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
- From your Moodle course, turn on Editing
- Scroll to the bottom of the left frame and click Add a block
- Click to select Quickmail from the list
- 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.