Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class. Canvas supports several kinds of communication, as described below.
In addition, registered students have a Penn State email account (<Access Account ID>@psu.edu) that they need to monitor for any official communications that come from the University or from the Penn State World Campus (you can forward this email; keep reading).
The Canvas course management system supports several modes of communication, including discussion forums and course mail.
Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, please title every message with a descriptive subject line. Subject lines that include the gist of a question or comment increase the chances that students and instructors can retrieve the messages we're looking for. Poor subject lines, such as "Question" or "Lesson 1," are not very useful as search keywords. When replying to a prior message, consider whether or not the subject line should be altered to indicate the content of your reply!
Occasionally the University or the World Campus needs to communicate with students. To do so they use the @psu.edu email address that each registered student has, not Canvas course email.
In addition, a letter, in PDF format, that reports your final course grade will be automatically generated and sent to your @psu.edu email address.
So, it is important that you regularly monitor your @psu.edu email account.
There are many ways to get the help you need. See the Getting Help link in the Start Here! module to learn more about the people and resources available to you.