Create and Manage Coursemail Lists with the ELMS Management Tool -

Create and manage Coursemail lists

Faculty can create and manage a course email list to communicate with students in a course, or sections of a course, by using the EMT Coursemail feature. This tool facilitates the creation of a course email list based upon a course's UMEG roster, inclusive of students, instructors and teaching assistants. It is a tool that is useful to faculty who do not use ELMS-Canvas to manage their course or who prefer not to use the ELMS-Canvas Conversations tool to communicate with students. To use and manage the Coursemail list created through this resource, instructors must access and mail to the list using their @umd.edu Google mail account, e.g, directoryid@umd.edu. Questions about Coursemail can be directed to itsupport@umd.edu

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Create a Coursemail list

Log into ELMS Management Tools (EMT) and authenticate to the system with your UMD credentials.
Select the Coursemail link.
Select the Term menu to select a term.

Groups can be created for courses in terms that are active in the ELMS feeds. For instance, in May, summer 1, summer 2, and fall terms are active. In November, fall, winter, and spring terms are active. Rosters are kept current as long as the course rosters are being actively loaded into ELMS.
Select the Load courses from SIS button.

Groups can be created for all term-based courses that are loaded into ELMS and those identified as independent study. Courses in ELMS that have been created or modified using EMT, including courses that are the result of using the combine, single section, or custom course tools, are also available (providing sections were merged BEFORE generating the Coursemail list.
Select a course listed in the Select Course menu to reveal all sections associated with that course.
Select a section (or sections) in the Select Section(s) field.

To create a single group email for all sections associated with a single course, press the CTRL (Windows) or CMD (Mac) key and select each section listed in the Select Section(s) menu. To create a separate group email for each section, Select one section only, then repeat the course/section selection process for each desired section email list.
Your selection will generate a default Group Display Name. You can replace this by typing a name of your choosing in the Group Display Name field. The display name serves as the email identity for the group. Group Display Names are limited to 60 characters. We recommend that the name be one continuous string of text. Avoid special characters like ? ! # $ % & * , ' and " (MyCourseSection01_02 is a good example, but My Course Sections #01 & #02 is not a valid).
Group Description is a required field in which you can type a brief purpose for the course email list.
Select the Submit button to generate the Coursemail list.
The creator of the coursemail group will receive an email stating that the coursemail group has been created.

Upon creation, members are added to the list within two hours. All teachers, co-instructors and TAs are enrolled in the list as managers. By default, only managers can send messages to members. Students are enrolled in the list as passive members and, by default, are not allowed to post messages to the Coursemail list.

Managers can enter the Coursemail group display name in the To: field of their UMD Gmail account. For example, the Group Display Name BSOS288V_email would present the option to select the actual email address which looks like "201908-bsos288v-059inu516aff691-bbd8-46d4-a8b0-43bd0cd8@umd.edu". You can use the Coursemail list two hours after you request the Coursemail identity.

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Coursemail Q&A

Q: Can a course section be in more than one Coursemail list?

A: Yes. A section can be mapped into multiple Coursemail lists.

Q: How often is the membership roster updated?

A: The roster is updated every two hours between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Q: How do I add individuals such as course designers, guest instructors, and observers to a Coursemail list?

A: Management of Coursemail membership and permissions is done through the Google Group feature (see below).

Q: Can I rearrange the sections assigned to a Coursemail list?

A: Instructors cannot add, remove or change sections after the Group Email has been created. To affect a change, an instructor would need to delete and then recreate the group with the desired section mappings.

Q: How do I delete a Coursemail I no longer need?

A. Instructors can use the EMT Coursemail tool to delete Coursemail lists. Existing Coursemail lists for which you are the owner are listed at the bottom of the Coursemail screen. Select a list's Display Name, then select the Delete Selected Group(s) button.

Coursemail Delete Selected Group

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Manage Coursemail lists in Google

Coursemail Managers have the ability to customize their list membership using Google Group options. To add members to your Coursemail list (e.g., designers, ADA observers, instructional colleagues) and manage member permissions, visit Google Groups from within your University @umd.edu Google account.

NOTE: Adding or removing group members is not restricted; if a manager removes a registered student from the Coursemail list via Google Group, the student will NOT be added back during the periodic updating of rosters.

Log into Google using your UMD Gmail account.
Select the Google Apps icon and choose Groups. You may need to scroll through an initial screen of apps to find the Groups icon.
Select the My groups icon to reveal all of the Google groups in which you have a membership. You will see a Manage Member link for those groups for which you are the Manager.
Select the Manage Members link to see information about the current course email list members including their Role, Email address, and Posting permission. By default, anyone with a member status is not allowed to post messages to the course email address.

Names associated with student terpmail.umd.edu or personal gmail.com accounts will not be displayed. Select View a UMEG Roster for an option to view student names.

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Manage member roles and permissions in the Coursemail list

The member list identifies the role an individual has on the list. Managers, by default, can post messages to the Coursemail list while members are limited to being recipients of messages. To change an individual member's role:

Select the member name (or "not set" placeholder) in the All Members list.
Select the Roles menu and select a role for the member.
Select the Save button to update the role change.
NOTE: Student members cannot be changed to a status of Owner.

To change the message posting permissions for all participants with the same roll:

Select the Posting permissions option from the Permissions menu on the group membership page.
Scroll down the posting permissions page to the Post category and select the Select groups of users menu.
To enable students (or members) of the Coursemail list to post to the course email address, select the All members group option.

The Members settings enable group owners and managers to manage many more uses of the Google group email tool that are outside of the scope of this process.

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Invite new members to the Coursemail list via Google Groups

You can invite New Members to add individuals not imported from UMEG (e.g., designers, ADA observers):

Select the Invite Members option from the Members management settings.
Enter the email address of each individual you wish to invite. You are also required to provide message text of up to 1000 characters to accompany the invitation.
Select the Send invites button.

If you wish to invite a member who does not have a UMD email address, you must select the Allow new users not in umd edu checkbox via the Basic Permissions setting.

Google Groups Basic Permissions Link

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View a UMEG roster

While the names associated with student terpmail.umd.edu or personal gmail.com accounts are not displayed in the Google Group members list, you can view the names and email addresses of students at any time by accessing the UMEG roster.

To access the roster for downloading purposes, select the Go to UMEG Download Roster Page button when you access the Coursemail tool in the EMT. You can also go directly to umeg.umd.edu and choose the View Rosters link from the Rosters tab.

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