Instructor: Announcements

Communicate with your students by posting announcements on the course home page.

1. Click the context menu to the right of Announcements (inverted triangle) and select New Announcement.
2. Enter a Headline.
3. Enter your message in the Content field. You can use the HTML Editor to add links, images, video, sound recordings, etc.

    

4. Show Start Date: Select whether or not the start date and time of the announcement will be visible to participants.
5. Enter Start Date and End Date (optional).  These dates control when the announcement is visible to students.  If you don't set these dates, the announcement is always visible to students.

    

6. Add Attachments (optional).  You can add file attachments, video attachments and audio attachments.
   - Add a File: Allows file types such as PDF, PowerPoint, Word, etc. to be added to the announcement as a downloadable file.
   - Record Audio: Allows you to record an audio clip up to 10 minutes long. This option requires you to have a functioning microphone and Adobe Flash installed on your computer.
   - Record Video: Allows you to record a video to accompany the announcement. There is a 10-minute maximum for video length. 

    

7. Save your announcement
   - Save as Draft saves the announcement for future editing.  It is not visible to students
   - Publish publishes the announcement to the Announcement widget on your course home page and is visible to students.

    

It may be faster to copy and edit an existing announcement than create a new one.

1. On the Course Home page, click Announcements to open the tool.

    

2. Click on the Actions menu (looks like a down caret next to the announcement name).

    

3. Select Copy.

    

Update or edit an existing announcement.

1. Click the context menu to the right of Announcements (inverted triangle) and select Go to Announcements Tool.  By doing this you will have access to all announcements in the course, not just the ones currently visible on the home page.

    

2. Click the context menu to the right of the announcement you would like to edit (inverted triangle) and select Edit.

    

3. Make the desired changes.
4. Save your changes:
   - Update: Click the Update button to save changes made to an already-published announcement.
   - Publish/Save as Draft: Click the Publish button to publish a draft-status announcement, making immediately available to course participants. Click the Save as Draft button to save changes and keep the announcement in draft status for later review or continued editing.

    

Reorder the announcements in the announcement widget.

When creating new announcements, the newest announcements appear at the top of the list of announcements despite any availability dates you may have set. If you would like to change the order of the announcements:

1. In the Announcements tool, click the context menu to the right of Announcements (inverted triangle) and select Reorder Announcements.
2. Use the Sort Order drop down menus to select order you'd like each announcement to appear.
3. Click the Save button to save your changes.

There are two ways to permanently delete an announcement from your course.

Option 1

To delete an announcement from the Announcement widget on the course home page

1. Click the context menu to the right of the announcement (inverted triangle) you'd like to delete and select Delete.

    

2. Confirm you want to delete the announcement.

Option 2

To delete an announcement from the Announcements tool:

1. Click the context menu to the right of Announcements (inverted triangle) and select Go to Announcements Tool.
2. Click the context menu to the right of the announcement (inverted triangle) you would like to delete and select Delete.

If you have inadvertently deleted an announcement, you can restore it to the Announcement tool.

1. Click the context menu to the right of Announcements (inverted triangle) and select Go to Announcements Tool.

    

2. Click the More Actions button and select Restore.
3. Check the box to the left of the announcement you'd like to restore.
4. Click the Restore button located at the top of the list of deleted announcements.