Open Announcements

Open

In Course Navigation, click the Announcements link.

View Index Page

Open

The Announcements Index page is designed with global settings at the top of the page [1], followed by the individual announcements [2].

View Global Settings

Global settings include a drop-down menu to filter all or unread announcements [1] and a search field for searching an announcement [2]. You can also add a new announcement [3] and view external feeds for announcements [4]. External feeds include adding an external feed and subscribing to the Announcements RSS feed.

View Announcements

Announcements are listed in reverse chronological order with the newest appearing first and the older Announcements appearing towards the bottom.

Each announcement includes the name of the announcement [1], the profile picture of the user who posted the announcement [2], an unread indicator near unread announcements [3], the announcement post date [4], the number of unread/total replies in the announcement [5], and an options icon to manage individual announcement settings [6].

Notes:

• A profile picture displaying the letter U in place of a user's profile picture indicates that an announcement was imported using a course copy, the Course Import Tool, or a blueprint course. Additionally, copied announcements do not include a posted date and time.

• If a user does not have a profile picture, the user's initials display in place of their profile picture.

Manage Announcements

To apply a bulk action, such as locking or deleting, click the checkbox next to the announcement [1]. To close all selected announcements to comments, click the Lock button [2]. To delete all selected announcements, click the Delete button [3].

Manage Individual Announcements

To view an announcement, click the name of the announcement [1].

You can also use the options icon to delete the announcement [2]. If your course allows comments, you can also allow or disallow comments [3].

Add an announcement

You can create an announcement to share important information with all users within your course and with users in sections of a course. In your notification preferences, you can choose to receive notifications for announcements created by you as well as replies to announcements you've created.

Notes:

• Your course must be published for students to receive announcement notifications.

• If you import course content from another LearningX course, you must manually enable notifications to receive notifications for imported announcements.

Add Announcement

Click the Add Announcement button.

Create Announcement

Type a title for the announcement in the topic title field [1] and add content in the Rich Content Editor [2]. You can also add links, files, and images to the announcement using the content selector [3].

Note: The Rich Content Editor includes a word count display below the bottom right corner of the text box.

Add Attachment

To add an attachment to your discussion, click the Choose File button [1].

If required by your institution, you will need to select usage right settings for your attachment. To manage usage right settings, click the Set usage rights icon [2].

In the Usage Right drop-down menu [3], select one of five usage rights. If you are an instructor and are not sure which usage right applies to your file, please consult your institutional admin for guidance:

• I hold the copyright (original content created by you)

• I have obtained permission to use the file (authorized permission by the author)

• The material is in the public domain (explicitly assigned to public domain, cannot be copyrighted, or is no longer protected by copyright)

• The material is subject to an exception - e.g. fair use, the right to quote, or others under applicable copyright laws (excerpt or summary used for commentary, news reporting, research, or analysis in education)

If known, enter the copyright holder information in the Copyright Holder field [4].

To save your usage right settings, click the Save button [5]. You can edit usage right settings by clicking the Set usage rights icon.

Select Options

In the Options section, you can select various options for your announcement. You can delay the posting of your announcement [1], which allows you to schedule the announcement for a future date.

Additionally, you can allow users to comment on the announcement [2] and require students to reply to a post before seeing other replies [3].

You can also enable an announcement podcast feed [4] and allow students to like announcement replies [5].

Notes:

• By default, comments are not allowed in announcements unless the Allow users to comment checkbox is selected.

• The Allow users to comment option is persistent, meaning the option you select when creating or editing an announcement will carry over when you create a new announcement in the course. However, the Users must post before seeing replies option is not persistent.

• Comment options may not be available to you if announcement comments are disabled in your course. Check your Course Settings if you cannot view these checkboxes.

Save Announcement

Click the Save button.

Note: Unless you are using the delay posting option in Announcements, once you click Save, your announcement will immediately be posted in your course.

View Announcement

View the announcement in the Announcements Index Page.