Communication Tools

There are several communication tools in Laulima that you may be using in your course:

  • Forums 
  • Messages 
  • MailTool 

Be sure to check with your instructor which communication tools will be used in your course and how he/she would prefer to be contacted.

Forums
The Forums tool can be used as a discussion board. It is an asynchronous communication tool. This means that communication is not necessarily occurring while the participants are online at the same time. Messages can be posted in Forums and read by everyone in the class at some point in the future. You can read postings by other students and your instructor. When you post a response, everyone in the class can read your response. Some discussions may occur over a course of a few days with the dialogue evolving with students’ thoughts, opinions, and research added to each topic. 
 
Read a Topic Posting from the Instructor on the Discussion Board (Forums)
1. Click Forums from the left menu of your course site.
2. There will be a forum or several forums (such as Module 1 or Week 1) and a topic or topics listed. A topic is where        
    similar messages will be organized. 
3. Click on the Topic name to see the instructor’s message.
 
 
 

Post New Thread to Reply to a Topic on the Discussion Board (Forums)
1. Click Post New Thread.

 
 
2. Enter a title for your thread message.
3. Enter your message.

4. Click Post Message.
 
Reply to a Thread Message on the Discussion Board (Forums)
1. Click a Thread message to read it.
2. Click Reply.

3. Click   to include the original text in the reply. 

4. Click Post Message.

 

 Messages
Email is another way to communicate in Laulima. Messages is Laulima’s internal email system. Be sure to check with your instructor how he/she would prefer to be contacted. 
Read an Email Message (Messages)
1. Click Messages from the left menu of your course site.
2. Click Received to check for messages in the inbox. 
 
 
3. Click on the message subject to read the message.


Compose an Email Message (Messages)
1. Click Messages from the left menu of your course site.
2. Click Compose Message from the Messages tool title bar.
 
 
 

3. Select the name of the recipient(s) for the email message. Hold Ctrl+name (or Cmd+name) to select multiple recipients. 

4. Enter in a Subject for the message (required). 
5. Type in your message.
 
 
6. Click on Add Attachment if you want to attach a file or resource. 
7. Click Send when you are ready to send the message. 

MailTool
The MailTool is a tool in Laulima to send an email to an individual person’s external email account (i.e. UH account). When the recipient replies, it will be sent to your external email account (i.e. UH account). Be sure to check with your instructor how he/she would preferred to be contacted. 

Compose an Email Message (MailTool)
1. Click MailTool from the left menu in your course site.
2. Select the recipient(s) you wish to send the email message to. You can select an individual or multiple students, instructors, and/or TAs by clicking on the group’s “Select” link and checking the boxes for the desired recipient(s). You can also send an email to the whole group (i.e. “All Students”, “All Instructors”, and/or “All Teaching Assistants”) by checking the group’s check box. Be sure to expand those groups to check who you are sending the email message to before choosing to send to an entire group.

3.  Type in a subject in the subject field and your message in the text box.
 
4. If you want a copy sent to you, check the box, “Send me a copy”. 

5. Click the Send Mail button to send your e-mail message.