1. Using course content to communicate
It is a good idea to set up the information your students will need in one place. The example below shows a Welcome document which details how your students can contact you, how you will contact them and your expectations for them (i.e. they know they have to check their email/course page/activity stream, etc.)
You may want to consider setting up a similar welcome document within your module.
For more information on creating documents in My Dundee, please refer to the training materials and videos for Session 3: Adding Content.
You can view this in action from about 01:30 – 06:30.
2. Using announcements
Announcements is one way to communicate with your students in My Dundee. In order to create an announcement within your module, go into your module and from the the left-hand menu, click Announcements.
You will be taken to an archive of announcements, where you can see all of the announcements that have been created for your module in chronological order. You can also see when it was posted and how many students have seen it.
To create a new announcement, click on the + icon in the top right. 
Create a title, select the recipients from the drop-down list (leave as all course members to send to everyone in the course) and write an announcement message.
Tick the ‘Send an email copy to recipients’ to send your announcement as an email as well. Please note that you can’t send announcements if your course is set to ‘Private’, courses need to be open and accessible to students for announcements to be sent.
Scheduling announcements allows you to decide when to release your announcement or customise the window of time that it is visible. This can be useful if, for example, you want to use an announcement to remind students about a quiz or assignment but hide it once the due date has passed.
Click Save.
The announcement you have created will sit as a draft until you opt to post it. Draft announcements will have a line through the icon and a black icon beside it saying draft. To share the announcement with students, click Post Now. The three dots on the far right-hand side of each announcement allow you to edit, copy or delete your announcement. 
You can see this in action from about 08:30 – 15:00
2.1 Viewing announcements in student preview
You can view your announcement as your students would by leaving your class site and returning to the main institution page for My Dundee, refreshing your window and then going back into your module and entering the Student Preview mode.
Students will see your announcement as a pop-up which they have to dismiss before they can access the course content.
You can see this in action from about 15.00 – 17:00.
3. Sending messages
You can also communicate with your students via Messages. From the top right-hand menu, click on the Messages icon (this looks like an envelope).
This will take you to the archive of messages, where you can see all messages you are involved in (note: if a student sends a message specifically to another instructor, you won’t see it). New messages will have a purple circle around the student’s icon.
To create a message, click on the plus sign in the top right-hand corner.
Select your recipient from the recipient panel. ‘All course members’ sends a message to everyone enrolled in the module or organisation, not just students.
You can type your message into the message box and edit the text (bold/italics, etc.), add links, videos, etc.
To send your message as an email, tick Send an email copy to recipients.
Allow replies makes it so that students can use message to reply, or if you don’t want to allow this you can leave it unticked.
Click Send.
You can see this in action from about 20:00 – 25:00.
3.1 Viewing messages
You can also view messages in the main My Dundee institution page. In the left-hand menu, click on Messages. This page lists every course you’re enrolled on, and you can scroll these to search for new messages from any of your courses at a glance.
You can also view messages in the main My Dundee institution page. In the left-hand menu, click on Messages. This pages lists every course you’re enrolled on, and you can search for new messages from any of your courses at a glance.
You can see this in action from about 25:00 – 27:00.
3.2 Sending messages to groups
To send messages to a group, go into the View Sets & Groups link from the left hand menu. Click on the three dots beside a group set, and click Edit.
Once you’re in the group page, scroll down to your groups and click on the three dots beside a group and select Message group. The interface from here is identical to the main message page, it just auto-fills the recipient list with the students from the group. 
You can see this in action from about 30:00 – 35.00.