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This guide pertains to Ultra Course View.
If your course is in Original Course View, see the Original Course View tutorial collection.
Announcement Overview
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.
Watch Creating & Managing Announcements to learn more about creating, sending, and scheduling announcements.
Also, watch this short overview video on Announcements.
See:
New, active course announcements appear in a pop-up window 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 new announcements are posted, the window appears again with only the new announcements.
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, users can select the Announcements tab located in the upper navigation menu to read past or active announcements. They may also select the Search announcements icon and type keywords to locate a specific announcement.
From the Announcements tab, click on the + icon located on the right or the Create Announcement button in the center of the screen:
NOTE: A course link added to an Announcement will not work in the Announcement email generated but it will work when clicked from the Announcement tab in Blackboard.
If desired, audio and video recordings can be inserted into course announcements by clicking the plus sign in the Content Editor > Recording.
An announcement recording window will open. Your computer's webcam and microphone should automatically be detected. Select to Allow.
You are now ready to record. Click the red record button to begin:
A countdown timer appears on the screen counting down from 5. Complete you recording and when done, click the red record button again, then Save & Exit. The recording appears within the Announcement message box:
You can also send an email copy to all course members, including yourself. Select the Send an email copy to recipients check box. It is not possible to email a copy of 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 on the Announcements tab:
In the email, embedded content appears as links. Students can select the links to view the content.
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. If desired, an announcement can be scheduled for a future date with the option to email a copy on the release date. The announcement tool will send the email copy on the day and time the announcements are posted. 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.
- On the New Announcement page, select the Schedule Announcement check box.
- When you schedule an announcement, a Show on date and time is required. You can't clear that check box.
- 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.
Already-created announcements can be rescheduled by changing the show on and hide after fields to a future date. When users first enter a course, the rescheduled announcement will trigger the announcement pop-up window to be viewed.
Seeing the Number of Views for an Announcement
From the Announcements tab, you can view all your course announcements along with the status and number of viewers for each announcement. You can also create, copy, edit, sort, and delete announcements.
- 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.
- Sort columns. Sort announcements by the title, status, or the number of viewers.
- Search announcements. Select the Search Announcements icon and type keywords to locate a specific announcement.
- Create a new announcement. Select the plus sign icon to open the New Announcement page.
- Manage announcements. Open an announcement's menu to edit, copy, or delete an announcement.
You can edit, copy, or delete any announcement in your course. On the 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.