Two distinct tools, Email Archive and Messages, are available for managing communication between site participants. Additionally, other site tools allow you to send email notifications to participants when you add new items.
The Email Archive gives your site its own email address to use for communications to all participants. For more information, see Email Archive: Overview.
The Messages tool allows participants to send individual messages to others within your site. Messages also supports messaging among multiple individuals and pre-defined groups. For more information, see Messages: Overview.
Some tools (e.g., Announcements, Resources, and Syllabus) allow you to send email notifications to site participants (at their email addresses) when you add new items. You can specify a low-priority email notification, which will be subject to each participant's notification preferences, or high priority, which will override individually set preferences so that all site participants receive the notification.