Announcements

Summary

Announcements are a one-way communication channel for urgent, time-sensitive or important updates sent to all users.

1.3 Essential: Provide module staff details and communication expectations.

Overview

Use Announcements to send urgent, time-sensitive or important updates to all users on the site. These can be scheduled in advance.

Announcements are useful for information such as:

urgent updates, eg. room change
reminders of assessment due dates or tasks
'Welcome to the course'

Good Announcements practice:

Keep Announcements concise and to the point.
Don't overuse them - if students receive many Announcements they may not read them.
Include how you'll use Announcements in your communication expectations.

Warning

Don't use Announcements as the only way to provide module content or assessment instructions - you must include these materials in the site itself.

Announcements are sent to all enrolled users (including staff). To send targeted communications to specific users or groups, use Messages instead.

Create an announcement

Select Announcements in the top navigation menu.
At the top right corner of the Course Announcement page, click the plus icon to create an announcement.
On the New Announcement page, enter a descriptive title and the message text of your announcement. You can use the toolbar to format text, embed multimedia, and attach files (but remember that any module content included must also be added to the site itself).
To display an announcement at specific times, click Schedule Announcement then set Show on/Hide on dates.
You can use Send an email copy to recipients for critical announcements (e.g. changes of exam schedule). Students will receive emails at the address associated with their VLE account, even if they don’t log into the course. See What emails do announcements generate? below for more details.

Tip

It is not currently possible to send an email copy of scheduled announcements.
Click Save. Your announcement is saved as a draft on your Course Announcements page.
To post your announcement immediately, select Post Now. If you scheduled your announcement to show on a future date, Ultra will automatically post the announcement at the scheduled time. Note: if the site is not open for students, the Post Now button will be greyed out.

You can also watch Blackboard Help's guide to creating Announcements:

Create Announcements in the Ultra Course View - Bb Help [YouTube]

Edit, copy or delete an announcement

Find the announcement you want to edit, copy or delete. On the right, click the three dots > Edit/Copy/Delete.

Warning

This feature only works before you 'post' your announcement. Once 'posted', the announcement can't be edited to then send an email, a new copy of the announcement must be made.

What emails do announcements generate?

The Announcement tool on Ultra VLE sites can email out the announcement in several different ways to different users, depending on a number of factors. See our summary guidance on Announcements Emails for details, and key recommendations/ tips for tasks such as:

sending emails for urgent announcements that all enrolled users must receive as soon as possible.
sending emails for out future-scheduled announcements.

What do students see?

Within site: pop-up window

New and active course announcements appear on a pop-up window the first time students enter the course. Students need to close the window before they can view course content. After students close the window, it won’t appear again. If you post new announcements, the window appears again with only the new announcements.
Within site: Announcements page

The number of unread Announcements is shown in the top navigation bar:

If students select Announcements in the top navigation menu they can view (and search) all posted announcements for the module.
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 you schedule an announcement, it also appears in the activity stream at the scheduled time. Note that students can opt-out of notifications in the Activity Stream.
Email

If selected, users will receive the announcement by email. What users see in an emailed announcement can vary. See our summary guidance on Announcements Emails for details.