What is the Message Board?

Overview

The Message Board is a place for consultants to display announcements and other information to students within CustomCollegePlan (their student accounts). Students can see the Message Board on their Dashboard:

The Message Board allows counselors to easily communicate with students. It has two components:

1. The Updates and announcements message displays for all students with the same Primary Consultant and is intended to contain general information you'd like everyone to see (great for introducing yourself, reminding students of how to contact you, or passing along public news).
2. The A note for you message displays a separate set of text, only visible to one student (handy for notes or updates on subjects that only apply to a particular individual). 

Examples of content you may want to add to the Message Board is shown below:

Note: The placement of these messages will shift depending on whether there is a general message, a student-specific message, none, or both. 

How to edit Message Board content

Consultants may edit the multi-student message board content ("Updates and announcements") from the Students Main tab. This message is the same for all students assigned to the same Primary Consultant.

• To create a message for students of all graduation years - Select "All Years" from the dropdown menu, craft your message, and save.
  
• To create a custom message for a specific graduation year - select the desired graduation year from the dropdown menu, craft your message, and save
  
• To copy content to specific graduation years - craft your message or choose a previously drafte message, select "Copy to other grad years", select the graduation years to copy the message to, and save.
  
  
  

Consultants may edit the student-specific message board content ("A note for you") from a student's profile page (under the CustomCollegePlan.com Student Access section). This message is unique to each student.

FAQs

1. Will students receive a notification when something is posted on the Message Board?

No. Students will only see the Message Board once they log into their CustomCollegePlan account. If you want to get a hold of a student immediately, other tools like Conversations and Broadcasts are better equipped for that purpose. 

2. What's the difference between the Message Board and the Conversation?

The Message Board is like a virtual "corkboard" where you can leave greetings, updates, and reminders posted for your students. Communication on the Message Board is one-way (counselor to student) and does not notify parties. Conversely, the Conversation is meant to be utilized for an ongoing two-way dialogue between counselor and student and notifies each party when new messages are sent. 

3. Can students see the Message Board on a mobile device?

Yes, since CustomCollegePlan is fully mobile-responsive, it can be accessed on either a full browser or mobile device. An example of the mobile display is shown below.

4. How do I add my own image or logo to the Message Board(s)?

While there is technically no option for adding a photo within the text editor itself, you should be able to copy and paste an image in from an external program.