Introduction

The Course Messages tool is an integrated feature that you will find throughout your course to facilitate communication between you and your students. You can ask questions and share your information with one person, multiple people, or the whole class. Sending messages through Blackboard is a similar process to sending a group email, however, it is built directly into your course. 

Where do I find messages?

Messages are stored for you to access in the Messages tab in your course. Additionally, email notifications will be sent either right away, or as part of the daily notification email that Ultra sends each evening.

Composing a new message

After you enter your course area, look to the top of the page and locate the “Messages” tab, between “Gradebook” and “Analytics”, and click on the word to open the next window. 

After you have selected “Messages”, look to the top right of your window and locate New Message.  

Click on the “New Message” box.  The next window will display and you will be given the opportunity to enter the recipients and message content.  

Clicking on the “Recipients” text box will open a list of course members for you to easily make a selection.  If you choose, you can toggle between allowing replies to your message by clicking the checkbox beneath the recipients list.  

Finally, click into the “Message” box and type your content. Similar to other text inputs in Blackboard Ultra, you may choose from a variety of text options, such as font style and size, adding images and links, or creating a table.

Once you have completed your drafting your message, look to the bottom right of your window and locate the “Send” function. Click on the button to send your message to the selected recipients. 

Course Messages List

Messages sent and received will be displayed in a list from newest to oldest.  Clicking on a message will open it in a larger window.