Good morning,
Today, I’d like to share a quick tip about Announcements, as they are a powerful tool for staying connected with your students—and to keep folks up to date during hurricane season!
Announcements are straightforward to create in Canvas. You go to the “Announcements” page on your course menu, then click the +Announcement button to create the announcement. You’ll see the usual text box where you can add text, share links, or embed media such as documents or video.
Announcements can either be sent immediately or scheduled. When the announcement is sent, students should receive an e-mailed copy. Depending on your course settings, they’ll see the announcement either on your home page or on the Announcements page. (I recommend setting up your course so that announcements show on Home so students don’t have to dig too far to see them!)
For inclement weather, an immediate announcement provides timely communication, but you can also plan announcements ahead of time to ensure that students get reminders about big assignments or class events. For example, you can schedule an announcement to go out a week or so before a big test to make sure students are studying beforehand, rather than cramming. Cramming has been shown to be less effective for long-term learning. You can share something like this guide on spaced practice from The Learning Scientists with your students to encourage them to study early.
In addition to time-sensitive news and scheduled reminders, announcements can be used for community-building or providing additional course materials. For example, you can send celebratory announcements at class milestones, such as the completion of big tasks or making it to a certain point in the semester. Likewise, you can use announcements much like you would Canvas pages, providing additional info and context to class offerings.
As announcements are similar to discussions settings-wise, the recent Discussions redesign has also changed the way announcements look in the system. Students can reply to announcements as well as offer likes. Those settings can be adjusted in the Options menu:
The date fields are what you’d change if you’d like to schedule announcements. When you copy over courses, all the old announcement dates are moved over as well, so what I do is change everything to be available on a date beyond the end of the semester, then adjust dates as needed.
If you usually e-mail your students through your Class List on KC or through the Inbox, consider using Announcements for messages that might benefit from persisting on the course. Having archived messages on the Announcements page, particularly if you send announcements with supplementary materials, can be beneficial to students in that they don’t have to dig through Outlook to find a specific message. Likewise, with two channels of communication, that of e-mail and Canvas, you’re more likely to reach your students.
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