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Outschool's communication tools

How to communicate with students and parents in your classes.

Updated over a week ago

Outschool provides several methods for teachers to communicate with parents and learners during and between classes.

  • We support integrated group video chat for live classes

  • Teachers are able to send private messages to either parents or learners;

  • For mass communications, teachers can use the Outschool Classroom to send updates to all enrolled parents and learners.

We ask that all class communications remain on Outschool’s platform. Communicating through Outschool rather than through private email or texting is critical to keeping our community safe. This also allows our support team to properly investigate any escalated incidents. Our users should never share any personal contact details with each other. In addition to keeping all communications on our platform, Outschool prohibits teachers and parents/families from meeting in-person, unless at an Outschool-sponsored event. Read more about keeping communication on Outschool.

Learner Messaging

Teachers have the ability to correspond with learners from a section’s Learners page. Note that parents may set their privacy settings to receive copies of communications between teachers and learners.

Learner messages can include text, links, or attachments. While it’s best to discuss logistical topics with the parent, learner messaging is a great way for learners to share assignments or feedback with you in a private channel.

Teachers and learners can message privately from the Learners tab of the classroom up to 30 days after class has ended.

Parent Messaging

Teachers can send direct messages to parents by clicking the letter icon next to the learner’s name on the section’s Learner page.

Clicking the letter icon will open a dialogue window where you can send a message to the parent. All messages will be forwarded to both your email and the parent’s.

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Parent messages are a great way to check-in privately with a parent about their learner’s progress in class, coordinate any makeup sessions, or otherwise get in touch with a particular parent. Teachers can respond to parent messages either by email or from the Conversations tab on Outschool.

The Conversations feature will track read and unread messages from within the Outschool platform.

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The "Message Read" synchronization however will not occur when a message is read from email and will only be tracked when messages are read from Conversations.

Please also note that teachers should never send Zoom links to parents or learners via Outschool messaging, as all class meetings should begin with the green Start Live Meeting button from the teacher’s end. Sending Zoom links via Outschool messaging is a violation of Outschool policy.

Classroom Posts

The Classroom is the best place to share updates that pertain to the entire class, like homework assignments or any scheduling changes. Every time you post in the Classroom, all enrolled parents will receive an email notification with a preview of your post and a link to the Classroom. Read more about using the Outschool Classroom.

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