Announcements and Activity Feed

Both Announce­ments and the Activ­i­ty Feed are avail­able from your course home­page and can be used to share updates and com­mu­ni­cate with stu­dents. See below to learn more about when to use each tool.

Announcements

Announce­ments allow you to post mes­sages that stu­dents see when they first enter your course. You can sched­ule these mes­sages to appear or be removed on spe­cif­ic dates and times. Announce­ments are a use­ful way to share impor­tant infor­ma­tion with your learn­ers and serve as a one-way form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, since stu­dents can’t reply to them direct­ly.

You can use the Announce­ments tool to:

  • Wel­come learn­ers to the course and give them their first instruc­tions for get­ting start­ed
  • Remind learn­ers of impor­tant due dates, dead­lines, or spe­cial events
  • Noti­fy learn­ers of sud­den changes or updates to the course
  • Cre­ate a week­ly wel­come or wrap-up or a video announce­ment.

  1. Choose New Announce­ment from the menu.
  2. Enter a title for your announce­ment.
  3. Add your mes­sage in the Con­tent field, and include any media you want, such as images or videos.
  4. To make the announce­ment vis­i­ble to stu­dents on a spe­cif­ic date, set that date in the Start Date field. To remove it from view after a cer­tain date, set the End Date field.
  5. You can also attach files or apply Release Con­di­tions if need­ed.
  6. When your announce­ment is ready, click Pub­lish to make it live, or Save as Draft to return to it lat­er.
  7. If you want to edit an announce­ment, click its title, make the desired changes, and scroll to the bot­tom and click the blue Update but­ton to save your changes.
  8. If you want to delete an announce­ment, click its title’s drop-down menu and select Delete.

Activity Feed

The Activ­i­ty Feed is a wid­get locat­ed at the top of your course home­page that pro­vides a cen­tral space for com­mu­ni­ca­tion and engage­ment. Sim­i­lar to Announce­ments, it allows you to share updates, assign­ments, and links to course mate­ri­als or exter­nal resources. Unlike Announce­ments, learn­ers can com­ment on posts, upload files to assign­ment posts, and inter­act with you and their class­mates, adding a social and col­lab­o­ra­tive ele­ment to your course.

Some ways you might use Activ­i­ty Feed include: 

  • Invite learn­ers to share an ‘aha’ moment, or a ‘murki­est point’ from the mod­ule
  • Send a reminder about an upcom­ing assign­ment and link to the assign­ment
  • Link to an impor­tant sec­tion of the course that you want to high­light

Overview of Activity Feed Tool

Learn More

  • Email and Instant Mes­sages
  • Wel­come Win­dow