How do I use my preferred email address to send and receive Course Emails?

Participants on course email lists can use any email address they add to their Canvas account for sending and receiving messages to and from the lists. For example, an instructor can add a UVA email alias or non-UVA email address, such as a Gmail address, to their Canvas account to send all course emails from that address.

Note: Following the steps in this article will add all addresses included in your Canvas account to course email lists of which you are a member. However, it may take up to three hours for an address recently added in your account to be added to the email lists.

If you are an instructor or TA and would like to add an address to a specific email list only, or you need to send a message from a newly added email address immediately, you can follow the steps in How do I set the Preferences for a Course Email list? (opens new window) to manually add the email address to the list or sync the participants.

Open your UVACanvas user account settings.

Screenshot of the menus described below.

To access your UVACanvas user account settings:

  1. Select Account from the Global Navigation Menu.
  2. Select Settings from the list of options.

Add Email Address.

Screenshot with the Add Email Address link outlined.

Under Ways to Contact, select the + (Add) Email Address link.

Note: Depending on the width of your web browser window, this link will appear on either the right side or near the bottom of the page.

Screenshot of dialog described below.

A Register Communication dialog box will appear.

  1. Enter the desired alternative email address in the Email Address field.
  2. Select Register Email.

Acknowledge confirmation.

Screenshot of confirmation pop-up.

A Confirm Email Address window will pop up indicating that a confirmation link was sent to the email address you are adding. Select Ok, Thanks to close the window.

Confirm the registration from the email notification.

Screenshot of an example confirmation email.

Within the email inbox for the alternative address you are attempting to add, open the email from Canvas regarding registration.

Select "Click here to confirm this registration" to initiate the confirmation process. You will then be prompted to log into UVACanvas via NetBadge authentication.

Verify that the email is confirmed in your UVACanvas account.

Screenshot example of multiple email addresses in user account settings.

Return to your user account settings in Canvas to check if the alternative email address was successfully confirmed. Email addresses will be listed under Ways to Contact on the Settings page.

  1. Alternative email addresses that have been confirmed will appear in plain text and will not be selectable. For example, the [email protected] address shown in the screenshot above has been confirmed.
  2. Alternative email addresses that are awaiting confirmation will be selectable links, as in the example kevin.tressler.uva@g... address in the screenshot above. Select the link to resend the confirmation email.

Confirm the address appears in the Course Email participants list.

Screenshot example of a Course Email participants list with a newly added address outlined.

Note: The alternative email address that has been added to your UVACanvas account must appear in the participants list in Course Email before you can send a message from that email address. It may take up to 3 hours for the address to be added automatically. Details for reviewing the participants list can be found in the article How do I create an email address for a course or section? (opens new window).

If you need to send a message from the new email address before the participants list has updated automatically, follow the steps in How do I set the Preferences for a Course Email list? (opens new window) to sync the participants.

Compose and send the message.

Screenshot example of composing an email to send to a list.

Once a new message in the desired email application has been opened, enter and confirm the following:

  1. Confirm or paste the desired course/section email address in the "To:" field.
  2. Optional: Add your email address to the "Cc:" field to receive a copy of the message in your Inbox. Senders do not receive their own messages automatically.
  3. Enter the subject of the message.
  4. Compose the body and signature of the message.

Tip: To verify messages have been successfully delivered, please check the Archive associated with the course/section email address. For steps, see How do I view and manage the Archive (sent messages) for a Course Email list? (opens new window).