There _should_ be two issues here, if there aren't then there is a
substantial problem somewhere.
Problem 1: sending email to all users. Every so (not) often this occurs and
so rarely that we have only ever been able to conclude that the recipient is
over quota on their inbox, or has deleted it by accident, or even is telling
porkies. If an email address is not registered correctly then a faliure
alert should be mailed to the sender. When this doesn't happen, we assume
mail to have been delivered successfully. If we cannot rely on this
happening, then it does rather wipe out half the point of having Bb in
place.
Problem 2 [not -I previously thought- a problem as such, but commonly
perceived so]: Email addresses do not show up next to all names in the
roster - do these people not receive the email sent to them? Answer: no,
they do receive the email, but their addresses do not show up in the roster
because you can select your own 'privacy' settings which may hide your email
address from public view. If you are worried, go to control panel >
list/modify users and you will see that their email addresses are displayed
for you there.
I just searched the knowledge base for the topic Tim suggested, and found
it's how to en masse display the email address by changing the flag in the
database. For us,in 5.5.1 L1 the default was to display addresses, whereas
since migration to 5.5.1 L3 the default seems to be - without me changing or
desiring it - not shown. This has produced a rash of queries from
instructors as per 'problem 2' above; however, I should hope that
implementing the solution given in the knowledge base only resets as a
default - rather than overrides the privacy settings. We do have students
who are ex-directory and who have been given instructions to enable the
highest privacy setting - note these would be returned to visible as well if
we changed the flag in the database.
Worryingly, is Bb's response to Tim suggesting that anyone who has effected
the hide email address from view is NOT receiving mail?
Bearing in mind that the majority of my first year students have the email
address on restricted display, surely this can't be true? Tim, did it solve
your problems?
Trish didn't say whether the people who were not receiving mail were people
without their email address displayed. If they do have their mail address,
then Paul points out, we have - unhelpfully, Trish, sorry! - to hope it IS a
local problem, because lack of confidence in Blackboard when emails fail to
arrive spirals quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kate Boardman
Learning Technologies Team
IT Service
University of Durham
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
Tel.: 0191 374 1502
Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Web: http://www.dur.ac.uk/k.l.boardman
-----Original Message-----
From: MLE Blackboard/Courseinfo userslist
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Tim Bentley
Sent: 11 November 2002 17:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Sending Group emails
Hi,
There's an article on BB's knowledge base 181-445 which relates to email
addresses not being available. That's what BB recommended I did when
group email for the whole course didn't work for me.
Regards,
Tim Bentley
Senior Computer Officer
Trish Mountjoy wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Has anyone come across a problem with the sending e-mail function.
> It would appear that in some courses it is not possible to send a mail to
> all users of some of the courses.
>
> There is no problem with selecting an individual user and mailing them but
> when trying to amil a class of approx. 40 students, this function does not
> work.
>
> Anyone have any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Trish
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Trish Mountjoy MBS
> e-Education Project Lead
>
> Information and Learning Technology Department
> UCD Business Schools
>
> mob: +353 87 8050493
> tel: +353 1 7168831
> fax: +353 1 7168884
>
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.ucd.ie/iltg/
> http://www.ucd.ie/ucdbusinessschools/
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Trish Mountjoy MBS
> e-Education Project Lead
>
> Information and Learning Technology Department
> UCD Business Schools
>
> mob: +353 87 8050493
> tel: +353 1 7168831
> fax: +353 1 7168884
>
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.ucd.ie/iltg/
> http://www.ucd.ie/ucdbusinessschools/
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