The Announcements widget can help you to boost engagement by scheduling announcements for frequent and regular communication to all learners enrolled in a course. Learners can set notification preferences to be made aware of important updates.
Note: For more information about the Announcements tool refer to the Announcements overview topic. For more information about how to add the Announcements widget to your course homepage, refer to the Create a widget-based homepage topic.
Use the Announcements widget to create a welcome message for your learners.
To create an announcement using the Announcements widget
- From your Course Homepage, locate the Announcements widget.
- Click the drop-down menu next to Announcements.
- Click New Announcement.
Figure: The New Announcements option on the Announcements drop-down menu.
- Add a Headline and Content for your announcement.
Figure: The General dialog enables you to enter the Headline and Content of your announcement.
Note: A Headline and Content are required to create an announcement. Optional settings include Availability, Attachments, and Additional Release Conditions. For information on creating content in Brightspace Editor, see the article Create Course Content.
- Do one of the following:
- Click Publish to publish the announcement to your course.
- Click Save as Draft to save your progress and return later to publish your announcement.
- Click Cancel to remove your draft announcement.
Figure: Publish, Save as Draft, or Cancel buttons for your announcement.
Your announcement is posted to the Announcements widget and available to learners from the course homepage.
Edit an Announcement
To edit an announcement
- From the Announcements widget, click the context menu and select Go to Announcements Tool.
Figure: The Go to Announcements Tool option of the Announcements widget.
- On the Announcements page, click the Announcement that you want to edit.
- From the Edit Announcement page, edit your announcement details.
Important: To inform users of major changes and updates to postings that they might have dismissed, ensuring that those headlines reappear with current information, select the Major edit - send a notification and restore it for those who dismissed it check box. You can also make the edited Announcements posting reappear at the top of the Announcements widget by changing the start date to the current date and time.
Figure: The Major edit checkbox.
- Click Update.
Your announcement is updated and appears on the Announcements widget of the course homepage.
Pin an announcement to the top
You can pin an announcement to the top of the page to ensure that it is easily seen by learners.
- From the Announcements widget, click the context menu and select Go to Announcements Tool.
- From the drop-down menu beside the announcement you want to pin, click Pin to top.
Figure: Select Pin to top from the drop-down menu to pin this announcement.
Figure: Pinned announcements are indicated with the pinned icon.
Unpin an announcement
- From the Announcements widget, click the context menu and select Go to Announcements Tool.
- From the drop-down menu beside the announcement you want to unpin, click Unpin.
Figure: Select Unpin from the drop-down menu to remove an announcement from the top of the page.
Delete and restore announcements
Delete announcements or restore a deleted announcement from the Announcements tool.
To delete an announcement
- From the Announcements widget, click the context menu and select Go to Announcements Tool.
- Select any announcements you want to delete and click Delete.
Figure: The Delete button on the announcements page.
- Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
The selected announcements are deleted.
To restore a deleted announcement
- From the Announcements page, click More Actions and select Restore.
Figure: The Restore button on the Restore Announcements page.
- Select the announcements you want to restore and click Restore.
The announcements are restored and available on the course home page.
Video: How to delete and restore Announcements
Copy an announcement
Use an existing announcement as a starting point by copying it and editing details.
To copy an existing announcement
- From the Announcements widget, click the context menu and select Go to Announcements Tool.
- Click the context menu next to the announcement you want to copy, and select Copy.
- In the Edit Announcements page, the following items are copied over from the original Announcement:
Figure: The Edit Announcements page for the copied announcement.- Headline, with "Copy of " appended to the front
- Content
- Show Start Date setting
- Attachments
- Release conditions
-
If you want to hide your headline's date and time, clear the Always show start date check box. By default, an Announcements item start date and time appears below the headline when displayed in the Announcements widget.
- In the Start Date and End Date fields, select the posting availability date. Announcements items publish immediately, unless you specify an alternate start date from Start Date.
Note: Post-dated Announcements items do not display in the Announcements widget even if users have permission to see future Announcements items. They can be found within the list of Announcements items on the Announcements page.
- You can remove an Announcements item on a specific date by selecting the Remove Announcements item based on end date check box. You and administrators can still see the Announcements item after its end date, but it does not appear in the Announcements widget.
- To include additional release conditions, click Attach Existing or Create and Attach.
- To continue editing the Announcements item, click Save as Draft. Learners cannot see draft Announcements items
- Click Publish.
The copied announcement is published.
Copy an announcement to other courses
If you have the appropriate permission, you can copy announcements from one course to other courses. You must be enrolled in the course you copy from and the courses you copy to.
A single announcement can be copied to multiple course offerings. You can copy announcements from the Announcements tool or the Announcements widget from the context menu of an announcement. Once copied, the announcement is in a draft state and users must publish the copied announcement in the destination course to complete the copying process.
The following attributes are copied:
- Headline
- Display Author Information
- Content
Note: The copied Content attribute includes any associated files such as inserted images.
- Start and End Date
- Attachments
- Pin state
Release conditions are not copied.
To copy an announcement to other courses
- Click Copy to Other Courses from the announcement drop-down menu.
Figure: Copy to Other Courses appears in the announcement drop-down menu.
- Select the destination course or courses for the announcement and click Next.
Figure: Select from available courses to copy the announcement.
- Click Copy to copy the announcement to the destination course.
Figure: The selected destination course appears on the Copy Announcement page.
- Click Done when the Copy Complete message appears.
Figure: The Copy Announcement page displays the Copy Complete confirmation message.
Reordering an Announcements item
- Click the Announcements widget.
- Do one of the following:
- On the Announcements page, from the More Actions button, click Reorder.
- From the Announcements widget menu, click Reorder Announcements Items.
- Use the drop-down lists in the Sort Order column to select an item's order. Other items automatically reposition themselves according to the new order.
- Click Save.