Course announcements are a great way to communicate with your entire class. You can use the announcement tool in Blackboard to let students know about changes in the course schedule or in your availability and to provide helpful resources or events related to the course topics. You can also use announcements to praise the collective work of the class (i.e. "Great work on the assignment last week. I know XYZ topic is challenging. Those of you still struggling can review [this resource] or [that resource.]")

We recommend sending a weekly announcement on the first day of each module. This type of meta-information can be used to summarize the last module and to demonstrate how previous learning is linked to the information in this next module. Students better retain information when we help them connect the dots and provide a salient framework around the various module topics and objectives. It’s also a great way to remind students of what assignments will be due during the upcoming module.

Only faculty members and course administrators can create course announcements. If they choose, students can adjust their Blackboard notification settings, so that they receive course announcements as emails. Otherwise, announcements appear in the announcements area on the course home page.

To learn how to create an announcement in Blackboard, please watch this brief video:

How to Create an Announcement available in Module 4 Article 1