Messaging Students

Message students from QC Navigate

Instructors and advisors can use QC Navigate platform to easily email or text students.

  • Log into QC Navigate at https://qc-cuny.campus.eab.com/ (use your CUNYfirst credentials: firstname.lastname+last 2 digits of your CUNY ID).
  • If you have multiple roles in the system (advisor, professor, student), use the triangle next to your name to select the desired role. You can’t send emails if all you have is a student role; advisors will see students assigned to them; professors will see students they are teaching.

Always remember that email and texting are two-way communication systems:

  • Someone should be on the other end to respond to replies.
  • Your unit should have a coordinated communication plan.
  • You should use a uniform voice in your messaging.
  • Limit texting all students, unless there is an immediate messaging need (e.g., “your classes will be dropped: speak with the QC Hub now”).
  • Texts are great for imminent deadlines as a nudge or reminder; email is much better for farther-off deadlines or for complex communications.
Find a student or a set of students to message

Message an individual student

enter the student’s name or ID number in the search box along the top of the screen to find their profile.

  • On the profile page, click on “Message Student” (right panel).
  • Choose “Send Email or “Send Text tab, and type your message or text.
  • Click on “Send Message” to send.

Message a group of students

  • On your home page (https://qc-cuny.campus.eab.com/home), you will see a list of students you are teaching or a list of students who have you listed as advisor in CUNYfirst.
  • If you don’t have a list of students on your homepage, find a set of students using Advanced Search (https://qc-cuny.campus.eab.com/search).
  • Select one or more students using the checkbox to the left of students’ names, and click on the “Actions” button directly above the checkboxes.
  • Choose “Send Email” or “Send Text” tab, and type your message or text.
  • Click on “Send Message” to send.

You can follow this process of finding, selecting, and messaging students from from any of the reports that provide lists of students.

Email messages
  • Email messages (no known limit, but use your judgment!) will come from the email address that Navigate has for you. When these instructions were updated (July 2021), this email address is your campus email address in CUNYfirst (if you are faculty or staff, this is your @qc.cuny.edu address); you can see what address this is by checking one of your sent messages and hovering over your name. If a student replies to your message, their reply will be sent to that address.
  • Email is rich text format, and you can do some minimal formatting of the text (add italics, boldface, header styles, bullets, and list numbering). You can also attach files.
Text messages

Texting under 100 students

  • Students will be able to reply to you.
  • Text messages (160 characters maximum) will come from a randomly-generated 10-digit phone number (e.g., 234-567-8901).
  • Students will be able to reply for up to 90 days
  • Student replies will go to the sender’s conversations tab in Navigate, and a notification email will be sent to the sender’s email account.
  • Students who don’t have a cell number in Navigate will receive your text as an email, with the subject “Text from John” (where “John” is your first name).

Important: let your students know who you are and how you would like them to respond to you, by including an identifier at the beginning, e.g.:

  • “Hi Sarah! This is your Macaulay advisor, Dr. Jones”
  • “Hi PSYCH 101 students!”
  • “Message from Professor Smith”

Texting 100+ students

  • Students are not able to reply to you and students can opt out.
  • Text messages (160 characters maximum) will come from a short code (e.g., 123-45).
  • Students can’t respond to texts like this, and if they do, they will receive a message saying their text was not received.
  • Students can opt out by replying STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, or END.
  • Students can resume getting texts by texting START to the same number they sent the unsubscribe command to.
  • If a student opts out, they won’t receive text messages (including automated appointment reminders) from anyone on QC Navigate. They will instead receive all such messages as email. The Student Information report (https://qc-cuny.campus.eab.com/reports/student, access is limited to certain roles) includes a column indicating whether a student has opted out of texting.

Important: let students know what office is sending the communication, by including an identifier at the beginning, e.g.:

  • “Hello from Keep Learning!”
  • “Reminder from the QC Hub”
Archived messages

To see a list of all the messages you have sent, go to the Conversations page: https://qc-cuny.campus.eab.com/conversations (left navigation panel, envelope icon).

Email capture

The Navigate system has an email capture feature that is currently not enabled. The implementation team has requested for this feature to be activated.