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Announcements are an ideal way to post time-sensitive information critical to course success. Add announcements for these types of course activities:

  • Due dates for assignments and projects
  • Changes to your syllabus
  • Corrections/clarifications of materials
  • Exam schedules

You can add, edit, and delete announcements from the Announcements page. When you add an announcement, you can also send it as an email to students in your course. Students receive the announcement even if they don't log into your course.

Find your institution announcements

Announcements appear in the Today section of the activity stream. You may also find announcements on the login page.

Where course announcements appear

New, active course announcements appear the first time students enter your course. Students need to close the New Course Announcements window before they can view course content. After students close the window, it won’t appear again. If you post new announcements, the window appears again with only the new announcements.

Active announcements also appear in the Today and Recent sections of the activity stream. Most announcements disappear from the activity stream when students view them within their courses. If you schedule an announcement, it also appears in the activity stream at the scheduled time.

Students receive a course announcement and an activity stream notification about course groups they need to join. If students haven't joined a course group, that alert remains in the activity stream.

On the Course Content page, in the Details & Actions panel, students can select View archive to read past, active announcements. They may also select the Search announcements icon and type keywords to locate a specific announcement.

Video: Create Announcements

Watch a video about creating announcements

The following narrated video provides a visual and auditory representation of some of the information included on this page. For a detailed description of what is portrayed in the video, open the video on YouTube, navigate to More actions, and select Open transcript.


Video: Create announcements shows how to create an announcement.




Create an announcement

Use announcements to share important, time-sensitive information.

On the Course Content page in the Details & Actions panel, select the announcements link to get started. The New Announcement page appears.

Type a title and message for the announcement. The title has a 256-character limit. Use the options in the message editor to format text, embed multimedia, and attach files.

You can insert audio and video recordings in your course announcements.

You can also send an email copy to all course members, including yourself. Select the Send an email copy to recipients check box. Recipients need a valid email address in the system. You can't send an email copy for an announcement scheduled to display in the future. Emails about announcements are always sent and aren't controlled by the global notification settings.

If you post an announcement and forget to select the email copy check box, you'll need to create a new announcement. If you edit the announcement and select email copy and post it again, the email isn't sent.

Select Save to save your announcement as a draft. On the Course Announcements page, you can post announcements when you're ready.

The count of posted and total course announcements updates in the Details & Actions panel.

What do students see in the email?

In the email, embedded content appears as links. Students can select the links to view the content.

Schedule an announcement

You can create an announcement for a future event, such as a reminder about a course event or due date. You can schedule announcements to post automatically in your course on the date and time you choose. You can also hide announcements when they're no longer relevant.

If you schedule an announcement to display in the future, the email check box is disabled.

  1. On the New Announcement page, select the Schedule announcement check box.
  2. When you schedule an announcement, a Show on date and time is required. You can't clear that check box.
  3. Optionally, select the Hide on check box and select the date and time.

Use the date picker to schedule announcements. If you type a date, it reverts to the default date when you save the announcement.

If you no longer want to schedule the announcement, clear the Schedule announcement check box.

On the Course Announcements page, the scheduled announcement appears with the Scheduled label in the Status column.

Course Announcements page

On the Course Content page in the Details & Actions panel, select the announcements link to view all your course announcements.

On the Course Announcements page, you can view each announcement’s status and number of viewers. You can also create, copy, edit, sort, and delete announcements.

  1. View a summary of your announcements. View the number of course announcements by status at the top of the page. Announcements have three statuses: Posted, Scheduled, and Draft.
  2. Sort columns. Sort announcements by the title, status, or the number of viewers.
  3. Search announcements. Select the Search announcements icon and type keywords to locate a specific announcement.
  4. Create a new announcement. Select the plus sign icon to open the New Announcement page.
  5. Manage announcements. Open an announcement's menu to edit, copy, or delete an announcement.

Edit, copy, or delete an announcement

You can edit, copy, or delete any announcement in your course. On the Course Announcements page, open an announcement's menu and select an option:

  • Select Edit to change the title or message. You can also edit the scheduled time to post and turn the time on and off.
  • Select Delete to permanently remove an announcement from your course.
  • Select Copy to make an exact copy of an existing announcement and update as needed.

Reminder: If you post an announcement and forget to select the email copy check box, you'll need to create a new announcement. If you edit the announcement and select email copy and post it again, the email isn't sent.