Instructors teaching CLE courses might discover Quickmail as a convenient substitute for communicating with students through traditional email. The Quickmail block offers a flexible configuration option that enables students to send messages using Quickmail. These Quickmail messages can be accessed and viewed in the recipient's email mailbox rather than within the CLE interface.
To incorporate Quickmail into your course:
1. Add the Quickmail Block: Integrate the Quickmail block into your CLE course to leverage its functionality.
2. Configure the Quickmail Block: Customize the settings of the Quickmail block to suit your communication preferences and requirements.
3. Use the Quickmail Block: Utilize the Quickmail block to send and receive messages efficiently, enhancing communication with your students.
4. Remove the Quickmail Block: If needed, you can easily remove the Quickmail block from your CLE course, adjusting your communication methods accordingly.
Only the Manager, Instructor, and Content Assistant roles can add the Quickmail block to a CLE course.
- Log in to the CLE (cle.ucsf.edu).
- Go to the CLE course where you would like to add the Quickmail block.
- From the top-right, turn Edit mode on.
- Open the block drawer.
- Select the Add a Block link.
- A list will pop up of all the available blocks to add.
- Scroll down to select Quickmail.
- After a moment, the window will refresh, and the Quickmail block will be located on the right.
To move the block to a new location, use the move icon located in the top-right portion of the Quickmail block (with Edit mode on). Moving this block will affect all visitors to your course.
Configuration settings allow you to change the default behavior of the Quickmail block. For example, the default setting for the Quickmail block prevents students from sending Quickmail messages in a CLE course.
- Navigate to the Quickmail block.
- Click Configuration.
- Choose to allow students to use Quickmail by changing the default from No to Yes. Using the default setting (No), students can only receive Quickmail messages and cannot send
- From the Filter by Role box, choose the roles you want to filter by when sending a Quickmail message to communicate quickly in large classes.
- From the Prepend drop-down menu, choose to prepend the CLE course short name or the CLE course ID to the title of the Quickmail message.
- Select No from the Receive a copy drop-down menu if you do not want to copy the sender on Quickmail messages by default. This can be changed later when sending individual Quickmail messages.
- Save changes.
When composing Quickmail messages, you will now be able to select and include this signature – even from other CLE courses that use the Quickmail block.
Managers, Instructors, Content, and Grading Assistants can set up an alternate email address to send Quickmail messages.
When an alternate email is used in a Quickmail message, such as a Gmail account, it will appear as the “reply-to” address in the message. Using a valid UCSF email address is always recommended to help simplify support requests.
- If you have not previously set up an alternate email, click Continue
- Enter an alternate email in the Email address field
- Save Changes
- The following message will display “Alternate address [email address] has been saved. An email verifying the valid address has been sent to [email address]. Instructions on how to activate the address are contained in its contents.”
- In a separate browser window, navigate to the inbox for the alternate email address.
- Find the following email from Moodle: Quickmail, with the subject link “Alternate email address verification.”
- Verify that you would like to use the alternate email address by clicking the link provided in the email.
- Once you have verified the alternate address, it can be used in Quickmail messages.
- You will return to the Alternate Email page, where you can view, edit, or add additional alternate emails.
- When composing a Quickmail message, you will now be able to send the message from this alternate email address.
Using an alternate email address only affects the “Reply-to” for emails sent from Quickmail. The email used in the instructor’s CLE Profile will be used for all other CLE-generated emails and messages. If the Quickmail block is configured to allow student use, Quickmail messages sent to the instructor will go to the email address associated with their CLE profile and not the alternate email address.
Quickmail messages can be sent to individual course participants or groups. This includes manually created groups from the course or groups divided by roles (i.e., all students or all instructors). After the Quickmail block has been added to a CLE course, you can begin to send Quickmail messages to students and other participants in the course following the instructions below:
- Inside the Quickmail block, click Compose New Email.
- On the Quickmail page, choose to filter recipients by Role or Sections (Groups) or choose No filter.
- Highlight the users name from the Potential Recipients box and click the Add button to add users to the Selected Recipients for the Quickmail message.
- To include more than one section, group, or participant at a time, hold down Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and click additional names in the Potential Section list.
- To include all course members as recipients, click the Add All button.
- Enter the email address of anyone who is not enrolled in the course but should be included in the Quickmail message.
- Choose to add an attachment(s) to the Quickmail message.
- Enter a Subject for the Quickmail message (required).
- Compose your message (remember you can include video, audio, images, tables, etc.) in the text editor.
- Choose a Signature from the drop-down menu (see Setup a Signature in the Add/Configure tab above for instructions on creating a Quickmail signature).
- From the Receive a copy of the message drop-down menu, select Yes to receive a copy of the message in your mailbox. The default setting is No, and you must select Yes each time you wish to receive a copy of a message.
- Click Send Email to send the Quickmail message.
- Click the Save Draft button if you would like to save and return to the message later to make additional edits before sending.
- Click Cancel to delete the Quickmail message.
- After clicking Send Email, you will be directed to the “Quickmail View History” page. Please note messages sent using the Quickmail block are sent immediately.
Receive a Quickmail Message
- Quickmail is used to send emails but not to receive them. Quickmail messages are viewed in the email mailbox of the recipient and not inside the CLE. Students can view Quickmail messages using their ucsf.edu email accounts if the Quickmail block is configured for student use.
- Faculty and staff can view messages using their ucsf.edu email account or using an alternate email address.
- Quickmail messages override course members’ individual profile settings for receiving CLE emails as daily digests.
- From the Quickmail block, click View Drafts.
- The View Drafts screen opens, displaying a list of your draft messages.
- To open a draft message to edit and send, click the magnifying glass from the Action column.
- To delete a draft, click the red X icon from the Action column.
- From the Quickmail block, click View History
- The View History screen will open, displaying a list of messages you have sent.
- Click the magnifying glass icon to open and read the sent message.
The Instructor and Manager roles can view the history of all Quickmail messages sent in the CLE course.
Want to remove the Quickmail block from a CLE course? Follow the instructions below to remove the block from the CLE course:
- Make sure Edit mode is turned on in the CLE course that contains the Quickmail block.
- Click the gear icon in the Quickmail block.
- Click Delete Quickmail block.