Technology

Send Canvas Announcements to Student MS 365 Email Inboxes

Instructors may wish to send a copy of Canvas announcements to students' Microsoft 365 email inboxes. By default, Canvas announcements are automatically sent in the Announcements tool. 

Publish Your First Announcement

Although the Announcements tool can be displayed in your course, the tool will not appear in your students' site until the first announcement is published.


If class members have email notifications enabled for Announcements, they will receive a copy of the Announcement in their MS 365 email inboxes as well; however, students may individually disable email notifications in their Canvas Notification Settings. 

If an instructor would like to ensure that their Announcement is sent to their students' MS 365 email accounts, the following workaround may be used.

Manually Forward Canvas Announcements to Student Microsoft 365 Email Accounts

  1. Ensure your Canvas Notifications Settings are enabled for email notifications next to Announcement Created by You.
    1. Manage Your Canvas Notifications
  2. Create and Publish an Announcement in Canvas.
    1. How do I add an announcement in a course?
  3. When you receive your copy of the announcement you sent in your email, you may either:
    1. Forward the announcement to your students' email addresses directly from your email account.
      1. This will ensure all students to whom you forwarded the email will receive the announcement in their MS 365 inbox.
    2. Copy/paste the announcement into a new email in your Canvas inbox and send to all members of the course.
      1. This will ensure all students in your course will receive the announcement in their MS 365 inbox, as well as in their Canvas inbox. Additionally, you will not have to manually add recipients' email addresses using this method.

Additional Resources

How to Get Help

Technical assistance is available through the Illinois State University Technology Support Center at: