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Brightspace Tip #166: Announcements

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Announcements are one of the first things students see when they log in to your course. Announcements can provide timely information for your students about class activities and time-sensitive material. Announcements can be used to remind students of assignment and/or test dates, post changes to the course, announce upcoming events (such as a guest speaker), etc.

You can post multiple announcements when setting up your course and select a specific day for the announcement to be displayed by choosing staggered future start dates. For example, you know now that you want to post an announcement about the midterm exam and another about the final. Write both announcements now, but set the midterm announcement to display the week before the midterm and the final exam announcement to display a week before the final. Students will not be able to view either announcement until their assigned start date.

When creating an announcement, you should set an end date for it so that when the announcement has expired it will no longer be displayed.

You can use Quicklinks within the announcement to direct students to a particular section of your course. You can display (release) announcements based on conditions you choose by using Release Conditions.

Use your announcements to create a narrative that increases student engagement. For information about using announcements for student engagement, you should read this "Using Announcements to Give Narrative Shape to your Online Course" article from Faculty Focus.

Follow these steps to do it.

Watch this short video for instructions on creating announcements:

Want more information?

Post Course Announcements
Announcements Tool Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
Create an Announcement
Announcements - Create an Announcement - Instructor (video)
Teaching Tips - Make Regular Announcements - Instructor (video)
Brightspace Tip #164: Quicklinks
Brightspace Tip #89: Release Conditions

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call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.

Image credit: image by stux from Pixabay

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