Mailbox Overview

Overview of the Otus Mailbox feature.

Monica Burke avatar
Written by Monica Burke
Updated over a week ago

The Mailbox feature allows teachers to send texts or emails to students and parents. It also allows parents to send message to teachers. This article will show how the Mailbox works for a teacher, but you can click here to see how parents use the Mailbox!


Drafting and Sending Messages

  • Messages can be sent to a single student/parent, multiple students/parents, or all students/parents at once from all of your classes.

  • Messages can be sent as either a text message or email

  • Messages can be sent immediately, or scheduled to be sent at a later date/time.

  • Emails sent from the Mailbox in Otus will go to the student/parent's active email address linked to their Otus account. They do not receive the message directly within Otus.

  • The email itself will come from mailbox@otus.com, but the sender's name will appear alongside the email address. The sender's name and email address will also appear at the bottom of the email.

  • When a message is sent from the Otus Mailbox, recipients are unable to see who else the message was sent to.

  • Parents and students can respond to emails; the response will go directly to the teacher's email inbox. The responses will be contained in the same email thread.

  • Text messages only send one way from the phone number 717-200-4638. They do not include a subject line, cannot include pictures, and are sent 140 characters at a time. Students and parents may want to add the number to their phone contacts so they know these messages are from Otus. 

💡 Tip: Are students or family not receiving the email messages you have sent? Try having them add mailbox@otus.com as a contact.

Example Emails

From: Teacher

To: Family or Student

  • The email itself will come from mailbox@otus.com, but the sender's (teacher's) name will appear alongside the email address.

  • The sender's (teacher's) name and live email address will also appear at the bottom of the email.

From: Family

To: Teacher

  • The sender's (family's) name, student's name, and their relationship to the student will display next to their email in their footer.

  • The sender's (family's) name will display as the sender of the email.


Replies

  • If a student or family member replies to an email message sent from the Otus Mailbox, it will go straight to the original sender's email inbox. Mailbox replies are not housed in Otus.

  • The student or family's email address will appear with the reply.

  • The student or family's reply is only sent to the original sender. It is not sent to the other recipients, and the other recipients are not able to see the individual replies.

  • If multiple students or family members reply, each will be added to the same email thread.


Scheduled Messages

  • Scheduled messages can be edited for both content, change in the time to be sent, and change in recipients to be sent to.

  • Scheduled messages can also be deleted.


Sent Messages

  • You can view the contents and recipients of your sent messages by selecting the message from the list.


Otus Live Video

Click to view a video from our Otus Live series on how to use the Otus mailbox.


FAQ and Troubleshooting

Click to view FAQ and troubleshooting details.

Can messages be sent to the entire school?

Messages are sent based on classes. Depending on the size of the group, it might be possible to create a class and enroll all students in that class. They would then use that "class" for school-wide announcements.

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