In SRS web access in the "class list" section, any faculty or staff member with view permission can send email to the students in that class, provided:
- The student has a valid email address entered in their student record
- The "from" address in the email MUST be from your VIU email address
How does it work?
- Email will be sent to all students who are active in the class or have completed it. It will not be sent to students who have withdrawn or been flagged as a "no show".
- Because mail is sent to both active and completed students, this feature is not recommended for use with a continuous entry class.
- The list of recipients is built each time you send a message, so you can always be assured that the message will be sent to the current class roster. You don't need to worry about making manual additions or deletions to allow for course adds and drops.
- Mail sent in this fashion will generate a separate email message personally addressed for each student in the class. You don't need to worry about any student being able to determine the address of any other student in the class through an email you send.
- It is strongly suggested that you ask your students to add the email address to their as an approved sender list in their email, so your messages are less likely to end up in the students "Junk Mail" folder (unless of course the student specifically says to send them there).
How do I send from campus?
- On any VIU campus provided you are logged into your account on a VIU computer and Microsoft Outlook is installed
- In your web browser, call up the class list
- Towards the bottom of the page you will see an icon, beside it you will see a link that says "Send an email to everyone in XXXX NNN/SSSSS" ( i.e. "Send an email to everyone in ENGL 112/S07N02" )
- Clicking on either the icon or the link will open up your email program to compose a message to the class
- You will notice that in the "To:" box it says CCCC_NNN_SSSSSS@srsmail.viu.ca ( i.e. ENGL_112_S07N02@srsmail.viu.ca)
- Compose the message as you normally would and click on the send button
Suggestion: Add the email address to your Outlook contacts, so the next time you want to send to the class you can address it from your Outlook contacts without going through SRS. This works on Campus using Outlook and off campus using VIU Webmail.
How do I send from off campus?
- If you are off campus please use Office on the web at outlook.office.com/mail/ - Do not use your home email program!
- In your web browser, call up the class list in SRS
- Towards the bottom of the page you will see an icon, beside it you will see a link that says "Send an email to everyone in XXXX NNN/SSSSS" ( i.e. "Send an email to everyone in ENGL 112/S07N02" )
- Clicking on either the icon or the link will open up your email program to compose a message to the class
- You will notice that in the "To:" box it says CCCC_NNN_SSSSSS@srsmail.viu.ca ( i.e. ENGL_112_S07N02@srsmail.viu.ca)
- Important! You must copy the address from the email that pops up, and and then paste it into the "To:" field of a new email opened in Office on the web at outlook.office.com/mail/
- Compose the message as you normally would and click on the send button
How do I know if it sent successfully?
You will receive a confirmation from postmaster@viu.ca a short time after sending a message, (generally less than a minute) which will list all the students the email was sent to, and will also list the students who weren't sent an email because they have no email address in their student record.