iMail

iMail provides an inbox/contact list for each course, with standard email client functionality, providing a flexible user to user communication system within Moodle.

Why iMail

Email provides flexible way for students and teachers to communicate in a one-to-one, one-to-many, and/or many-to-many fashion. However, for many reasons schools or institutions may not want to use standard email for their courses. The imail tool provides a 'closed garden' email like system, where all messages are kept within the Moodle LMS, by giving students and teachers an inbox for each course. What is iMail?

iMail provides each student with an inbox for each course, the ability to create email like messages with drafts, attachments (single or multiple), contact lists, and all the usual features of a WebMail program. The main difference between imail and a webmail/email integration (such as the Moodle-GMail integration[1|#ftn1]) is that _all messaging stays withinthe Moodle system. There are also available options for content reports and for parental view/copying of email messages between students.

Typical iMail Customer:

iMail is designed primarily for two customer types:

• K-12 systems that do not want the liability of supplying or requiring students to have a public email address
• Any institution who wants an internal messaging system with the features of webmail within the context of a course in an LMS.

Business drivers:

• Enables user contribution - enables students to communicate with individuals, groups, and/or teachers within a known set of users who have been loaded into the Moodle system.
• *Enables administrators to uncover bullying and disruptive behavior -*with the optional reporting system, the iMail tool enables school administrators to monitor and mediate inappropriate behavior, while enabling responsible users to realize the many benefits of a web based collaboration tool.

iMail Features:

General Features:

• Users can see all messages in each inbox, and see by color which they have read already
• Users can store messages in folders they create
• Users can print out their email(s)
• Each course gets its own inbox, showing how many messages are in each course
• The system provides the standard email functions of Drafts (unsent messages the user is working on), a display of mail already sent, and a trash folder that will store deleted items until it is emptied

Composition Features:

• Users can attach multiple files to a message and resend sent messages
• Sending messages, creating folders, and changing settings can be configured by role (for example a site administrator could set up a role that can read messages but not send them).
• Email can be sent to any and/or all users in a course
• Standard Email Carbon Copy (CC) and Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) can be used
• Users utilize the standard Moodle HTML editor, which provides for spell-check, rich HTML email, and special characters, as set up on the site

Choosing who to send the message to

• Users can type the name of people they want to send a message to, or pick from a list of users in the course
• To, CC, or BCC can be chosen as the option for different users

Course Based Features:

• Users can be filtered by Moodle role (teacher, student, etc.) in the contacts list iMail inboxes
• Each course the user is enrolled in can have its own inbox
• The course inbox shows the number of messages for that course

Viewing Messages:

• When viewing a message, users can reply to the sender, reply to all recipients, forward the message, delete it, and/or print it
• Viewing the message shows the attachments and their file type (pdf, ppt, jpg, etc.)

Printing messages:

• The print button opens up the print preview
• Automatically opens up the printing dialogue for the default printer

Optional features:

Content (aka 'Bad words') report:

• Site administrators can be sent a report that shows if students have used selected 'bad words' in their emails to each other. The report will show who has sent what to whom, enabling school or institutional administrators to intervene in developing situations. Site administrators can elect whom to send the report(s) to.

Folder quotas:

Site administrators can use this feature to limit the size of user's inboxes