Announcements can be accessed via the Announcements tab in the top menu.
Create an announcement
Go to the Announcements tab on the top menu.
Click on the Create Announcement (+ sign) icon on the right.
Note: the Create Announcement button shown here lower down the screen only appears when there are no announcements on your course.
The New Announcement screen appears.
- Type a short Title for your announcement.
- Recipients – currently this drop-down offers no choices: any announcements posted will be available to All course members.
- Type your Message.
You can use the editing toolbar to format your message, insert links and attach files.
Please note: attachments in an announcement will only open if the recipient is already logged into Blackboard.
Optional settings
- Send an email copy to recipients
Tick the box to send this message as an email to everyone on the course or organisation.
This option is not available if you are scheduling your announcement to display in the future. - Schedule announcement
Tick this box if you want to schedule when the announcement will appear. Then complete the following fields. - Show on – when the announcement should appear.
- Hide on – when the announcement should be hidden (optional).
If you schedule an announcement to display in the future, you can’t choose to have it emailed to course / organisation members.
When you have completed all the required fields on this screen, press Save.
Important: Pressing Save does not make the announcement visible.
To make the announcement visible to course / organisation members, you must press Post Now.
If you need to make any changes, click on the options icon (3 dots) and choose Edit before posting the message.
Where does the announcement appear?
New announcements appear in staff and students’ Activity Stream.
In addition, the announcement appears as a pop-up the next time a user visits the course or organisation.
All currently available announcements can be viewed from the Announcements tab inside the course or organisation.
If you choose the email option, the message will be emailed to all members of the course or organisation.
Copying announcements
If you need to copy one or more announcements from another course or organisation, you can do this from the Course Content page.
Follow the same steps as when copying other types of course content.
Click on the Add Content icon (+ sign) then choose Copy Content.
Locate the desired course or organisation, and browse to the Announcements area
then select the announcement you wish to copy.
Press Start Copy.
The copied announcement will appear in the Announcements tab of your Ultra course / organisation. There you can Edit it and Post when ready.
Guide last updated on April 22, 2024
