Instructor Support for Educational Systems

How do I create an Announcement?

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This article will explain how to create an Announcement and how to add release conditions to Announcements. 

Announcements allow you to quickly and easily bring students up to speed with important information regarding your course. You can use Announcements to welcome students at the beginning of the course, notify them of any important deadlines or materials that have been added to the course. You can:

  • Personalise announcements with an audio or video message.
  • Determine from when, how long and for whom the Announcement will be visible.
  • Add a picture to the Announcement (if you do not add a picture, the standard 'megaphone' icon will be shown).
  • Edit or remove Announcements.

You can find Announcements on the Course Home of your course.


Announcements homepage

The Announcements homepage gives you an overview of all the Announcements you have created. You can go to Announcements via Course Home or via Course Admin (under Course Tools).

Via Course Home:

  • Under Announcements on the right-hand side of your screen, click on Show All Announcements.

Via Course Admin (under Course Tools):

  • Go to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
  • Click on Course Admin.
  • Click Announcements.

Create a new Announcement

  • Go to the Course Home of the course in which you want to add a new Announcement.
  • Click on Show All Announcements.
  • Click on New Announcement.

Alternatively follow the route via Course Admin:

  • Go to Course Tools in the navbar of your course.
  • Click on Course Admin.
  • Click Announcements.
  • Click New Announcement.
New Announcement - Brightspace Sample Course - Leiden University - Google Chrome
  1. Give your Announcement a title below Headline.
  2. Optional: Check the box of Display Author Information. Users reading the announcement may see some or all of the following author information:
    • the original author
    • the original date and time of the announcement
    • the author who edited the announcement - only if announcement was edited
    • the date and time of the edit - only if announcement was edited
  3. Write your message.
  4. Determine below Availability when your new Announcement will be visible:
    • The start date is always visible for students unless you uncheck the box in front of Always show start date. If you uncheck that box you can only see the start date when you are editing the Announcement.
    • Add a start date below Start Date (the date from which the Announcement will be visible). Click on Now to publish the Announcement immediately.
    • Check the box in front of Remove announcement based on end date, if you want the Announcement to disappear after a certain amount of time. Fill in the end date from which the Announcement should not be visible anymore.
  5. It is possible to add a file as an Attachment by clicking on Add a File below Attachments. You can also record an audio or video file with the buttons Record Audio and Record Video respectively. To do this, your device should possess the capabilities to record audio and/or video.

Add Release Conditions to Announcements

You can add conditions that are required for students in order for them to view the Announcement below Additional Release Conditions. Read the article Release Conditions to learn more about this option.

  • Click on Attach Existing to add existing release conditions.
  • Click on Create and Attach to create new release conditions.
  • Select whether one or all release conditions are required for students before they can see the Announcement in the dropdown menu.

Click on Publish to publish your Announcement or click on Save as Draft if you want to make some adjustments at a later moment. You will be automatically redirected to the Announcements homepage.

Copy Announcements to other courses

It is also possible to copy an announcement to another course. An announcement can be copied to multiple courses at once. A copied announcement ends up as draft in the destination course. Release conditions are not copied.

  1. Click on the arrow next to the announcement that should be copied.
  2. Select  Copy to Other Courses.
  3. Select the destination course(s) to which the announcement should be copied.

Video on how to create an Announcement

This video is made by Brightspace supplier D2L. Some screens might have a different look and feel to the Universiteit Leiden Brightspace environment.

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