2010 Information Technoloy Services

Concordia College, Moorhead, MN

September, 2010

Moodle Messages

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Working with the Messages Feature Students and faculty can use the messages block to send a message and to manage personal contacts within Moodle. Located on Moodle’s main page, the messages block displays incoming messages or you can click the “Messages…” link to send a message to someone or add/delete contacts.

Using the Messages Window

Select the “Messages…” link from the messages block. The Contacts tab appears. If you have no Contacts listed, select the Search tab.

In the Search tab you can search for a person. For example, if you need to locate someone with a common name you can select the “Only in my courses” option to reduce the chance of finding the wrong person. You can also search messages. After inputting a name and selecting the search button, a search results window appears.

Sending Messages and Adding Contacts

1. To send a message, click the link for the person’s name (see right).

2. To add a person as a contact click the smile icon. All added contacts appear in the Contacts tab.

3. To block a person from sending messages to you click the green block button.

4. To view a history of messages from the displayed individual click the message history icon (looks like a list.)

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Settings

The Settings tab allows you to specify additional options such as the operation of the message window and what to do with messages when you are offline. You can block all messages by keeping your contact list empty and check “Block all new messages from people who are not in my contact list.”

Additional Notes To delete a contact, open the “Messages…” link, select the link for that contact’s name from your contacts list, choose Remove Contact. An incoming message will appear in your contacts list however that individual can only be added as a contact if you specify that action. Once you have read the incoming message, that person’s name no longer appears in your contacts list. Moodle provides a chat function that can be added as

an activity. This is used for a live text exchange and is similar to instant messaging. Although Moodle does link to external e-mail programs for sending messages, the messages feature acts similarly to an internal e-mail program within Moodle with fewer capabilities (e.g.; you cannot send attachments using the messages feature however you can attach documents in Forums.)