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Beta feature: The Inbox is a beta feature and subject to change. If you encounter issues or have questions, please contact your Agilix account manager.
Currently, there are no public APIs for Inbox. Contact Agilix support if you need API access.
Buzz's Inbox tools make it easy for students and teachers to communicate right in Buzz, and Administrators can easily review and moderate all messages.
Enabling Inbox:
- Streamlines communication between students and teachers with an easy-to-use Inbox that doesn't rely on external email services.
- Enables two-way, contextualized interactions about student submissions with messaging tools built into the Grade editor for teachers and Grade details for students.
- Simplifies workflows for teachers by automatically generating links when students message from specific activities or folders.
- Facilitates co-teacher and grader collaboration by giving them visibility into their shared students' messages and letting them easily join or be added to existing threads.
- Improves parent and mentor involvement by giving them read-only access to their student's messages.
- Gives administrators message moderating capabilities, allowing them to review all messages in Buzz and delete them when necessary.
This article covers:
How does enabling Inbox impact the student and teacher experiences?
Messages sent from the Inbox are subject to data limitations.
Enable Inbox
The Inbox can be enabled for a domain on the Features screen.
How does enabling Inbox impact the student and teacher experiences?
Enabling Inbox provides a lot of powerful communication features, but switching from external email to internal messaging might require training.
To ensure your school is ready, keep these key points in mind:
- Each user's domain must have Inbox enabled to exchange messages: For users to receive in-app notifications about messages and read and reply to them, the user's domain must have Inbox enabled. For example, if a teacher is a part of one subdomain and their student is a part of another, both subdomains must have Inbox enabled for it to function properly.
- The Enable email feature switch is overridden: If you have Enable email turned on, your users are able to Send mail from various screens in Buzz. With Inbox enabled, your users can still create and send messages from those screens, but they are not sent as emails. They are are sent as messages to the recipient's Buzz Inbox. The impacted screens include:
- Email notifications remain active: Users can still receive email Notifications about activity in Buzz, including Inbox messages, when Inbox is enabled.
Enable email vs Enable Inbox
Because Buzz's Email and Inbox features cannot be used together, it's important to understand the differences for your students and teachers:
-
Email delivers mail composed in Buzz to the recipient's external email address if one is available.
- All recipients always receive an individual email.
- Teachers are able include Observers with a verified email or send email only to Observers.
- Teachers can send a copy of the email to themselves.
- Students can message only teachers.
- Recipients cannot reply directly to the email.
-
Buzz Inbox delivers messages to the recipient's Buzz Inbox (which must be enabled in the recipient's domain).
- Teachers can choose to send each recipient an individual email or create a group thread where recipients can see each others' replies.
- Teachers cannot message Observers directly, but observers can access their students' Inbox.
- Teachers can review, edit, and/or delete their sent message in their Inbox.
- Administrators can review and delete messages.
- Recipients can reply directly to the message from their own Buzz Inbox. Replies are delivered to the original sender's Inbox.
- Students can message only teachers unless the teacher creates a group message thread. In this case, the student replies can be seen by other students and the teachers.
Moderate messaging
To facilitate moderating, administrators can:
Review teacher Inboxes
Administrators with correct permissions can use the Proxy tool to sign in as a teacher and review their Inbox.
- Learn more: How do I proxy as another user?
Review student Inboxes
With correct permissions, administrators can review a student Inbox:
- Open the Users screen.
- Select the student.
- Open the Performance tab.
- Select the Course.
- Open the Inbox tab to view the student's Inbox.
Delete sent messages
Anywhere administrators and teachers can view a sent message, they can delete it regardless of who sent it. Students are not allowed to delete messages. Deleted messages are removed from view for all users.
To delete a sent message:
- Hover over the message anywhere it appears.
- Click the Delete icon that appears.
The deleted message is replaced for all recipients with text informing them that the Message has been removed.
You can restore the message for all recipients by hovering over the deleted message and clicking the Restore icon that appears.
Delete message threads
Administrators and teachers can delete message threads for all recipients, but students cannot.
Administrators can delete message threads by using the Proxy tool to sign in as a teacher and following the steps below:
- Open the Inbox.
- Click the More menu in the message thread they want to delete.
- Click Delete.
The thread is deleted for all recipients and moved to the teacher's Trash folder from which you and the teacher can view the thread and restore it for everyone by opening the More menu and clicking Restore.
Submission and scoring threads cannot be deleted
Scoring and submission threads (threads that are created in the Grade editor (Teachers) or Grade details (Students) cannot be deleted, so the Delete option does not appear in the More menu for these threads.
If moderating is needed, teachers and administrators can delete individual messages from these threads.
Related articles
Teachers:
Students:
Observers: