Feature #22140
openSurfacing Private Messaging
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Description
Hi All,
Following up on the team meeting on Friday 2/14 and our discussion of private messaging on the Commons.
In the past, faculty have asked about students turning in assignments privately on the Commons. Usually I push them to private blog posts or email but with our recent redesign, we might consider surfacing options for private messaging on the Commons so faculty can communicate directly with students through messages.
Currently you can access messages through the home page in the left sidebar under profile picture, through your profile, and through the black admin bar on the upper right or any page when logged in. See message access screenshots.
For surfacing private messages, (I think) two options were discussed or mentioned in the meeting:
1. Creating a link widget that prof can use to link students direct from a site to their private messages. It occurred to me that this might also be achieved through adding a custom menu link? So I am wondering what ideas Sarah has for this.
2. Adding a "messages" item to groups that links students directly to private messages area. While sites have options for private posts, there is currently no infrastructure to support private communication in groups so this would address that issue.
One issue I can think of with both of these options: Once students navigate to private messages, they have navigated away from the course site or group and there is no easy way (other than the browser back button) to get back to the course site or group.