If you do not see the Announcements forum, please see Troubleshooting Announcement forum problems below or check the article: Missing the Course Announcements Forum.

Posting an announcement follows the process exactly as in any eClass discussion forum. You can either click on Add a new topic in the 'Announcements' block in the right-hand block drawer or click on the 'Announcements' link in the top section of your course and then Add a new topic once you are inside your course Announcements forum. You can then enter your message text as you would normally for any eClass forum.

Click on the Announcements link:

Or open the block drawer:

And click on 'Add a new topic...":

Availability:

Through the forum settings, you can set dates for the availability of course announcements:

Troubleshooting Announcement forum problems:

In general, there are 2 things that can prevent your Announcements forum from sending messages to students:

1. Changing the forum's subscription settings
   It is possible to change the Subscription mode setting, which can be accessed by going to your forum settings and navigating to the 'Subscription and tracking' category. This setting should always be left unchanged and set to 'Forced subscription'.
   
   
   
   
2. The announcements forum is hidden/unavailable to students
   It is possible to post messages to the forum through the Announcements block in the right-hand block drawer. But if the forum is hidden on the main course page, these announcements will not be visible, nor will any messages be sent.
3. If the course is currently closed (for example, if you're posting an announcement for students in an upcoming course), students will not receive a notification.
   
   

Changing the Announcements forum appearance:

1. If you wish, you can change the name of Announcement forum. Turn on Edit mode at the top right of your course page.
2. Click the pencil icon beside the forum and enter a new title.
3. Press 'Enter' to save and confirm your changes. The 'Esc' key can be used to cancel any changes.
   
   

Changing news display in the Announcements block:

If you would like to change the number of news items that appear in the 'Announcements' block, click the Settings tab at the top of your course page then scroll down to the 'Appearance' category and change the value for ‘Number of announcements’ to the desired value. Be sure to click on Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Hiding/showing Announcements:

If you wish to remove the 'Announcements' entirely,

1. You need to turn on Edit mode at the top right of your course page.
2. Set the number of ‘Number of announcements’ to zero.
3. Delete the 'Announcements' forum from the course home page by clicking on the 3dot dropdown beside it
4. Click on Delete.

Note: If you try to delete the 'Announcements' without changing the setting ‘Number of announcements’ to zero, it will reappear. You will also need to delete the 'Announcements' block from the right-hand column of blocks to completely remove the 'Announcements'.

Conversely, if you have previously deleted the 'Announcements' from your course, you can only return it by reversing these changes:

1. In the course Settings, enter a value greater than zero in the number of ‘Number of announcements’
2. Add the 'Announcements' block: turn on Edit Mode; with the block drawer open, click on Add a block then select Announcements.

Adding file attachments:

You can add a file attachment to an announcement by first clicking Add discussion topic and then by clicking on the Advanced link below the message text:

Drag and drop a file from your computer into the 'Attachment' area just below the 'Message' text entry box, or click on the file icon and search for a file to upload: