Announcements are used to inform site participants of current items of interest. The most recent announcements can appear on a course home page and/or they can be sent via e-mail to course participants.

Various other media, such as web page URLs, documents, photos, etc. can be attached to announcements. When users click on the attachment link, the item will open in a new page, or the user will be prompted to identify a program to use to open the document, or it can be saved to the desktop, depending on the type of attachment it is and how the user's browser is configured.

View Announcements

When you are in a course, you will only be able to view the current course’s announcements. To see announcements from all the sites to which you belong, switch to MyWorkspace and click on Announcements from the menubar.

When you click on the Announcements button, either in MyWorkspace or in a course site, the page shows a list of all announcement subjects, who created them, and the date each was created. You can sort the list by any of the headings by clicking on that heading. To switch the list from A-Z to Z-A format, click on the little pyramid icon that appears next to the heading.

To view all of a particular announcement, click once on the subject title.

If an announcement has an attachment, click on the link to access the attachment:

Click on Return to List to go back to the Announcements list or click on the little "Jiffy Lube" logo next to Announcements at the top of the window.

Create Announcements

Note: announcements can only be created in a course or project site. You can view announcements in MyWorkspace, but not create them there.

  1. Click on Announcements on the left menubar.
  2. Click on the Add link in the top navigation area.

  3. In the dialog box, enter a title for your announcement and in the larger box, type the message. Notice that here you have the options of formatting your text however you like.

  4. Check the radio button Display to Public if you want your announcement to be viewable to people not enrolled in your class. Otherwise be sure the Display to Site button is checked and the announcement will only be viewable to enrolled class participants.

  5. You can add any number of attachments, and they can be any combination of local files, websites, and resources. For more information, go to the lesson on Attachments.

  6. If you want your announcement to be sent to course participants via email, you can choose that option next. The default is to NOT send an email.

  7. When you're done creating your announcement, click on the Add Announcement button. If you want to see what it looks like before posting, click on the Preview button. If you're not ready to post the announcement, you can Save Draft. And if you don't ever want to see this announcement again, click the Cancel button.

 

3/22/06