Announcements

Announcements communicate important, time-sensitive information.

Where Do Announcements Appear?

• When you enter a course
• On a course's Announcement page
• Your activity stream

New Course Announcements

• New course announcements appear immediately when you enter a course.
• Course content cannot be viewed until the New Course Announcements window is closed.
• Press the View all announcements button to review a previous announcement.
• Click on the circle beside an announcement to mark it as read.

Announcement Page

• Access the Announcements page from a course's menu navigation bar.
• If you have unread announcements, a number in a circle will appear next to the menu tab.
• Unread announcements have a white background, while read ones have a gray background.
• Announcements can be marked as read or unread by clicking the circle.
• If your instructor sets an announcement to expire, it will disappear from the page after a set amount of time.

Activity Stream

• The activity stream displays announcements until they are viewed within your course.
• Announcements are marked by a megaphone icon.

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.