Email Classes in STAR

Once registration starts for a term, instructors can email a class or a selection of students using STAR. 

Note: View the Sending Course Messages and Email in eCampus article for more information about contacting students through eCampus. 

How to send a class email through STAR: 

1. Log into star.wvu.edu.

2. Select the Faculty and Advisors tab.

3. Select the Summary Class List link, or select the new Faculty Self-Service Home Page link at the top of the page then click Class List. 

4. Select the appropriate term and CRN.

5. Click Summary Class List. The next steps will depend on your class size. You'll see an Email Class link for smaller classes and a Display Email List link for larger classes. 

   • Click Email Class: A new email window will open in your default email client. Student emails will appear in the BCC section. Compose your message and send the email. 
     Note: If the Email class link doesn't work, please refer to the Unresponsive Link for Small Classes section below.

   • Click Display Email List: A class list will open on a new page. Copy the list of emails then open your email and create a new message. Paste the list of email addresses in the BCC section of the new email.  

Unresponsive Link for Small Classes:

You may find that the Email class link exists but clicking the link does nothing. This is because the decision between displaying Email Class and Display Email List is done by evaluating the number of enrolled students, not by character count. 

The maximum number of characters in a mailto link is 2048. A class may only have 100 enrolled students; however, the total number of characters can exceed the 2048 limit if some of the students have long names. When this happens, web browsers will not properly evaluate the link. 

If clicking the Email class link does nothing, try the following solution: 

1. Follow these steps for your browser:

   • Chrome: Right-click the Email class link and choose Open in new tab/window. Click in the address bar and click Ctrl + A to copy the address.

   • Firefox: Right-click the Email class link and choose Copy Email Address.

   • Internet Explorer: Right-click the Email class link and choose Properties. Then double-click the information in the Address (URL) field and click Ctrl + C to copy the text.

2. Open a plain text editor, such as Notepad. Then click Ctrl + V to paste the text.

3. Erase mailto:?Bcc= from the beginning of the text, so that it is only showing email addresses.

4. Click Ctrl + A to copy the email addresses.

5. Open your email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) and start a new email. Click Ctrl + V in the BCC field of the email. 
   Note: It is important to BCC the students so that conversations will not be sent to every student in the class if one them responds to you. 

6. Compose your message and send the email.