This article explains ways to communicate with other members of your courses. It includes a review of the course membership mailing lists that are created by the University for each course.
Before You Start
Keep in mind that this article covers the communication options for individual courses. If you are looking for information on Class lists or Cohort lists, see our Class and Cohort Lists article.
Course Communication Methods
There are three main ways to communicate with the members of a specific course:
Canvas Announcements
Prerequisites: Only faculty and some staff can post announcements. Faculty must request and Publish the Canvas site before sending announcements. Access to a computer and a compatible web browser is required to send an Announcement.
Use case: Best for general class communications
Reasons to use:
- A record of all messages is stored in Canvas and it is easy to use.
- Students who add the course late can go back and look at what they missed.
Things to be aware of:
- Students can opt-out
- There are no error messages or out-of-office responses.
The Instruction Center “Copy all Emails”
Positives: This works with any email client and can be sent from any email address. There are error messages and out-of-office responses. Students can’t opt-out. You can exclude people from the communication. Instant communication. Attachment size is limited by the email server.
Negatives: Email addresses of students are shared with everyone unless you BCC: Someone could reply with sensitive information. No record of messages for students who join a class late.
Use case: Urgent communication. Back up to Canvas.
Prerequisites: This option is only available to faculty who are teaching a course. Students must have an email address listed in the Penn Directory. Access to a computer and compatible web browser is required to copy the list of addresses into an email client.
Classlist Email Address
Positives: There are error messages and out-of-office responses. Students can’t opt-out. Instant communication. Email addresses of students are not shared with everyone. ACS closely monitors the lists.
Negatives: Very old technology. No record of communications. Large attachments can generate errors.
Use case: Urgent communication. Simple to use on the go or with a low-quality internet connection. Back up to Canvas.
Prerequisites: Must be teaching a course. Both the students and professors must have an email address listed in the Penn Directory. Any device that can send an email sends a message to a classlist.
Setting Up Your Course/Class List
The University Classlist Service provides a way to send an email directly to all of the members of your class.
Getting the Service
The classic service is managed by Penn's ISC:
https://www.isc.upenn.edu/classlists
Class lists can be found in the instruction center or by logging into the Classlists service:
List Format
The format of class list email addresses is as follows:
ACCT101-001-22A @lists.upenn.edu
Department - Course Number - Section - Year and Semester
(A=Spring, B=Summer, C=Fall)
Sending a Message
To send a message you can simply put the address into the To… field of your email client:
The email address faculty and staff use to send and receive messages must be the same email you have listed in the Penn Directory.
Questions?
If you need help with Classlists or receive an error, contact Academic Computing Services.
If ACS is unable to solve the problem they will escalate the issue to help@isc.upenn.edu