Using Course Announcements in eClass (Recommended)

When using the Course Announcements tool, messages will also be e-mailed to all students registered in your class, directly to their preferred e-mail addresses. This is only an Instructor-to-student messaging tool so students won’t be able to reply or create their own announcements.

Important: Your course needs to be visible for course announcement e-mails to be delivered to students.

Option 1 – Make your course visible, send the announcement, then hide the course again.

Option 2 – Hide individual blocks that are under construction in your course and let the course site remain visible.

Option 3 – If you do not want to make your course visible but need to communicate with your class, follow the ‘Using MyOsgoode Class Lists’ instructions below to e-mail your class.

Follow these instructions to use the Course Announcements feature, or watch the video.

1. Click Course Announcements on your course homepage
2. Click Add a new topic
3. Enter a Subject and write your message in the Message text box. If the message will be lengthy, consider entering a short summary here and attaching a more complete document.

1. If you would like to attach a file to your post either drag and drop a file from your hard drive into the marked area (dashed rectangle), or click   to upload a file.
2. To post the announcement right away, and have the e-mail sent automatically in 15 minutes, click Post to forum otherwise, click Advanced
3. If you want the e-mail to be sent immediately, check the Send forum post notifications with no editing-time delay
4. In the Display period section, you may select a time period during which the announcement will be displayed. To enable the start and/or end dates, click the Enable box(es) and set the dates and times
5. Click Post to forum at the bottom of the page to post the announcement. You will see a message indicating that you have 15 minutes to edit the post before participants in your course will receive an e-mail notification.

Note: Students who enroll in the course after you have sent the course announcement can view old announcements by clicking the Course Announcement link.

Additional Resources

See eClass Training Videos for a video explaining all the detailed features of sending a message.

Using MyOsgoode Class Lists

You can generate a list of your students using the Class Lists on MyOsgoode.  This list is updated daily as students add and remove courses.

1. Sign into https://myosgoode.yorku.ca using your Passport York credentials
2. Click Osgoode Course/Seminar Email and Lists
3. Locate your course and click Class Photos
4. Click Export Student Names to CSV
5. An Excel file will download to your computer. Copy the e-mail addresses from the Excel file into the BCC field of your new e-mail message
6. Click Check Names to resolve the student names (Optional)
7. Enter the content of your e-mail into the body, and send the e-mail

Creating a Contact Group

You can create a contact group with the students’ e-mail addresses.  Note that this group would need to be updated when students add or remove the course.

1. In Outlook, click the People button
2. Click New Contact Group
3. Provide a name for the contact group
4. Click Add Members -> New E-mail Contact
5. Paste the addresses in the E-mail address: field
6. Click OK -> Save & Close

Tip: See detailed instructions with screenshots.