How do I add an announcement in a course?
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 an announcement from another Canvas course, new announcement notifications will not send to course users.
- If an announcement is created before the course start date and the Students can only participate in the course between these dates setting is enabled, students will not receive announcement notifications.
- Notifications are not sent for announcements created before the course has been published.
- Student app users cannot view announcements on the homepage. However, they can view announcements in the course's Announcements navigation.
Open Announcements
In Course Navigation, click the Announcements link.
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 attach a file [3].
Add Attachment
To add an attachment to your announcement, click the Attach link [1], then select a file.
View Attachment
View the attached file name.
You can download or delete the attachment. To download the attached file, click the file name link [1]. To delete the attachment, hover the cursor over the link and click the Delete icon [2].
Set Usage Rights
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 [1].
In the Usage Right drop-down menu [2], 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)
- The material is licensed under Creative Commons; this option also requires setting a specific Creative Commons license
If known, enter the copyright holder information in the Copyright Holder field [3].
To save your usage right settings, click the Save button [4]. You can edit usage right settings by clicking the Set usage rights icon.
Select Sections
By default, Canvas will send your announcement to all sections within your course. To select specific sections for your announcement, click the Post to drop-down menu and select sections from the list provided.
Notes:
- If your course does not have sections, Canvas will still show the All Sections option, and all course users can view the announcement.
- Teachers and TA's are notified of all new course Announcements, unless they are Section restricted.
Select Options
In the Options section, you can select various options for your announcement.
To allow other users to reply to the announcement, click the Allow Participants to Comment checkbox [1].
To prevent users from replying to replies, click the Disallow threaded replies checkbox [2].
To enable an announcement podcast feed, click the Enable podcast feed checkbox [3].
To allow users to like announcement replies, click the Allow Liking checkbox [4].
Notes:
- By default, replies are not allowed in announcements unless the Allow Participants to Comment checkbox is selected.
- The Allow Participants 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.
- 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.
Set Display Dates
By default, the announcement displays immediately after you publish it, and it displays for the duration of the course unless you delete it. However, you can set display dates for the announcement. To make your announcement available on a specific date or during a specific date range, enter the dates in the Available from field [1] and Until field [2], or click the calendar icons to select dates [3].
To add a time, click the Time drop-down menu [4]. You can enter a time or select a time from the drop-down menu.
To reset the date and time fields, click the Reset button [5].
Notes:
- You are not required to enter dates in both availability fields, so if you want to delay your posting but do want your post to appear indefinitely, you can leave the Until field blank.
- To delay the posting of your announcement, schedule the announcement to be available at a future date.
- The Available From date is also the date the announcement is published.
- If there is no Until date, the announcement remains visible.
- Once the Until date is reached, the announcement is no longer visible to students.
Publish Announcement
Click the Publish button.
Note: Unless the announcement not available yet, once you click the Publish button, your announcement is immediately be posted in your course.
