Adding Announcements

Announcements post timely information critical to the success of an online course. You can add, edit, and delete announcements from the Announcements page. This is an ideal place to post time sensitive materials including:

  • When assignments are due.
  • Changes in the syllabus.
  • Corrections/clarifications of materials.
  • Exam schedules.

When adding an announcement, you can also send your announcement as an email to all students in your course. This ensures that students receive your notes even if they do not login to your course.

To add an announcement in your Blackboard course:

  1. Login to your course.
  2. Make sure Edit mode is ON.
  3. Click on the Create Announcement button; or Under Course Management, go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Announcements > Create Announcement.

    Edit Mode and the Create Announcement buttons
     
  4. Fill out the Create Announcement page.

    Under Announcement Information
     

    • Enter the announcement subject.
    • Choose a color for your subject title (optional).
    • And your message.

      Announcement Information section of the Create Announcement page

    Under Options
     

    • Choose whether you want to display the announcement permanently or select the Display After and Display Until checkboxes and enter the appropriate dates and times to display your announcement.
    • By default, Blackboard will email a copy of your announcement to each student in your course. However, students have the ability to individually opt out of receiving announcement notifications or emails. For important notifications, you might want to override the student's setting or send out a follow-up email to the entire class using the Blackboard email tool.
             Options section of the Create Announcement page

    Under Course Link
     

    • You can choose if you want to create a Course Link that points your students to a particular area or file within your course.
      • Click Browse... (1) and
      • Choose the folder or item to which you would like to link from the Course Map displayed in a new window (2).

        Course Link section of the Create Announcement page
         
  5. Finally, click Submit.

To modify an announcement in your course shell:

  1. Locate your announcement and make sure you are in edit mode.
  2. Click the action button, the button with the two downwards facing chevrons Illustration of the chevrons button to the right of your announcement.
  3. Click either Edit or Delete.

     Accessing the Edit/Delete Announcement dialog window

To change the order of your announcements:

  1. Click the up and down arrows to the left of your announcement.
  2. Drag the announcement to its new position.

     Drag and move announcements with the up and down arrows button