Create and post announcements in myCourses

You can communicate important information to your students using the Announcements widget on your Course Home page in myCourses. Students can choose to receive emails and/or text messages to notify them of any new announcements.

In this article:

Access announcements

The Announcements widget is displayed by default on the Course Home page of every course.

You can create and manage active announcements directly from the Announcements widget, or you can access all announcements from the main Announcements page for a course by selecting the down arrow beside the Announcements heading at the top of the widget.

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Create an announcement

1. On the Course Home page, select the down arrow at the top of the Announcements widget and select New Announcement to go to the New Announcement page.

2. Enter a Headline.

3. Enter the body of your announcement in the Content field.

4. Select Publish to release the announcement to students immediately.  

   OR

   Select Save as Draft to save the announcement in the Announcements tool for later release to students.

Access advanced options:

• Availability:

  • Show Start Date: Deselect this checkbox if you do not want a date and time displayed beside the announcement.

  • Start Date: Select a date and time to release the announcement to students. You can also backdate the announcement by selecting a date in the past to appear beside the announcement.

  • End Date: Select this checkbox to specify a date when the announcement will be removed from students' view. Students will not be able to access this announcement after the date you specify, but you will still be able to access it from the Announcements tool.

• Attachments:

  • Select Attach a File to upload a file from your computer and create a link to it below your announcement.

  • Select Record Audio to record and post an audio message. A link to the .wav file will appear below your announcement in the Announcements widget. For more information, see the recording audio in myCourses article.

• Additional Release Conditions:

  • Select Attach Existing to set a release condition you have already created.

  • Select Create and Attach to create a new release condition for the announcement. For more information, see the release conditions article.

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Manage announcements 

You can edit, reorder, hide, dismiss, restore, copy, and delete your announcements from the Announcements widget or main Announcements page.

Edit announcements

1. Click on the arrow beside the headline and select Edit.
   
   

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2. Make your changes.

3. (Optional) Select the checkbox beside Major edit if you would like to restore this announcement for users who have dismissed it and send an email and/or text message to students who have enabled notifications.

4. Select Update at the bottom of the page.

Reorder announcements

1. Click on the arrow beside the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget and select Announcements.

2. On the Reorder page, select numbers from the drop-down list in the Sort Order column to specify the order in which announcements will appear in the Announcements widget.

3. Select Save.

Hide announcements

1. Click on the arrow beside the headline of the announcement and select Edit.

2. Scroll down and select the checkbox beside Remove announcement based on end date.

3. Enter the current date and time if it is not already entered.

4. Select Update.

View dismissed announcements

You can view your expired announcements by selecting the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget.

Dismiss announcements

Select the grey X icon beside the announcement you want to hide it from your view of the Announcements widget. Students and all other users of your course will still see the announcement. 

Copy announcements

1. Click on the arrow beside the headline and select Copy. A new edit announcement page appears in draft mode with the details of the original announcement copied over. The following details are copied:

   • Headline, with Copy of  appended to the front

   • Content

   • Display Author checkbox setting

   • Show Start Date setting

   • Attachments

   • Release conditions

2. Modify the necessary details and click Publish. You can also save the announcement as a draft by clicking on Save as Draft button at the bottom of the page. Drafts are not visible to students.

Delete announcements

1. Click on the arrow icon beside the headline of the announcement and select Delete.

2. In the pop-up window that appears, select Yes.

Delete multiple announcements

1. Select the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget to access the main Announcements page.

2. Select the checkbox beside each announcement you want to delete, or select the checkbox at the top of the list to select all announcements on the page.

3. Select Delete at the top or bottom of the list.

4. In the pop-up window that appears, Select Yes.

Pin announcements

You can pin announcements to the top of the Announcement Widget, allowing important information to remain visible to students. 

1. Click on the arrow icon beside the headline of the announcement and select Pin to top.

2.  A pin icon will appears on the announcement.

Restore announcements

1. Select the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget to access the main Announcements page.

2. Click on the arrow beside the headline of the dismissed announcement and select Restore.
   
   

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Restore a deleted announcement

1. On the main Announcements page, select More Actions and select Restore.

2. Select the checkbox beside each announcement you want to restore.

3. Select Restore.

 

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Subscribe to announcements

You can change your notification settings to receive a text message on a mobile device or an email every time an announcement is posted in a course. Instructors and students can subscribe to an RSS feed of announcements for a specific course or for all courses in which they are registered without logging into myCourses.

Access your notification settings

1. Click on the arrow beside the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget and select Notifications.

2. Select the checkbox beside Announcements - announcement updated to receive notifications every time an announcement is edited and selected as a Major Edit.

3. Select the checkbox beside Announcements - announcement item available to receive notifications every time an announcement is added to any courses in which you are registered.

4. Select Save.

Subscribe to an announcement

1. Click on the arrow beside the word Announcements at the top of the Announcements widget and select RSS. The next steps will depend on the browser and RSS reader you are using.

2. Select an RSS reader.

3. Select Subscribe.

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