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Instructor Help: Announcements

When you want to make announcements to your students, there are three methods you can use:

1. Send an email
2. Post a message on the Homepage
3. Create an Announcements page

Each of these methods is described below. You can also use the Calendar or Discussion Board to convey information to your students. It doesn't matter what method you use, as long as you inform your students of where to look for announcements.

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1. Send an email.

When you have occasional announcements (like changes in readings or assignments), or an emergency message that you want students to receive as soon as possible (like class cancellation), you can email your entire class. Please visit the Email, Gradebook, and Roster page for instructions on how to do this. You do not have to enter every students' email address, because MyUCLA will provide them for you. The advantage to email is that students will receive it whenever they check their email; they do not have to login to Ecampus to receive your message.

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2. Post a message on your Homepage.

When you have brief announcements that you want to update often, you can add a textblock to the top of your Homepage. Students will see this message every time they login to your course site. You can change the colors and font to make the message more noticeable to students.

1. From your course Homepage, select the Designer Options tab.
   
   
   
   
2. Under Actions > Options: Textblocks, click Add upper textblock.
   
   
   
   
3. Enter your announcement in the box under Text. Change the other options as desired. You can change the color and size, include an image, or insert html code.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Add at the bottom when you are finished.
   
   
   
   
5. You will return to the Homepage, and your text will be visible at the top.
   
   

To change or update this announcement:

1. From your course Homepage, select the Designer Options tab.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the round button to the left of the textblock:
   
   
   
   
3. Under Actions > Options: Textblocks, click Edit.
   
   
   
   
4. Change options as desired. Click Update when finished.

To delete this announcement, follow steps 1 and 2 above. At step 3, choose Delete instead of Edit.

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3. Create an Announcements page.

You can create a separate page on your course site to contain all your announcements. Use this method if you want to post text announcements (like method 2) but want to keep the old messages available instead of updating the message and replacing the content each time.

Follow the steps for creating an Organizer Page as described on our Organizing Materials page and name it "Announcements." Then, go to the page you have created and follow the steps described above under Posting a Message on your Homepage (these are the steps to add a textblock). Add a new textblock to the "Announcements" page each time you have a new announcement. Many instructors like to include the date with each announcement.

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