Using Quickmail in Nexus to Communicate with your Students

Using Quickmail in Nexus as an easy way to send an email to participants who are enrolled in your course. You can send an email to the entire class or select students even if your course is not yet viewable.

On This Page:

Overview
Check your Profile
Add the Quickmail block
Send a Message
View Messages

Overview

• Easily include email recipients from the participant list in your course
• Add file attachments
• Receive a copy of sent emails
• View a history of emails sent using Quickmail

The Quickmail block is optional in all Nexus courses and can be used to send email messages to individual course members, groups if you have them set up, or all participants in the course.

By default, use of Quickmail is limited to instructors and hidden from students, but Instructors have the option to make it available for students. It is not affected by individual course members' Subscription settings. 

Check Your Profile

Your Nexus profile must be set to "Allow only other course participants to see my email address".

1. In Nexus, click on your name in the upper right corner, and select [Profile].
2. In the top Section labeled User Details, click on the link to [Edit profile].
3.  Not too far down, find the section that says Email display and click on the drop down list to select [Allow only other course participants to see my email address].  Your username, name, and email address are added automatically.
4. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the [Update profile] button to save your changes.

NOTE: Email sent through Quickmail with multiple recipients will use BCC for all participants so it may not be clear to recipients who the email was sent to, and recipients will not be able to do a 'reply-all' .

Add the Quickmail block

1. Turn Editing on in your course.​​​
2. In the left sidebar menu, scroll all the way to the bottom and select  [+Add a block].
3. From the popup list of blocks available, select [Quickmail]. The list is in alphabetical order.
   If you don't see it on the list, then the Quickmail block has already been added.

The Quickmail block will appear on the right side of your window.
You may need to scroll down to see it.

You can always rearrange the blocks by hovering over the crosshairs in each block, and then just click & drag the block to your desired location in the sidebar.

Send a Message

To start your new message, click [Compose Course Message] in the Quickmail block.

Once you have your Quickmail block visible, you do not have to have editing on to be able to compose a message,

1. Your email will be automatically entered. You can click on the down arrow and select "noreply" from the drop-down list.
2. In the To: section, click on the arrow to select the appropriate option for you. You can select All in course, certain roles, certain groups, or individual people who are enrolled in your course.
3. In the Exclude: section, you can exclude people from receiving the message. As an example, you can choose to send your message to all students except for one person.
4. Enter the Subject of your message.
5. Enter your message in the Body. You'll find the typical editing options at the top of the box.

6. You can attach files, including photos and PDF's. Click and drag the items into the box, or click the File or Folder icons to select from your explorer.
7. Create a new signature by clicking on the link.  Note: Even though message from Nexus will go to your college inbox, it's being sent from Nexus so it will not automatically have your signature information from your union.edu email.
8. You can schedule an email to go out at a certain time. Enter the date and time, and be sure to check the [Enable] box.
9. Click [Yes] if you would like to receive an email confirmation that your email has been sent. (Recommended)
10. Don't forget to click the red [Send Message] button to save and send your message, or click on the [Save Draft] button to save a draft for later.

View Your Messages

Click on the different links in the Quickmail box to:

• View your saved Drafts.
• View your Scheduled Messages.
• View your Sent Messages.

Click on the Configuration link to:

• Allow or disallow students to use Quickmail.

If you are having difficulty or you have unanswered questions,
please contact the Help Desk through the ITS Service Catalog or call (518) 388-6400.