Create an Announcement

Owned by Kelsey Hall (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 31, 2024 by Stuart McCulley
3 min read

Announcements can include just about any site element, can be scheduled, and their visibility can be restricted Sections or Groups. The Announcement tool features the full HTML/text editor available throughout Brightspace and can thus contain images, videos, and links (including Quicklinks directly to other site components, e.g. an upcoming Quiz).

There are several ways of accessing the Announcements tool, although it is most easily managed through the homepage widget. The widget’s presence does depend on which course Homepage layout is in use.

Instructors can create and post Announcements in an Inactive site without students being notified.

  • Announcements posted while a site is Inactive will not trigger email notifications.

  • Students will not receive a flood of notifications for existing announcements upon site Activation.

Access Announcements

The full Announcements tool with all features can be found in the following locations:

  1. If the site Homepage has the Announcements widget, click Announcements or use the drop-down arrow to see a full list of options, including New Announcement.

  2. Through the navbar item Course Tools → Announcements.

  3. Through the navbar item Course Tools → Course Admin and then Announcements.

Make a new Announcement

From the Announcements menu, click New Announcement

New Announcement button under Announcements title
New Announcement button at the top left of the Announcements page

Enter a headline and content for the Announcements item.

Headline and content view of Announcements editor
New Announcement area.

Availability, Release Conditions, and Attachments

Optional settings for Availability, Attachments and Release Conditions. Learn more about Release Conditions here: Release Conditions

Issues may occur when using the “Member of at least one group in group category” release condition. Students may not receive the announcement even if they meet the condition. It is recommended that groups be selected specifically, especially if there is only one group in the category. More information about groups can be found here.

  • To hide the headline's date and time, clear the Always show start date check box. By default, an Announcements item start date and time appears below the headline when displayed in the Announcements widget.

  • In the Start Date and End Date fields, select the posting availability date. Announcements items publish immediately, unless otherwise specified.

  • To remove an Announcements item for a specific date, select the Remove Announcements item based on end date check box.

  • The announcement author and administrators can still see the Announcements item after its end date, but it does not appear in the Announcements widget.

  • In the Attachments section, file (i.e., PDFs, word docs, images etc.), audio and video can be attached for multimodal options for the delivery of an Announcement.

  • Additional Release Conditions: To include additional release conditions, click Attach Existing or Create and Attach. Use this feature to share announcements with specific course sections/seminars/groups. Release conditions can also release an announcement to students after a certain assessment is completed. For more information on Release Conditions see this article: Release Conditions

  • To continue editing an Announcement, click Save as Draft. Students cannot see draft Announcements. Click Publish when ready to release to all users.

Please contact CPI at edtech@brocku.ca with any questions or comments about the contents of this site.