The original quickmail block from Humboldt did a great job, however, as we have classes that have 200+ students, the original "check box" GUI does not work for my university. So we modified the quickmail block to use the "side by side" two columns (select all / deselect all) type of GUI. Here is some quick installation instruction:
1. You have to install the Humboldt "quickmail" block first:
http://cdc.humboldt.edu/moodle/course/view.php?id=3&topic=2%20alt=Blocks
2. Then you unzip the attached quickmail_mod.zip into the same directory. We modified the email.php and email.html, and added mailer.php and mailer.html
That's it!
It works slightly different than the original quickmail block. Here are some quick notes:
1. Only "teachers" could use this quickmail block (which fit with our need better, as we don't want students to be able to do mass-emailing).
2. When you choose to use your own personal email client to send the message (such as Eudora or Outlook), it will set the mailto to instructor's email address, and BCC all the students.
Again, we haven't tested this block thoroughly so please help us test it and feedback/comments are always welcome!