The Quickmail block allows instructors, TAs, and students (if the instructor allows) to send emails to course members from Moodle. Instructors who use Moodle may find Quickmail to be a convenient alternative in setting up a Class Email List in SPIRE. For more information, see Instructors - Manage Your Class Email Lists.

Note: Emails sent from Quickmail are always sent immediately and are sent separately from other Moodle email notifications. Messages from Quickmail are not affected by course members' individual Profile settings for receiving emails as daily digests. For more information, see Edit Your Moodle Profile & Preferences.

Quickmail Overview

Quickmail sends, but does not receive email

Email can be sent from, but not received, in Moodle. Moodle users do not have a mail inbox in Moodle.

Where Quickmail is sent

• Undergraduate and graduate students receive mail from Moodle at their IT email address. 
• Faculty and staff receive mail from Moodle at their preferred (published) email address from SPIRE. For more details, see Edit your Moodle Profile & Preferences. 
• Instructors in Moodle can set up an Alternate email address in the Quickmail block. (This only affects the "reply-to" for messages they send from Quickmail, see Set Up and Use Alternate Emails (Instructors Only).)

How the Reply-to for Messages Sent from Quickmail is Controlled

• If your profile in Moodle is set to "Allow everyone to see my email address" or "Allow only other course members to see my email address," the Reply-to for emails sent by you will be your address as shown in your Moodle Profile. 
• If your profile in Moodle is set to "Hide my email from everyone," the Reply-to will be: Do not reply to this email noreply@moodle.umass.edu.
  Note: If your profile is set to "Hide my email from everyone", messages can still be sent to you from Quickmail, as long as you are part of the course (the Quickmail window never shows recipients' email addresses, only names).
• For Quickmail messages sent by an instructor using an Alternate Email address, the "reply-to" will be the alternate email, unless the instructor's Moodle Profile is set to "Hide my email from everyone," in which case it will be: Do not reply to this email noreply@moodle.umass.edu.

For more on Moodle-wide email settings, see Edit Your Moodle Profile & Preferences.
For more on Alternate Email addresses in Quickmail, see Set Up and Use Alternate Emails (Instructors Only).

Filtering recipients in Quickmail

One of the features of Quickmail that makes it especially useful for instructors teaching large classes is the ability to filter recipients by Role (e.g., Student, TA, etc.), Lecture, Lab or Discussion Sections, or Groups (if groups are already set up in the Moodle course). You can also send emails to all participants or individual participants in the course.

For more information on Roles, see Roles in Moodle.
For more information on Groups, see An Overview of Managing Groups in Moodle. 

Add the Quickmail Block (Instructors Only)

Quickmail is added to new courses by default, but if you are an Instructor and you don't see the Quickmail block in your course, you can add it. For details, see Add & Remove Blocks in Moodle.

Send a Message Using Quickmail

By default, Quickmail is available only to instructors and TAs. Instructors can configure Quickmail to allow student use. (For details, see Configure Quickmail for Student Use & Change Default Filters).

To send an email message using Quickmail:

1. Navigate to your Moodle course page. To compose emails in the Quickmail block, click Compose Course Message. The Quickmail: Compose Course Message page will open. 

2. For the To dropdown menu, select the recipients of the email. You can limit potential recipients by:

   • Roles: Teacher (Role), Non-editing teacher (Role), Student (Role)

   • Groups

   • Name

   • Note: If there are individuals enrolled in your course by special request rather than through SPIRE (e.g., Contributor, Course Assistant, Disabilities Services Helper), you will need to individually select their names from the dropdown menu. 

3. Continue filtering, and adding or removing recipients as needed.

4. To remove names from the To field, click on the roles, groups, or names that you want to delete. The recipient(s) will be deleted. 

5. You can also use the Exclude field to remove particular students from the recipient list by:

   • Roles: Teacher (Role), Non-editing teacher (Role), Student (Role)

   • Groups

   • Name

6. Compose and send your message: 

   • Enter a Subject line (required).

   • Enter your message into the Body text box (required).

   • To attach files to your message (optional), you have two options.

     Option 1: For Attached files, click Add () for adding files, and/or Create folder () to organize the files. Select the file(s) to attach and click Upload this file or Select this file (depending on the source from the File picker).
     Option 2: From your desktop, drag the files and drop them into the Attached files(s) box. Attached file(s) will be sent and received in the .ZIP format.

   • Select a Signature (optional). For details, see Create a signature.

   • To receive a confirmation email in your own mailbox, select either Yes or No for Receive a sent report (the default is No, but you can set the default to Yes on the Quickmail Configuration page, accessed via the Quickmail block).

   • You can either opt to Send Message to send the message, Save Draft, or schedule emails to Send at a particular date and time.

