Announcements

Announcements may include an introduction from the instructor, an upcoming schedule or list of due dates, a notice of any class cancellations, or anything else relevant to the course. New announcements will appear immediately when a student opens the course, and they need to be dismissed before you can proceed to the course content.

Course Announcements

New announcements will appear immediately when a student opens the course and need to be dismissed before proceeding to the course content. Once they dismiss the announcement, it will not appear again.

If you want to review previous announcements, click the Announcements tab. Announcements can be marked as read or unread.

Activity Stream

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 an instructor schedules an announcement, it also appears in the activity stream at the scheduled time.

Details & Actions

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

You'll want to regularly update your students about the course.  When students login to Blackboard, the first thing they see are the announcements from their courses.  Posting announcements about upcoming tests or important dates can really help students keep on track without having to go into a course module or Blackboard calendar each time to find due dates.

Course announcements are in the Details & Actions area of the Course Content page.

The Course Announcements page lists all announcements in your course, including the status and number of viewers.

1. You can create, copy, edit, and delete announcements on this page.
2. Search or sort the list. You can sort announcements by title, status, or number of viewers. You can use the search function to find announcements by title or message content.
3. Create a new announcement. You can create a blank announcement or copy an existing announcement to use as a template.
4. View the status. Announcements have three states: Posted, Scheduled, and Drafted. An announcement’s status appears with its content. You can also view the number of course announcements by status at the top of the page.
5. Select Post Now in the Status column of the Course Announcements page to post the announcement immediately.

1. Select Announcement under Details & Actions.
2. Click Create Announcement and a New Announcement window will appear.
3. Type a title and message text for the announcement. You can include up to 256 characters in the title.
4. If you want the announcement to post in the future, select Schedule announcement.
5. Click Save.

6. If you scheduled the announcement, you will see the scheduled start date and time
7. If you saved a draft, you will need to click Post Now to publish the announcement

Additional Resources:

When setting up your Blackboard content for a course, you'll want your first announcement to be introducing yourself to the students. Include the following:

• Welcome message including the name of the course
• Your full name and a sentence or two explaining your background
• Goal or outlook for the course
• Picture of yourself
• Contact information for students to get a hold of you

You'll want to regularly update your students about the course.  When students login to Blackboard, the first thing they see are the announcements from their courses.  Posting announcements about upcoming tests or important dates can really help students keep on track without having to go into a course module or Blackboard calendar each time to find due dates.