Managing Brightspace Announcements

Summary

Instructors use announcements in Brightspace courses to update, inform, and engage students. Announcements are displayed on the course homepage and usually include text, images, and links to other course activities or external resources. They can be posted manually, scheduled for automatic release, or released to each student conditionally. Instructors determine the order and number of announcements listed on the course homepage and students can receive notifications when announcements are posted and updated. Announcements can be personalized automatically using replacement strings.

Brightspace course homepage announcements can play an important role in your course communication strategy. They can be...

  • Visible each time a student opens the course homepage, increasing the likelihood the information will be processed.
  • Noticed by students via notification messages in Brightspace on their laptops and Pulse on their phones.
  • Developed in advance and scheduled for automatic display on a specific date and time, allowing you to focus on other things.
  • Personalized using replacement strings and release conditions (e.g., after the student accomplishes something) to enhance teacher presence.
  • Copied and reused each time you offer the course, saving you time.

Examples:

  • Post a Start Here announcement before the first day to orient students.
  • Begin the course with an announcement that includes an embedded welcome video.
  • Start each week with a greeting announcement and end it with a summary announcement.
  • Post reminders about approaching tests, deadlines, and due dates that include links to those activities.
  • Spotlight relevant current events, including links to news reports and other web resources.
  • Congratulate the class and praise individual students for accomplishing specific objectives.
  • Add multimedia postcards that include a personal picture or video, just to let your students know you're there.

Information Applies to

Faculty, Staff

Jump To

Post an Announcement

Edit an Announcement

Personalize an Announcement

Schedule an Announcement

Delete an Announcement

Dismiss and Restore an Announcement

Post an Announcement

On your Brightspace course homepage, select the down arrow to the right of Announcements.

  1. Select New Announcement from the Announcements Tool menu. This will open the Brightspace HTML Editor.
  2. Enter a title in the Headline field.
  3. Enter your announcement into the Content field.
  4. Decide whether to Show Start Date using the checkbox.
  5. Select the Publish button to post the announcement or the Save as Draft button to work on it later.

Go to Announcements Tool 

Edit an Announcement

  1. On your Brightspace course homepage, select the down arrow to the right of Announcements.
  2. Select Go to Announcements Tool from the menu. This will open a list of all your announcements.
  3. Select the headline of the announcement you wish to edit or select the down arrow to the right of the headline and select Edit.
  4. Update the announcement.
  5. If the update is "major", select the Major Edit checkbox.
  6. If the announcement was in saved as a draft, select the Publish button or the Save as Draft button to work on it later. If the announcement was published, select the Update button.

Go to Announcements Tool Edit Announcement Major Edit Announcement

Personalize an Announcement

Instructors use replacement strings in Brightspace courses to customize and personalize the text displayed to students within the Brightspace course. When instructors enter a predefined code (e.g., {FirstName}) in the appropriate location in the text, Brightspace displays the text with that student's value inserted. For example, "Nice job, {FirstName}!" would be displayed as "Nice job, Ken!" for Ken and "Nice job, Susan!" for Susan.

  1. Choose your replacement string
  2. Open the announcement in edit mode
  3. Enter the replacement string in the appropriate location in the Content text
  4. Select the Publish, Save as Draft, or Update button to save your work
  5. Check your work. The value will be displayed for you when you read the announcement.

Using Replacement Strings Seeing Replacement Strings

Schedule an Announcement

When editing an announcement, the Always show start date checkbox is checked and the current date and time are displayed in the Start Date fields by default. End Date is disabled, meaning the announcement will remain on your homepage until dismissed, deleted, or the maximum number of displayed announcements is exceeded.

  1. Open your announcement in edit mode.
  2. Leave the defaults or select each field to pick a new start date and time. You can also enter a specific time manually. Select the Now button to reset the Start Date to the current date and time.
  3. Select the Publish, Save as Draft, or Update button to save your changes.

Schedule Announcement Schedule Announcements

Delete an Announcement

  1. From your course homepage, select Go to the Announcements Tool from the Announcements actions menu. You can also select the "Announcements" heading.
  2. Select Delete from the actions menu of the announcement you want to delete.

Delete Annoincement Delete Announcement

Dismiss and Restore an Announcement

To dismiss:

  1. On your Brightspace course homepage, select the X to the right of the announcement's headline to remove it from your course homepage. This will not delete the announcement, only dismiss it.

To restore: 

  1. On your Brightspace course homepage, select the down arrow to the right of Announcements.
  2. Select Go to Announcements Tool from the menu. This will open a list of all your announcements.
  3. Select the down arrow to the right of the headline and select Restore.

Dismiss Announcement Dismiss Announcement Dismiss Announcement

Troubleshooting

Visit the MinnState Brightspace Support page for more resources.

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact WSU TLT by email, phone (507.457.5240, option 3), or Zoom.

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