     Please note that:

     • Send at: when enabled, emails will be sent at a particular date and time. After enabling the Send at feature, click Send Message. You will be directed to the main course page. On the main course page, a message will read “Message scheduled to be sent”.

     • Send Message: when selected, emails will be sent immediately and you will be directed to the main course page. On the main course page, a message will read “Message was sent”.

     • Save Draft: when selected, you will be directed to the main course page. On the main course page, a message will read “Your draft has been saved”.

View and Edit a Draft Email

Once you have saved a draft email, you can return to edit and send it:

On the Quickmail block, click View Drafts. The Quickmail: Drafts page will open, displaying a list of unsent emails ordered by the date that they were created and saved. On this page, you can either opt to:

• Edit: navigate and locate the draft you want to edit, click Edit to open the draft. You will be returned to the Quickmail: Compose Course Message screen where you can continue composing your message.

• Duplicate: navigate and locate the draft you want to duplicate, click Duplicate. A Confirm draft duplication pop-up window will open. Select OK to confirm the duplication or Cancel to undo. 

• Delete: navigate and locate the draft you want to delete, click Delete. A Confirm draft deletion pop-up window will open. Select OK to confirm the deletion or Cancel to undo. 

View Scheduled Messages for the Course

The View Scheduled screen lists messages that are scheduled to be sent at a particular date or time from the course you are in. 

On the Quickmail block menu, click View Scheduled. The Quickmail: Scheduled page will open, displaying a list of sent messages. On this page, you can either opt to:

• View: when selected, the Quickmail: View Message Details page opens. On this page, you can opt to Send Now, Unqueue, or Duplicate the message.

• Send Now: when selected, the email will be sent immediately and you will be directed to the main course page. On the main course page, a message will read Message was sent.

• Unqueue: when selected, the email disappears from the Quickmail: Scheduled page and goes back to the Draft page.

View Sent Messages for the Course

The View Sent Messages screen lists messages you have sent from the course you are in.

1. On the Quickmail block menu, click View Sent Message. The Quickmail: Sent Message History page will open, displaying a list of sent messages.
2. To open a sent message and view recipients, click View. You will be returned to the Quickmail: View Message Details screen where you can review message recipients and duplicate the message.

Create a Signature (Optional)

You can automatically include a signature in email messages. 
Note: Signatures do not affect From or Reply-to fields and appear only in the body of the message.

1. On the Quickmail block menu, click My Signatures. The Quickmail: My Signatures page will open. 

2. On the Quickmail: My Signatures page locate the Select Signature To Edit dropdown menu where you can opt to Create New.

3. Enter a Title for the signature. The title will define each unique signature created and it will help you to find the signature when composing a Quickmail. 

4. In the Signature box, enter the text you wish to appear as your signature at the bottom of your Quickmail email messages.

5. To make this your default signature, check Default (located under the Signature box).

6. Click Save to save the signature. You will be returned to the Quickmail: My Signatures page, displaying your updated/new signature. You may create additional signatures, edit an existing signature, or return to your course page. 

   • To create additional signatures: Locate the Select Signature To Edit dropdown menu, select Create New from the drop-down menu. Enter a Title for the signature, enter the text in the Signature box, and click Save to save the signature.

   • To edit an existing signature: Locate the Select Signature To Edit dropdown menu and select the signature title you want to edit from the dropdown menu. On the Signature text editor, edit the Signatures text and select Update to save the edited signature. You will be returned to the Quickmail: My Signatures page, but your new signature will be updated.​

Configure Quickmail for Student Use & Change Default Filters (Instructors Only) 

To allow students to use Quickmail and control which roles to filter by is a two-step process. First you will need to ensure the settings are enabled to allow students to use Quickmail, then you will need to edit Permissions.

To control the roles who have access to Quickmail:

1. On the Quickmail block, click Configuration.

2. Ensure the settings are enabled to allow the Students to use Quickmail. Select editingteacher, teacher, and student from the menu to the right of Roles to filter by. Note: editingteacher, teacher, and student, is the default setting. Select Save changes.

To edit permissions to allow students to use Quickmail:

1. In addition to ensuring that students have access to Quickmail -- see above two steps -- in the menu bar at the top of your course page, select the Course Management button (black gear icon, top right ). The Course Management panel will open.

2. On the Course Management panel, under Course settings, select Course administration. The Course administration settings page will open. 

3. From the Course Administration page, click on the Users tab.

4. From the Users page, select the "Permissions" heading.
   Note: Not the "Check permissions link, but the large "Permissions" text.

5. In the Filter, type "Quickmail".

6. For the "Allow users to send email through Quickmail" click on the + sign to add the student role under the Roles with permission column. (Note: Be sure to add this under the Roles with Permission heading, and not the Prohibited heading.) Now the Quickmail block will show for students when they login to this course.