Note: To maximize the use of Announcements, please ask your LMS administrator to add the Announcements widget or shortcut on your course navigation bar.

In online learning, communication is key! Announcements allow teachers like you to communicate important events or reminders to your students. Think of it as your bulletin board or your morning homeroom session, where you align with your students and set expectations for deliverables, deadlines, or just housekeeping reminders. Here’s how you can do it on BrightSpace:

1. Go to your course offering. If the Announcements widget appears on the course home page, press Create an Announcement. If the shortcut does not appear, press Announcements. You will be redirected to the New Announcement page.

2. Write a headline for the announcement you’ll be creating. Take advantage of the headline as this can be used to draw attention to your announcement.

3. Now write content to your announcement. You can attach various types of content to your announcement. To do it, press the Insert Stuff button. You can also attach images and external links. You also have different text formatting options.

4. You can add additional attachments such as files. You can record audio and videos as well

5. The Availability options allow you to define when the announcement will appear and disappear. Select a time and date for the Start Date to determine when the announcement will be released. If you want to determine when the announcement will disappear, press the checkbox beside Remove announcement based on end date and set a time and date for it.

6. You can also set release conditions for announcements. The idea of Release Conditions is the same across BrightSpace, may it be for announcements, quizzes or assignments. You can read about it more in detail in Setting quiz restrictions and release conditions

7. Once you’re done, press the Publish button. From there, you’re all set!