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Announcements
What it is.
A central location for information, directions and feedback.
Implications for Teaching and Learning.
Announcements can be used in a variety of creative ways to push out information, give feedback, or clarify sticking points with students. This section will give you more detailed ideas for how to use the Announcements feature to your advantage.
Instructors can now send certain announcements via email. We urge caution in sending email reminders for all announcements until you have polled the students to determine their preferences for receiving information. For those distance learners who regularly travel, emailed announcements may be a convenient way to stay informed on course topics.
Remember, by sending announcements through email, you are norming students to look for email announcements rather than going into the course. We recommend using the email feature for the most important announcements, breaking information, or to accommodate working students. We also recommend that you place verbiage in your course explaining that you will send some email reminders but that you expect students to enter the course on a regular basis to check for announcements and new information.
Using Announcements.
Blackboard has an option for you to select if you would like an announcement to appear permanently on the home page. Permanence has nothing to do with the Announcement remaining permanently in the course but it is merely a ranking system for where the Announcements appear on the home page. Announcements are in order of permanence: 1. permanent, in chronological order, newest on top, then 2. non-permanent, in chronological order, newest on top.
By default, the Announcements area shows postings from the last seven days, plus any "permanent" announcements. After 7 days, non-permanent announcements move to the Last 30 Days tab; after 30 days, to the "View All" tab. If a student wants to look back over old announcements, they can always use the "View Last 30 Days" or "View All" choices in the Announcements area. We encourage you to place language in your course encouraging students to explore the other tabs.
The Danger with Permanent Announcements.
Permanent Announcements always appear ahead of all other Announcements. If you ever add a non-permanent Announcement, it will always appear beneath the permanent Announcements. This means that students will not see the new Announcement if several permanent Announcements are in place. There is also a tendency for students to ignore Announcements if they always see the same Announcements when they enter the course. Our position is that non-permanent Announcements are the best option if the instructor wants students to regularly see new Announcements.
The first image below shows Announcements with three permanent announcements and one non-permanent announcement. The second image shows how the non-permanent announcement has been pushed off the visible space on the screen.
Setting it Up.
1. From the Control Panel, click on Announcements in the Course Tools section.
2. Click the Add Announcement button which can be found towards the top left-hand side of the screen.
3. The next screen is Announcement Information. Type in a Subject and a Message
4. The next step gives you options for setting the announcement to be permanent or non-permanent and to set up dates and times for your announcement to display. To make an announcement visible until a certain date, check the Display Until box and select the desired date and time. Note: If you do not set and end date, announcements will always be available under the "View Last 30 Days" or "View All" tabs, and can be copied into a new course in the future. This would save you from having to retype the announcements.
5. You may also insert a link to another area of your course directly from an announcement. For example, you could insert a link to the course syllabus or a particular module/learning unit. To add the course link, simply click browse (this opens the Course Map) and select the which area you want to link to, and click again. The link will display at the bottom of the
announcement message.
6. Pay attention to #4 Email Announcement. Checking this feature will send an email announcement to all course users (instructors, course builders, students, etc.).
Editing or Removing an Announcement.
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Go to the Announcement you wish to modify or remove.
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Select the Modify or Remove link.
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If you modify the announcement, you can change all aspects of the announcement mentioned above.
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If you remove an announcement your Internet browser will present a dialog box to confirm your deletion command. If you are sure that this is the resource that you wish to delete, click OK. If not, click Cancel.
Announcements: Advanced Options.
- Go to Control Panel > Announcements under Course Tools.
- Since the order of Announcements in the Announcements Tool cannot be controlled and files cannot be attached to them, you might consider removing the Announcements button from the Course Menu and replacing it with a new Content Area, naming this new area "Announcements" and set it to be the site's default entry point.
Removing Announcements from the Course Menu.
- From your course's Control Panel, click Manage Course Menu.
- Locate the Announcement Button
- Click on the Remove button. An alert warning that all content will be removed appears. OK to continue. The page reloads, and the item no longer appears in the Course Menu.
Add a new Content Area and Name it Announcements.
- In your course's Control Panel, click Manage Course Menu.
- The Manage Course Menu page opens. On the Add toolbar under the Manage Course Menu heading, click Content Area. The Add New Area page opens.
- Type Announcements in the entry field.
- Click Submit button at the bottom of the page. OK to return to the Manage Course Menu page.
Make the New Announcements Area the Entry Point for Your Course.
- In the Course Options section of your site's Control Panel, click Settings
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Click Set Course Entry Point
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Choose the new Announcements area you just created from the Entry Point drop-down menu
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Click Submit.
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Click on Announcements in the Course Tools menu to see the changes.
Links for More Ideas. Note: This may take you to another section in this set of resources or to other TWU resources created by Instructional Support Services.
These links will take you to the Promising Practices section and information on more ways to maximize the usefulness of this tool in your course.
See Using a Regular Cycle of Reminders
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