   

email and blackboard

As a tutor you can use Blackboard to send emails directly to your students/teaching assistants and other tutors on a module. These messages will be delivered to their QMU email address.

When you send an email from Blackboard, you will automatically receive a copy of the email you have sent from Blackboard in your QMU email.

The email that you send from Blackboard will show you as the author of the email. The name of the recipient will be the name of your module ie NM237. If an email is to an individual student or group of students, they will not be identified as the recipient.

Recipients can respond to your emails sent from Blackboard. A response to your email in Blackboard will be sent to your QMU email. It will not be sent to Blackboard.

For further information, contact hub@qmu.ac.uk.

In the default module template, you have a menu item called ‘send email’. This means that students can use this tool to email other students and tutors. You may wish to hide this tool from students. If hidden, you can still access the email functionality as a tutor from the Course Tools in the Control Panel.