Brightspace Email (SUNY Empire Brightspace Site)

Relevant to: students

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

The email tool allows students to send email to instructors and peers within Brightspace. After the email has been sent from Brightspace, the replies will go through Outlook. 

Sending Email from the Brightspace Home Screen

1. Upon entering Brightspace, select the Message Alerts icon located in the mini navigation bar.
2. From the drop-down menu, select the Email button.
3. On the Compose New Message page, the following need to be entered:
   • To: this field needs to contain who the email recipient is
   • Subject: this field should contain a unique description regarding the message
   • Body: the email message is composed in this field
4. Please note: the email message, attachments, and the number of recipients in the To, CC, and BCC fields count towards the message size, and it cannot exceed 20 MB.
5. Select the Send button.

Sending Email from Course Roster

1. Select the Tools option from the navigation bar, then select Roster.
2. To email a small group of students:
   • Select the check box located to the left of each student's name.
   • Select the Email button located above the class roster table.
   • In the Compose New Message pop-up window, all students will be added to the BCC field and the Subject line is automatically populated with the name of the course.
   • Draft email and select the Send button.
3. To email one specific student:
   • Select the chevron located to the right of the student's name and select the Send Email option.
   • In the Compose New Message pop-up window, the student will be added to the To field and the Subject line is automatically populated with the name of the course.
   • Draft email and select the Send button.

Switching Email with SUNY

SUNY Empire students will continue to have their SUNY Empire university emails ending in “@sunyempire.edu” associated with the SUNY-wide instance. Students who also take courses at another SUNY campus will need to submit a request to SUNY if they would like their email to be affiliated with the other campus that is on the SUNY-wide instance.

When the request has been submitted, an email confirmation will be sent, and it will contain information on how to follow-up on the request if needed. You should be able to see the address associated with your account by clicking your name in the upper right-hand corner of any Brightspace page and then selecting Account Settings then, Notifications. SUNY Empire addresses will end in “@sunyempire.edu.” If you have any questions or have difficulty submitting your request, please reach out to the SUNY Empire IT Service Desk for assistance.

Best Practices for Writing Emails

Please note that there is no option available to save a draft email. If you are timed out of the system, you may lose an email in progress. If you are writing a lengthy email, consider writing the email in Microsoft Word or another application where you can save the email content as a file. Then when you are ready to send the email you can copy the content from Word into the email and send it immediately.