You can send an email or text message to students from within Otus. You have the ability to send a message to certain individuals or to an entire class.
Creating the Message
From the home screen, select Classes
Select Mailbox
Using the drop down menu, select the desired class (if it's not already selected). You can also multi-select classes to send a message to students from multiple classes.
Enter your message.
Rich Text Toolbar
With the Rich Text Toolbar, you can do the following:
Change the font type and size
Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, or superscript
Bulleted or numbered list
Indent
Center, left, or right align.
Change the font color and highlight.
Hyperlink (click on the ellipsis on the right-edge of the tool bar)
Undo or Redo (click on the ellipsis on the right-edge of the tool bar)
Attachments
Images can be added by selecting the Add Image button at the bottom next to the Send button.
Links can be added by selecting the hyperlink button in the text editor toolbar (select the ellipsis on the right-edge of the tool bar).
💡 Tip: At this time, only images and links are able to be added to Mailbox messages. If you have a document you would like to attach (such as PDF), we suggest uploading it to a platform such as Google Drive and including a link to the document.
Sending the Message
Select the students you wish to send the message to.
Choose Text or Email.
After the email button is toggled on, you will see the option to enter a Subject.
Emails sent from the Mailbox in Otus will go to the student's active email address linked to their Otus account. They do not receive the message directly within Otus, rather, it is sent to their email inbox.
In the student's inbox, the email will come from the address mailbox@otus.com.
The message is sent from the individual person rather than the class; in the recipient's inbox, the sender's first and last name will appear. The class is not indicated.
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.
Email messages will look like this:
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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 live email address will also appear at the bottom of the email.
Text
Text messages only send one way from the phone number (717-200-4638), and are sent 140 characters at a time.
They cannot include pictures
💡 Tip: Have students add the number to their contacts so they know these messages are from Otus.
Send Immediately or Schedule for Later Date
If you want to send immediately, select Send.
If you want to schedule the message for delivery at a later date and/or time, select the date picker below the text entry field. Select the desired date and time from the calendar and time list that is displayed. Select Send.
Replies
If a student 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's email address will appear with the reply.
The student'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 reply, each will be added to the same email thread.
Viewing Scheduled and Sent Messages
Scheduled Messages
If you want to see the messages that are scheduled for future delivery, select Scheduled.
You can edit the message or scheduled date, view the recipients, or delete the message by selecting the message from the list.
If you delete a scheduled message, it will not send.
Sent Messages
If you want to view sent all sent messages, select Sent.
To see the recipients of that message, select the message from the list.
Deleting a sent message simply removes it from your sent list; it does not remove it from the recipient's inbox.
Please note that is may take up to 10 minutes for sent messages to appear in your Sent folder.
FAQ and Troubleshooting
Click to view FAQ and troubleshooting details.
Click to view FAQ and troubleshooting details.
Can students use the Mailbox?
Students do not have the Mailbox module in their accounts. If they are sent a message, they can find it in their regular email inbox (like Gmail). They can also reply to those messages through their regular email.
Can co-teachers send messages through the Mailbox?
Yes; co-teachers can send messages through the Mailbox to any class they are a co-teacher on. If a co-teacher sends a message, that message will have the co-teacher's name as the sender (not the main teacher, and not the name of the class).
Will co-teachers' messages appear in the Sent tab?
The main teacher of the class will not be able to see the sent messages from the co-teacher, and vice-versa. When a teacher selects the Sent tab, it will only show the messages sent by them, not by other teachers.
Can administrators send messages through the Mailbox?
Yes; administrators can send messages through the Mailbox to any class they have permission to view. If an administrator sends a message, that message will have the administrator's name as the sender (not the main teacher, and not the name of the class).
Will administrators' messages appear in the Sent tab?
The main teacher of the class will not be able to see the sent messages from the administrator, and vice-versa. When a teacher selects the Sent tab, it will only show the messages sent by them, not by other teachers or administrators.
Why aren’t my students receiving my emails?
Students may not be able to receive Mailbox messages for the following reasons:
The district may have disabled student inboxes from receiving emails from any source outside the district. Therefore, your students may not be able to receive messages from the Otus Mailbox. Check with your administration or your district’s IT/tech team to verify.
All Otus Mailbox emails are sent from mailbox@otus.com, so districts can add the mailbox@otus.com address to the list of “allowed” addresses that can email students.
The student email address set up in Otus may not be a “real” email address at all. In this case, there is no way to email students at this email address, and your district will need to coordinate another means of communication.