The Messages portion of Moodle is not available. It was causing problems and has been disabled (it was not available Fall18, either).

Solution: Faculty can add a Block to their course called Quickmail and use it to send email messages to their students.

Adding the QuickMail block to your Moodle course

1. From your Moodle course, turn on Editing
2. Scroll to the bottom of the left frame and click Add a block
3. Click to select Quickmail from the list
4. A QUICKMAIL block will appear in the right sidebar of your course

Using the QUICKMAIL block

• Click Configuration– select Yes for “Receive a copy”
• Click Signatures– add your mail signature
• Click Compose New Email–  
  • select recipients and click the Add button to move them to the left frame under Select Recipients
  • add an attachment (optional)
  • enter text in the subject and message boxes
  • select signature from pull-down
  • click Send Email button
• Click View History to view previously sent emails

Note: Add your TA to your Moodle course with the Teaching Assistant role. For documentation, visit the wiki page Enrolling Users.