Creating an announcement in eLearn
Course announcements are useful for messages that you want students to see as soon as they enter your course. They can be configured to be read by all students, by an individual student, or by a specific team. An announcement is time-limited; you will set the parameters that determine when an announcement first displays and when it will no longer display. The default values, if you do not specify otherwise, is for an announcement to display as soon as it is added and for it to be displayed for one week. In this tutorial, we will create an announcement that welcomes students to the course.
Tip: You can "reuse" the same reminders from term to term. One way to be certain that students aren't seeing old announcements from a previous term is to change all your announcement availability dates to future dates before the beginning of the semester. This way, your recycled announcements will appear automatically on the schedule you've determined, so that it is in synch with your course schedule for the semester.
Tip: A "best practice" for online courses is to ensure that students have clear instructions about how they need to begin working in their online course. An announcement can be used for this purpose.
To create an announcement, follow these steps:
1. Go to Communicate > Announcement.
2. On the next screen, click the Add Announcement link.
3. The Add Announcements > Announcements Settings screen appears. You will add the text for the announcement within the Announcement text entry box.
Tip: ANGEL has a graphical menu available for formatting the text, similar to a word processor. This is the inline HTML Editor and it is available everywhere you need to add several lines of text within ANGEL. It not only allows you to add text but it also allows you to add an image and hyperlinks.
4. Use the HTML Editor menu to format the text and add an image and/or hyperlinks (a).
5. Type the text into the text entry area (b).
6. Enter the start date and time when you want the announcement to display (c).
7. Enter the end date and time when you no longer want the announcement to display (d).
8. Select the course member (User) who will be able to view the announcement. The example will allow the announcement to be seen by everyone who enters the course. The drop-down list will also allow a single user to be designated or members of a specific team (e).
9. Save the announcement by clicking the Save button, indicated by the arrow.
10. When you return to the Add Announcement screen, click the Exit Announcement Editor button.
11. The announcement will display on the course page and any other page where the Announcement nugget has been added, such as the ANGEL Home page.